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Baseball brings more adventures as usual
I want journal entries but don't want to write them!
I wrote about Thursday, huh...
So, Friday during the day I hung out with Kozo. We walked to Shinjuku and got yakiniku for lunch at one of my favorite places -- I forget the name but it's the one I first went to with the Meiji guys, where the yakiniku meat is so thick you need scissors to cut it. So good and so cheap at lunchtime! Then we went to Hiroba and did karaoke for 2 hours.
In the evening Kozo went home to do work and I went to Chiba to watch baseball -- Chiba Lotte Marines vs. Orix Buffaloes. I was meeting up with Steve N, and his coworker Lou (who I still don't know his real name; he's a Japanese guy who lived in the US for several years in his childhood and speaks fluent English). I got there earlier than the other guys; looked for a shirt or towel or anything for Hiroki Ueno, the Lotte starter, who is one of my favorite players... but no dice. (Even the chick in the Marines store, when I asked, was like "...who?" Sheesh.) I got a burger from Lotteria (again, no special burgers anymore, LAME) and saved seats for everyone, and then waited. Turns out my friend Kobayashi was at the game too to take pictures of Shota Ishimine, she's gone kinda crazy about him this year. So we waved at each other, but I didn't actually end up seeing her at all.
The game was kinda sad. Ueno walked 3 guys in the first inning and gave up 3 runs then, but other than that he was really good. Sadly the Buffaloes won 4-2 anyway. Steve ended up on the big screen, which resulted in even more people than usual coming up to him to say hi... as if that's possible? Hehe. After the game we got our photo with Cool and two of the Marines cheerleaders. Whee. Bizarrely, while waiting in line to get Cool's photo, a lady came up to me like "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?!" and it was Tomoko, a Baystars fan who knows me as "crazy Kagami girl" just like many other people do. But she was wearing a Buffaloes jersey! How totally weird. She said to give her a call if I'm coming to any Baystars ni-gun games.
Hmm...
Saturday, I woke up early to go to Big 6 baseball. I got there just as the first game was starting, took a seat in the front row of the University of Tokyo side (to be Hosei in the second game). Kobayashi eventually came over to say hi, and I gave her the chips I'd brought for her. She also pointed out that Osaka Tanaka was sitting 8 seats down from me. We just hadn't noticed each other. He apparently made omamori for every single member of the Todai baseball club, all 75 or so of them. Ogura came over to say hi for a bit after that, but other than that I was basically alone for both games, really. Well, for the first game a Todai fan was sitting by me and we got to talking a bit, and in the second game a Hosei guy was sitting next to me.
Rikkio won the first game but it really was close for a while. I was really psyched to see Okabe from Teikyo playing for Rikkio -- and when he was pinch-hit out they replaced him with Hirahara, another Teikyo boy that I saw at Koshien. Pretty neat.
Actually my favorite moment of that game was around the 6th or 7th inning when the Todai ouendan leader was doing one of those rants where the whole crowd's job is to just go "sou da!" Usually the ouendan just say things like "we're awesome, aren't we? and we're gonna win, aren't we?" Well, this one went more like:
Todai: YOU ALL KNOW WHERE RIKKIO IS, RIGHT? NEAR IKEBUKURO, RIGHT?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: IKEBUKURO'S WEST EXIT IS WHERE THE TOBU DEPARTMENT STORE IS, YOU KNOW?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: AND THE EAST EXIT HAS SEIBU, RIGHT?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: Does that make ANY FUCKING SENSE TO ANY OF YOU?
Everyone: No!
Todai: WE'RE NOT GOING TO LOSE TO SUCH MORONS, ARE WE?
Everyone: HELL NO!
(For the record, this is a common joke about Ikebukuro. Tobu means "east part" and Seibu means "west part" and yet for whatever reason these two department stores are on the wrong side of the station.)
Between the two games of the day, I went and put on more sunscreen and got another Coke, and came in to take more pictures and watch more baseball. For Hosei-Meiji, all my friends were on the Meiji side, but that's not too strange. What IS strange is that Suda (my 70-year-old-or-so scorecard-keeping Hosei alum friend) wasn't around. Dunno what's up with that.
Mizushima showed up in the 2nd or 3rd inning and brought me an ouendan guidebook and an uchiwa fan from 2009. He emailed me before the game like "I'm talking to Taki and Mishima right now" and I'm like "...uhh... hi guys?" Apparently they found my posts with the photos from the Nichibei stuff in North Carolina... he says they didn't seem pissed off about it, so I guess that's a good thing?
At one point through the game Egashira was out playing catch and he saw me staring at him and nodded hi but that was it. I didn't really catch him after the game either as it was super-crowded and by the time he came out, I was heading out anyway. I dunno. I'd like to talk to him, to him and Mishima and Taki, but maybe that'll have to happen another time. (I stalk Mishi and Taki on Twitter, and I hope they don't think that's too weird.)
Hosei lost the game, although it was a hella crazy close game. Yusuke Nomura was pitching for Meiji and he was DEALING, until, all of a sudden, he WASN'T. It was crazy. Hosei picked up 6 runs in the 6th inning to go up 7-6, but then Meiji took it back to go 8-7, then Hosei tied it up 8-8, then Meiji went up 9-8... yeah, crazy game.
Afterwards I met up with my gang outside the Meiji bus, which meant saying hi to a bunch of Meiji players and not really seeing any Hosei players at all for the most part, though I guess I said hi to a few guys. The Meiji guys were applauding anyone who came out, including guys who didn't play in the game (like Nakahara). I got my photo with Kenji Kawabe, he was a hot commodity because he scored that go-ahead run and all. Nomura was being stormed, I'll hopefully catch him on a Monday sometime instead. I also ran into several random friends, including Yuka who I went to Yokohama with waaaaay back in the day when I got Kagami's autograph in January. She had some photos and some gossip for me (namely that she heard he injured his elbow and that's why he hasn't been playing. Good to know).
Anyway, rather than stay for the pro game, or even stay long enough to talk to any of the Hosei players, I went to "get tea" with Ogura and Kobayashi -- only what actually happened is, they were meeting up with a bunch of ooooooold Meiji alumni at the Rugby cafe thing down the block. So I mean, Young Tanaka, and Kurihara were there, and a few people that were vaguely familiar, and then a table full of old guys, plus some old guy whose name I never caught at our table. We ate pasta and stuff. I was actually STARVING by then. The Fighters game was on TV too, and sadly they didn't win. Sigh.
The other sad thing is that I heard that Yoneyama (an older guy I know from Kamagaya and Jingu, he played football for Meiji in the 1960's I think) is in the hospital... with lung cancer. People don't seem to think it's that serious but I'm like "...dude, my dad DIED of lung cancer, I'm not sure you guys realize what's up here." They had gotten some baseballs signed by the Meiji players though, with "get well Yoneyama" on them. I think everyone's going to visit him in the hospital sometime soon but I'm not sure I'll go.
Someone asked me who my favorite college player was and I actually couldn't decide who my total favorite was. I mean, I was like "Kagami" as a joke, but he graduated last year. So Kobayashi and I debated about who our favorite players are. Kinda weird.
And then after all that I came home and took a shower because OMG I WAS SO SWEATY AND DISGUSTING. Sitting out there in the 90+ heat for 6 hours really takes a toll on you.
I ended up doing some laundry and then going shopping in the evening, anyway -- to the 100-yen shop by Nakano-Sakaue station, which turns out to be a super-fabulous Daiso that had everything I was looking for. Woohoo.
And after that I got dinner... at McDonald's. I know, I hate fast food too, but IT'S TSUKIMI BURGER SEASON! which is the only time of the year McDonald's is acceptable. Tsukimi burger has an egg on it and special sauce and it is FANTASTIC. So I was happy about that.
Yawn. Um, it's Sunday night now but I'll write up Sunday sometime tomorrow, I think.
I wrote about Thursday, huh...
So, Friday during the day I hung out with Kozo. We walked to Shinjuku and got yakiniku for lunch at one of my favorite places -- I forget the name but it's the one I first went to with the Meiji guys, where the yakiniku meat is so thick you need scissors to cut it. So good and so cheap at lunchtime! Then we went to Hiroba and did karaoke for 2 hours.
In the evening Kozo went home to do work and I went to Chiba to watch baseball -- Chiba Lotte Marines vs. Orix Buffaloes. I was meeting up with Steve N, and his coworker Lou (who I still don't know his real name; he's a Japanese guy who lived in the US for several years in his childhood and speaks fluent English). I got there earlier than the other guys; looked for a shirt or towel or anything for Hiroki Ueno, the Lotte starter, who is one of my favorite players... but no dice. (Even the chick in the Marines store, when I asked, was like "...who?" Sheesh.) I got a burger from Lotteria (again, no special burgers anymore, LAME) and saved seats for everyone, and then waited. Turns out my friend Kobayashi was at the game too to take pictures of Shota Ishimine, she's gone kinda crazy about him this year. So we waved at each other, but I didn't actually end up seeing her at all.
The game was kinda sad. Ueno walked 3 guys in the first inning and gave up 3 runs then, but other than that he was really good. Sadly the Buffaloes won 4-2 anyway. Steve ended up on the big screen, which resulted in even more people than usual coming up to him to say hi... as if that's possible? Hehe. After the game we got our photo with Cool and two of the Marines cheerleaders. Whee. Bizarrely, while waiting in line to get Cool's photo, a lady came up to me like "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?!" and it was Tomoko, a Baystars fan who knows me as "crazy Kagami girl" just like many other people do. But she was wearing a Buffaloes jersey! How totally weird. She said to give her a call if I'm coming to any Baystars ni-gun games.
Hmm...
Saturday, I woke up early to go to Big 6 baseball. I got there just as the first game was starting, took a seat in the front row of the University of Tokyo side (to be Hosei in the second game). Kobayashi eventually came over to say hi, and I gave her the chips I'd brought for her. She also pointed out that Osaka Tanaka was sitting 8 seats down from me. We just hadn't noticed each other. He apparently made omamori for every single member of the Todai baseball club, all 75 or so of them. Ogura came over to say hi for a bit after that, but other than that I was basically alone for both games, really. Well, for the first game a Todai fan was sitting by me and we got to talking a bit, and in the second game a Hosei guy was sitting next to me.
Rikkio won the first game but it really was close for a while. I was really psyched to see Okabe from Teikyo playing for Rikkio -- and when he was pinch-hit out they replaced him with Hirahara, another Teikyo boy that I saw at Koshien. Pretty neat.
Actually my favorite moment of that game was around the 6th or 7th inning when the Todai ouendan leader was doing one of those rants where the whole crowd's job is to just go "sou da!" Usually the ouendan just say things like "we're awesome, aren't we? and we're gonna win, aren't we?" Well, this one went more like:
Todai: YOU ALL KNOW WHERE RIKKIO IS, RIGHT? NEAR IKEBUKURO, RIGHT?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: IKEBUKURO'S WEST EXIT IS WHERE THE TOBU DEPARTMENT STORE IS, YOU KNOW?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: AND THE EAST EXIT HAS SEIBU, RIGHT?
Everyone: Yeah!
Todai: Does that make ANY FUCKING SENSE TO ANY OF YOU?
Everyone: No!
Todai: WE'RE NOT GOING TO LOSE TO SUCH MORONS, ARE WE?
Everyone: HELL NO!
(For the record, this is a common joke about Ikebukuro. Tobu means "east part" and Seibu means "west part" and yet for whatever reason these two department stores are on the wrong side of the station.)
Between the two games of the day, I went and put on more sunscreen and got another Coke, and came in to take more pictures and watch more baseball. For Hosei-Meiji, all my friends were on the Meiji side, but that's not too strange. What IS strange is that Suda (my 70-year-old-or-so scorecard-keeping Hosei alum friend) wasn't around. Dunno what's up with that.
Mizushima showed up in the 2nd or 3rd inning and brought me an ouendan guidebook and an uchiwa fan from 2009. He emailed me before the game like "I'm talking to Taki and Mishima right now" and I'm like "...uhh... hi guys?" Apparently they found my posts with the photos from the Nichibei stuff in North Carolina... he says they didn't seem pissed off about it, so I guess that's a good thing?
At one point through the game Egashira was out playing catch and he saw me staring at him and nodded hi but that was it. I didn't really catch him after the game either as it was super-crowded and by the time he came out, I was heading out anyway. I dunno. I'd like to talk to him, to him and Mishima and Taki, but maybe that'll have to happen another time. (I stalk Mishi and Taki on Twitter, and I hope they don't think that's too weird.)
Hosei lost the game, although it was a hella crazy close game. Yusuke Nomura was pitching for Meiji and he was DEALING, until, all of a sudden, he WASN'T. It was crazy. Hosei picked up 6 runs in the 6th inning to go up 7-6, but then Meiji took it back to go 8-7, then Hosei tied it up 8-8, then Meiji went up 9-8... yeah, crazy game.
Afterwards I met up with my gang outside the Meiji bus, which meant saying hi to a bunch of Meiji players and not really seeing any Hosei players at all for the most part, though I guess I said hi to a few guys. The Meiji guys were applauding anyone who came out, including guys who didn't play in the game (like Nakahara). I got my photo with Kenji Kawabe, he was a hot commodity because he scored that go-ahead run and all. Nomura was being stormed, I'll hopefully catch him on a Monday sometime instead. I also ran into several random friends, including Yuka who I went to Yokohama with waaaaay back in the day when I got Kagami's autograph in January. She had some photos and some gossip for me (namely that she heard he injured his elbow and that's why he hasn't been playing. Good to know).
Anyway, rather than stay for the pro game, or even stay long enough to talk to any of the Hosei players, I went to "get tea" with Ogura and Kobayashi -- only what actually happened is, they were meeting up with a bunch of ooooooold Meiji alumni at the Rugby cafe thing down the block. So I mean, Young Tanaka, and Kurihara were there, and a few people that were vaguely familiar, and then a table full of old guys, plus some old guy whose name I never caught at our table. We ate pasta and stuff. I was actually STARVING by then. The Fighters game was on TV too, and sadly they didn't win. Sigh.
The other sad thing is that I heard that Yoneyama (an older guy I know from Kamagaya and Jingu, he played football for Meiji in the 1960's I think) is in the hospital... with lung cancer. People don't seem to think it's that serious but I'm like "...dude, my dad DIED of lung cancer, I'm not sure you guys realize what's up here." They had gotten some baseballs signed by the Meiji players though, with "get well Yoneyama" on them. I think everyone's going to visit him in the hospital sometime soon but I'm not sure I'll go.
Someone asked me who my favorite college player was and I actually couldn't decide who my total favorite was. I mean, I was like "Kagami" as a joke, but he graduated last year. So Kobayashi and I debated about who our favorite players are. Kinda weird.
And then after all that I came home and took a shower because OMG I WAS SO SWEATY AND DISGUSTING. Sitting out there in the 90+ heat for 6 hours really takes a toll on you.
I ended up doing some laundry and then going shopping in the evening, anyway -- to the 100-yen shop by Nakano-Sakaue station, which turns out to be a super-fabulous Daiso that had everything I was looking for. Woohoo.
And after that I got dinner... at McDonald's. I know, I hate fast food too, but IT'S TSUKIMI BURGER SEASON! which is the only time of the year McDonald's is acceptable. Tsukimi burger has an egg on it and special sauce and it is FANTASTIC. So I was happy about that.
Yawn. Um, it's Sunday night now but I'll write up Sunday sometime tomorrow, I think.
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