It's like the Eat'n'Park Game, but for convenience stores
Today I showed up at work in my Chunichi t-shirt (Kawakami #11) and jeans, and I clocked in, got out my attendance book, was chatting with Eri in the manager's office, and we hear footsteps coming in. That's no big deal, we figure it's just Duane, except... it wasn't Duane, it was a blonde-haired guy in a suit. His name's Bret (I think, maybe it was Brad) and he's a Higashi Kanto sub and he's from the Head Office, basically here to check up on how I'm doing.
Of course, the first thing he says when he sees me is, "Chunichi fan? What the hell?" and I'm like "Sorry, I know, I usually get lunch first and THEN change into my suit so I don't get food all over it, I'll go change," and he replies, "No, I'm a Hanshin Tigers fan. I hate the Dragons!" "Oh, uh.. that's nice... I'm going to go get lunch, okay?"
The rest of the day went relatively uneventful though. I spent a lot of time talking to Bret about random crap just because, well, he was there and he looked bored, and I don't have classes for the afternoon on Wednesdays so he couldn't sit in on anything until 7pm (I told him not to come to my kid's class since my 11-year-old is REALLY shy). Of course, every class he sat in on was an Active class and turned into free talk, as I encouraged my students to ask him questions. I had him explain Beer League Softball to my 9pm Headways gang; they got a big kick out of that one, at least. (That's the class where one of my students originally introduced himself to me like "Hi, I'm ___. I like beer! And baseball! And rock music.")
My Headways class wants me to dress up as Hichori Morimoto for Halloween. I'm seriously considering it :)
After work I had two adventures.
Adventure One involved eating curry for dinner. I decided to hunt down the CoCo Ichibanya curry place in Warabi, which was on the other side of the station. It wasn't difficult, actually, it's about a 5 minute walk, so, dude, nearbyish curry.
Adventure Two involved getting Fighters tickets for this Sunday's game. I had planned to ride my bike to Hatogaya, but then ended up chatting with![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the2belo while watching the sports highlights on Megaspo. And suddenly I realized that I should check ticket availability for this Sunday's Fighters game, and... sure enough, it looked like it was almost sold out. Shit. With Jeff's help I figured out that it said to go to Family Mart to get tickets between 10am-11:30pm, so I thought I'd go scope it out. I knew where a FM was sort of near Warabi station.
I rode my bike to the FM there, about a mile away. After waiting in line a while I ask the guy at the counter about baseball tickets, and he says, as far as I understand it, "oh, we don't have the ticket box at this store," and I ask where to go, and he says to try another store. So I thought he meant another Family Mart, and so I go to the other one I'd scoped out the location of on the map, a bit over a mile from there. (Note: All conversations herein are in Japanese, it's not like the people working at convenience stores at 1am know any English)
The dude at the other FM is much more helpful and says "No, see, we don't sell baseball tickets AT ALL at Family Mart, you need to go to Lawsons." I said, "Why the hell does Yahoo tickets say to go to Family Mart, then?" He said "I don't know, but you need to go to Lawsons."
So I find my way to the Lawsons I'd seen on one of my random bike rides, and, sure enough, DUDE! They have a Loppi box there, which is essentially a Convenience Store Ticketmaster for all intents and purposes. I find the Lotte game and call up the seating chart and after arguing with it for several minutes, find out that really, they will only sell me unreserved infield tickets. Fine. I try to buy them and... and I can't use a credit card, only a Lawsons card will work.
I call over the store clerk and explain what I'm trying to do. He says, "Oh, no problem, you can pay at the register," only it's not exactly "no problem" -- we discover the machine needs my name in kana, and with spaces, and a phone number, and all of this other random info, and finally, yay, we get it to spit out a receipt. I pay at the counter and the guy prints me out my baseball ticket and woohoo! I have a ticket for Sunday's Fighters game! Thank god! I apologize for making him waste 5 minutes helping me with the machine and he's just like "it's ok, don't worry about it. have a good time at the game!"
So then I try to ride my bike home, only I get lost, because I don't really know where I am. This is sort of a common theme -- I know how to get to things from my house, or from the station, and such, but I still have some issues with getting from point A to point B otherwise -- so I just sort of head in the direction that I think is my apartment, and eventually I found my way to a familiar point on Sangyo Doro, and just rode home from there. Whee.
And that is how I ended up riding something like 4 miles to get a baseball ticket from a Lawsons that is, as far as I can tell, less than half a mile from my apartment.
Okay, tomorrow I'll ride to Hatogaya, I guess.
Of course, the first thing he says when he sees me is, "Chunichi fan? What the hell?" and I'm like "Sorry, I know, I usually get lunch first and THEN change into my suit so I don't get food all over it, I'll go change," and he replies, "No, I'm a Hanshin Tigers fan. I hate the Dragons!" "Oh, uh.. that's nice... I'm going to go get lunch, okay?"
The rest of the day went relatively uneventful though. I spent a lot of time talking to Bret about random crap just because, well, he was there and he looked bored, and I don't have classes for the afternoon on Wednesdays so he couldn't sit in on anything until 7pm (I told him not to come to my kid's class since my 11-year-old is REALLY shy). Of course, every class he sat in on was an Active class and turned into free talk, as I encouraged my students to ask him questions. I had him explain Beer League Softball to my 9pm Headways gang; they got a big kick out of that one, at least. (That's the class where one of my students originally introduced himself to me like "Hi, I'm ___. I like beer! And baseball! And rock music.")
My Headways class wants me to dress up as Hichori Morimoto for Halloween. I'm seriously considering it :)
After work I had two adventures.
Adventure One involved eating curry for dinner. I decided to hunt down the CoCo Ichibanya curry place in Warabi, which was on the other side of the station. It wasn't difficult, actually, it's about a 5 minute walk, so, dude, nearbyish curry.
Adventure Two involved getting Fighters tickets for this Sunday's game. I had planned to ride my bike to Hatogaya, but then ended up chatting with
the2belo while watching the sports highlights on Megaspo. And suddenly I realized that I should check ticket availability for this Sunday's Fighters game, and... sure enough, it looked like it was almost sold out. Shit. With Jeff's help I figured out that it said to go to Family Mart to get tickets between 10am-11:30pm, so I thought I'd go scope it out. I knew where a FM was sort of near Warabi station.I rode my bike to the FM there, about a mile away. After waiting in line a while I ask the guy at the counter about baseball tickets, and he says, as far as I understand it, "oh, we don't have the ticket box at this store," and I ask where to go, and he says to try another store. So I thought he meant another Family Mart, and so I go to the other one I'd scoped out the location of on the map, a bit over a mile from there. (Note: All conversations herein are in Japanese, it's not like the people working at convenience stores at 1am know any English)
The dude at the other FM is much more helpful and says "No, see, we don't sell baseball tickets AT ALL at Family Mart, you need to go to Lawsons." I said, "Why the hell does Yahoo tickets say to go to Family Mart, then?" He said "I don't know, but you need to go to Lawsons."
So I find my way to the Lawsons I'd seen on one of my random bike rides, and, sure enough, DUDE! They have a Loppi box there, which is essentially a Convenience Store Ticketmaster for all intents and purposes. I find the Lotte game and call up the seating chart and after arguing with it for several minutes, find out that really, they will only sell me unreserved infield tickets. Fine. I try to buy them and... and I can't use a credit card, only a Lawsons card will work.
I call over the store clerk and explain what I'm trying to do. He says, "Oh, no problem, you can pay at the register," only it's not exactly "no problem" -- we discover the machine needs my name in kana, and with spaces, and a phone number, and all of this other random info, and finally, yay, we get it to spit out a receipt. I pay at the counter and the guy prints me out my baseball ticket and woohoo! I have a ticket for Sunday's Fighters game! Thank god! I apologize for making him waste 5 minutes helping me with the machine and he's just like "it's ok, don't worry about it. have a good time at the game!"
So then I try to ride my bike home, only I get lost, because I don't really know where I am. This is sort of a common theme -- I know how to get to things from my house, or from the station, and such, but I still have some issues with getting from point A to point B otherwise -- so I just sort of head in the direction that I think is my apartment, and eventually I found my way to a familiar point on Sangyo Doro, and just rode home from there. Whee.
And that is how I ended up riding something like 4 miles to get a baseball ticket from a Lawsons that is, as far as I can tell, less than half a mile from my apartment.
Okay, tomorrow I'll ride to Hatogaya, I guess.