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Jingu and Erika
Back to my home-away-from-home, aka Meiji Jingu Stadium, for the opening day for the Tohto League. Usually I wouldn't have bothered going except that OMG YOSUKE SHIMABUKURO was going to start for Chuo. He's the first freshman in 48 YEARS to start Opening Day for them. It's a big thing. He's probably the best-known college player right now -- similar to Saitoh in that he was a big Koshien hero -- bigger even in my eyes because he not only was fantastic as a 2nd-year but had no team around him, but won both Spring and Summer Koshien as a 3rd-year. So, there were actually people there today. Not like, a huge crowd like there is for Big 6 and for Saitoh, but still, a lot more people than a Tohto League game usually gets.
I arrived in the middle of the first game and just plopped down behind the 3rd-base dugout, though. Kokugakuin won that game, apparently Asia-dai's Nao Higashihama had an early meltdown (you know, I still don't remember the last time I saw him pitch in person -- always, it seems that I arrive at their games too late to see him). I spent part of the first game exploring the new Jingu picnic boxes, and then getting food, and so on.
About 50 people flocked to the bullpen to watch Shimabukuro warm up, so I went with them. Chuo has no ouendan -- seriously -- so there was nothing in our way. Shimabukuro, to his credit, noticed all the people but pretended not to, he just pitched with a smile.
Unfortunately things didn't go so well for Shimabukuro (unlike Saitoh, he didn't get to face Todai in his first game; Komazawa is actually an up-and-coming team, they fell to the 2nd league a few years back and basically are on a really hot streak now, and their ace Shirasaki can hit 150 on the radar gun). But to be fair -- he pitched 4.2 innings and was credited with the loss, having given up 4 runs... only 1 of which was earned. And they lost 4-2. So. His team made some huge errors behind him -- that "Tsuchiya #28" kid that I was so amused by was playing first base and made 2 of them. Well, one, he plain dropped the ball, technically the other one might have kinda been the shortstop's fault in the throw. So, that was sad. But actually it wasn't all bad for Chuo. Nishime, the leadoff batter, hit a homerun at one point. And Kageyama, the boy I picked as "my" Chuo fielder, went 3-for-3 with the only other RBI. Boy can he run :)
Also, in the 3rd inning, I'm sitting there doing my normal photos-and-scoring thing and who comes up to me but Toda-kun! (My friend who's a 3rd-year at Rikkio right now, but he's a triathlon guy, not a baseball player.) He apparently came down just for that 2nd game to see Shimabukuro as well, and was surprised to see me. So he sat with me for a few innings, then headed over to the other side to take some photos from there. Also, we were both like "I'm thinking of going to Hosei-Toyo's preseason game on Thursday..." so I'll probably see him there, which is also very cool! He had gone to another Toyo game a few days ago and we talked about that.
The only downside to everything is... after the game... both teams had buses... and of course there were a ton of people and even some TV camera crews waiting for Shimabukuro to come out. He was immediately escorted to the team's bus, there was NO stopping him. Infact all the Chuo players basically stormed right to the bus. How sad. I guess they're ALL going to be inaccessible. The Komazawa players didn't storm, but there was also nobody really trying to catch them. Sigh. So I'm thinking I might just write a letter to Chuo at some point and send the photos I had from the Hosei game with a "...I just want to wish Shimabukuro good luck" kind of thing, maybe. I was really hoping to meet him, but I guess I understand that the team's got to protect him, too.
During that game I had been texting my friend Danny to see if he had time to hang out today. He's an old scouting buddy that I knew from my Lotte media days, and we hadn't caught up in ages. (We're thinking that the last time we hung out may seriously have been in 2009 at Koshien. Nuts.) So, we made plans to meet up at 6:30 at Nippori and go to Yakiniku Erika for dinner.
In the meantime, I came home and dropped off all my stuff, my big camera bag, etc. I also called the water and gas companies to tell them about moving out on the 12th. So all that remains is KDDI for phone/internet. Ugh something tells me that's going to be a clusterfuck. I don't want to call them :(
I had the brilliant idea to print out a few photos of Hichori for Hichori's parents. Only thing is, finding a place to do it proved perilous. I didn't want to take out and set up my photo printer because that'd take time, so I stopped at the printing machine in Ito Yokado only to find a family puzzling over how to print their photos. No time. Went to 7-11, they have a printer that'll print photos, but I had to get change to use it. So much time. I was 15 minutes late meeting Danny.
But we went to the restaurant and had a pretty good time. It was just Hichori's mom and the waitress girl who I still don't know if she's related. Hichori's dad wasn't around, I didn't ask why. But, Hichori's mom was all like "Long time no see, how are you? So many foreigners have left because of the earthquake..." and I'm like "Actually I'm leaving next week!!" "So you won't be teaching at Arakawa middle schools anymore?" "No..."
Danny and I ate a whole bunch of yakiniku and caught up on stuff (we seem to have gone through pretty similar things this last year). On the way out I gave Hichori's mom the photos I had, and she gave me a small bottle of Erika #5 umeshu (plum wine) as a goodbye present. Personally I can't stand the stuff but it was a really nice gesture on her part... not sure what I'll end up doing with it since I'm pretty sure I can't take it back to the US with me unless I figure out a way to wrap it well.
(It was kinda funny because on our way there, I was telling Danny what a great place we were going to and how nice Hichori's parents were, and then that all happened.)
Then I came home. I'm going to Kamagaya tomorrow! I'm supposed to meet up with Hiromi and whoever else is around. I haven't seen her in like a year or two now since she was living in Fukuoka for a while. Also Kagami pitched today at Kamagaya, his pro debut game. Sadly he gave up 3 runs in one inning :( I'm a little torn because clearly I want to go there as a Fighters fan but it'd be nice to see him again too. Hmm...
I arrived in the middle of the first game and just plopped down behind the 3rd-base dugout, though. Kokugakuin won that game, apparently Asia-dai's Nao Higashihama had an early meltdown (you know, I still don't remember the last time I saw him pitch in person -- always, it seems that I arrive at their games too late to see him). I spent part of the first game exploring the new Jingu picnic boxes, and then getting food, and so on.
About 50 people flocked to the bullpen to watch Shimabukuro warm up, so I went with them. Chuo has no ouendan -- seriously -- so there was nothing in our way. Shimabukuro, to his credit, noticed all the people but pretended not to, he just pitched with a smile.
Unfortunately things didn't go so well for Shimabukuro (unlike Saitoh, he didn't get to face Todai in his first game; Komazawa is actually an up-and-coming team, they fell to the 2nd league a few years back and basically are on a really hot streak now, and their ace Shirasaki can hit 150 on the radar gun). But to be fair -- he pitched 4.2 innings and was credited with the loss, having given up 4 runs... only 1 of which was earned. And they lost 4-2. So. His team made some huge errors behind him -- that "Tsuchiya #28" kid that I was so amused by was playing first base and made 2 of them. Well, one, he plain dropped the ball, technically the other one might have kinda been the shortstop's fault in the throw. So, that was sad. But actually it wasn't all bad for Chuo. Nishime, the leadoff batter, hit a homerun at one point. And Kageyama, the boy I picked as "my" Chuo fielder, went 3-for-3 with the only other RBI. Boy can he run :)
Also, in the 3rd inning, I'm sitting there doing my normal photos-and-scoring thing and who comes up to me but Toda-kun! (My friend who's a 3rd-year at Rikkio right now, but he's a triathlon guy, not a baseball player.) He apparently came down just for that 2nd game to see Shimabukuro as well, and was surprised to see me. So he sat with me for a few innings, then headed over to the other side to take some photos from there. Also, we were both like "I'm thinking of going to Hosei-Toyo's preseason game on Thursday..." so I'll probably see him there, which is also very cool! He had gone to another Toyo game a few days ago and we talked about that.
The only downside to everything is... after the game... both teams had buses... and of course there were a ton of people and even some TV camera crews waiting for Shimabukuro to come out. He was immediately escorted to the team's bus, there was NO stopping him. Infact all the Chuo players basically stormed right to the bus. How sad. I guess they're ALL going to be inaccessible. The Komazawa players didn't storm, but there was also nobody really trying to catch them. Sigh. So I'm thinking I might just write a letter to Chuo at some point and send the photos I had from the Hosei game with a "...I just want to wish Shimabukuro good luck" kind of thing, maybe. I was really hoping to meet him, but I guess I understand that the team's got to protect him, too.
During that game I had been texting my friend Danny to see if he had time to hang out today. He's an old scouting buddy that I knew from my Lotte media days, and we hadn't caught up in ages. (We're thinking that the last time we hung out may seriously have been in 2009 at Koshien. Nuts.) So, we made plans to meet up at 6:30 at Nippori and go to Yakiniku Erika for dinner.
In the meantime, I came home and dropped off all my stuff, my big camera bag, etc. I also called the water and gas companies to tell them about moving out on the 12th. So all that remains is KDDI for phone/internet. Ugh something tells me that's going to be a clusterfuck. I don't want to call them :(
I had the brilliant idea to print out a few photos of Hichori for Hichori's parents. Only thing is, finding a place to do it proved perilous. I didn't want to take out and set up my photo printer because that'd take time, so I stopped at the printing machine in Ito Yokado only to find a family puzzling over how to print their photos. No time. Went to 7-11, they have a printer that'll print photos, but I had to get change to use it. So much time. I was 15 minutes late meeting Danny.
But we went to the restaurant and had a pretty good time. It was just Hichori's mom and the waitress girl who I still don't know if she's related. Hichori's dad wasn't around, I didn't ask why. But, Hichori's mom was all like "Long time no see, how are you? So many foreigners have left because of the earthquake..." and I'm like "Actually I'm leaving next week!!" "So you won't be teaching at Arakawa middle schools anymore?" "No..."
Danny and I ate a whole bunch of yakiniku and caught up on stuff (we seem to have gone through pretty similar things this last year). On the way out I gave Hichori's mom the photos I had, and she gave me a small bottle of Erika #5 umeshu (plum wine) as a goodbye present. Personally I can't stand the stuff but it was a really nice gesture on her part... not sure what I'll end up doing with it since I'm pretty sure I can't take it back to the US with me unless I figure out a way to wrap it well.
(It was kinda funny because on our way there, I was telling Danny what a great place we were going to and how nice Hichori's parents were, and then that all happened.)
Then I came home. I'm going to Kamagaya tomorrow! I'm supposed to meet up with Hiromi and whoever else is around. I haven't seen her in like a year or two now since she was living in Fukuoka for a while. Also Kagami pitched today at Kamagaya, his pro debut game. Sadly he gave up 3 runs in one inning :( I'm a little torn because clearly I want to go there as a Fighters fan but it'd be nice to see him again too. Hmm...
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Better grades of umeshu can be drunk on the rocks, but only winos would drink it straight. :)
I'm guessing that since Hichori's mom was actually giving this to you as a going away present that it must be pretty decent stuff.
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After trying it diluted, just drain and keep the bottle if you can't drink it all. That's what I would do.