Original Daily Sports article here 日本語版（デイリースポーツ）はこちら
Baseball, beer and pizza. It’s hard to find a better combination of things that make life on this planet pretty good. Obviously if you can partake in all three with good company, life is golden.
That’s what went down last Sunday night at a little shop south of Koshien Stadium. H-TEN hosted a little preseason Tigers fan gathering to try to rally the troops before the fun of the season kept us all glued to our TV sets. In case you missed it, there’s a really good pizzeria within walking distance of the best ballpark in the nation. Its name is quite apt: Pizzeria da Torachici. Pronounced “torakichi”, it is essentially the perfect place for crazy Tigers fans to kick back and enjoy some of the best things life has to offer.
The owner, of course, is a torakichi himself. He has broken with Japanese convention which dictates that restaurants close on Mondays (if at all), and instead makes Tuesday his day off. The reason? There’s no baseball on Mondays, and his only chance to get to the stadium needs to be on a day that there is baseball to watch! Just how Tigers-crazy is he? Along with his wife, who helps out in the pizzeria, he attends every Tuesday home game during the season. That’s Torakichi!
The pizza itself was quite good – on a pre-determined party menu, we were able to partake in three different styles. There were also appetizers, salad, meat, and dessert. Oh, and all-you-can-drink, too! Definitely money well spent.
As for the company that surrounded me, it was also second-to-none. The party of twelve was split perfectly between foreigners and locals. Among the Japanese were a couple of guys who help host and produce the best Japanese Hanshin Tigers podcast out there. Also, one guy is looking to form an international sandlot baseball team. The imports were a fun bunch as well. There was an Australian who blogged about the Tigers when the Internet was still in its infancy, a Finnish pastor who regrets not joining the Tigers Fan Club immediately upon his arrival in Japan (he’d already be Diamond status if he had), and an American woman who was interviewed in the famous “Nukiuchi Shot” segment of Nekketsu Tigers To.
Being a Tigers fan requires a certain level of Torakichi, but hanging out at this pizzeria is the sanest decision you will ever make.
