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Susukino Ichiban!
I'm in Sapporo and drinking beer. This is kind of odd. Actually it was mostly an experiment to see if Sapporo Classic is actually good or if it was just good when I got it at dinner tonight. The verdict: no, not that much better than any other beer, at least not in a can.
Anyway, in terms of things being odd...
Yesterday, I went to Chiba again for the Marines-Fighters game. Fighters won and I got to hang out with a Fighters fan for the game and that was all good. Before the game, Larry took me on the field again for a little while. I didn't see the Fighters warm up but I chatted with some Marines coaches a bit, and despite wearing a Fighters shirt they still posed for a picture with me:
(Me with coaches Morozumi and Nishimura.)
I got home around 11:30pm. Stressed out, packed a bit, stressed some more, slept for like 3-4 hours, got up at 6am today to head down to the US Embassy. No, that is not a joke. I had to be there by 8:30am, which required leaving my house around 7ish if I wanted to have time to stow my bags at Tameike-Sanno station.
The reason I was at the US Embassy was to be part of a press conference for "The Zen of Bobby V", a documentary some guys made last year about the Lotte Marines, which will be featured in the Tribeca Film Festival. Of course, as it turns out, the only "Tokyo-based journalists" that showed up were me and Jim Allen from the Daily Yomiuri. (Dude, with the help of Larry I bugged Jim and it seems I will get to "shadow" Jim as he covers a game sometime at the Tokyo Dome soon!) Anyway, the conference was broadcast between Tokyo and New York, and I took a lot of notes, and honestly have no clue what I'm going to write about the whole thing.
(I would explain this picture but I think it is funnier unexplained.)
Oh yeah, and I also got to meet the US Ambassador Tom Schieffer. He apparently used to be a part owner of the Texas Rangers. Crazy.
Then, I hopped on a train from the US Embassy and went straight to Haneda Airport. Well, more like, I took a subway, a train, and then a MONORAIL! to the airport. The weird thing is, I was initially really annoyed that I had to wear business clothes to travel in due to going straight from the embassy, but actually, since I was all businesslike I think people took me more seriously at the airport than if I was in jeans and a t-shirt. Like "Oooh, the gaijin must be on a business trip." Getting everything set up to get on the plane was pretty easy and the flight itself was pretty relaxing, the plane was fairly empty. Yay. Getting a train to downtown Sapporo from the airport was also no problem and it was also fine to find the hotel and everything.
The adventure came when I decided to go get a power adapter and also to go find Hillman's Hangout.
The power adapter, some dude at Bic Camera was like "oh, you can't use this if you have a foreign laptop blah blah blah, go to the 5th floor". Turns out he was totally full of shit, but I wasted like 10 minutes looking around for some mystical "overseas" power adapter. WHATEVER I had it right the first time. Then, er, I guess Google Maps gave me the wrong place when I looked up the address -- so I literally walked around Susukino for around 45 minutes looking for the restaurant, which was on the 3rd floor of a mall-like building anyway. Doh.
BUT HILLMAN'S HANGOUT WAS AWESOME!
I watched the Fighters-Marines game there, and ate a genuine bacon cheeseburger (the menu had all kinds of tex-mex food too, but I was feeling a little wacky after the plane. The funniest menu item IMO is the "Mack Parfait" which is a dessert named after Fighters shortstop Makoto Kaneko. His uniform number is #8 and the parfait costs 888 yen). It wasn't super-crowded but plenty of people were at least clapping when good plays were made and a few of us sang along to the player cheers sometimes. The Fighters won like 6-1 so everyone was all happy after. And I went around and took a bazillion pictures of the place. And got one of the waitresses to take my picture. And I guess she took pity on me for being this crazy gaijin because she gave me a coaster signed by Trey Hillman on my way out :) Wheeeee.
I talked to a few people there who say they go to every Fighters game. They said they'll see me tomorrow. Who knows, we'll see.
Either way it was really neat -- I wonder if there are any other major Fighters eateries I need to hit now that I've been to Hillman's and to Yakiniku Erika...
I walked to/from Susukino. It's like a mile from the hotel. Not too bad and it's nice and chilly here in Hokkaido, too.
No idea what I'll do tomorrow but FIGHTERS GAME AT 6PM!!!! At the Sapporo Dome!!! Wheeeeeeeee!!! I'm in Hokkaido!!!!!
Anyway, in terms of things being odd...
Yesterday, I went to Chiba again for the Marines-Fighters game. Fighters won and I got to hang out with a Fighters fan for the game and that was all good. Before the game, Larry took me on the field again for a little while. I didn't see the Fighters warm up but I chatted with some Marines coaches a bit, and despite wearing a Fighters shirt they still posed for a picture with me:
(Me with coaches Morozumi and Nishimura.)
I got home around 11:30pm. Stressed out, packed a bit, stressed some more, slept for like 3-4 hours, got up at 6am today to head down to the US Embassy. No, that is not a joke. I had to be there by 8:30am, which required leaving my house around 7ish if I wanted to have time to stow my bags at Tameike-Sanno station.
The reason I was at the US Embassy was to be part of a press conference for "The Zen of Bobby V", a documentary some guys made last year about the Lotte Marines, which will be featured in the Tribeca Film Festival. Of course, as it turns out, the only "Tokyo-based journalists" that showed up were me and Jim Allen from the Daily Yomiuri. (Dude, with the help of Larry I bugged Jim and it seems I will get to "shadow" Jim as he covers a game sometime at the Tokyo Dome soon!) Anyway, the conference was broadcast between Tokyo and New York, and I took a lot of notes, and honestly have no clue what I'm going to write about the whole thing.
(I would explain this picture but I think it is funnier unexplained.)
Oh yeah, and I also got to meet the US Ambassador Tom Schieffer. He apparently used to be a part owner of the Texas Rangers. Crazy.
Then, I hopped on a train from the US Embassy and went straight to Haneda Airport. Well, more like, I took a subway, a train, and then a MONORAIL! to the airport. The weird thing is, I was initially really annoyed that I had to wear business clothes to travel in due to going straight from the embassy, but actually, since I was all businesslike I think people took me more seriously at the airport than if I was in jeans and a t-shirt. Like "Oooh, the gaijin must be on a business trip." Getting everything set up to get on the plane was pretty easy and the flight itself was pretty relaxing, the plane was fairly empty. Yay. Getting a train to downtown Sapporo from the airport was also no problem and it was also fine to find the hotel and everything.
The adventure came when I decided to go get a power adapter and also to go find Hillman's Hangout.
The power adapter, some dude at Bic Camera was like "oh, you can't use this if you have a foreign laptop blah blah blah, go to the 5th floor". Turns out he was totally full of shit, but I wasted like 10 minutes looking around for some mystical "overseas" power adapter. WHATEVER I had it right the first time. Then, er, I guess Google Maps gave me the wrong place when I looked up the address -- so I literally walked around Susukino for around 45 minutes looking for the restaurant, which was on the 3rd floor of a mall-like building anyway. Doh.
BUT HILLMAN'S HANGOUT WAS AWESOME!
I watched the Fighters-Marines game there, and ate a genuine bacon cheeseburger (the menu had all kinds of tex-mex food too, but I was feeling a little wacky after the plane. The funniest menu item IMO is the "Mack Parfait" which is a dessert named after Fighters shortstop Makoto Kaneko. His uniform number is #8 and the parfait costs 888 yen). It wasn't super-crowded but plenty of people were at least clapping when good plays were made and a few of us sang along to the player cheers sometimes. The Fighters won like 6-1 so everyone was all happy after. And I went around and took a bazillion pictures of the place. And got one of the waitresses to take my picture. And I guess she took pity on me for being this crazy gaijin because she gave me a coaster signed by Trey Hillman on my way out :) Wheeeee.
I talked to a few people there who say they go to every Fighters game. They said they'll see me tomorrow. Who knows, we'll see.
Either way it was really neat -- I wonder if there are any other major Fighters eateries I need to hit now that I've been to Hillman's and to Yakiniku Erika...
I walked to/from Susukino. It's like a mile from the hotel. Not too bad and it's nice and chilly here in Hokkaido, too.
No idea what I'll do tomorrow but FIGHTERS GAME AT 6PM!!!! At the Sapporo Dome!!! Wheeeeeeeee!!! I'm in Hokkaido!!!!!
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So what does go into a "Mack Parfait", anyhow? :D
Have fun at the dome!
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AWESOME!!!
I love the photo of you and Bobby.
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You're a big deal! ;)
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You are SO my hero.
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P.S. As for Fighters restaurants, near the Sapporo Beer Museum there's an "Official Fighters Restaurant" in the mall right next to it. And the Fighters' practice facility is there too!
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"The Beer Museum can be accessed by the "Loop 88 Factory Line" bus that stops among other places at Odori Station and in front of Seibu department store near Sapporo Station. Alternatively, it is a 20-30 minute walk from Sapporo Station.
Address: North 7, East 9"
My hotel was near Odori Park, so I just took the bus over there. Be warned, though, they close early (6 PM, I think?), but the stuff around it sure doesn't. I think I was there around 5 when a few Fighters were done with practice. At the restaurant, I had the hamburger dish or whatever--if I wasn't trying to save money I probably would have splurged for a steak or something.
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