Last Sunday, I went to see the Dragons play at the Nagoya Dome, along with a few fellow English teachers. The game itself wasn’t that great, as the Dragons lost 4-1 to the Softbank Hawks, but the fun part, of course, was the atmosphere. Every Dragons player has his own unique chant, which everyone in the crowd knows. People are clapping all game long. The food was pretty good, too - overpriced just like in American parks though. I had a misokatsu burger - just what you would imagine it would be like - a fried pork cutlet with red miso sauce and cabbage on a bun.

Of course, there were also a couple of Hawks fans there, like the guy in the above picture.

It’s World Cup time of course, and in Japan, they are just as into it as anywhere else in the world (the US and Canada excepted, of course). Although I’m still having problems getting into this sport that has scoreless ties and the mystery injury time at the end of the game, I’m a little enthusiastic about my two teams, the Czechs and the Germans. Japan has one more chance against Brazil on Friday morning, but evidently such upsets occur only once in a blue moon, and the Czech Republic already got beat by Ghana last weekend.