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Been to 32 prefectures now.
I just got back from a ridiculous trip to Sakata City in Yamagata prefecture. I say ridiculous because I got on a train at 9:51am here in Akita, it got there at 11:39am, I walked around for about 30-40 minutes, found Sakata Minami HS (they went to Koshien a few times but their ballclub actually practices elsewhere, whoops) and then got on a train at 12:39pm out of there to Akita at 2:30ish.
But now I can mark the prefecture off my list.
On my way from Sapporo to Akita yesterday, I stopped in Aomori City and walked to the port and took some photos and then hung out in a department store for a while just chilling out in the AC and ate some inari for lunch. So, that's Aomori prefecture too. I stayed in Akita last night and will again tonight, so that's Akita. Tomorrow I should be getting Iwate, and that'll leave just Fukushima of the Tohoku prefectures.
Sunday, quickly, by the way -- Phylicia and I had breakfast from a bakery near her place. Then I got a ride to the Dome for the game, and went to the game, and the Fighters won again to sweep for the weekend! Hooray! This time I spent the pregame time walking around more than anything -- I did go to the trading area but just traded a few things to get players my friends like, and then left. I didn't even buy any more badges, screw that. I bought some Fighters snack omiyage to bring back to Tokyo, and this time my lunch was waffle fries. Shrug.
The game itself was much of the same EXCEPT it was apparently Guide Dog Day and so the area behind us had a ton of seeing-eye dogs with a bunch of old men wearing dark sunglasses! There were also young women assisting them. The dogs were super-cute, and VERY patient with all the noise... not even reacting to the "Who Let The Dogs Out?" song. The only thing I wonder is, why would you go to a ballgame if you can't see? I guess you could listen to the ouendan...
After the game I went downtown a bit -- stopped in Marui Imai and also at Sapporo Station to get a Seishun 18 pass, and then I came back to Sumikawa weighted down with crap from the game (this time my presents included a photobook and a jersey (no joke) and a tote bag and various other Fighters things I couldn't manage to refuse. Sometimes I think they are not giving me presents so much as foisting off extra crap on me).
Phylicia asked what I wanted to eat for dinner and I said "jingisukan!"
So I looked up a place on my phone that was about a mile from her place. She had borrowed a bicycle and so off we went.
It was called Matsuo, I think, and when we got there it looked dead empty and closed. But no, it was open, there were just no patrons. In the 2 hours we were there it was only us... the guy running the place, Masanori aka Nori, basically spent so long talking to us that we were there until his set closing time of 9:30. I mean, the food was good (he said that he even grew the vegetables himself at a plot nearby) but it was pretty wacky, he told us about the international students who come by sometimes, and also he babbled about his trips to Canada to go skiing, and I babbled about baseball and he was like "Sometimes the players come here! Inaba and Hichori have both fallen asleep on that table over there!"
So, we had a good time and ate a ton of food and it was relatively cheap and now Phylicia has another neighborhood place to go to.
I guess that's about it really.
I came to Akita by train, as mentioned... and if I have forgotten to catch up anything else I'll add it later. I guess the only sad thing was finding out about the Tappi-Kaitei station AFTER I was already on a train and scheduled on my way back to Honshu, that's a station INSIDE the Hokkaido-Aomori tunnel under the Tsugaru strait, it has a museum and stuff in there, and you could only go there if you had a ticket for the station. Sad. I doubt I'll ever get there.
But now I can mark the prefecture off my list.
On my way from Sapporo to Akita yesterday, I stopped in Aomori City and walked to the port and took some photos and then hung out in a department store for a while just chilling out in the AC and ate some inari for lunch. So, that's Aomori prefecture too. I stayed in Akita last night and will again tonight, so that's Akita. Tomorrow I should be getting Iwate, and that'll leave just Fukushima of the Tohoku prefectures.
Sunday, quickly, by the way -- Phylicia and I had breakfast from a bakery near her place. Then I got a ride to the Dome for the game, and went to the game, and the Fighters won again to sweep for the weekend! Hooray! This time I spent the pregame time walking around more than anything -- I did go to the trading area but just traded a few things to get players my friends like, and then left. I didn't even buy any more badges, screw that. I bought some Fighters snack omiyage to bring back to Tokyo, and this time my lunch was waffle fries. Shrug.
The game itself was much of the same EXCEPT it was apparently Guide Dog Day and so the area behind us had a ton of seeing-eye dogs with a bunch of old men wearing dark sunglasses! There were also young women assisting them. The dogs were super-cute, and VERY patient with all the noise... not even reacting to the "Who Let The Dogs Out?" song. The only thing I wonder is, why would you go to a ballgame if you can't see? I guess you could listen to the ouendan...
After the game I went downtown a bit -- stopped in Marui Imai and also at Sapporo Station to get a Seishun 18 pass, and then I came back to Sumikawa weighted down with crap from the game (this time my presents included a photobook and a jersey (no joke) and a tote bag and various other Fighters things I couldn't manage to refuse. Sometimes I think they are not giving me presents so much as foisting off extra crap on me).
Phylicia asked what I wanted to eat for dinner and I said "jingisukan!"
So I looked up a place on my phone that was about a mile from her place. She had borrowed a bicycle and so off we went.
It was called Matsuo, I think, and when we got there it looked dead empty and closed. But no, it was open, there were just no patrons. In the 2 hours we were there it was only us... the guy running the place, Masanori aka Nori, basically spent so long talking to us that we were there until his set closing time of 9:30. I mean, the food was good (he said that he even grew the vegetables himself at a plot nearby) but it was pretty wacky, he told us about the international students who come by sometimes, and also he babbled about his trips to Canada to go skiing, and I babbled about baseball and he was like "Sometimes the players come here! Inaba and Hichori have both fallen asleep on that table over there!"
So, we had a good time and ate a ton of food and it was relatively cheap and now Phylicia has another neighborhood place to go to.
I guess that's about it really.
I came to Akita by train, as mentioned... and if I have forgotten to catch up anything else I'll add it later. I guess the only sad thing was finding out about the Tappi-Kaitei station AFTER I was already on a train and scheduled on my way back to Honshu, that's a station INSIDE the Hokkaido-Aomori tunnel under the Tsugaru strait, it has a museum and stuff in there, and you could only go there if you had a ticket for the station. Sad. I doubt I'll ever get there.