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Seibu Nights, Part 3
I have a cold, or at least a sore throat and stuffy head (and another ear infection, bleh). This sucks because my job involves a lot of talking. I still have 4 classes to teach today, but at least it got me out of the worst of them.
So, yesterday was my last Fighters game (well, top team... I may go see one or two more minor-league games if I have time) for a very long time... I have mixed feelings about how it actually went, although overall it was a good note to end things on. The Fighters won the game, first off, which was a good thing, of course (if they had lost 3 in a row I would basically have to find some way to go up to Hokkaido or elsewhere for a game later on). And mostly, socially, it was a good evening. I went with Team 52, of course, they saved me a seat (I got to the stadium around 6:15pm and the Fighters were up 1-0), but then I spent an inning or two up with Sakamoto and Mushiga and all those guys because I had to tell them that I am leaving Japan and won't be back much next year.
I gave Sakamoto a Safeco Field keychain and a Mariners schedule that I brought from Seattle, and he was really excited about them (he loves that kind of stuff even though he can't really read English, he was even wearing a Detroit Patriots t-shirt under his Fighters jersey).
I couldn't get through the Fighters 讃歌 without crying. I think that was the only time it really came out though.
I spent about two innings hanging out with Takuma and talking in English, since he came to the game by himself. While I was sitting with him, a lady whose name I still can't remember came up to me to say goodbye. She has two daughters who are always like "omg it's the gaijin oneechan we always see on TV!". So that was kind of weird and Takuma's like "...what was THAT all about?" and I'm like "I apparently have fans."
Also, I said, "Please tell me you know that 'I believe Lions' is wrong."
He said, "Yeah, you need to believe IN something, right?"
Whew.
There was a lot of postgame cheering, probably because it was the final Kanto game. One of the ouendan guys from Sapporo was there (Sugihara?) and led it, and they were like "This is the dude who came up with the Inaba Jump, you know," and then he added, "So none of this 'OI! OI!' stuff in the middle, okay?" So we did that and various other cheers for a while, including a chance theme sung with "Utte utte Nashida!" which is really weird because that's the manager. We did songs for Kaneko and Shinji, and Tsuboi, and pretty much anyone that people requested, until the leader's finally like "We're getting kicked out soon, are your bellies full yet?"
I got a photo with Takuma after the game, he thought that was appropriate since we originally met because I asked him to take a photo.
Team 52 packed up and ran out pretty quickly and I actually lost them but ended up leaving with Sakamoto instead, which was also appropriate given that we first met at a Seibu game and then became friends at a Seibu game, two Septembers ago. On our way out of the stadium we saw two ouendan guys who hadn't actually been at the game, one I don't know the name of and the other is Miyauchi, he's the Non-Crazy-Glasses-Guy (crazy glasses guy sometimes yells at me, I think his name is Yoshida). Anyway, we talked to them for a few minutes, and before leaving, I said to Miyauchi, in Japanese, "Sorry for causing you guys so much trouble this year." He looked at me with a look I can best describe as half confused, half amused, and basically replied, "Whaaa? You're no trouble at all." "Really?" "Really." "Well, thank you, ouendan, for working hard this year." (This stuff doesn't translate so well.)
It could just be that Miyauchi himself, who has always been nice to me anyway, doesn't see me as a problem... it's Shaggy (whose real name I still don't know) that always gives me the creeps. But I've also heard that other people think he's kind of a jerk, so who knows.
Sakamoto and I rode back to Ikebukuro together on a pretty much empty train. He wanted to see my photos of Safeco, so I ended up showing him most of my trip to the US from the summer, as well as some other photos like Hiroshima and Matsuyama and all. He said that it looked like I had a good baseball-filled summer and that it was a shame I wouldn't be back next year, and he also asked me about Mike a bit (I think this was the first time I'd really mentioned him to him), and he asked me to help him read some of the Mariners schedule thingy I'd given him, and we talked a bit about travel and whatnot. He showed me his baseball glove that he brought, which was a Johjima model that he got years before Johjima went to the US. We hit Ikebukuro and said goodbye. It's kind of weird in a way, but I'm glad we at least had a last chance to hang out some.
I guess there's still the possibility of Kamagaya games, but yeah, it feels like this season is over, Fighters-wise. Which is sad.
So, yesterday was my last Fighters game (well, top team... I may go see one or two more minor-league games if I have time) for a very long time... I have mixed feelings about how it actually went, although overall it was a good note to end things on. The Fighters won the game, first off, which was a good thing, of course (if they had lost 3 in a row I would basically have to find some way to go up to Hokkaido or elsewhere for a game later on). And mostly, socially, it was a good evening. I went with Team 52, of course, they saved me a seat (I got to the stadium around 6:15pm and the Fighters were up 1-0), but then I spent an inning or two up with Sakamoto and Mushiga and all those guys because I had to tell them that I am leaving Japan and won't be back much next year.
I gave Sakamoto a Safeco Field keychain and a Mariners schedule that I brought from Seattle, and he was really excited about them (he loves that kind of stuff even though he can't really read English, he was even wearing a Detroit Patriots t-shirt under his Fighters jersey).
I couldn't get through the Fighters 讃歌 without crying. I think that was the only time it really came out though.
I spent about two innings hanging out with Takuma and talking in English, since he came to the game by himself. While I was sitting with him, a lady whose name I still can't remember came up to me to say goodbye. She has two daughters who are always like "omg it's the gaijin oneechan we always see on TV!". So that was kind of weird and Takuma's like "...what was THAT all about?" and I'm like "I apparently have fans."
Also, I said, "Please tell me you know that 'I believe Lions' is wrong."
He said, "Yeah, you need to believe IN something, right?"
Whew.
There was a lot of postgame cheering, probably because it was the final Kanto game. One of the ouendan guys from Sapporo was there (Sugihara?) and led it, and they were like "This is the dude who came up with the Inaba Jump, you know," and then he added, "So none of this 'OI! OI!' stuff in the middle, okay?" So we did that and various other cheers for a while, including a chance theme sung with "Utte utte Nashida!" which is really weird because that's the manager. We did songs for Kaneko and Shinji, and Tsuboi, and pretty much anyone that people requested, until the leader's finally like "We're getting kicked out soon, are your bellies full yet?"
I got a photo with Takuma after the game, he thought that was appropriate since we originally met because I asked him to take a photo.
Team 52 packed up and ran out pretty quickly and I actually lost them but ended up leaving with Sakamoto instead, which was also appropriate given that we first met at a Seibu game and then became friends at a Seibu game, two Septembers ago. On our way out of the stadium we saw two ouendan guys who hadn't actually been at the game, one I don't know the name of and the other is Miyauchi, he's the Non-Crazy-Glasses-Guy (crazy glasses guy sometimes yells at me, I think his name is Yoshida). Anyway, we talked to them for a few minutes, and before leaving, I said to Miyauchi, in Japanese, "Sorry for causing you guys so much trouble this year." He looked at me with a look I can best describe as half confused, half amused, and basically replied, "Whaaa? You're no trouble at all." "Really?" "Really." "Well, thank you, ouendan, for working hard this year." (This stuff doesn't translate so well.)
It could just be that Miyauchi himself, who has always been nice to me anyway, doesn't see me as a problem... it's Shaggy (whose real name I still don't know) that always gives me the creeps. But I've also heard that other people think he's kind of a jerk, so who knows.
Sakamoto and I rode back to Ikebukuro together on a pretty much empty train. He wanted to see my photos of Safeco, so I ended up showing him most of my trip to the US from the summer, as well as some other photos like Hiroshima and Matsuyama and all. He said that it looked like I had a good baseball-filled summer and that it was a shame I wouldn't be back next year, and he also asked me about Mike a bit (I think this was the first time I'd really mentioned him to him), and he asked me to help him read some of the Mariners schedule thingy I'd given him, and we talked a bit about travel and whatnot. He showed me his baseball glove that he brought, which was a Johjima model that he got years before Johjima went to the US. We hit Ikebukuro and said goodbye. It's kind of weird in a way, but I'm glad we at least had a last chance to hang out some.
I guess there's still the possibility of Kamagaya games, but yeah, it feels like this season is over, Fighters-wise. Which is sad.