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Back to the Fighters Futures
Let's see. Thursday was a largely uneventful day mostly consisting of work stuff. I ran the bug-bombing piggy again at night, and then the next day when I woke up there was a gigantic spider in my bathtub. I guess when they flee the main room, they end up in the bathroom... so I opened the separator door in my apartment and moved the piggy somewhere more central.
Friday was today. It was pretty wacky. See, I don't have classes until 6pm on Fridays. Usually I just spend the afternoon getting a nice leisurely lunch, and preparing classes, but today since Jon was away for the week and so I'd be the only person in Akabane, I decided to go down to Fighters Town Kamagaya for the Fighters vs. Futures minor-league challenge match game. This is basically where the Fighters minor-league team takes on a squad of guys from various minor-league teams in the Eastern League... although as it is, most of them were Yomiuri Giants guys. Sheesh.
Anyway, since Kamagaya is in the middle of fucking nowhere in Chiba, I had to get to Akabane by 10:30am to sign in and catch a train there. I wanted to be at Kamagaya Station at noon for the bus to the stadium. And I was...
...except there WAS no bus. WTF?
Turns out though, at the stop, there were some other people waiting for it and I overheard their convo and was like "wait are you guys going to the stadium too?" and they said "yeah, we're splitting a taxi, wanna come with us?"
So, I rode a taxi to the stadium with these people. Two of them were a couple (Hashimoto), they were vacationing in Tokyo, they are from Tomakomai (a city in Hokkaido). They went to the Fighters game in Chiba on Wednesday, then a day at Disneyland, then today at Kamagaya, then were flying back to Hokkaido tonight. Awesome. It was their first ni-gun game, too. The third person was this lady named Kiyomi, who brought TWO NIKON CAMERAS WITH HER to the game, one with a 70-300 VR lens and I forget what the other had. She made me feel lame :) I think she is also from Sapporo but was staying in Kanto a bit longer than the other two. I have noticed that Fighters fans who come from Hokkaido are nicer to me than pretty much any other fans in baseball here, hands down.
Anyway, that was crazy. We got to the stadium and it turned out the GAME WAS FREE. More awesome, because it raises my ratio of games I do not pay for. Since it's technically an exhibition game, that's why it's free, and they have no charter buses, and so on, I guess. BUT there was a ton of food, and mascots, and all sorts of fun. I got ambushed by the mascot Cubby yet again. He patted me on the top of my head. I guess I should try to become Kamagaya's pet gaijin. Hmm.
As for the game, I took a bazillion pictures (Shinji Takahashi was DHing <3) and hung out with the aforementioned people. I had put on sunscreen but they were all really worried I was going to get burnt because I didn't have a hat on. As it is, what got burnt was a bit of my arm, but I think the rest of me is okay.
Oh yeah, and Sho Freaking Nakata was actually making faces at me while I was taking pictures before the game. Man! One of the other players even made a V sign at me and Kiyomi while we were standing there with our cameras (she took the picture but I was not quick enough, so I can't even remember who it was). Minor league is funny that way. Kiyomi even yelled at Yohei Kaneko, "Hey, can you smile for me again Yohei-kun? I always get great shots of you!"
I ended up having to leave halfway through the 8th inning, so I have no clue who won, though the Fighters were up something like 10-3 at the time. Basically I had to leave around 3:45pm to get a train at 4:19 in order to be in Akabane at 5:15 so I could be ready for 6pm. BUT as it turns out the Hashimotos also had to leave to catch their plane back from Haneda. EXCEPT, there were no buses. And no taxis. We basically had to go call for a taxi. Thank god for them, because if it was just me I would have ended up walking the 2.5 kilometers back to the station, I bet, and that would have SUCKED in the heat. So we split a taxi back. They were explaining all this stuff about Hokkaido, and were so totally surprised that I actually KNOW where cities like Tomakomai, Obihiro, Kushiro etc are. I told them "Well, ever since the Fighters moved to Hokkaido I have been studying Hokkaido stuff..."
I guess I screwed up my Japanese speech a few times (notably I accidentally said "I have only been to Yahoo Dome" rather than "I have been to every stadium BUT Yahoo Dome") BUT overall it was, as usual, great speaking practice for a few hours, and, hey, baseball, Fighters, yay! I ended up on a tokkyu skyliner train back to Nippori and that was really nice to get to sit down in a cushy seat in a nice airconditioned train, to cool down and relax on my way back up to work.
My student showed up early as usual -- like 25 mins -- but I guess things went okay. And then at 7pm I had the student who just got transferred to me but who I have known since my first day at GEOS (she's like 15 years old, she was Sprint 4 back then, then went to Sprint 5, now I am doing Sprint 6 with her). And at 8pm my class was good too -- one guy brought in some weird cherry soda because he has been lamenting the lack of Cherry Coke in Japan. Go figure.
Only catch is, I had a headache all night. I wonder if I had vague heatstroke. I drank two bottles of water and a bottle of Gatorade during the game, but still. I think sunburn makes me feel sick in general.
When I came home I took some tylenol, and I did some laundry. I was early enough to go throw all of my pairs of jeans into one of the big machines at the coin laundry, basically. And then I spent 400 yen for 20 minutes sitting in the big new massage chair at the laundromat. That chair rules, though my right shoulder still feels weird. Oh well. It's been weird for like a week now, and this morning I rolled my left ankle so I'm just one big pile of injury or something.
The midnight dorama on channel 12 just started a new season tonight. This one is called Walking Butterfly and it's about a girl who is 180cm tall (almost 6') who acts like a boy, plays basketball, and likes to beat people up... and through a bizarre set of circumstances, decides she wants to be a model. It is DEFINITELY a midnight dorama and very cheesy, but I think I will enjoy it kinda like I enjoyed Guren Onna (but skipped the one inbetween because it was all about some slutty secretary, which just didn't seem interesting or funny to me).
Friday was today. It was pretty wacky. See, I don't have classes until 6pm on Fridays. Usually I just spend the afternoon getting a nice leisurely lunch, and preparing classes, but today since Jon was away for the week and so I'd be the only person in Akabane, I decided to go down to Fighters Town Kamagaya for the Fighters vs. Futures minor-league challenge match game. This is basically where the Fighters minor-league team takes on a squad of guys from various minor-league teams in the Eastern League... although as it is, most of them were Yomiuri Giants guys. Sheesh.
Anyway, since Kamagaya is in the middle of fucking nowhere in Chiba, I had to get to Akabane by 10:30am to sign in and catch a train there. I wanted to be at Kamagaya Station at noon for the bus to the stadium. And I was...
...except there WAS no bus. WTF?
Turns out though, at the stop, there were some other people waiting for it and I overheard their convo and was like "wait are you guys going to the stadium too?" and they said "yeah, we're splitting a taxi, wanna come with us?"
So, I rode a taxi to the stadium with these people. Two of them were a couple (Hashimoto), they were vacationing in Tokyo, they are from Tomakomai (a city in Hokkaido). They went to the Fighters game in Chiba on Wednesday, then a day at Disneyland, then today at Kamagaya, then were flying back to Hokkaido tonight. Awesome. It was their first ni-gun game, too. The third person was this lady named Kiyomi, who brought TWO NIKON CAMERAS WITH HER to the game, one with a 70-300 VR lens and I forget what the other had. She made me feel lame :) I think she is also from Sapporo but was staying in Kanto a bit longer than the other two. I have noticed that Fighters fans who come from Hokkaido are nicer to me than pretty much any other fans in baseball here, hands down.
Anyway, that was crazy. We got to the stadium and it turned out the GAME WAS FREE. More awesome, because it raises my ratio of games I do not pay for. Since it's technically an exhibition game, that's why it's free, and they have no charter buses, and so on, I guess. BUT there was a ton of food, and mascots, and all sorts of fun. I got ambushed by the mascot Cubby yet again. He patted me on the top of my head. I guess I should try to become Kamagaya's pet gaijin. Hmm.
As for the game, I took a bazillion pictures (Shinji Takahashi was DHing <3) and hung out with the aforementioned people. I had put on sunscreen but they were all really worried I was going to get burnt because I didn't have a hat on. As it is, what got burnt was a bit of my arm, but I think the rest of me is okay.
Oh yeah, and Sho Freaking Nakata was actually making faces at me while I was taking pictures before the game. Man! One of the other players even made a V sign at me and Kiyomi while we were standing there with our cameras (she took the picture but I was not quick enough, so I can't even remember who it was). Minor league is funny that way. Kiyomi even yelled at Yohei Kaneko, "Hey, can you smile for me again Yohei-kun? I always get great shots of you!"
I ended up having to leave halfway through the 8th inning, so I have no clue who won, though the Fighters were up something like 10-3 at the time. Basically I had to leave around 3:45pm to get a train at 4:19 in order to be in Akabane at 5:15 so I could be ready for 6pm. BUT as it turns out the Hashimotos also had to leave to catch their plane back from Haneda. EXCEPT, there were no buses. And no taxis. We basically had to go call for a taxi. Thank god for them, because if it was just me I would have ended up walking the 2.5 kilometers back to the station, I bet, and that would have SUCKED in the heat. So we split a taxi back. They were explaining all this stuff about Hokkaido, and were so totally surprised that I actually KNOW where cities like Tomakomai, Obihiro, Kushiro etc are. I told them "Well, ever since the Fighters moved to Hokkaido I have been studying Hokkaido stuff..."
I guess I screwed up my Japanese speech a few times (notably I accidentally said "I have only been to Yahoo Dome" rather than "I have been to every stadium BUT Yahoo Dome") BUT overall it was, as usual, great speaking practice for a few hours, and, hey, baseball, Fighters, yay! I ended up on a tokkyu skyliner train back to Nippori and that was really nice to get to sit down in a cushy seat in a nice airconditioned train, to cool down and relax on my way back up to work.
My student showed up early as usual -- like 25 mins -- but I guess things went okay. And then at 7pm I had the student who just got transferred to me but who I have known since my first day at GEOS (she's like 15 years old, she was Sprint 4 back then, then went to Sprint 5, now I am doing Sprint 6 with her). And at 8pm my class was good too -- one guy brought in some weird cherry soda because he has been lamenting the lack of Cherry Coke in Japan. Go figure.
Only catch is, I had a headache all night. I wonder if I had vague heatstroke. I drank two bottles of water and a bottle of Gatorade during the game, but still. I think sunburn makes me feel sick in general.
When I came home I took some tylenol, and I did some laundry. I was early enough to go throw all of my pairs of jeans into one of the big machines at the coin laundry, basically. And then I spent 400 yen for 20 minutes sitting in the big new massage chair at the laundromat. That chair rules, though my right shoulder still feels weird. Oh well. It's been weird for like a week now, and this morning I rolled my left ankle so I'm just one big pile of injury or something.
The midnight dorama on channel 12 just started a new season tonight. This one is called Walking Butterfly and it's about a girl who is 180cm tall (almost 6') who acts like a boy, plays basketball, and likes to beat people up... and through a bizarre set of circumstances, decides she wants to be a model. It is DEFINITELY a midnight dorama and very cheesy, but I think I will enjoy it kinda like I enjoyed Guren Onna (but skipped the one inbetween because it was all about some slutty secretary, which just didn't seem interesting or funny to me).