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Friday
The 23rd was a national holiday. But Kozo and I had planned to go up to a Swallows-Baystars minor-league game at Yakult Toda anyway.
The stadium there is in the middle of a park and very far away from anything useful like train stations, so we left here pretty early... and still didn't get to the park until 12:45pm for a 1pm game. (It's like 1.5 miles to walk there from the nearest station.) So the bleachers behind the plate were completely full and there were already a ton of people everywhere else.
I saw Kagami warming up in the bullpen, but he didn't actually come into the game. Still, it was good to SEE him again. I heard he injured his elbow so I was kind of worried.
Hichori led off and played CF for the first half of the game, but he struck out a lot and seemed really frustrated. I feel bad for him. Yokohama must be cursed.
The Swallows did a thing where they had 2 innings per pitcher out of Shichijo, Takaichi, Takagi, Masaru Satoh, and Yoshikawa. Being as it was ni-gun, that also means that half of those guys were just kinda milling around near us in the background. What was so frustrating for me was that Mikinori Katoh was just hanging out too! I really wanted to get a photo with him but.. HE WENT HOME HALFWAY THROUGH THE GAME OMG! I should have just asked, I was just worried because I know players usually get mad about that kind of thing if you ask during the game. Grrrrrr.
Anyway, I managed to watch and score the entire game from a combination of behind home plate and out near the bullpen. Swallows won. Baystars are doomed.
After the game we hung out so I could storm players for photos. Got photos with Shichijo, Noguchi, Ueda, and Kawasaki (who hit a home run that day). Wheeeeee.
Then we went over to the Baystars side... where I hung out for like 20 minutes waiting for the rookies to go past. You can't approach for real since there's a fence but... anyway, some people recognized me as "that Kagami fan" and gave me a Kagami baseball card. I guess I'm still infamous in that circle. Eventually when the players came out I did yell hello at Kagami and I gave him a box of chocolates from Seattle and told him to share with Makka, who I'd also yelled hi at. I have no idea if Makka remembers me, though Kagami at least smiled at me this time. I didn't ask for an autograph or a photo or anything, I just wanted to see him and say "ganbatte" and stuff. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Anyway, the funny thing is that he looks like he's gained a lot of weight over the summer. Not sure if it's on purpose and/or whether it's in a good or bad way. But I guess he looks happy to be with the team and playing baseball and all, so I'm happy for that.
Then we journeyed back to civilization. On the way down the hill the Baystars bus went by and I waved at it. I didn't know if anyone saw me but Kozo said that some guy waved back... and the guy wasn't wearing a shirt. I wonder who it was.
We managed to get a bus for 2/3 of the way back this time instead of walking the entire way back, and then took the train home towards Nakano.
I thought I was meeting up with Mori-san and Aaron and the gang for Nakano Guts Soul yakiniku party but it turns out Aaron had the wrong place and time so it was actually Yoyogi at 7:30. So we walked back from Nakano station proper so I'd know the way... and then it turned out I didn't need that anyway. Oops. But Guts Soul was fun anyway. It was Mori-san and Chako and Boypa and a guy I never caught the name of, and Aaron and me and Zev (a Bemani friend of Aaron's who's in the Texas circle of things, I think?) and yeah, we ate a TON OF FOOD which was good since I'd barely eaten anything all day. But which was bad because I became so stuffed that I felt sick. Oops. Whatever, it was good to see Aaron and catch up if nothing else! I got to see his newest rubik's cube and a copy of his DDR book, too.
So everyone walked to Shinjuku, at which point I went home. I think most of the rest continued on to an arcade. I continued on to home and collapsing.
The stadium there is in the middle of a park and very far away from anything useful like train stations, so we left here pretty early... and still didn't get to the park until 12:45pm for a 1pm game. (It's like 1.5 miles to walk there from the nearest station.) So the bleachers behind the plate were completely full and there were already a ton of people everywhere else.
I saw Kagami warming up in the bullpen, but he didn't actually come into the game. Still, it was good to SEE him again. I heard he injured his elbow so I was kind of worried.
Hichori led off and played CF for the first half of the game, but he struck out a lot and seemed really frustrated. I feel bad for him. Yokohama must be cursed.
The Swallows did a thing where they had 2 innings per pitcher out of Shichijo, Takaichi, Takagi, Masaru Satoh, and Yoshikawa. Being as it was ni-gun, that also means that half of those guys were just kinda milling around near us in the background. What was so frustrating for me was that Mikinori Katoh was just hanging out too! I really wanted to get a photo with him but.. HE WENT HOME HALFWAY THROUGH THE GAME OMG! I should have just asked, I was just worried because I know players usually get mad about that kind of thing if you ask during the game. Grrrrrr.
Anyway, I managed to watch and score the entire game from a combination of behind home plate and out near the bullpen. Swallows won. Baystars are doomed.
After the game we hung out so I could storm players for photos. Got photos with Shichijo, Noguchi, Ueda, and Kawasaki (who hit a home run that day). Wheeeeee.
Then we went over to the Baystars side... where I hung out for like 20 minutes waiting for the rookies to go past. You can't approach for real since there's a fence but... anyway, some people recognized me as "that Kagami fan" and gave me a Kagami baseball card. I guess I'm still infamous in that circle. Eventually when the players came out I did yell hello at Kagami and I gave him a box of chocolates from Seattle and told him to share with Makka, who I'd also yelled hi at. I have no idea if Makka remembers me, though Kagami at least smiled at me this time. I didn't ask for an autograph or a photo or anything, I just wanted to see him and say "ganbatte" and stuff. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Anyway, the funny thing is that he looks like he's gained a lot of weight over the summer. Not sure if it's on purpose and/or whether it's in a good or bad way. But I guess he looks happy to be with the team and playing baseball and all, so I'm happy for that.
Then we journeyed back to civilization. On the way down the hill the Baystars bus went by and I waved at it. I didn't know if anyone saw me but Kozo said that some guy waved back... and the guy wasn't wearing a shirt. I wonder who it was.
We managed to get a bus for 2/3 of the way back this time instead of walking the entire way back, and then took the train home towards Nakano.
I thought I was meeting up with Mori-san and Aaron and the gang for Nakano Guts Soul yakiniku party but it turns out Aaron had the wrong place and time so it was actually Yoyogi at 7:30. So we walked back from Nakano station proper so I'd know the way... and then it turned out I didn't need that anyway. Oops. But Guts Soul was fun anyway. It was Mori-san and Chako and Boypa and a guy I never caught the name of, and Aaron and me and Zev (a Bemani friend of Aaron's who's in the Texas circle of things, I think?) and yeah, we ate a TON OF FOOD which was good since I'd barely eaten anything all day. But which was bad because I became so stuffed that I felt sick. Oops. Whatever, it was good to see Aaron and catch up if nothing else! I got to see his newest rubik's cube and a copy of his DDR book, too.
So everyone walked to Shinjuku, at which point I went home. I think most of the rest continued on to an arcade. I continued on to home and collapsing.