A final blog post about my Japan trip. On our way back to the Netherlands, I experienced something that made me realize once again how proud Japanese baseball fans are of their teams.
On the final (travel) day of our trip to Japan, my wife needed assistance since she is chronically fatigued. An older gentleman pushed her wheelchair. I think he was about my age, perhaps a bit older.
Before we went to KAX (Kansai, Osaka International Airport), we sat down at a coffee joint and took a cup of coffee and something to eat. I had a donut. But sometimes, I can be very clumsy, as I spilled some parts of the donut on my t-shirt, causing some stains. I tried to clean it but to no avail. Since I didn’t have room in my trolley (traveling light is a must when you travel on your own in Japan), I put the Orix Buffaloes jersey, that I bought right before the game I attended, in my hand luggage. So to hide the stains on my t-shirt, I decided to put on that baseball jersey.
So when we walked to the gate, the older gentleman looked aside and saw my jersey. Instantly, he became very enthousiastic and said: “Oh, Orixu,” and “Ohta,” which is the name of the player, as he saw the uniform number. He had a BIG smile on his face. Likely he thought it was cool to see a gaijin (Japanese for foreigner) wear a jersey of his favorite club.
It was one of those things that makes you realize once again how baseball is intervened in Japanese daily life and how important baseball is in Japan. As I wrote before, these are the little things that make me love the game so much.
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