Baseball Batting Cage

Last Sunday we kicked the day off by going to cafe 73 for brunch. What significance does the number 73 have? I have no idea. Anyway, they are a 5 minute walk from my place and offer a decent feed so I will go back again. I was excited to see that they have REAL sausages, not the over processed vacuum packed crap you normally get in Korea. 

With full stomachs we walked down the road to the batting cage. It was my first time going to a batting cage, and quite possibly my first ever time to hit a baseball. I remember playing softball once or twice in school, but never baseball. 

Pictured below are the tokens we purchased for the pitching machines. Each one is good for 20 balls and cost 2000 won (about $2). 

The tokens go into this machine here. Pop in the coin and choose either low ball (green button) or high ball (red button). This particular station had a variable ball speed which could be selected by the 4 red buttons at the top, but the other stations were fixed speeds (80km/h - 100km/h and 120km/h). If you are spending a lot of time in the cage, you can slip on some gloves to prevent any blisters. If not, just pick up the bat and you are good to go. Word of warning. Be ready to start once you put the token in and punch the button.

You can see some orange lights at the far end of the pitch. These were LED displays that depicted a pitcher which would move as the ball came out. It was a nice visual cue for when to expect the ball. 

Batter up!

And it was a home run. The crowd went wild! Sorry ladies, but I'm engaged.

Because my beloved fiance is left handed, we had to wait for a different station.

After waiting about 5 minutes, one of the special stations opened up. As you can see in the picture below, there is space to stand on the left or the right side. Word of warning though for the lefties. Once you put in your token and press the go button, be quick stepping across to the left side. Jihyeon almost got hit :)

There are also a few arcade games you can play when you are sick of showing up Babe Ruth.  

There are also noraebang cubicles (aka Karaoke) you can hire. 

As you can see they are small. There is only really room for at most 4 people. Judging by the wear mark on the floor they seem to be popular. 

Upstairs there were ping pong tables, none of which were in use. 

After hitting a few balls we stopped at the GS25 (convenience store) and bought some ice cream. They had an offer. Buy 2 get 1 free. I finished mine quickly, but Jihyeon took a little longer with her TWO ice creams. tisk tisk tisk.