This year’s summer Koshien tournament was canceled due to the impact of COVID-19, but a special “High School Baseball Exchange Game” event was held from August 10 to August 17.
The area around Koshien Stadium also felt a little different from usual, so we went to take some photos.
The photos were taken on Sunday, August 16.
This is the area in front of Hanshin Koshien Station.
Every year during the high school baseball tournament, it is packed with people, but this year only those involved were allowed to watch the games, so there were hardly any people around.
Here is what it looked like around the stadium.
You can see tournament staff, members of the press, security guards, and others, but there were still only a few people around.
The shops and the museum were open, but high school baseball-related merchandise was not being sold this year.
Flags such as the national flag were raised on the flagpoles above the back screen as usual, but this time the event was supported by both The Mainichi Newspapers and The Asahi Shimbun Company, so the Mainichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun flags were displayed side by side.
It was a rare sight unique to this year.
