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Japan Day 9 - Akihabara take 2, and Yomiuri Giants vs. Yakult Swallows
Wow, lots of good responses to my last post. If I have time after I braindump today, I will respond to some of them, too.
Slept in today after the exhausting Kyoto trip, getting up around, uh, 10am. On our way out of the ryokan we actually were asked to help the ryokan staff correct some of their signs to be proper English, so we did. (Later I saw the signs; they still got some stuff wrong that we wrote. Oops.) We got out of the ryokan and basically had the intention of doing a little bit of shopping and then going to the baseball game. So first stop was the Otsuka Book-Off, so I could use my points to get discounted stuff. I had like 15 bucks in discount points, and I found the B'z 3-DVD set of the latest tour, which I'd been drooling over in Kinokuniya for a month or two. It costs $65 at Kinokuniya without tax. After my point discount, I got it for $27 with tax. I loooove Book-Off.
We got lunch at a random traditional Japanese restaurant in Otsuka after that. I got katsudon and I wanted katsu sauce and the lady looked at me really funny but brought me out some good ol' so-su. Mmm, katsudon. And so hey, now I've seen part of Otsuka besides the Book-Off!
Went to Akihabara after that with the intention of finding stuff for other people, really. So, I did find the Ranma closing CD for Jeff, but I didn't find the opening one. I also found a cheap copy of IIDX 3rd style which I intend to be for Farren, but I can't seem to find a cheap copy of 6th style and time is running out so I'll probly just pick up a new copy tomorrow when I get a chance. It's actually not even in that many stores, so hopefully I'll be able to find one. (I saw exactly one copy of it in Akihabara, and I couldn't find the store later when I wanted to go back and get it.) Oh, the other funny thing we did in Akihabara was track down an arcade Aaron had told us about. It has a ghetto DDR 4th Plus machine that has all the DDR MAX2 banners and even the marquee, but it's running 4th+. Pretty funny. The place also had a KBM machine. I think that's the second KBM machine I've seen in Tokyo.
So, I left Akihabara about an hour before Nykkel because I wanted to get to the Tokyo Dome early and do some shopping. It's actually really quick from Akihabara - take the Chuo line one stop to Ochanomizu, then the Marunouchi line 2 stops to Korakuen, a total of around 10 mins with walking and waiting. So I got there, and went to the To:Do shop, expecting to finally get my Michihiro Ogasawara #2 Fighters jersey... only to find that they had BARELY ANY FIGHTERS STUFF THERE AT ALL. Literally. They had guide books and small noisemakers. How totally totally lame. So I picked up an NHF guide book, but still. I was really sad. I mean, they still had a whole aisle of Hanshin Tigers stuff, and another aisle with various other teams' stuff... heck, they even had Orix jerseys and specifically a Yoshitomo Tani shirt... but no Fighters, not even Shinjo stuff? LAAAAAAMEEE.
Oh well, that was depressing. But I wanted to get some new Japanese baseball shirts, so I picked up a Hanshin Tigers away-style jersey, of Makoto Imaoka #7, because he's cool, and then I decided to get one of the new Giants jerseys because they looked pretty. I debated between players and ended up going with a Koji Uehara #19 shirt, although I shoulda probly gotten a Daisuke Motoki #2 shirt. Oh well. Uehara is a seriously damn good pitcher though. But Motoki was amazing in the game today, he's just such a versatile infielder. Anyway, I got the shirts. Fortunately, in Japan, player number jerseys cost like $25 instead of the ridiculous $100 or so they seem to cost in America. I couldn't find baseball cards, sadly. Sounds like I'll be making a purchase off YakyuShop later this year, bleh.
So anyway. I grabbed dinner at the "Humpty Cafeteria" or whatever it was called near the ToDo store, and then for amusement I went into their MLB store where you can buy stuff like a Kazuhiro Sasaki Mariners t-shirt which would cost you $5 in the Mariners Team Store right now, but at the Tokyo Dome it'll run you $40. Whee. Then I went into the stadium. They actually looked through my bag a little, which was different than in Chiba where they just waved me in (or even the Fighters game at the Tokyo Dome last year where they didn't care either). On the other hand there were like 50,000 people at this game; the place was pretty much packed. So I guess they need a little more security. They do let you bring any food and drinks you want in, though. So I sat and watched the pre-game and whatnot.
I should mention at this part that well, I was wearing a Mariners shirt and carrying Giants noisemakers... and my seats turned out to be a couple rows in front of the Yakult oendan section. Oops. So I was kinda vaguely in the wrong place to be cheering for the Giants... although, most people in reserved outfield weren't Swallows fans either, they just seemed ambivalent. But there were several people with Yakult shirts on, so eh. Nykkel showed up about 5 mins after the game started and I explained the situation to him and he decided that he'd be a smartass and cheer for Yakult if I was going to cheer for the Kyojin anyway.
So, the game. You can read about it here if you like.
Lessee. I only really know of two players on the Swallows; Alex Ramirez and Atsuya Furuta. Ramirez was playing left field, so he was like right in front of us (we had seats in the left field bleachers, four rows back) but Furuta wasn't playing, wihch was a shame. He's their regular catcher and has been for like ninety billion years, so I wonder what was up with that.
The Giants had a bunch of players that I knew of, though... Tuffy Rhodes in CF, Yoshinobu Takahashi in RF, Toshihisa Nishi on 2B, Daisuke Motoki as SS, Roberto Petagine as 1B, Shinosuke Abe as catcher... they later put in Tatsuya Ide as centerfielder for the last inning or so (Ide used to be on the Fighters). Shimizu was LF and I didn't know much of him beforehand but he had a great game hitting and fielding as well. Though the Yakult fans yelled some very rude things at him.
Anyway, umm, hmm. Tuffy Rhodes hit two home runs, which was crazy. Shimizu and Abe also hit home runs, but man... Rhodes just started off his first at-bat with a home run, then struck out his next two times up, then hit a home run his next time up. Perfectly normal for a gaijin I guess :) Still, it gave the Giants a lead which just kept growing and growing. The Swallows had a few home runs later on in the game, and the fans did something really bizarre where they all got out umbrellas and did a weird dance. I really did not understand it but it was kinda funny and cool all at once. The Giants fan section was packed with people and they were really loud and waved orange stuff a lot. It was neat to watch even from afar. And the cheerleaders, the Giabbits, they kept coming out and dancing almost every inning. It's sort of scary that you can buy videos of the Giabbit chicks dancing and whatnot and that there's a fan club for them. Then again, I guess Giants fandom in general is somewhat scary. About 3 innings in I just got out my Giants noisemakers and started clapping and cheering anyway. There were other scattered people cheering as such in the section too, so it wasn't too bad, but not as much fun as it would have been if I was in the Giants cheering section.
Oh yeah, and Hisanori Takahashi pitched the whole game for the Giants. At first I wondered why they were keeping him in (It was obvious he was getting tired when he started letting up home runs to the Swallows; you'll note he had a shutout going for the first 6 innings) but then I realized two things: 1) the Giants' bullpen SUCKS and 2) they had a big enough lead that they weren't worried yet. So he pitched and won a complete game, which was good. He and Tuffy Rhodes were voted MVP for the game. It was funny because afterwards they interview the game MVPs up on the screen and so Rhodes kept answering in English and they kept saying "Please say something in Japanese to the fans!" so he babbled something about how happy he was to be a Kyojin and how proud he was to help the team win and all. Heh. Tuffy Rhodes is cool :)
So. I went to a Giants game. They won. It was cool.
We came back to the ryokan after that to drop things off, and Nykkel called Hitoshi, and it sounds like we'll be hanging out with him tomorrow, so that's good. And then I came here to braindump and wow, my hour is almost over. Dammit.
Slept in today after the exhausting Kyoto trip, getting up around, uh, 10am. On our way out of the ryokan we actually were asked to help the ryokan staff correct some of their signs to be proper English, so we did. (Later I saw the signs; they still got some stuff wrong that we wrote. Oops.) We got out of the ryokan and basically had the intention of doing a little bit of shopping and then going to the baseball game. So first stop was the Otsuka Book-Off, so I could use my points to get discounted stuff. I had like 15 bucks in discount points, and I found the B'z 3-DVD set of the latest tour, which I'd been drooling over in Kinokuniya for a month or two. It costs $65 at Kinokuniya without tax. After my point discount, I got it for $27 with tax. I loooove Book-Off.
We got lunch at a random traditional Japanese restaurant in Otsuka after that. I got katsudon and I wanted katsu sauce and the lady looked at me really funny but brought me out some good ol' so-su. Mmm, katsudon. And so hey, now I've seen part of Otsuka besides the Book-Off!
Went to Akihabara after that with the intention of finding stuff for other people, really. So, I did find the Ranma closing CD for Jeff, but I didn't find the opening one. I also found a cheap copy of IIDX 3rd style which I intend to be for Farren, but I can't seem to find a cheap copy of 6th style and time is running out so I'll probly just pick up a new copy tomorrow when I get a chance. It's actually not even in that many stores, so hopefully I'll be able to find one. (I saw exactly one copy of it in Akihabara, and I couldn't find the store later when I wanted to go back and get it.) Oh, the other funny thing we did in Akihabara was track down an arcade Aaron had told us about. It has a ghetto DDR 4th Plus machine that has all the DDR MAX2 banners and even the marquee, but it's running 4th+. Pretty funny. The place also had a KBM machine. I think that's the second KBM machine I've seen in Tokyo.
So, I left Akihabara about an hour before Nykkel because I wanted to get to the Tokyo Dome early and do some shopping. It's actually really quick from Akihabara - take the Chuo line one stop to Ochanomizu, then the Marunouchi line 2 stops to Korakuen, a total of around 10 mins with walking and waiting. So I got there, and went to the To:Do shop, expecting to finally get my Michihiro Ogasawara #2 Fighters jersey... only to find that they had BARELY ANY FIGHTERS STUFF THERE AT ALL. Literally. They had guide books and small noisemakers. How totally totally lame. So I picked up an NHF guide book, but still. I was really sad. I mean, they still had a whole aisle of Hanshin Tigers stuff, and another aisle with various other teams' stuff... heck, they even had Orix jerseys and specifically a Yoshitomo Tani shirt... but no Fighters, not even Shinjo stuff? LAAAAAAMEEE.
Oh well, that was depressing. But I wanted to get some new Japanese baseball shirts, so I picked up a Hanshin Tigers away-style jersey, of Makoto Imaoka #7, because he's cool, and then I decided to get one of the new Giants jerseys because they looked pretty. I debated between players and ended up going with a Koji Uehara #19 shirt, although I shoulda probly gotten a Daisuke Motoki #2 shirt. Oh well. Uehara is a seriously damn good pitcher though. But Motoki was amazing in the game today, he's just such a versatile infielder. Anyway, I got the shirts. Fortunately, in Japan, player number jerseys cost like $25 instead of the ridiculous $100 or so they seem to cost in America. I couldn't find baseball cards, sadly. Sounds like I'll be making a purchase off YakyuShop later this year, bleh.
So anyway. I grabbed dinner at the "Humpty Cafeteria" or whatever it was called near the ToDo store, and then for amusement I went into their MLB store where you can buy stuff like a Kazuhiro Sasaki Mariners t-shirt which would cost you $5 in the Mariners Team Store right now, but at the Tokyo Dome it'll run you $40. Whee. Then I went into the stadium. They actually looked through my bag a little, which was different than in Chiba where they just waved me in (or even the Fighters game at the Tokyo Dome last year where they didn't care either). On the other hand there were like 50,000 people at this game; the place was pretty much packed. So I guess they need a little more security. They do let you bring any food and drinks you want in, though. So I sat and watched the pre-game and whatnot.
I should mention at this part that well, I was wearing a Mariners shirt and carrying Giants noisemakers... and my seats turned out to be a couple rows in front of the Yakult oendan section. Oops. So I was kinda vaguely in the wrong place to be cheering for the Giants... although, most people in reserved outfield weren't Swallows fans either, they just seemed ambivalent. But there were several people with Yakult shirts on, so eh. Nykkel showed up about 5 mins after the game started and I explained the situation to him and he decided that he'd be a smartass and cheer for Yakult if I was going to cheer for the Kyojin anyway.
So, the game. You can read about it here if you like.
Lessee. I only really know of two players on the Swallows; Alex Ramirez and Atsuya Furuta. Ramirez was playing left field, so he was like right in front of us (we had seats in the left field bleachers, four rows back) but Furuta wasn't playing, wihch was a shame. He's their regular catcher and has been for like ninety billion years, so I wonder what was up with that.
The Giants had a bunch of players that I knew of, though... Tuffy Rhodes in CF, Yoshinobu Takahashi in RF, Toshihisa Nishi on 2B, Daisuke Motoki as SS, Roberto Petagine as 1B, Shinosuke Abe as catcher... they later put in Tatsuya Ide as centerfielder for the last inning or so (Ide used to be on the Fighters). Shimizu was LF and I didn't know much of him beforehand but he had a great game hitting and fielding as well. Though the Yakult fans yelled some very rude things at him.
Anyway, umm, hmm. Tuffy Rhodes hit two home runs, which was crazy. Shimizu and Abe also hit home runs, but man... Rhodes just started off his first at-bat with a home run, then struck out his next two times up, then hit a home run his next time up. Perfectly normal for a gaijin I guess :) Still, it gave the Giants a lead which just kept growing and growing. The Swallows had a few home runs later on in the game, and the fans did something really bizarre where they all got out umbrellas and did a weird dance. I really did not understand it but it was kinda funny and cool all at once. The Giants fan section was packed with people and they were really loud and waved orange stuff a lot. It was neat to watch even from afar. And the cheerleaders, the Giabbits, they kept coming out and dancing almost every inning. It's sort of scary that you can buy videos of the Giabbit chicks dancing and whatnot and that there's a fan club for them. Then again, I guess Giants fandom in general is somewhat scary. About 3 innings in I just got out my Giants noisemakers and started clapping and cheering anyway. There were other scattered people cheering as such in the section too, so it wasn't too bad, but not as much fun as it would have been if I was in the Giants cheering section.
Oh yeah, and Hisanori Takahashi pitched the whole game for the Giants. At first I wondered why they were keeping him in (It was obvious he was getting tired when he started letting up home runs to the Swallows; you'll note he had a shutout going for the first 6 innings) but then I realized two things: 1) the Giants' bullpen SUCKS and 2) they had a big enough lead that they weren't worried yet. So he pitched and won a complete game, which was good. He and Tuffy Rhodes were voted MVP for the game. It was funny because afterwards they interview the game MVPs up on the screen and so Rhodes kept answering in English and they kept saying "Please say something in Japanese to the fans!" so he babbled something about how happy he was to be a Kyojin and how proud he was to help the team win and all. Heh. Tuffy Rhodes is cool :)
So. I went to a Giants game. They won. It was cool.
We came back to the ryokan after that to drop things off, and Nykkel called Hitoshi, and it sounds like we'll be hanging out with him tomorrow, so that's good. And then I came here to braindump and wow, my hour is almost over. Dammit.
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3 teams at 4-3, 3 teams at 3-4.
Go Chuunichi.
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I predict they're going to work one of their starters to an early retirement this season, because their bullpen (especially middle relief) is so hysterically anemic that they're probably not even thinking about special situations anymore. "Leave them in until they blow the lead", is probably the current mantra. Oh well. I hate them anyhow. :)
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Besides, you of course know that they have to work a "cute" angle into EVERYTHING, even sports.
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I think I'll be wearing a black "the brilliant green" t-shirt and khakis since that's about all I have left that's clean. I look like a dumb gaijin. So does Nykkel. We should stand out, hopefully.
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Was surprised when I got to the stadium and learned that you were not allowed to bring bottles or cans in. Guess they think you're going to throw them at the players or something. But I was even more surprised when, instead of making me throw away my bottle of Diet Coke, they poured it into a cup so I could take it into the stadium. (This clearly wasn't a "humor the ignorant gaijin" thing, since other people were also taking advantage of it.)