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L-O-T-T-E WHOOOOOA LOTTE
So yeah, not much to say about Tuesday. The weather was crappy and I basically got sushi for lunch, practiced karaoke some, then came home and hid out for the rest of the day because it was cold and later on snowing.
Wednesday was today, and I went to Jingu for the Swallows-Marines game! It was supposed to go up to like 15 or 16 (low 60's F), at least that's what the forecast said, but that didn't actually happen. It was sunny for most of the time, but the high was like... 10. Which is like 50 F. So it was pretty damn cold.
On the other hand, I showed up around 12:30, came in, found a front-row seat to take photos from, went to take shots of Karakawa-kun warming up, and who finds me but Yoneyama-san, who is... well, he's one of the Kamagaya old guys, but also a Meiji alumni who played football for them -- like 50 years ago. He's retired and spends most of his time watching sporting events and paying as little to do so as possible. So I ended up sitting with him for most of the game, or more like, he sat behind me and babbled old-man-speak at me from time to time, and another guy he knew sat behind him so they babbled old-man-speak at each other too.
Then I ran into my friend Tomoko, who is a Fighters fan -- but she was there with another Fighters fan friend of hers who liked Yamanaka-coach, who used to be the bullpen coach for the Fighters ni-gun, but is now an ichi-gun pitching coach for Lotte, so they're like "...yeah, we are seriously just here to heckle Yamanaka and scout the Lotte pitchers for cute guys." Tomoko's like "Deanna's just here because she likes Hiroki Ueno." I was like "...yeah, that's about right. Well, and Heiuchi too..."
So I sat behind the Marines dugout for half the game and behind the Marines bullpen for half the game. In the meantime, the outfield bleachers had a lot of loud Lotte fans, who were singing completely different songs than last year -- I wonder if the new ouendan did that on purpose so that the old Bobby supporters couldn't get angry at them for stealing the songs?
The Marines won 9-3, mostly due to things like Tadahito Iguchi and Shoitsu Ohmatsu hitting back-to-back home runs off of Tony Barnette, and The New Ogino (Takashi) also hitting a home run later on. Excitingly, I also got to see Yabuta pitch, and a whole lot of other new kids on the block, and also some old kids on the block.
It IS really weird seeing the Marines without Bobby and all of the people I knew around. I did see the head PR guy walk by and I hid behind my towel. I always felt like he didn't like me very much.
After the game I went and joined the Yakult Swallows Fan Club. This is because it is one of the most ridiculously good deals you can get in baseball, especially in Tokyo. It costs 5000 yen to join, and right off the bat you get a free messenger bag and ticket holder (probly worth really around 1000-2000 yen, but whatever). Next, all preseason games at Jingu will be FREE. So I will already save 2500 yen when I come see the Fighters there on Sunday. After THAT, over the course of the season you get 5 free outfield bleacher tickets. Which normally cost 1500 yen with no club membership, and 1000 with club membership, so right there is your 5000 yen for club membership! Plus there is other stuff like discounts on merchandise (I think), and special events and special merchandise for fanclub members, but in all honesty, I just think it'll save me some money going to Jingu this year, or at least, I won't have to ask Simon or Chris or someone to buy me a fanclub price ticket when I do. I foresee a lot of otherwise-bored weeknight evenings sitting up at the top of section D with the crazies...
Anyway, I came home after that, got some miso katsudon at Katsuya (it wasn't bad, but I think their normal katsudon is a lot better) and have been home since. I've been playing PP instead of cropping baseball photos, because I suck :)
Tomorrow's going to be a hell of a busy day, but it should be fun. Going to Yokohama to see the Fighters play and to hang out with my friends, then going to observe a Japanese class at SJI, then going to hang out with Jeff, then going to collapse. Whee.
Wednesday was today, and I went to Jingu for the Swallows-Marines game! It was supposed to go up to like 15 or 16 (low 60's F), at least that's what the forecast said, but that didn't actually happen. It was sunny for most of the time, but the high was like... 10. Which is like 50 F. So it was pretty damn cold.
On the other hand, I showed up around 12:30, came in, found a front-row seat to take photos from, went to take shots of Karakawa-kun warming up, and who finds me but Yoneyama-san, who is... well, he's one of the Kamagaya old guys, but also a Meiji alumni who played football for them -- like 50 years ago. He's retired and spends most of his time watching sporting events and paying as little to do so as possible. So I ended up sitting with him for most of the game, or more like, he sat behind me and babbled old-man-speak at me from time to time, and another guy he knew sat behind him so they babbled old-man-speak at each other too.
Then I ran into my friend Tomoko, who is a Fighters fan -- but she was there with another Fighters fan friend of hers who liked Yamanaka-coach, who used to be the bullpen coach for the Fighters ni-gun, but is now an ichi-gun pitching coach for Lotte, so they're like "...yeah, we are seriously just here to heckle Yamanaka and scout the Lotte pitchers for cute guys." Tomoko's like "Deanna's just here because she likes Hiroki Ueno." I was like "...yeah, that's about right. Well, and Heiuchi too..."
So I sat behind the Marines dugout for half the game and behind the Marines bullpen for half the game. In the meantime, the outfield bleachers had a lot of loud Lotte fans, who were singing completely different songs than last year -- I wonder if the new ouendan did that on purpose so that the old Bobby supporters couldn't get angry at them for stealing the songs?
The Marines won 9-3, mostly due to things like Tadahito Iguchi and Shoitsu Ohmatsu hitting back-to-back home runs off of Tony Barnette, and The New Ogino (Takashi) also hitting a home run later on. Excitingly, I also got to see Yabuta pitch, and a whole lot of other new kids on the block, and also some old kids on the block.
It IS really weird seeing the Marines without Bobby and all of the people I knew around. I did see the head PR guy walk by and I hid behind my towel. I always felt like he didn't like me very much.
After the game I went and joined the Yakult Swallows Fan Club. This is because it is one of the most ridiculously good deals you can get in baseball, especially in Tokyo. It costs 5000 yen to join, and right off the bat you get a free messenger bag and ticket holder (probly worth really around 1000-2000 yen, but whatever). Next, all preseason games at Jingu will be FREE. So I will already save 2500 yen when I come see the Fighters there on Sunday. After THAT, over the course of the season you get 5 free outfield bleacher tickets. Which normally cost 1500 yen with no club membership, and 1000 with club membership, so right there is your 5000 yen for club membership! Plus there is other stuff like discounts on merchandise (I think), and special events and special merchandise for fanclub members, but in all honesty, I just think it'll save me some money going to Jingu this year, or at least, I won't have to ask Simon or Chris or someone to buy me a fanclub price ticket when I do. I foresee a lot of otherwise-bored weeknight evenings sitting up at the top of section D with the crazies...
Anyway, I came home after that, got some miso katsudon at Katsuya (it wasn't bad, but I think their normal katsudon is a lot better) and have been home since. I've been playing PP instead of cropping baseball photos, because I suck :)
Tomorrow's going to be a hell of a busy day, but it should be fun. Going to Yokohama to see the Fighters play and to hang out with my friends, then going to observe a Japanese class at SJI, then going to hang out with Jeff, then going to collapse. Whee.
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