Over the past five years, I've come across a few tie-ins between Japanese baseball teams and various forms of alcohol. Most commonly, I find beer cans and bottles carrying team logos. In the past, I've found Hiroshima Carp and Chunichi Dragons beers. Honestly, I think you can buy anything with a Hiroshima Carp logo on it.
TaKaRa makes a very common cheap alcoholic drink called chu-hi. Not to be confused with hi-chew candy, chu-hi is a fruit-flavored beverage generally found in cans, and usually is priced a decent bit cheaper than regular beer. I've seen cans for around a dollar each.
This one is lemon-flavored. Chu-hi reminds me a lot of wine coolers, both in quality and after-effects. As such, I don't drink them often. This particular flavor wasn't really sweet, with a strong sour lemon flavor. That's not my style, really.
But as you've guessed, my interest was in the other side of the can. This one sports a Rakuten Eagles logo. That puts me at three team-affiliated beverage containers so far! I guess there are nine to go.
Nothing beats watching a game with a can of Chu-hi on a lazy summer afternoon. Well, probably some stuff does beat that, but its pretty fun nonetheless. I haven't seen these baseball tie-ins on the cans before but will be sure to look for them when the seasons starts!
ReplyDeleteI kind of lucked into finding this when I was in Tohoku, so it's probably regional. But you might find something. I've seen baseball tie-ins at Don Quixote a couple times too, so it might be worth keeping an eye out there.
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