The Seagulls visited the Swallows in Tokyo last night.

Several non-playing members of the Albion party, including former top scorer Glenn Murray, were overlooking home base for some Friday night baseball.

The struggling Tokyo Yacult Swallows took on Hiroshima before a sell-out in the compact and atmospheric Meiji Jingu Stadium.

The venue is right in between the Olympic Stadium and the rugby ground where Fabian Huerzeler’s side have trained several times this week.

Cheers from the baseball and the seventh innings fireworks have been heard and seen during their sessions.

Chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber was also among those who made their way to the ball game.

Baseball is huge in Japan, dominating the first five or six sports pages every day.

The one time that changed this week was when Japan beat Julio Enciso’s Paraguay 5-0 at the Olympics.

The visitors from England saw the Swallows get off to the appropriate flyer with a two-run home run in their first innings.

But Hiroshima came back out and scored nine which eventually saw them win 9-6.

As would be expected, food offerings at the stadium were good and the crowd were polite – but created a terrific, quite melodic atmosphere.

Those fans who had a cold beer had the option of being served in their seats.

Followers of the away team could buy tickets via the Swallows website and there was a big contingent in the red of Hiroshima.

A group of Albion fans I bumped into in Tokyo have also managed to take in some sumo wrestling during their trip.