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I'm in ur dugout, posing for pikturs [photopost]
Today I went on another fun long bike ride, this time to the Yakult Swallows minor-league stadium in Toda Koen. My phone tells me it is 7.5 kilometers from my house. Google Maps mostly seems to agree.
Red dot: My house
Orange dot: Diamond City mall... I bought my 5-drawer thingy there last weekend. It doesn't look so far on that map, but a kilometer is pretty far when lugging furniture on your bike.
Green dot: Lotte Urawa Stadium. That's where I went last weekend and snuck into their dugout.
Blue dot: Kita-Urawa Book-Off, which was my other destination after the Lotte stadium last weekend. Yes, I really rode my bike that far just for the hell of it.
Purple circle: the riverside park that the Yakult minor league stadium is in. It was also just a damn nice place to ride a bike around, so I did.
Pink circle: Aeon/Jusco mall that I stopped in on my way home today, with the Pizza Hut and the awesome taiyaki
Aqua circle: Arcade I stopped in on my way home today, which reminded me of Dave & Buster's and had a kickass Bemani corner
(Also near the aqua circle is the other 100-yen kaitensushi place I went to last weekend)
So, I programmed the address for the stadium into my phone and went on my way. This is always both a good and bad thing. Bad, because it gives "walking" directions, which sometimes involves riding down streets that really suck for bikes (not enough room, etc). Good, because I theoretically can't get lost as long as I have my GPS-enabled cellphone with me. Whee.
It took me a lot less time than I thought it would. I had to ride up a hill when I got to the park area, but after that I had a great view of houses and highways and stuff, and then there was the stadium. I rode down the hill and saw the stadium, which was surrounded by a running track and two softball fields. Infact, it really did just look like a glorified softball field in some ways, though at least it had covered dugouts and nicer turf in the in/outfields. I looked around and saw no people around, and sure enough, the gate to this field was also open, so I went in like last time.
First thing I did was take another picture of me in the dugout, of course:
And then I took a whole bunch of pictures around the stadium. This one is my favorite. The others will go in a Marinerds post eventually.
I guess I was in the stadium for about 10-15 minutes. I got a call on my cellphone from KDDI while I was shooting a picture from behind the bullpen mound and was like "oh shit oh shit". That was sort of weird. I told them to call me back and then ended up missing the callback, whoops.
Afterwards I rode around the park. It was really big and had a lake in the middle that reminded me of Greenlake (it had a track around it, lots of people fishing and just hanging out on the edges, walking dogs, etc, there were several playgrounds, etc). I rode past a bench and heard a meowing, and sure enough, there was a cat just sprawled out there. A little bit later this old guy came up and fed about 5 cats. I think he's been doing it a while, because the cats all started meowing when he showed up.
I tried to go to the Arakawa river, but it turns out I actually went to some big inlet instead. Oops! That's sad, I really wanted to actually be at the river. Maybe some other time I'll ride down there. Either way, the inlet river thingy had ducks! And disgusting water.
Anyway, it was a really beautiful day, really good for riding, if a tiny bit chilly (it's been around 15 degrees celsius during the days, which equates to like 60 degrees fahrenheit)
On the way home I stopped at the mall I had ridden by on the way down, because, hey, mall! I dunno why I'm so into going to random Japanese malls, but they really amuse me in a way. Plus I'm always looking for more sources of big-sized clothing. And infact, in this one I tried on a suit jacket that actually fit me! Turns out that I can actually wear suits on the higher-end sizes of Japanese women's clothing, so that's good. I didn't buy the jacket, I think I'll go back to a closer Jusco and try to find something there. Seems like if I want a new suit it's going to run me around 15,000 yen, but that's at least better than thinking that there were absolutely no options should I decide to go get a new suit.
I decided to eat dinner at the Pizza Hut in the mall. It was really a combined Pizza Hut and KFC -- dammit, why can't they ALSO have Taco Bell??? Anyway, I really just wanted a goddamn plain old pepperoni pizza, but nooo. They just don't have that sort of thing. The closest I could do was a "deluxe" and tell them no onions. I got a personal pan pizza and a "pizza set" which came with a drink and an order of coleslaw. Anyway, it wasn't all that great. The pan pizza skin tasted fine, but the rest of the pizza was super-bland, which was weird to me since I usually like Pizza Hut back in the states. It needed pepper. So did the coleslaw, for that matter. On the plus side, at least it didn't have corn or mayonnaise or any other crazy crap on it, so at least I won in that respect.
Disappointed with my pizza, I wandered the food court at this mall... and saw a takoyaki place that also made fresh taiyaki, and not only with red bean paste (which I don't like), but also with custard cream inside it! I bought two custard cream taiyaki. One of them I ate when I got back to my bike; it was still warm and amazingly, amazingly good. The other one I ate when I got home, and it was still fabulous. I might have to ride back to this mall just to get taiyaki there. I'm dead serious.
On my way home I decided to stop in a random arcade that I saw because it looked gigantic. It sure was. I think the place is like 5 stories tall, has a bowling alley and a pachinko place and some other random crap there. The arcade floor is HUGE though. And, they had a fantastic Bemani corner which was the size of my local arcade. There were four full session stations -- that is, 4 drummania and 4 guitar freaks machines -- and two Pop'n machines, and two IIDX, and even two DDR machines, which is super-rare these days. They also had Taiko, and Shamisen Brothers, which I haven't seen in a while, and Rock'n DJ or whatever the IIDX knockoff one is. I would have taken more pictures but people were already looking at me funny:
After playing a game of PNM, I headed home home. Fun fun. I did laundry, mostly washing stuff here and just taking one load over to the laundromat to dry it in the dryers. I debated going shopping again after that but instead just stayed in and watched TV (and tried to make myself write entries but instead was lazy).
I watched today's SMAPxSMAP (somehow I'm never home at the right time on Mondays, or I forget?) and they had the Backstreet Boys on as musical guests. To end the episode, SMAP and the BSB performed a song together. It was really surreal and really appropriate. I was also home in time to see Ainori (the "world tour love bus" reality show) as well, and I caught a bit of Galileo earlier (Shibasaki Kou's dorama this season). Strangely, though, despite actually being in Japan now, I kind of feel like I'd rather download doramas still and inhale them at my own speed rather than having to be at home at the right time.
It also turns out that apparently if I went to Jingu today I could have seen Saito Yuki pitch in some other college championship! Waaaaaah :(
Ok, that's it for now. I really should write up last night's game. I'm such a slacker.
I have come to the really sad conclusion that what I need is a biking friend. Someone else who lives somewhere near me and is also insane enough to go ride 5-10 miles into random parts of Saitama (or elsewhere in Kanto) for no particular reason other than just to see what's there. I mean, there's nothing wrong with riding by myself, but it'd be nice to ride somewhere with someone and do something.
Red dot: My house
Orange dot: Diamond City mall... I bought my 5-drawer thingy there last weekend. It doesn't look so far on that map, but a kilometer is pretty far when lugging furniture on your bike.
Green dot: Lotte Urawa Stadium. That's where I went last weekend and snuck into their dugout.
Blue dot: Kita-Urawa Book-Off, which was my other destination after the Lotte stadium last weekend. Yes, I really rode my bike that far just for the hell of it.
Purple circle: the riverside park that the Yakult minor league stadium is in. It was also just a damn nice place to ride a bike around, so I did.
Pink circle: Aeon/Jusco mall that I stopped in on my way home today, with the Pizza Hut and the awesome taiyaki
Aqua circle: Arcade I stopped in on my way home today, which reminded me of Dave & Buster's and had a kickass Bemani corner
(Also near the aqua circle is the other 100-yen kaitensushi place I went to last weekend)
So, I programmed the address for the stadium into my phone and went on my way. This is always both a good and bad thing. Bad, because it gives "walking" directions, which sometimes involves riding down streets that really suck for bikes (not enough room, etc). Good, because I theoretically can't get lost as long as I have my GPS-enabled cellphone with me. Whee.
It took me a lot less time than I thought it would. I had to ride up a hill when I got to the park area, but after that I had a great view of houses and highways and stuff, and then there was the stadium. I rode down the hill and saw the stadium, which was surrounded by a running track and two softball fields. Infact, it really did just look like a glorified softball field in some ways, though at least it had covered dugouts and nicer turf in the in/outfields. I looked around and saw no people around, and sure enough, the gate to this field was also open, so I went in like last time.
First thing I did was take another picture of me in the dugout, of course:
And then I took a whole bunch of pictures around the stadium. This one is my favorite. The others will go in a Marinerds post eventually.
I guess I was in the stadium for about 10-15 minutes. I got a call on my cellphone from KDDI while I was shooting a picture from behind the bullpen mound and was like "oh shit oh shit". That was sort of weird. I told them to call me back and then ended up missing the callback, whoops.
Afterwards I rode around the park. It was really big and had a lake in the middle that reminded me of Greenlake (it had a track around it, lots of people fishing and just hanging out on the edges, walking dogs, etc, there were several playgrounds, etc). I rode past a bench and heard a meowing, and sure enough, there was a cat just sprawled out there. A little bit later this old guy came up and fed about 5 cats. I think he's been doing it a while, because the cats all started meowing when he showed up.
I tried to go to the Arakawa river, but it turns out I actually went to some big inlet instead. Oops! That's sad, I really wanted to actually be at the river. Maybe some other time I'll ride down there. Either way, the inlet river thingy had ducks! And disgusting water.
Anyway, it was a really beautiful day, really good for riding, if a tiny bit chilly (it's been around 15 degrees celsius during the days, which equates to like 60 degrees fahrenheit)
On the way home I stopped at the mall I had ridden by on the way down, because, hey, mall! I dunno why I'm so into going to random Japanese malls, but they really amuse me in a way. Plus I'm always looking for more sources of big-sized clothing. And infact, in this one I tried on a suit jacket that actually fit me! Turns out that I can actually wear suits on the higher-end sizes of Japanese women's clothing, so that's good. I didn't buy the jacket, I think I'll go back to a closer Jusco and try to find something there. Seems like if I want a new suit it's going to run me around 15,000 yen, but that's at least better than thinking that there were absolutely no options should I decide to go get a new suit.
I decided to eat dinner at the Pizza Hut in the mall. It was really a combined Pizza Hut and KFC -- dammit, why can't they ALSO have Taco Bell??? Anyway, I really just wanted a goddamn plain old pepperoni pizza, but nooo. They just don't have that sort of thing. The closest I could do was a "deluxe" and tell them no onions. I got a personal pan pizza and a "pizza set" which came with a drink and an order of coleslaw. Anyway, it wasn't all that great. The pan pizza skin tasted fine, but the rest of the pizza was super-bland, which was weird to me since I usually like Pizza Hut back in the states. It needed pepper. So did the coleslaw, for that matter. On the plus side, at least it didn't have corn or mayonnaise or any other crazy crap on it, so at least I won in that respect.
Disappointed with my pizza, I wandered the food court at this mall... and saw a takoyaki place that also made fresh taiyaki, and not only with red bean paste (which I don't like), but also with custard cream inside it! I bought two custard cream taiyaki. One of them I ate when I got back to my bike; it was still warm and amazingly, amazingly good. The other one I ate when I got home, and it was still fabulous. I might have to ride back to this mall just to get taiyaki there. I'm dead serious.
On my way home I decided to stop in a random arcade that I saw because it looked gigantic. It sure was. I think the place is like 5 stories tall, has a bowling alley and a pachinko place and some other random crap there. The arcade floor is HUGE though. And, they had a fantastic Bemani corner which was the size of my local arcade. There were four full session stations -- that is, 4 drummania and 4 guitar freaks machines -- and two Pop'n machines, and two IIDX, and even two DDR machines, which is super-rare these days. They also had Taiko, and Shamisen Brothers, which I haven't seen in a while, and Rock'n DJ or whatever the IIDX knockoff one is. I would have taken more pictures but people were already looking at me funny:
After playing a game of PNM, I headed home home. Fun fun. I did laundry, mostly washing stuff here and just taking one load over to the laundromat to dry it in the dryers. I debated going shopping again after that but instead just stayed in and watched TV (and tried to make myself write entries but instead was lazy).
I watched today's SMAPxSMAP (somehow I'm never home at the right time on Mondays, or I forget?) and they had the Backstreet Boys on as musical guests. To end the episode, SMAP and the BSB performed a song together. It was really surreal and really appropriate. I was also home in time to see Ainori (the "world tour love bus" reality show) as well, and I caught a bit of Galileo earlier (Shibasaki Kou's dorama this season). Strangely, though, despite actually being in Japan now, I kind of feel like I'd rather download doramas still and inhale them at my own speed rather than having to be at home at the right time.
It also turns out that apparently if I went to Jingu today I could have seen Saito Yuki pitch in some other college championship! Waaaaaah :(
Ok, that's it for now. I really should write up last night's game. I'm such a slacker.
I have come to the really sad conclusion that what I need is a biking friend. Someone else who lives somewhere near me and is also insane enough to go ride 5-10 miles into random parts of Saitama (or elsewhere in Kanto) for no particular reason other than just to see what's there. I mean, there's nothing wrong with riding by myself, but it'd be nice to ride somewhere with someone and do something.
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In Lithuanian, it apparently depends which side of the country you're on.
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And kaitensushi has the same sound -- kigh-ten-sushi.
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Hahaha, man, I took a company fleet car home last night, and Ainori was just coming on the car TV audio when I pulled into the driveway. TIMING.
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