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Thursday and Friday in Ikebukuro, and stuff
Thursday after school I had a goal to get good kaitensushi for dinner, so I was going to go to a Tenkazushi, which is by far my favorite chain, though it doesn't have THAT many locations. Went to the one in West Ikebukuro and of course it was really, really good, and I ended up eating 10 plates. But it was so totally worth it.
I wandered around Ikebukuro a bit more after that; checked to find out where the Metropolitan Plaza exits were for meeting people on Friday, and found a Krispy Kreme there and couldn't resist getting a donut or two (and let me say, the Apple Pie donut is quite good). Then, went to the east side of the station, where I looked at baseball cards and played some Pop'n and got a DVD at Book-Off. It turns out that they no longer use point cards, and haven't since July, but I've not been buying much there in the last few months, I guess.
Hmm.
Friday after school I went back to Ikebukuro again, this time to meet up with a bunch of people for dinner; it was the Mori-san Food Group Going-Away For Ai And Doug Party Part 1, at a dim sum place on the 8th floor of Lumine. I was skeptical beforehand about how good an all-you-can-eat dimsum place would be, but this place turned out to be FANTASTIC. I think it cost around 2100 yen per person and they just had a ton of awesome food, both on the carts and up on a buffet, as well as having shabu-shabu hot pots at the table with raw meat for them as well. So I ate until I was beyond stuffed. They had spring rolls and all kinds of dumplings and shumai and gyoza and various chinese sauce-and-whatever dishes and mapo tofu and they kept changing around the offerings every time you went back to the buffet, too, and everything was surprisingly tasty. I rarely eat Chinese food in Japan because it's generally expensive and not very good, but this was an exception to both of those rules. Would like to go back sometime before I disappear from Japan, I think.
Saturday was the Japan-Korea championship game thingy at the Tokyo Dome, so I went to that with Steve and Westbay and two guys that Steve works with, and we sat on the second deck behind home plate and watched what was a ridiculously anticlimactic game between the Japan champion Chiba Lotte Marines and the Korea champion SK Wyverns. I admit I don't keep up with Korean baseball very much, but the Wyverns team I saw today didn't remind me at all of the Wyverns teams I've seen in past years, who have basically come in and put up a really good fight and in some cases even pounded the crap out of the Japanese opposition. I dunno if some of the players left, or just didn't come along for this trip, or what, maybe, because I didn't recognize a lot of the names, either. So Lotte won 3-0 and the Wyverns got TWO HITS all game. Sheesh. Also, Tsuyoshi Nishioka had to be a freaking primadonna about how OMG this might be his last game as a Marine and whatever since he wants to be an OMG MAJOR LEAGUER. Good riddance, I say, except for that Lotte doesn't have anyone to replace him in the system.
Afterwards we went to the Baseball Cafe with a guy who reads Steve's blog and the guy's girlfriend, all in all with a group of 6 people (Westbay went home). We hung out there for several hours, such that we even got to see the waitstaff do their dancing-on-the-wall routine TWICE. And I got my photo with a Beer Tower that another table ordered; it's seriously like a meter-tall beer tower thingy, which I knew was on the menu but had never seen in person. If only the table wasn't all Giants fans it might have been better, but they recognized Steve since he was on TV during the Japan Series so much. (I suppose if it was a year ago they might have recognized me. Pffft.) But yeah, hanging out at the Cafe turned out to be a decent amount of fun; I mostly ended up talking to Steve's coworker who actually lives out in the southern suburban part of Seattle, and works in Japan on 5-week stints. Kind of crazy.
Oh yeah, the weather was nice out today so I rode my bike to Hasunuma and back to take the subway, which was also good. Though the traffic was actually annoying going there due to construction AND due to some sort of huge football tournament going on at the olympic sports center.
Whee.
Now to decide what to do on Sunday. I could go to the Jingu tourney or not. I could play volleyball or not. I should visit Doug and Ai regardless of what I choose. I have a bad feeling the Jingu tourney will be nuts though thanks to Nichidai San and Waseda, so eh.
I wandered around Ikebukuro a bit more after that; checked to find out where the Metropolitan Plaza exits were for meeting people on Friday, and found a Krispy Kreme there and couldn't resist getting a donut or two (and let me say, the Apple Pie donut is quite good). Then, went to the east side of the station, where I looked at baseball cards and played some Pop'n and got a DVD at Book-Off. It turns out that they no longer use point cards, and haven't since July, but I've not been buying much there in the last few months, I guess.
Hmm.
Friday after school I went back to Ikebukuro again, this time to meet up with a bunch of people for dinner; it was the Mori-san Food Group Going-Away For Ai And Doug Party Part 1, at a dim sum place on the 8th floor of Lumine. I was skeptical beforehand about how good an all-you-can-eat dimsum place would be, but this place turned out to be FANTASTIC. I think it cost around 2100 yen per person and they just had a ton of awesome food, both on the carts and up on a buffet, as well as having shabu-shabu hot pots at the table with raw meat for them as well. So I ate until I was beyond stuffed. They had spring rolls and all kinds of dumplings and shumai and gyoza and various chinese sauce-and-whatever dishes and mapo tofu and they kept changing around the offerings every time you went back to the buffet, too, and everything was surprisingly tasty. I rarely eat Chinese food in Japan because it's generally expensive and not very good, but this was an exception to both of those rules. Would like to go back sometime before I disappear from Japan, I think.
Saturday was the Japan-Korea championship game thingy at the Tokyo Dome, so I went to that with Steve and Westbay and two guys that Steve works with, and we sat on the second deck behind home plate and watched what was a ridiculously anticlimactic game between the Japan champion Chiba Lotte Marines and the Korea champion SK Wyverns. I admit I don't keep up with Korean baseball very much, but the Wyverns team I saw today didn't remind me at all of the Wyverns teams I've seen in past years, who have basically come in and put up a really good fight and in some cases even pounded the crap out of the Japanese opposition. I dunno if some of the players left, or just didn't come along for this trip, or what, maybe, because I didn't recognize a lot of the names, either. So Lotte won 3-0 and the Wyverns got TWO HITS all game. Sheesh. Also, Tsuyoshi Nishioka had to be a freaking primadonna about how OMG this might be his last game as a Marine and whatever since he wants to be an OMG MAJOR LEAGUER. Good riddance, I say, except for that Lotte doesn't have anyone to replace him in the system.
Afterwards we went to the Baseball Cafe with a guy who reads Steve's blog and the guy's girlfriend, all in all with a group of 6 people (Westbay went home). We hung out there for several hours, such that we even got to see the waitstaff do their dancing-on-the-wall routine TWICE. And I got my photo with a Beer Tower that another table ordered; it's seriously like a meter-tall beer tower thingy, which I knew was on the menu but had never seen in person. If only the table wasn't all Giants fans it might have been better, but they recognized Steve since he was on TV during the Japan Series so much. (I suppose if it was a year ago they might have recognized me. Pffft.) But yeah, hanging out at the Cafe turned out to be a decent amount of fun; I mostly ended up talking to Steve's coworker who actually lives out in the southern suburban part of Seattle, and works in Japan on 5-week stints. Kind of crazy.
Oh yeah, the weather was nice out today so I rode my bike to Hasunuma and back to take the subway, which was also good. Though the traffic was actually annoying going there due to construction AND due to some sort of huge football tournament going on at the olympic sports center.
Whee.
Now to decide what to do on Sunday. I could go to the Jingu tourney or not. I could play volleyball or not. I should visit Doug and Ai regardless of what I choose. I have a bad feeling the Jingu tourney will be nuts though thanks to Nichidai San and Waseda, so eh.