Visual Anthropology of Japan - 日本映像人類学: Hanshin Tigers

Showing posts with label Hanshin Tigers. Show all posts

Sunday, September 7, 2025

「阪神タイガースセ・リーグ優勝」Hanshin Tigers: 2025 Central League Champions!

Thursday, September 4, 2025

(More) Potato Chip Baseball Cards - 2025 Second Series

We bought three packs and got 6 cards, none of which were Hanshin Tigers... Hopefully we will have better luck next time. Especially since, as of the time of this post, the Tigers are at M4, or Magic 4. This means when the Tigers win 4 more games they will be the Central League Champs!

See also: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/07/where-to-get-baseball-cards-in-japan.html

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Where to get baseball cards in Japan? Forget the bubblegum, think potato chips and kaki no tane... (and updated 7/14/25)

When I was growing up in America, I would often buy baseball cards that came with a stick (and scent) of bubblegum. But here in Japan, you can get baseball cards when you buy a certain brand of potato chips and a certain brand of kaki no tane (small, crescent-shaped rice crackers flavored with soy sauce and chili). Here are a couple of recent purchases...

I bought 3 small packs of chips at my neighborhood convenience store in Kadoma-shi. You get two cards per pack. Unfortunately I didn't get any Hanshin Tigers player cards this time.

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I found these kaki no tane at a convenience store in Kyoto. I had never seen these before. You get one card per pack. I was lucky to get one Hanshin Tigers player card, Nakano Takumu. My daughter and I enjoy opening up the packs and seeing which players we got, and then eating the snacks. Go Tigers!

UPDATE! 7/14/25:

Recently when we bought potato chips we got a "lucky card." We sent it in the the company and received a small folder to keep our cards in good condition.

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

The Latest Hanshin Tigers Merch

Bonus(?):

This picture pretty much says it all... 7 losses in a row. And on Umeno's birthday no less (he did get a hit, but was tagged out when he tried to steal second). Maybe they need to eat more bananas...

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Hanshin Tigers Victory Parade in Osaka (11/23/23); photos by Gern Blanston

As I, along with my fellow faculty, staff and students, were required to work on the Labor Thanksgiving national holiday, I was fortunate that my good friend, Gern Blanston, was in town. He went to the Hanshin Tigers Victory Parade in Osaka. The photos on this post are by him (Thanks Gern!). He reported to me that because of the crowd size, it was difficult to get good photos of the parade itself. So he focused on the crowd. 350,000 fans were reported to go to the parade in Osaka. You can find many photos of the parades in Hyogo and Osaka for Hanshin (Central League Champs and winner of the the Japan Series) and the Orix Buffaloes (Pacific League Champs), both Kansai teams, online.

Information about the Victory Parades for the Hanshin Tigers (and Orix Buffaloes): https://hyogo-osaka-victoryparade2023.com/

Sunday, November 5, 2023

The Tigers Win!

Monday, September 18, 2023

My office door...

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Hanshin Tigers 2023 Central League Champs!

Oh so happy...

https://hanshintigers.jp/

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

VAoJ S2023RT Arc: Work continues after the game (6/25/23)

The first izakaya... A neigborhood shop catering to Baystars fans. I wasn't so fond of the menu (lots of pork liver and other intestinal dishes) or the atmosphere...

But I did like this altar of sorts...

Note: Yamato Maeda played for the Hanshin Tigers from 2009 to 2017 and was very popular. His cheering song included the melody from the anime classic Space Battleship Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト, Uchū Senkan Yamato; known to me as the English dubbed Star Blazers growing up the USA). He started playing for the Baystars in 2018 and is popular there, although he doesn't play as much these days.

Disclaimer: This photo is modified, doctored or changed (whatever term you want to use). The original button was white and I couldn't get rid of the glaring light on it in the photo. I couldn't find a photo of the button, so I used a different one. Is visual anthropology an art or a science? Both. And the visual anthropologist should be honest. Even if the photo was modified for artistic purposes it is still scientific data. I beleive the meaning and symbolism of the photo and what is represents is still pretty much the same.

The second izakaya... Even though this is a chain shop, it was still pleasant, comfortable, friendy, delicious and seemed to have many regular customers 8 as well as some new ones who attened the baseball game earlier. I was given free edamame when I got there. The mayo yaki soba was especially good.

Monday, July 3, 2023

VAoJ S2023RT Arc @ Yokohama Stadium: Hanshin Tigers vs. Yokohama DeNA Baystars (6/25/23)

So after I disembarked the bullet train, I made my way to my hotel (very close to the stadium), dropped off my luggage and went to the game. I sat in the recently added (and inexpensive) wing seats (designed for a more extensive view, in other words, the nosebleed section...). I was happy that most of the people around me were Hanshin fans (often with interesting comments in Kansai-ben). Unfortunately, Hanshin lost. But it was a great time with lots of fodder for research. Much of the special Baystars food products were Chinese dishes. In fact, the whole stadium smelled like Chinese food. Check out the links at the end of the post for information about the game, the problematic starting pitcher for the Baystars, the wing seats and food items.