Yokohama Stadium is very similar to Jingu Stadium in Tokyo. Every seat is a good one. I opted for a “bleacher” seat, which wasn’t really a bleacher seat at all as it had a regular back on it. The Hanshin Tigers seats were all taken by the time I purchased my ticket so I sat with the home fans. That turned out to be a good thing as the last place Bay Stars crushed the 2nd place Tigers on this day.

My section was flooded with beer girls whenever the Tigers were up. When the Bay Stars were up they vacated the Bay Stars side of things for the Hanshin side. No kegs on their back in Yokohama.

Posted on July 7th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: baseball, beer, yokohama. Comments: None

The above is an actual promotion the Tokyo Metro is currently running for June. The poster says, “beer drinking season has arrived.” The ad goes on to show where the various beer gardens are in Tokyo.

Usually ads, in any country, for beer gardens show happy people enjoying a cold, tall beer. If you look closely at the above photo (clicking on it will give you are larger view), you’ll notice this ad goes a bit beyond the normal. I’ve blown up one part of the image below to show you what I mean.

People passed out (face up AND face down), a guy who has had so much to drink that he thinks he is an angel, and a beer drinking monkey?!?!

Posted on June 1st, 2010 under Japan. Tags: beer, signs. Comments: 2

My second Japanese baseball game of the 2009 season was my first in central Tokyo. The place was Meiji Jingu Stadium (明治神宮野球場) which is almost walking distance from my apartment. My daughter and I took the train instead of making the 40 minute or so walk.

The sunset was beautiful, even with countless beer girls jumping in front of the camera. The number of beer girls at Jingu was staggering. I have been to many, many baseball games in more than a dozen parks in three countries and have never seen anything like it. The ratio of fans to beer vendors was probably about 10:1.

Like our experience in Chiba, we were on the big screen within minutes of our arrival. Unlike the games I’ve been to in Tokorozawa and Chiba, there were lots of foreigners at the Swallows’ game. At those other games it seemed we were the only foreigners among tens of thousands of Japanese. At the Swallows’ game, perhaps as much as 1% of the crowd was not Japanese.

Posted on October 8th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: baseball, beer, clouds, people, skywatch, sunset. Comments: None

As promised, today I have some photos of beer girls for you. These girls trot around the stadium with a smile on their face and a keg of beer on their back.

I have been to three different stadiums now and the beer girl situation is very different at each. At the Lions’ games there are almost as many selling whiskey as selling beer. Whiskey was not available from the mobile vendors at the Marines’ or Swallows’ games.

Posted on October 7th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: baseball, beer, people, Tokyo. Comments: 3

On my way from Toronto to Windsor I saw a sign on the freeway about a brewery tour in Waterloo (or maybe it was Kitchener right next to Waterloo in Ontario). I had nothing planned for the rest of the day so I got off the freeway and found the above Brick Brewery. The tour was fun.

But what I really wanted to comment on is the prevalence of beer in Canadian society. The movie, Strange Brew, really isn’t that far off the mark. For instance, my hotel in Windsor didn’t have a gym so they gave me a free pass to the local gym instead. Behind the counter at the local gym was not water and Gatorade but beer on tap. I kid you not. Beer, at the gym… Unthinkable in the U.S.A.

After touring the Brick I went out for breakfast. The waitress took my order and then asked, “What kind of beer would you like with your breakfast?” Needless to say, that was the first (and last) time I have ever heard that question. 

Down the street from Brick Brewery, indeed all over Ontario from what I saw, was The Beer Store. I just checked their website and they actually have 440 of these in Ontario alone. You walk in and there is nothing but beer for sale. Not individual beers, or even six packs, but cases of beer only. The place was packed with people piling cases of beer on massive conveyor belts that rolled your cases of beer to the check out cash register.

Posted on March 13th, 2009 under Other. Tags: beer, canada. Comments: None