Today, we went to an ice hockey game. It was my first time to watch a game at an arena. The game was held at the GM place which is an arena close to our apartment. At the arena, we cheered for our team, which were Canucks, they are the home team of the city of Vancouver.

In our last apartment, I would always become frustrated with loud cars honking in celebration after the Canucks won a game. After attending my first ice hockey game, I can forgive their loud noises and I can appreciate their enthusiasm.

I had never watched a game at an arena in Japan and I had no idea how Japanese people cheered for their teams, but here in Vancouver, people say “boo! boo!” in a very low intonation just like a pig (For non-Japanese people, you should understand in our culture it is common for pigs vocalization to sound like boo-boo instead of oink-oink). The crowd would boo especially when the opponent team (St. Louis) shot at the Canucks goal. I really enjoyed hearing that sound (because it made me think of pigs).

Vancouver Canucks have their own brand of cheering: “Go Canucks Go!” and “We are all Canucks!” I heard both these cheers during this game.

The game started with American anthem and then Canadian,”OH! CANADA”. I was familiar with the American anthem but not the Canadian. It was a great experience to hear people sing the Canadian anthem.

The game has 3 periods of 20 minutes. The score was 2:2 at the end of the game. The game went into Over Time for 5 minutes then they had a Shoot Out. During the Shoot Out, the third player of the Canucks, Sedin took one shot and scored. The St. Louis team didn’t score. Canacks won!!!!!! Congratulations, Canucks!!!