Mar. 29th, 2009

Went to the Tokyo Dome today with Larry and Mitch and Noriko and Max and watched the Chiba Lotte Marines lose 7-1 to the Yomiuri Giants. Got to sit in the Marines family section, which was an adventure. Probably doing it again tomorrow.

I went to Yamashita after the game and bought the college baseball magazine and started reading it on the subway home. I was SO engrossed in it, seriously, that I ACTUALLY MISSED MY STOP. I've never done that before. I had to get off at the next stop and double back. But seriously, the cover boys were the "Waseda Three", aka Handkerchief Prince, Fukui-kun, and my boy, Ohishi-kun! So I started reading the article about him and next thing I knew, they were announcing the stop AFTER mine. Oops. I gotta check with Pau to see if he's gotten us cheap tickets to the Big 6 opening day game so I can see Ohishi-kun and Suzuki-kun... it also seems that the entirety of the kickass Keio highschool team from last year DID infact matriculate to the college team, so it's gonna be awesome to see those guys eventually. I can't wait to see Kei Tamura take the mound again someday. Yes, I am gushing over an 18-year-old kid. Someone punch me.

Hmm. I had an overpriced omurice bento for lunch at the Dome, and on my way out from Motohasunuma station, I went to the sushi stand across the street and bought a thing of tuna sushi and two tuna-cucumber rolls. Came home, threw them in the fridge, did some stuff, then ate them a bit later, as well as fruit salad. It occurs to me that I've been buying these fresh-cut fruit salad packs for like 400 yen, and they're about half the size of what I'd get for $3 in the US, AND I think they're actually intended for several people to eat, because they come with like 2-3 toothpick thingies. But it seems like the right amount for me. I've decided it's important for me to keep eating fruit, though.
Seibu Prince Rabbits vs. Nippon Paper Cranes, final game, March 23 2009

I really don't know much about hockey photos, and this was my first attempt at them, and I was doing this all with my slow-ass 70-300 lens at ISO 800 in an indoor hockey rink. But yeah, if you're curious what Japanese hockey looks like... these are from the last Seibu Prince Rabbits game ever played. They got beaten by the Kushiro Nippon Paper Cranes, in Game 7 of the Asia League finals. Next year their team won't exist because Seibu is folding them as part of the Tsutumi-exorcism. I have no clue what'll happen to the players. I'm unlikely to go to another hockey game in Japan unless it's in Hokkaido. Craziness.

This is the guy I decided was my favorite player on the Rabbits, the captain, Takahito Suzuki, who was basically fighting for his team to go out in a blaze of glory. He was awesome and I saw him score like 4 goals over two days. Or something like that.



They still lost 3-2 in the final game, to a standing room only crowd that packed the Higashi-Fushimi rink. I had a really good time. Simon wrote more about it.

February 2019

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