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today, in brief
(which naturally is longer than most people's normal entries still, but it was a LONG exciting day.)
i got like 2 hours of sleep, then woke up and went to the airport.
got on a plane, slept through the whole flight. saw MANY lotte fans on my flight and the one after, oddly enough.
took the subway to Tojinmachi station. then took a taxi to the hotel because goddamn it was HOT out and my bags were heavy and i didn't feel like walking 20 minutes through Hawks fans and such to get there.
BUT I couldn't check in until 2pm, and I got there like 12pm. So I left my bags there and wandered Hawks town and around the Dome. Saw MAB-san the Lotte ouendan leader but he didn't notice me wave. In Hawks Town I got omurice lunch and played some ufo catchers, and yes, I got a Stitch, of course.
Checked in, and then pretty much headed out to Hiroshima. It took 20 minutes to walk to the damn subway station though, and then I had a mistake with the shinkansen tickets, but that's ok. I got to Hiroshima around 4:40pm, and got to the stadium at 5:15pm, got an outfield unreserved ticket, went in, shuffled seats a few times before I found one sufficiently close to the ouendan and that i could actually SEE through the foul pole. the people around me were ok but not particularly friendly, there was one gang of guys from shimonoseki even. yikes. nobody really talked to me, I just stood and yelled and sang all night.
i saw Uchiyama, the sign guy. he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him I'm sure. I corrected his English on one of his signs (he wrote STYL instead of STYLE). still not sure if he's annoyed at me for that or not, he called me "sensei" for the rest of the evening every time he saw me.
Oh yeah, and the Baystars lost. There was no Takuro. I guess that's still my excuse. Dammit. Alex Ochoa hit a 2-run walkoff homer for the Carp to win 4-2.
On the way back to the station I met a guy from Seattle. Seriously. An american dude who is studying in Kyoto, and his Carp fan friend. Seattle dude, whose name I never caught, was wearing a Johjima shirt under a borrowed Carp jersey. They thought I was nuts when I said I was from Saitama, staying in Fukuoka, and took the train to Hiroshima just for the game. The truth is I would have liked to come earlier, and hung out in the city more, but timing didn't work out. I ended up walking all the way from the stadium to the station, which is a bit over a mile. It took lke 20-25 minutes and pretty much was straight across downtown.
Yeah, so the stupid part is, I dropped $200 to go see a baseball game tonight, mostly on the shinkansen price.
The good part is, I got to see a game in Hiroshima stadium one last time -- next year they will have a new ballpark so this is the goodbye season. It was fairly full, too. The stadium kinda sucks but I think people will miss it. Carp fans are really like Tigers fans, only there are less of them and they are all the way the fuck out in Hiroshima, basically.
Also good part is, now I have actually been on every part of the Tokaido/Sanyo shinkansen. Seriously. I'd gone from Tokyo to Hiroshima in the past, and now I did Hakata to Hiroshima. Yeah, I'm a big fucking train dork. Did I also mention I got to ride the N700 on the way to Hiroshima? That is an AWESOME train. And so new and clean and fresh, too.
Funny part -- I bought some Hakata torimon omiyage on my way out of the city. I figured if I sat with nice people in the stands in Hiroshima I would have something to share with them. Well, since I didn't, I ate half of the snacks on the train back because I was ravenously hungry and thirsty. It was seriously 90+ degrees out all evening during the game. And then even coming back to Fukuoka it was still 90+ degrees at midnight. And this area is a ghost town after midnight, seriously.
anyway I am in Fukuoka, and I am TIRED, and this hotel room has a BED, and I am not sleeping on the FLOOR, so I should go try to get some rest. I feel very incoherent as is.
i got like 2 hours of sleep, then woke up and went to the airport.
got on a plane, slept through the whole flight. saw MANY lotte fans on my flight and the one after, oddly enough.
took the subway to Tojinmachi station. then took a taxi to the hotel because goddamn it was HOT out and my bags were heavy and i didn't feel like walking 20 minutes through Hawks fans and such to get there.
BUT I couldn't check in until 2pm, and I got there like 12pm. So I left my bags there and wandered Hawks town and around the Dome. Saw MAB-san the Lotte ouendan leader but he didn't notice me wave. In Hawks Town I got omurice lunch and played some ufo catchers, and yes, I got a Stitch, of course.
Checked in, and then pretty much headed out to Hiroshima. It took 20 minutes to walk to the damn subway station though, and then I had a mistake with the shinkansen tickets, but that's ok. I got to Hiroshima around 4:40pm, and got to the stadium at 5:15pm, got an outfield unreserved ticket, went in, shuffled seats a few times before I found one sufficiently close to the ouendan and that i could actually SEE through the foul pole. the people around me were ok but not particularly friendly, there was one gang of guys from shimonoseki even. yikes. nobody really talked to me, I just stood and yelled and sang all night.
i saw Uchiyama, the sign guy. he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him I'm sure. I corrected his English on one of his signs (he wrote STYL instead of STYLE). still not sure if he's annoyed at me for that or not, he called me "sensei" for the rest of the evening every time he saw me.
Oh yeah, and the Baystars lost. There was no Takuro. I guess that's still my excuse. Dammit. Alex Ochoa hit a 2-run walkoff homer for the Carp to win 4-2.
On the way back to the station I met a guy from Seattle. Seriously. An american dude who is studying in Kyoto, and his Carp fan friend. Seattle dude, whose name I never caught, was wearing a Johjima shirt under a borrowed Carp jersey. They thought I was nuts when I said I was from Saitama, staying in Fukuoka, and took the train to Hiroshima just for the game. The truth is I would have liked to come earlier, and hung out in the city more, but timing didn't work out. I ended up walking all the way from the stadium to the station, which is a bit over a mile. It took lke 20-25 minutes and pretty much was straight across downtown.
Yeah, so the stupid part is, I dropped $200 to go see a baseball game tonight, mostly on the shinkansen price.
The good part is, I got to see a game in Hiroshima stadium one last time -- next year they will have a new ballpark so this is the goodbye season. It was fairly full, too. The stadium kinda sucks but I think people will miss it. Carp fans are really like Tigers fans, only there are less of them and they are all the way the fuck out in Hiroshima, basically.
Also good part is, now I have actually been on every part of the Tokaido/Sanyo shinkansen. Seriously. I'd gone from Tokyo to Hiroshima in the past, and now I did Hakata to Hiroshima. Yeah, I'm a big fucking train dork. Did I also mention I got to ride the N700 on the way to Hiroshima? That is an AWESOME train. And so new and clean and fresh, too.
Funny part -- I bought some Hakata torimon omiyage on my way out of the city. I figured if I sat with nice people in the stands in Hiroshima I would have something to share with them. Well, since I didn't, I ate half of the snacks on the train back because I was ravenously hungry and thirsty. It was seriously 90+ degrees out all evening during the game. And then even coming back to Fukuoka it was still 90+ degrees at midnight. And this area is a ghost town after midnight, seriously.
anyway I am in Fukuoka, and I am TIRED, and this hotel room has a BED, and I am not sleeping on the FLOOR, so I should go try to get some rest. I feel very incoherent as is.
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