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Koshien!!!!!!!
Having a hilarious problem: I shot so many photos today that my camera batteries are so shot that it's hard to have enough power to get the photos OFF the camera!
I woke up around 6:50am, which was way too late, believe it or not. I didn't get out of the hotel until 7:41. Missed the 7:48 train at Noda Hanshin by ONE minute just because crossing the street was hard, so I got the 8am and reached Koshien at 8:16; got a ticket, got in, and there were literally no reasonable front-row seats left by then. Sigh. For a 9am start on a side that I thought there'd be no people at. The thing is, as also vaguely expected, people saved seats for the 2nd and 3rd games that day -- there were a bunch of guys with Kanazawa HS baseball stuff, clearly alumni, and then there were a whole ton of Yokohama HS fans (they're a powerhouse, and have been churning out pro players at an alarming rate since the Matsuzaka heyday).
So, I was in the 2nd row, right behind the 1st base dugout, on the aisle. Only downside for shooting is that I had a pole kinda inbetween me and the pitcher... and I also had a REALLY OLD DUDE WITH A DSLR inbetween me and the pitcher. But -- having seen some of my photos I can already see an improvement from having a new lens -- things are definitely crisper than they were with the old one.
Oh yeah, and I threw 1000 yen into the donation box again today, just like I've pledged to do at every baseball game I attend where they make it easy for me to donate money to Tohoku earthquake/tsunami victims.
I went out to get souvenirs before the first game started since I had some time. Got myself a tourney towel and pen, and some Nichidai Sanko stuff (strap and keychain). Got Edwin two pennants -- it turned out that you could get stuff from any school but you had to know exactly what day or what prefecture they were from so that the people could go fetch you things from the appropriate bins. (They had all the stuff out for today's schools; the rest were in the back.)
First game was Tenri, a Nara powerhouse, vs. Odate Homei, an Akita newcomer. Homei, as a matter of fact, were pictured with their baseball team posing in a huge snowfall, in the Senbatsu magazine. So, it was an expectation that Tenri would win. And they did. The funny thing in that game was that Tenri's #11 pitcher, the lefty Nakatani, was pretty good, while their #1 "ace" righty Nishiguchi was terrible (he threw the last 2 innings when it pretty much didn't matter).
They've quickened the schedule up in order to try to finish during daylight hours -- I don't know WHY they're trying so hard to conserve energy in Kansai since they can't really send much of it to Tokyo (the two sides of the country are on different frequencies). But so basically rather than having like, 30-40 minutes between games, they now have 15-20 minutes. Literally, one team gets off the field, the other rushes on, hurries through a very QUICK practice, and that's it. Which means that rather than like in the old days, where I had time between games to go to the bathroom, walk around, get some food, eat some food, etc... now it's like, okay, I better run to the bathroom NOW and that's all I have time to do between games.
As a result, I didn't really eat lunch. I kinda had breakfast in two bread thingies from a bakery at the station. But I just didn't think I'd have time to eat between games and still be able to take photos and write a scorecard for the next game, so I didn't.
HOWEVER! Game 2's memorable thing to me mostly concerns this player on Yokohama's team...
Yeah, doesn't look particularly Japanese, does he? This is Tomo Otosaka (who also has an English name "Nicholas Lucero", maybe, I'm not sure of the romanization of the last name (乙坂・ルーセロ・智・ニコラス).) He's the right-fielder for Yokohama. They've been calling him "Yokohama's Ichiro" because he steals ninety bazillion bases. (It's true. He stole two in today's game even.) His mother's Japanese, his father's American.
And somehow his entire (Japanese) family, who had come down from Fukui Prefecture, ended up sitting next to me during Game 2, which was Yokohama vs. Hasami. I swear, I don't ask for this stuff to happen, it just does. So basically his grandmother was next to me, his cousin was next to her, his aunt was next to her. They were all at Koshien for the first time ever, but BOY were they psyched. I think the cousin girl didn't even really understand the game very well, but she kept yelling "TOMO-CHAN! GANBATTE!!!" at the top of her lungs.
I kinda regret not asking more questions about him while they were there, but I'm never quite sure how much is or isn't rude. I'm not even entirely sure whether Tomo's parents are still married, although Cousin said something like "Tomo's dad is from Kansas. I heard he might be here today but we don't really know." And Grandma showed me a family photo from a while back, and also pointed out where some other family members were sitting ("there's my son over there, he's a high school teacher...") and so on. She told me how Tomo's older brother is studying abroad in England right now and wants to be an interpreter.
And as I was on the topic of lunch, well, halfway through Game 2, Grandma also offered me a nigiri (rice ball with stuff inside), since the rest of them were all eating. So that was my lunch :) I shared some of my easter candy with them a bit later because that's kind of what you're supposed to do (ie, Japanese people seem to love having snacks that you can share with each other).
But as for Game 2 itself... Tatsuya Yamauchi started for Yokohama. He's a lefty freshman-upcoming-sophomore (this time of year is so annoying to refer to years by). I saw him pitch last summer, and was psyched to see him again since it sounded like he'd just gotten better in the fall and spring. Except, apparently, not so much... he gave up 2 runs in the first inning, both oshidashi runs where he walked in or hit by pitch in the run. And Yokohama never really recovered from that. Hasami's starter was a tall sturdy boy named Ryoma Matsuda who also batted cleanup (this is usually a BAD sign), and he basically pitched a whole game and somehow Yokohama's batters just never managed to capitalize on the chances they had. (I think Matsuda's strategy was to walk captain/cleanup batter Kensuke Kondoh, that worked out well for him.) So, if you consider that Tenri never wins when I see them the first upset of the day, then Yokohama losing to Hasami was certainly the second.
For the record, though, despite Yokohama losing the game, Otosaka's family was remarkably chipper. I think they were mostly just very psyched to be at Koshien and to have a relative of theirs on the field. They were like "oh well, that's too bad that first pitcher gave up so many walks and runs. Everyone tried their best, it's too bad they lost. We're gonna go try to catch up with Tomo-chan." I joked, "See you at summer Koshien!" and they laughed.
In between games 2 and 3, this old dude sitting behind me started talking to me, like "You staying for the 3rd game too?" "Yeah." "This a hobby or a job for you?" "Hobby. I love baseball." "Where you from?" "Tokyo." "Oh, I came down from Yokohama." He basically just said that being an old guy he has a lot of free time and loves high school baseball so he tries to come down to the tourneys and watch all the games, he doesn't even have a particular school he cheers for. He said he figured I must be a big baseball fan since I was keeping score and taking photos and all, and said he'd keep an eye out for me tomorrow, since I said I was going to do my best to sit behind Nichidai Sanko's dugout too.
Game 3 was Kanazawa vs. Kakogawa. Kanazawa had a boy I'd heard of quite a bit already named Yoshinao Kamata, who could supposedly hit 95 mph on the radar gun. Well... he CAN infact do that! His pitching speed was basically pro speed, like in the low 90's on just about every pitch. He struck out a bazillion guys over the first few innings. And then... well... Kakogawa's pitcher Inoue, while not as fast and not as much flair, managed to outpitch him, because, quite frankly, I don't think Kanazawa's team can actually hit or field. So once Kakogawa had a few points on them, it just kinda fell apart from there. I think people expected Kanazawa to win because of the better pitcher, but well, this is a team sport, see.
Also, it started raining during that game. Not hard, but like sundrops or whatever you want to call it. The sun had been out during Game 2 so it was a little warm then but it was back to being FREAKING COLD during Game 3.
Everything was over a little after 4pm. I took a local train back to Osaka/Umeda so I could sit on the train and ponder what to do. Decided on getting okonomiyaki at my favorite place in Osaka, a little hole-in-the-wall near Osaka Station called Sakura. It was great as usual. Then I walked around a bit, stopped in Yodobashi again to print a few photos (of Taiki Mitsumata incase I end up going to Tigers/Buffs ni-gun tomorrow instead of Games 2 and 3, maybe I can try to get them signed...), stopped in a random food/candy/etc store in the station to get yatsuhashi and some other snacks and... came back to the hotel to wind down. Guess I've been here 3 hours and haven't really done crap besides sit in this chair, eat snacks, and look at my photos from today, check scorecards, and write this entry. I kind of want to go to sleep a lot earlier tonight so I can wake up a bit earlier tomorrow as well, we'll see. I'm worried Sanko has a lot of fans so it'll be hard to get a seat. We'll see, I guess.
Also, dammit the stupid Central League had to go and change their starting date to April 12 too, so basically, I'm not going to see ANY pro baseball games on this trip. Sigh. I guess it just means I'll have to get in a few more minor-league games and whatnot. Which aren't all that different from pro games except that there's no ouendan, and I'm not going to see the same groups of people. Bleh.
I woke up around 6:50am, which was way too late, believe it or not. I didn't get out of the hotel until 7:41. Missed the 7:48 train at Noda Hanshin by ONE minute just because crossing the street was hard, so I got the 8am and reached Koshien at 8:16; got a ticket, got in, and there were literally no reasonable front-row seats left by then. Sigh. For a 9am start on a side that I thought there'd be no people at. The thing is, as also vaguely expected, people saved seats for the 2nd and 3rd games that day -- there were a bunch of guys with Kanazawa HS baseball stuff, clearly alumni, and then there were a whole ton of Yokohama HS fans (they're a powerhouse, and have been churning out pro players at an alarming rate since the Matsuzaka heyday).
So, I was in the 2nd row, right behind the 1st base dugout, on the aisle. Only downside for shooting is that I had a pole kinda inbetween me and the pitcher... and I also had a REALLY OLD DUDE WITH A DSLR inbetween me and the pitcher. But -- having seen some of my photos I can already see an improvement from having a new lens -- things are definitely crisper than they were with the old one.
Oh yeah, and I threw 1000 yen into the donation box again today, just like I've pledged to do at every baseball game I attend where they make it easy for me to donate money to Tohoku earthquake/tsunami victims.
I went out to get souvenirs before the first game started since I had some time. Got myself a tourney towel and pen, and some Nichidai Sanko stuff (strap and keychain). Got Edwin two pennants -- it turned out that you could get stuff from any school but you had to know exactly what day or what prefecture they were from so that the people could go fetch you things from the appropriate bins. (They had all the stuff out for today's schools; the rest were in the back.)
First game was Tenri, a Nara powerhouse, vs. Odate Homei, an Akita newcomer. Homei, as a matter of fact, were pictured with their baseball team posing in a huge snowfall, in the Senbatsu magazine. So, it was an expectation that Tenri would win. And they did. The funny thing in that game was that Tenri's #11 pitcher, the lefty Nakatani, was pretty good, while their #1 "ace" righty Nishiguchi was terrible (he threw the last 2 innings when it pretty much didn't matter).
They've quickened the schedule up in order to try to finish during daylight hours -- I don't know WHY they're trying so hard to conserve energy in Kansai since they can't really send much of it to Tokyo (the two sides of the country are on different frequencies). But so basically rather than having like, 30-40 minutes between games, they now have 15-20 minutes. Literally, one team gets off the field, the other rushes on, hurries through a very QUICK practice, and that's it. Which means that rather than like in the old days, where I had time between games to go to the bathroom, walk around, get some food, eat some food, etc... now it's like, okay, I better run to the bathroom NOW and that's all I have time to do between games.
As a result, I didn't really eat lunch. I kinda had breakfast in two bread thingies from a bakery at the station. But I just didn't think I'd have time to eat between games and still be able to take photos and write a scorecard for the next game, so I didn't.
HOWEVER! Game 2's memorable thing to me mostly concerns this player on Yokohama's team...
Yeah, doesn't look particularly Japanese, does he? This is Tomo Otosaka (who also has an English name "Nicholas Lucero", maybe, I'm not sure of the romanization of the last name (乙坂・ルーセロ・智・ニコラス).) He's the right-fielder for Yokohama. They've been calling him "Yokohama's Ichiro" because he steals ninety bazillion bases. (It's true. He stole two in today's game even.) His mother's Japanese, his father's American.
And somehow his entire (Japanese) family, who had come down from Fukui Prefecture, ended up sitting next to me during Game 2, which was Yokohama vs. Hasami. I swear, I don't ask for this stuff to happen, it just does. So basically his grandmother was next to me, his cousin was next to her, his aunt was next to her. They were all at Koshien for the first time ever, but BOY were they psyched. I think the cousin girl didn't even really understand the game very well, but she kept yelling "TOMO-CHAN! GANBATTE!!!" at the top of her lungs.
I kinda regret not asking more questions about him while they were there, but I'm never quite sure how much is or isn't rude. I'm not even entirely sure whether Tomo's parents are still married, although Cousin said something like "Tomo's dad is from Kansas. I heard he might be here today but we don't really know." And Grandma showed me a family photo from a while back, and also pointed out where some other family members were sitting ("there's my son over there, he's a high school teacher...") and so on. She told me how Tomo's older brother is studying abroad in England right now and wants to be an interpreter.
And as I was on the topic of lunch, well, halfway through Game 2, Grandma also offered me a nigiri (rice ball with stuff inside), since the rest of them were all eating. So that was my lunch :) I shared some of my easter candy with them a bit later because that's kind of what you're supposed to do (ie, Japanese people seem to love having snacks that you can share with each other).
But as for Game 2 itself... Tatsuya Yamauchi started for Yokohama. He's a lefty freshman-upcoming-sophomore (this time of year is so annoying to refer to years by). I saw him pitch last summer, and was psyched to see him again since it sounded like he'd just gotten better in the fall and spring. Except, apparently, not so much... he gave up 2 runs in the first inning, both oshidashi runs where he walked in or hit by pitch in the run. And Yokohama never really recovered from that. Hasami's starter was a tall sturdy boy named Ryoma Matsuda who also batted cleanup (this is usually a BAD sign), and he basically pitched a whole game and somehow Yokohama's batters just never managed to capitalize on the chances they had. (I think Matsuda's strategy was to walk captain/cleanup batter Kensuke Kondoh, that worked out well for him.) So, if you consider that Tenri never wins when I see them the first upset of the day, then Yokohama losing to Hasami was certainly the second.
For the record, though, despite Yokohama losing the game, Otosaka's family was remarkably chipper. I think they were mostly just very psyched to be at Koshien and to have a relative of theirs on the field. They were like "oh well, that's too bad that first pitcher gave up so many walks and runs. Everyone tried their best, it's too bad they lost. We're gonna go try to catch up with Tomo-chan." I joked, "See you at summer Koshien!" and they laughed.
In between games 2 and 3, this old dude sitting behind me started talking to me, like "You staying for the 3rd game too?" "Yeah." "This a hobby or a job for you?" "Hobby. I love baseball." "Where you from?" "Tokyo." "Oh, I came down from Yokohama." He basically just said that being an old guy he has a lot of free time and loves high school baseball so he tries to come down to the tourneys and watch all the games, he doesn't even have a particular school he cheers for. He said he figured I must be a big baseball fan since I was keeping score and taking photos and all, and said he'd keep an eye out for me tomorrow, since I said I was going to do my best to sit behind Nichidai Sanko's dugout too.
Game 3 was Kanazawa vs. Kakogawa. Kanazawa had a boy I'd heard of quite a bit already named Yoshinao Kamata, who could supposedly hit 95 mph on the radar gun. Well... he CAN infact do that! His pitching speed was basically pro speed, like in the low 90's on just about every pitch. He struck out a bazillion guys over the first few innings. And then... well... Kakogawa's pitcher Inoue, while not as fast and not as much flair, managed to outpitch him, because, quite frankly, I don't think Kanazawa's team can actually hit or field. So once Kakogawa had a few points on them, it just kinda fell apart from there. I think people expected Kanazawa to win because of the better pitcher, but well, this is a team sport, see.
Also, it started raining during that game. Not hard, but like sundrops or whatever you want to call it. The sun had been out during Game 2 so it was a little warm then but it was back to being FREAKING COLD during Game 3.
Everything was over a little after 4pm. I took a local train back to Osaka/Umeda so I could sit on the train and ponder what to do. Decided on getting okonomiyaki at my favorite place in Osaka, a little hole-in-the-wall near Osaka Station called Sakura. It was great as usual. Then I walked around a bit, stopped in Yodobashi again to print a few photos (of Taiki Mitsumata incase I end up going to Tigers/Buffs ni-gun tomorrow instead of Games 2 and 3, maybe I can try to get them signed...), stopped in a random food/candy/etc store in the station to get yatsuhashi and some other snacks and... came back to the hotel to wind down. Guess I've been here 3 hours and haven't really done crap besides sit in this chair, eat snacks, and look at my photos from today, check scorecards, and write this entry. I kind of want to go to sleep a lot earlier tonight so I can wake up a bit earlier tomorrow as well, we'll see. I'm worried Sanko has a lot of fans so it'll be hard to get a seat. We'll see, I guess.
Also, dammit the stupid Central League had to go and change their starting date to April 12 too, so basically, I'm not going to see ANY pro baseball games on this trip. Sigh. I guess it just means I'll have to get in a few more minor-league games and whatnot. Which aren't all that different from pro games except that there's no ouendan, and I'm not going to see the same groups of people. Bleh.
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Okay I have a dumb Japanese question. I thought nigiri was when you get sushi with the fish (or whatever) on top of the rice, not a rice ball. Is this the same word, with another meaning, or something else?
Mmmmm...I have this wonderful childhood memory I'd like to share. I think we were in Tokyo...it was cold and rainy...and outside some store there was a vendor with rice balls. They seemed like the size of baseballs or even softballs to me! (I was only 3-5 years old.) We got one--I can't remember whether I had to share it or not--but on that cold day it was so delicious.
Occasionally I have gotten some seasoning and made my own rice balls. Most of the good taste I think is just satisfying my nostalgia.
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