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In Osaka!
I goofed off this morning when I should have been packing. Did a run to Heiroku for lunch and Daiso for an Osaka subway map (I can't find mine and it's only 100 yen). Heiroku was packed, probly because today was a holiday, but they had a lot of great stuff out on the belt, including something I can best identify as "ebi-fry sushi", which was fantastic considering I don't really like ebi-fry. This stuff was more like ebi-fry but without the tail and all, and curled around sushi rice, and with katsu sauce on top, and it was just really tasty, I ended up having two of them.
Got back home, spent a little time there again, then went to Tokyo station. Was supposed to meet Vincent around 3pm originally, then he ran into some trouble and said he'd be there at 3:30. I got there around 3:25pm, went and bought train reservations for seats -- the first train where we could sit together, at that point, was at 4:47pm!! Seriously, travelling on the third day of a 3-day weekend is kinda treacherous. I waited a bit longer and he finally found me at 3:50pm or so anyway. We bought train fare tickets and then went off to grab snacks for the train and then went to wait for it. Checked the Fighters game in the meantime and they won 16-1. Crazy.
Train ride itself was fairly decent. We talked baseball the entire way and went through the Senbatsu book a bit noticing weird things about some teams. (I noted how like, Teikyo, the entire team lists former catcher Haraguchi-kun as "someone I admire", but Koryo, the entire team lists their coach as someone they admire.) I was actually surprised by how fast the 2.5-hour train ride went, and before I knew it we were in Osaka!
We're staying at the Noda Ekimae Toyoko Inn, so we first went here to leave bags and all. Funny thing is: checking in, the lady at the front desk assumed Vincent lives here and is fluent in Japanese, because he's Asian. But he actually lives in Hong Kong and is only here on a tourist visa. She assumed I couldn't understand Japanese and was a tourist, because I'm white. So she asked us -- well him realy -- if we wanted to apply for Toyoko members' cards. It doesn't make sense for him, but I actually do stay at the Toyoko from time to time and applying would actually save me a few bucks on the stay here, so I said sure. She got out an "international applicants" form with all of this stuff and asked me what country I live in and I'm like, in Japanese (which is all I spoke in front of her) "Uhh... I live in TOKYO?" She immediately got all apologetic, which was really ridiculous and reminds me yet again why I hate living here sometimes. Then I filled out the Japanese form, and now I have a Toyoko member's card, which should prove vaguely useful on some trips this year, I'm sure.
After that we wandered to Umeda to get dinner. I wanted to go to a specific okonomiyaki place in the station which my friend Danny introduced me to last year during Koshien and which I've gone to a few times since. They make very light fluffy okonomiyaki with some really good batter and cabbage, really tasty, and this time it was as awesome as ever. Then we wandered around the area. We went to Namcoland but they didn't have Block People anymore, sigh, and we also went past the Kinki and to the Umeda Batting Dome, where Vincent took a turn at the 110-km machine and actually hit pretty well. I watched. A walk up the street to MBS and other stuff, and then we went back to the station and came back to Noda.
Our plan is to hit Koshien by 8am tomorrow, since the games start at 9, and the rain is supposed to start around 2pm. The hotel serves "breakfast" between 7-9am, so hopefully we can grab some stuff and then head off. Tomorrow we should hopefully get at least one rain-free game in... sadly the first one is Shinko Gakuen vs. Kochi, which isn't nearly as interesting as Morioka Daifu vs. summer defending champions Chukyodai Chukyo, the second match of the day. The third is Takaoka Shogyo against perennial contestants Chiben Wakayama. So we'll see.
(Today was funny because Koyo beat Kaisei. Koyo is a "21st century team" -- one of three teams that gets a bid to the tourney even if they didn't necessarily win or place high in the regional qualifiers. Yesterday, another 21st century team, Yamagata Chuo, went up against Nichidai Sanko (Nihon Univ #3 HS), a perennial powerhouse. So it was like "Hello Yamagata! Welcome to Koshien! Meet the monster about to devour you, Nichidai San..." Anyway, by beating Kaisei, guess who Koyo gets to face next? "Welcome to Koshien, Koyo! Meet Nichidai San..."
Either way, it's kind of exciting to be here, and nice not to be here alone (I did say there was no way in hell I'd ever come back to Koshien by myself). Let's see how the weather treats us...
Got back home, spent a little time there again, then went to Tokyo station. Was supposed to meet Vincent around 3pm originally, then he ran into some trouble and said he'd be there at 3:30. I got there around 3:25pm, went and bought train reservations for seats -- the first train where we could sit together, at that point, was at 4:47pm!! Seriously, travelling on the third day of a 3-day weekend is kinda treacherous. I waited a bit longer and he finally found me at 3:50pm or so anyway. We bought train fare tickets and then went off to grab snacks for the train and then went to wait for it. Checked the Fighters game in the meantime and they won 16-1. Crazy.
Train ride itself was fairly decent. We talked baseball the entire way and went through the Senbatsu book a bit noticing weird things about some teams. (I noted how like, Teikyo, the entire team lists former catcher Haraguchi-kun as "someone I admire", but Koryo, the entire team lists their coach as someone they admire.) I was actually surprised by how fast the 2.5-hour train ride went, and before I knew it we were in Osaka!
We're staying at the Noda Ekimae Toyoko Inn, so we first went here to leave bags and all. Funny thing is: checking in, the lady at the front desk assumed Vincent lives here and is fluent in Japanese, because he's Asian. But he actually lives in Hong Kong and is only here on a tourist visa. She assumed I couldn't understand Japanese and was a tourist, because I'm white. So she asked us -- well him realy -- if we wanted to apply for Toyoko members' cards. It doesn't make sense for him, but I actually do stay at the Toyoko from time to time and applying would actually save me a few bucks on the stay here, so I said sure. She got out an "international applicants" form with all of this stuff and asked me what country I live in and I'm like, in Japanese (which is all I spoke in front of her) "Uhh... I live in TOKYO?" She immediately got all apologetic, which was really ridiculous and reminds me yet again why I hate living here sometimes. Then I filled out the Japanese form, and now I have a Toyoko member's card, which should prove vaguely useful on some trips this year, I'm sure.
After that we wandered to Umeda to get dinner. I wanted to go to a specific okonomiyaki place in the station which my friend Danny introduced me to last year during Koshien and which I've gone to a few times since. They make very light fluffy okonomiyaki with some really good batter and cabbage, really tasty, and this time it was as awesome as ever. Then we wandered around the area. We went to Namcoland but they didn't have Block People anymore, sigh, and we also went past the Kinki and to the Umeda Batting Dome, where Vincent took a turn at the 110-km machine and actually hit pretty well. I watched. A walk up the street to MBS and other stuff, and then we went back to the station and came back to Noda.
Our plan is to hit Koshien by 8am tomorrow, since the games start at 9, and the rain is supposed to start around 2pm. The hotel serves "breakfast" between 7-9am, so hopefully we can grab some stuff and then head off. Tomorrow we should hopefully get at least one rain-free game in... sadly the first one is Shinko Gakuen vs. Kochi, which isn't nearly as interesting as Morioka Daifu vs. summer defending champions Chukyodai Chukyo, the second match of the day. The third is Takaoka Shogyo against perennial contestants Chiben Wakayama. So we'll see.
(Today was funny because Koyo beat Kaisei. Koyo is a "21st century team" -- one of three teams that gets a bid to the tourney even if they didn't necessarily win or place high in the regional qualifiers. Yesterday, another 21st century team, Yamagata Chuo, went up against Nichidai Sanko (Nihon Univ #3 HS), a perennial powerhouse. So it was like "Hello Yamagata! Welcome to Koshien! Meet the monster about to devour you, Nichidai San..." Anyway, by beating Kaisei, guess who Koyo gets to face next? "Welcome to Koshien, Koyo! Meet Nichidai San..."
Either way, it's kind of exciting to be here, and nice not to be here alone (I did say there was no way in hell I'd ever come back to Koshien by myself). Let's see how the weather treats us...