Gifu adventures!
You know, usually it's weird enough arriving home so late that everything is closed near Warabi station, but this morning arriving back at 5:55am, it was weird because I was so EARLY that everything was closed.
Anyway, the Moonlight Nagara kinda sucked. Unlike a 5-hour redeye flight, where I can actually get sleep for about 3-4 hours straight if I'm lucky, this was a 5-hour train ride, no timezone change, but it kept STOPPING, so it wasn't really a smooth enough ride to sleep more than 20-30 mins at a time, yet I also was too tired to stay awake to watch the sunrise or anything. So, a big thumbs down on the Nagara for being FUN but a big thumbs up for being convenient and cheap I suppose. Next time I'll bring a pillow and blanket and maybe that'll make it better.
But, my trip to Nagoya/Gifu was overall fun. Even if I basically left my house around 9am yesterday and returned at 6am today and spent 10 hours of that time on trains.
When I got to Nagoya, the first thing I did was go straight to the Nagoya Dome, of course, and to the big shop there, and ended up spending like a good HOUR in there talking myself out of buying things. I wanted to buy the entire store! The disappointing part was that they simply don't HAVE Doala ear hairbands this year, which is what I really, really wanted. But I bought a TON of crap nonetheless. I'm not even going to admit how much I spent, but I figured this might be my only time in the Dome shop this year... I might come back to Nagoya in like September if I'm still here but that's a ways off. Anong other things I got were a poster of the Ochiai doage after winning the Japan Series, and a Tatsunami #3 t-shirt, and Moeyo Dragons 2008, and another Morino towel and some pins (which I used to attach the second towel to the first one), and a #31 wristband. I still can't bring myself to buy a white Dragons shirt for fear I won't wear it because it'll get dirty, and I'm definitely not buying a pink one.
Priced what it would cost to make an "Arakibata 2 6" jersey and when I realized it was well over ichi-man -- 800 yen per big number, 300 yen per letter, plus the cost of a jersey -- decided it wasn't worth it. So no "Dragonbutt #31" either.
After that I made my way to Gifu station, but by the time I got there it was seriously like 3:30pm. Whoops. So![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the2belo picked me up from the station, and then we immediately headed over to pick up his wife Miyuki from where she was working, and after a stop at a drugstore, we headed over to Nagaragawa Athletic Complex or whatever the place is called...
...and waited for like 50 minutes to get into a parking lot. No joke. Basically cars couldn't enter until other ones left so we had to wait for cars from the earlier events in the day -- a golf tournament and whatnot -- to leave so we could go in. UGHHHHHH. At least it gave us a chance to hang out and chat. At the parking lot I also made Jeff check out the camera bag I had brought for him (Sam gave it to me, but it's way too big for me to use, so I gave it to Jeff, who is bigger than me and more likely to carry around a gigantic camera bag) -- inside the bag was a Cubs Fukudome t-shirt that I had gotten him at the Chicago airport! So now Jeff actually had something to wear to the game (since he didn't actually have any Dragons shirts. Technically Kosuke still counts, right?)
We got into the stadium at like 5:35pm for a 6pm game, and this stadium is RETARDED in terms of organization. For the side we were on, they only opened up one gate into the infield stands so you had to wait in line just to get out of the concourse. And there was only one women's bathroom, with only Japanese-style toilets. Go figure. At least I had the sense to not worry about buying food/drink at the concourse, which had insane lines -- instead, once I got out onto the walkway, I flagged down a drink vendor for a soda, then flagged down a food vendor for a bento. The bento was full of bizarre random crap, half of which I couldn't identify, and 70% of which I actually ate, which is pretty good all things considering.
Anyway, we were fairly far out on the first base line, but in extended infield, so not in that part of the stadium where you actually stand up and cheer. That didn't stop me from singing all the player songs (except freaking Norihiro's) anyway and cheering a lot, BUT I didn't really get to do my all-out Biggest Gaijin Morino Fan act, which is probably just as well. I did hold up my Morino towels and sing, but I didn't stand up and yell or anything. Plus, as I commented to Jeff, "It's really much funnier when he actually kicks ass." (Not that I'm complaining about 1-for-3 with a sac fly RBI and a double, with stellar defense... but I wanted to see a home run!)
Dragons won the game 4-1, anyway -- and I am going to OFFICIALLY call it a tradition now that whenever Jeff and I go to a Dragons game, they win 4-1 on one big 4-run early inning, and Kenichi Nakata pitches 8 innings and strikes out around 9-10 guys, and Iwase gets in for the save. Why? Because I swear to god that is exactly what happened last time, on 9/9/07 as well as this time. Although one major difference -- this time Nakata also hit a double! That was COOL!
Also, there was Doala. Doala! And people throwing streamers and confetti onto the field, to the point that Yokohama outfielder Yuuki Yoshimura was like "Dude, why am I covered in streamers? This is uncool."
After the game we had to wait another freaking hour to get out of the parking lot. Good thing Jeff's car has TV. We were able to watch sports highlights. Miyuki is a bigUrawa Reds Tulio Tanaka fan, and he apparently scored a goal or two against Consadole Sapporo today, so she was happy. I was happy to get to see highlights from the Fighters game... and the two seconds of highlights from the Dragons game. And Norihiro's big home run. Yay.
We went to a place called Sagami and got miso katsu for dinner (yeah -- I had two dinners but I didn't really have lunch so I guess it all balances out), and then I had to go catch the train to get back to Nagoya and get the Moonlight thingy.
Now I am going to go nap for a few hours, not sure exactly what I'll do in the afternoon, and then in the evening I'm going to Chiba where I will see the Fighters-Marines game featuring SHUNSUKE WATANABE pitching against YU DARVISH and this is the COOLEST THING EVER OMFG. Yaaaay!
Anyway, the Moonlight Nagara kinda sucked. Unlike a 5-hour redeye flight, where I can actually get sleep for about 3-4 hours straight if I'm lucky, this was a 5-hour train ride, no timezone change, but it kept STOPPING, so it wasn't really a smooth enough ride to sleep more than 20-30 mins at a time, yet I also was too tired to stay awake to watch the sunrise or anything. So, a big thumbs down on the Nagara for being FUN but a big thumbs up for being convenient and cheap I suppose. Next time I'll bring a pillow and blanket and maybe that'll make it better.
But, my trip to Nagoya/Gifu was overall fun. Even if I basically left my house around 9am yesterday and returned at 6am today and spent 10 hours of that time on trains.
When I got to Nagoya, the first thing I did was go straight to the Nagoya Dome, of course, and to the big shop there, and ended up spending like a good HOUR in there talking myself out of buying things. I wanted to buy the entire store! The disappointing part was that they simply don't HAVE Doala ear hairbands this year, which is what I really, really wanted. But I bought a TON of crap nonetheless. I'm not even going to admit how much I spent, but I figured this might be my only time in the Dome shop this year... I might come back to Nagoya in like September if I'm still here but that's a ways off. Anong other things I got were a poster of the Ochiai doage after winning the Japan Series, and a Tatsunami #3 t-shirt, and Moeyo Dragons 2008, and another Morino towel and some pins (which I used to attach the second towel to the first one), and a #31 wristband. I still can't bring myself to buy a white Dragons shirt for fear I won't wear it because it'll get dirty, and I'm definitely not buying a pink one.
Priced what it would cost to make an "Arakibata 2 6" jersey and when I realized it was well over ichi-man -- 800 yen per big number, 300 yen per letter, plus the cost of a jersey -- decided it wasn't worth it. So no "Dragonbutt #31" either.
After that I made my way to Gifu station, but by the time I got there it was seriously like 3:30pm. Whoops. So
the2belo picked me up from the station, and then we immediately headed over to pick up his wife Miyuki from where she was working, and after a stop at a drugstore, we headed over to Nagaragawa Athletic Complex or whatever the place is called......and waited for like 50 minutes to get into a parking lot. No joke. Basically cars couldn't enter until other ones left so we had to wait for cars from the earlier events in the day -- a golf tournament and whatnot -- to leave so we could go in. UGHHHHHH. At least it gave us a chance to hang out and chat. At the parking lot I also made Jeff check out the camera bag I had brought for him (Sam gave it to me, but it's way too big for me to use, so I gave it to Jeff, who is bigger than me and more likely to carry around a gigantic camera bag) -- inside the bag was a Cubs Fukudome t-shirt that I had gotten him at the Chicago airport! So now Jeff actually had something to wear to the game (since he didn't actually have any Dragons shirts. Technically Kosuke still counts, right?)
We got into the stadium at like 5:35pm for a 6pm game, and this stadium is RETARDED in terms of organization. For the side we were on, they only opened up one gate into the infield stands so you had to wait in line just to get out of the concourse. And there was only one women's bathroom, with only Japanese-style toilets. Go figure. At least I had the sense to not worry about buying food/drink at the concourse, which had insane lines -- instead, once I got out onto the walkway, I flagged down a drink vendor for a soda, then flagged down a food vendor for a bento. The bento was full of bizarre random crap, half of which I couldn't identify, and 70% of which I actually ate, which is pretty good all things considering.
Anyway, we were fairly far out on the first base line, but in extended infield, so not in that part of the stadium where you actually stand up and cheer. That didn't stop me from singing all the player songs (except freaking Norihiro's) anyway and cheering a lot, BUT I didn't really get to do my all-out Biggest Gaijin Morino Fan act, which is probably just as well. I did hold up my Morino towels and sing, but I didn't stand up and yell or anything. Plus, as I commented to Jeff, "It's really much funnier when he actually kicks ass." (Not that I'm complaining about 1-for-3 with a sac fly RBI and a double, with stellar defense... but I wanted to see a home run!)
Dragons won the game 4-1, anyway -- and I am going to OFFICIALLY call it a tradition now that whenever Jeff and I go to a Dragons game, they win 4-1 on one big 4-run early inning, and Kenichi Nakata pitches 8 innings and strikes out around 9-10 guys, and Iwase gets in for the save. Why? Because I swear to god that is exactly what happened last time, on 9/9/07 as well as this time. Although one major difference -- this time Nakata also hit a double! That was COOL!
Also, there was Doala. Doala! And people throwing streamers and confetti onto the field, to the point that Yokohama outfielder Yuuki Yoshimura was like "Dude, why am I covered in streamers? This is uncool."
After the game we had to wait another freaking hour to get out of the parking lot. Good thing Jeff's car has TV. We were able to watch sports highlights. Miyuki is a big
We went to a place called Sagami and got miso katsu for dinner (yeah -- I had two dinners but I didn't really have lunch so I guess it all balances out), and then I had to go catch the train to get back to Nagoya and get the Moonlight thingy.
Now I am going to go nap for a few hours, not sure exactly what I'll do in the afternoon, and then in the evening I'm going to Chiba where I will see the Fighters-Marines game featuring SHUNSUKE WATANABE pitching against YU DARVISH and this is the COOLEST THING EVER OMFG. Yaaaay!
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2) The stadium is likely retarded because it was not really built to handle pro-league games. They get away with it because they only come up here once or twice a season.
3) Re: Fukudome T-shirt: <3<3<3.
4) I'm going to go back to that parking lot and BURN IT DOWN!!!!111111