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catching up?
It occurs to me that there are holes in my "what I did" reporting here. Let me fill in briefly.
Sunday I went to watch high school baseball with my friend Ogura. It was Rikkio Ikebukuro vs. Edogawa, at the Meiji University grounds, so we hung out for both games that day, saw some Meiji university guys too as well as the HS games, and had a long walk back to the station afterwards. I went to Otoya that evening for dinner and it was fantastic.
Monday I did "nothing", by which I mean I practiced solo karaoke and had Heiroku for dinner and worked on blogging.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I went to the Seibu Dome every day after school. The Fighters won, then lost, then lost. I had great but slow omurice from a truck outside the first day, lousy omusoba the second, and the third day ate KFC inside the stadium. Did Salaryman Night as mentioned. Bought a Lions Classic t-shirt that I may not wear until I'm in the US.
Friday I did "nothing", by which I mean I stayed late at school (it was the last day of classes so I had to finish some test tallying), then I went to Shibuya to get my passport back from my company. Guess what, I have a 3-year visa. Which is great, except I plan to leave Japan this winter. But at least I have my passport back and a valid stamp saying I am legally allowed to remain here, so I am unlikely to get arrested or deported any time soon. After stopping by the company (and promising to take care of residual paperwork -- I need a re-entry stamp and I need to update my gaijin card) I went to get dinner. I originally thought i would walk to Kua'Aina, but then realized I was too hungry and it was too hot out to walk that far, so I got kaitensushi instead and a Krispy Kreme after. The guy at Krispy Kreme misunderstood my order, but was nice enough about it once I corrected him (I'm like "that price isn't right..." and read the register like "I didn't ask for glazed, I asked for chocolate custard...?"). I came home and did laundry. Oh, and I cleaned my dining room. Funny what a difference it makes.
Saturday was today, and I had a day of baseball... kind of. Met up with Ogura in the morning and we got lunch at Jonathan's -- they have a pretty good Saturday lunch menu, very reasonable. Then we went to Jimbocho to watch the bracket draw for the Toshitaikou (the Inner-City Baseball Tournament). Yes, we seriously sat there for two hours watching representatives for 32 industrial league teams picking orders and blocks and games. It is more interesting than it sounds, especially when you actually kinda know players on the teams. I'm a little sad because it seems I may not get to see Honda or JFE unless they make it to later rounds, though I'll get to see more than enough of Toshiba. Ogura's pet player Takuma Kobayashi (from Meiji) is playing for JR Hokkaido now, so she's like "we have to go to see their game! it'll be the morning of the 31st!"
It was definitely interesting in terms of "this is something I am pretty sure most foreign baseball fans never, ever, EVER get to see". And also in terms of how people kept laughing or cheering at some ballot draws, notably when a bunch of powerhouse companies got their baseball teams all put in the same block... and I actually understood what they were cheering for.
Afterwards I was like "I'm thinking of going to Jingu for the Yakult game, wanna come?" So we went to Jingu and watched Yakult vs. Hanshin. The best thing is that out of nowhere, the starter turned out to be my beloved Mikinori Katoh. The worst thing is that he got the crap beaten out of him by the Tigers and came out in the 3rd inning having given up 6 runs (and homeruns to Kenji Johjima and Takahiro Arai). Sigh. Very sad. BUT -- before the game I finally committed to Yasushi Iihara, by which I mean I bought a #9 Iihara jersey. It cost 7000 yen, which is not too bad for a high-quality numbered player jersey, though it is definitely a commitment to the player in a way. I wanted a visitor's version jersey actually, but for whatever reason they are REALLY small and don't button across my chest.
The Swallows lost, but Iihara hit a 3-run homerun. I was joking, "You know, if only they had Katoh #16 jerseys he might have had better luck today..."
I also went and visited the gang up at the top of Section D, though the white guys weren't there today, only Kozo (who is Canadian-Japanese), but most of the usual Japanese weirdoes were there. They were all like "Ooo, the jersey looks good on you. And apparently Yasushi thinks so too."
Came home. Have a ton to write about but I'm thinking to get up early tomorrow and watch the Teikyo HS game at Edogawa. That or the Baystars-Giants game in Yokohama...
Sunday I went to watch high school baseball with my friend Ogura. It was Rikkio Ikebukuro vs. Edogawa, at the Meiji University grounds, so we hung out for both games that day, saw some Meiji university guys too as well as the HS games, and had a long walk back to the station afterwards. I went to Otoya that evening for dinner and it was fantastic.
Monday I did "nothing", by which I mean I practiced solo karaoke and had Heiroku for dinner and worked on blogging.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I went to the Seibu Dome every day after school. The Fighters won, then lost, then lost. I had great but slow omurice from a truck outside the first day, lousy omusoba the second, and the third day ate KFC inside the stadium. Did Salaryman Night as mentioned. Bought a Lions Classic t-shirt that I may not wear until I'm in the US.
Friday I did "nothing", by which I mean I stayed late at school (it was the last day of classes so I had to finish some test tallying), then I went to Shibuya to get my passport back from my company. Guess what, I have a 3-year visa. Which is great, except I plan to leave Japan this winter. But at least I have my passport back and a valid stamp saying I am legally allowed to remain here, so I am unlikely to get arrested or deported any time soon. After stopping by the company (and promising to take care of residual paperwork -- I need a re-entry stamp and I need to update my gaijin card) I went to get dinner. I originally thought i would walk to Kua'Aina, but then realized I was too hungry and it was too hot out to walk that far, so I got kaitensushi instead and a Krispy Kreme after. The guy at Krispy Kreme misunderstood my order, but was nice enough about it once I corrected him (I'm like "that price isn't right..." and read the register like "I didn't ask for glazed, I asked for chocolate custard...?"). I came home and did laundry. Oh, and I cleaned my dining room. Funny what a difference it makes.
Saturday was today, and I had a day of baseball... kind of. Met up with Ogura in the morning and we got lunch at Jonathan's -- they have a pretty good Saturday lunch menu, very reasonable. Then we went to Jimbocho to watch the bracket draw for the Toshitaikou (the Inner-City Baseball Tournament). Yes, we seriously sat there for two hours watching representatives for 32 industrial league teams picking orders and blocks and games. It is more interesting than it sounds, especially when you actually kinda know players on the teams. I'm a little sad because it seems I may not get to see Honda or JFE unless they make it to later rounds, though I'll get to see more than enough of Toshiba. Ogura's pet player Takuma Kobayashi (from Meiji) is playing for JR Hokkaido now, so she's like "we have to go to see their game! it'll be the morning of the 31st!"
It was definitely interesting in terms of "this is something I am pretty sure most foreign baseball fans never, ever, EVER get to see". And also in terms of how people kept laughing or cheering at some ballot draws, notably when a bunch of powerhouse companies got their baseball teams all put in the same block... and I actually understood what they were cheering for.
Afterwards I was like "I'm thinking of going to Jingu for the Yakult game, wanna come?" So we went to Jingu and watched Yakult vs. Hanshin. The best thing is that out of nowhere, the starter turned out to be my beloved Mikinori Katoh. The worst thing is that he got the crap beaten out of him by the Tigers and came out in the 3rd inning having given up 6 runs (and homeruns to Kenji Johjima and Takahiro Arai). Sigh. Very sad. BUT -- before the game I finally committed to Yasushi Iihara, by which I mean I bought a #9 Iihara jersey. It cost 7000 yen, which is not too bad for a high-quality numbered player jersey, though it is definitely a commitment to the player in a way. I wanted a visitor's version jersey actually, but for whatever reason they are REALLY small and don't button across my chest.
The Swallows lost, but Iihara hit a 3-run homerun. I was joking, "You know, if only they had Katoh #16 jerseys he might have had better luck today..."
I also went and visited the gang up at the top of Section D, though the white guys weren't there today, only Kozo (who is Canadian-Japanese), but most of the usual Japanese weirdoes were there. They were all like "Ooo, the jersey looks good on you. And apparently Yasushi thinks so too."
Came home. Have a ton to write about but I'm thinking to get up early tomorrow and watch the Teikyo HS game at Edogawa. That or the Baystars-Giants game in Yokohama...