If you combine the berserk energy of a college basketball arena, the traditional pomp and circumstance of a royal parade, the unbridled passion of a European soccer cup final, and the studied intensity of a championship chess match, you might begin to approach a facsimile of one of the world’s great sporting experiences: watching a Japanese baseball game.

Japanese baseball formally began in 1934, when Dai Nippon Tokyo Yakyu Kurabu, a predecessor to Yomiuri, battled a touring American all-star team populated by the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx. By midcentury, Nippon Professional Baseball had organized itself into two leagues comprising four teams each. Currently, 12 teams span the two leagues, including two in Tokyo alone: the Giants and the Yakult Swallows.