the adventures of Fighters Weekend continue

Well, kinda. Today I went back to Chiba yet again for another Fighters-Marines game, only this time I went with Steve who writes a Marines blog and we got free tickets from the Marines organization and sat behind home plate in row 26, which is conveniently under cover... since it turned out to be raining today after all. Oops. I seriously could not have asked for a better spot to watch this game from, aside from maybe somewhere sunny. Hee.

It got called after 6 innings with the Marines ahead 3-2, so Sweeney got the loss, sadly, but the Marines go-ahead run was scored by Benny Agbayani barrelling into Shota Ohno at home plate on a squeeze bunt. Also, Inaba hit a home run, which makes 10 for the season, 9 of which I have seen, 7 of which I have seen in person.

Despite being in the infield it was totally natsukashii to hear the ouendan doing all the old songs while waiting for the game to be called. They even did Ogasawara's, which is a bit odd these days. The Marines fans sitting next to me actually sang along for Yukio Tanaka's.

Oh, and more exciting, before the game I was walking around and saw a blonde lady with two kids and realized those had to be Brian Sweeney's wife and kids (I'd seen a photo before). As I was thinking of what the hell to say to his wife, she actually turned around, saw me, got a huge smile on her face, and was like "Are you Deanna?!! It's so nice to meet you!! I've been reading your blog for so long!" That sure made it easier for me :) I talked to her for a few minutes, also got to wave hello to Sledge's wife and kid, before a Fighters interpreter kind of herded everyone off. (For the record, he also kind of nodded/waved at me in a "hey, I know you" sort of way, which was funny.)

But yeah... called game, dreary skies, and losing kind of made me grumpy, so I went home and have been hanging out here since. I had a few goals for the evening, but really only two were important (they involve bookkeeping for renewing my visa and for paying my bills), and I got those done, but not really any of the others. I ended up watching the Tigers-Baystars on TV for about an hour -- the last few innings. Was all psyched that I got to see Kizuka pitch, but was NOT psyched that I got to see the Baystars carry a 2-0 lead so long in the game only to lose it in the bottom of the 9th. They suck so ridiculously much.

Lessons from Stray Cats

First thing is that having a stray cat take up residence in the side area of my house has made me realize that D&D monster behaviour might actually be feasible. Because, I swear to god, no matter what time of day it is, if I open up the side door to my house and look outside, this mother cat is standing there, growling and hissing at me. It's like she's a wandering monster whose only job is to be in one stationary place and growl at the adventurer when she opens the door. I suppose there is a 1d20 chance she isn't there when I open the door, but so far it hasn't been the case.

Sometimes I swear, if I could speak Cat, our conversation would go something like:

Cat: Boo hiss, human.
Me: Hello cat. I am just seeing if you are still living in my house.
Cat: What do you mean YOUR house, I found this place and I am going to raise my kittens here.
Me: Excuse me?
Cat: Yes, this is my house now, stupid human, and if you knew what was good for you, you'd stop opening that door.
Me: Um, my laundry machine is out here. You're lucky I did laundry last week before you had your kittens.
Cat: I have no concept of this "laundry" thing, but I better not catch you wandering around out here or I am going to claw your eyes out.
Me: You do and I'm calling the city to come take you away.
Cat: Oh yeah right, like you have any idea where to call or what to say in Japanese anyway.
Me: DAMN YOU CAT!
Cat: Now go back inside! AND STAY IN!

Anyway, I'm seriously hoping they disappear soon. I AM going to do laundry tomorrow night since it's Tuesday and the Fighters game will be on BS1 so I'll be hanging out at home for the evening. I'd say that the stupid cat can bite me, but I'm worried that's precisely what she'll do.

Moonwalking in Arakawa

I forgot to mention it, but on Friday night at Chiba's game, they were playing Michael Jackson music outside the stadium and between all of their inning breaks where they would usually play other stuff.

Then this morning in 3-23 class, two of my students were trying to do a moonwalk. (They had already finished the activity for the day and people were basically "studying", which is shorthand for "goofing off")

The third boy sitting over on that side of the room asks me, "Teacher, do you know Yankovic?"

It took me a minute to realize what he was saying since the pronunciation sounded like "young Koby", but once I realized what he was talking about I said yeah, I know Weird Al Yankovic's music and like it. He said it's really funny and that he saw Yankovic's imitation of Michael Jackson, and he wanted to tell the other students about it, except they didn't really care. And I'm like "Wait a minute, why do YOU know Weird Al? His stuff is all in English, can you understand it?" Apparently his parents like Weird Al or something -- I think his mom's an English teacher so that makes more sense. But I asked if Weird Al is popular in Japan at all and he was like "not really, I don't think people can understand his comedy."

Weird day.

I ate some fish sembei that the 2nd-years brought back from Shimoda as omiyage -- hope I don't get sick. Sigh.