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weekend
MASA 200!!!!
Jeff and Anthony and I, the resident Dragonbutts, had a bet going. I said that Dragons pitcher Masa Yamamoto was gonna get 200 wins by his 43rd birthday on Aug 11. Jeff said he'd do it in September. Anthony said he'd finish the year stuck at 198 or 199.
I win. And so does Masa. 200 times, infact. <34 <34 <34
Okay, so that aside..
Sunday afternoon I slept in, and took a train up to Sendai in the early-mid afternoon. There were some train delays going to Omiya but I still got on a 14:06 shinkansen, which got me to Sendai at 15:33. I found the bus terminal and bought a ticket for a nighter bus back to Tokyo, BUT sadly the one that costs 3500 yen can only be bought online or something like that, so I ended up on a JR bus that cost 6100. Oops.
Went to Kleenex Stadium Miyagi -- yes, that is really the name of the Stadium Formerly Known as Fullcast -- and walked around a bit, then went in. It was only 4:15 for a 6pm game, so I went out to the outfield and stood by the fence with some other Fighters fans who were hoping for autographs. Me, I was not hoping for autographs, I was hoping to annoy Fighters pitcher Brian Sweeney again.
And sure enough, he came out and we chatted for a while! He's a funny guy. He totally recognized me and said hi, and was impressed that I was still stalking the team up to Sendai and all. He signed stuff for some people and asked me if I was really fluent in Japanese, and I said "not really, but I have decent listening, and by the way, everyone is saying what a totally nice guy you are for signing." He said he's studying Japanese, "but it's muzukashii". Hehe.
(A Japanese guy offered me an autograph board to get signed but I just got my ticket signed, which I even told Brian -- "they all think I'm a crazy American because I'd rather get my ticket signed than a board.")
So, that was funny. And everyone around me was, as usual, totally surprised. Ryan Glynn and his son were out on the field too but I didn't try to talk to them. Dunno why, I'm a little afraid of Ryan. I'll work on that.
I was sitting in reserved outfield seating BUT in Sendai there are no trumpets, and the reserved seats had a lot of Eagles fans, so after doing the lineup and I could barely hear anyone I said screw it and went up to find a seat back in unreserved. And well, as I was looking for a seat, I see this old guy waving at me and he's like "HEY! IT'S THE TOKYO DOME AND KAMAGAYA CRAZY GAIJIN GIRL!" And I'm like "HEY! IT'S THE TOKYO DOME AND KAMAGAYA OLD MAN!" Hehe, so he invited me to come sit with this big group of Fighters fans, the Sendai gang called "Michinoku Fighters". Michinoku is apparently an alternate name for the Tohoku region, so I learned something new. Anyway, these guys were crazy but very cool, and Kamagaya Ojisan is REALLY the nickname for the old man (I sent Hiromi an email like "Dude, I found Tada-san" and she's like "oh, we just all call him the Kamagaya Ojisan, you should too"). He even told me that he has his own Fighters blog on Ameblo called 鎌ヶ谷おじさん. Go figure. I think I accidentally called him Oyaji-san though, I hope that wasn't too big a mistake on my part :(
So, I yelled a lot with everyone for 3-4 hours and the Fighters lost anyway. That was sad. I had a good time, but it's a shame, especially Tadano losing. I also didn't keep a scorecard for a change. And, I was sitting right up front with the ouendan so I learned a bunch of new songs; notably, they always yell "ナイスバッティング！ ナイスバッティング！ もう一つおまけに ナイスバッティング！" after all hits and before the other appropriate songs, and they also had this really funny song to the tune of Ten Little Indians, only it went, in Japanese, "First guy, second guy, third guy, strikeout, fourth guy fifth guy sixth guy, strikeout" etc, ending in "ganbare [pitcher], ganbare [catcher]"
After the game I ended up going to an izakaya with Kamagaya Ojisan and a whole bunch of other people and I posted that photo in the last entry. That was pretty crazy. Then I got on a bus and tried to sleep, but I kept waking up anyway.
I got home around 6:30am, and went to sleep until around 12pm. I had considered going to Yomiuri Land to watch the Olympic baseball team's practice, but decided that'd be too strange, plus I should do laundry. So, I laundered. It was SO HOT OUTSIDE anyway, I am glad I didn't go to Koshien this weekend, I did watch some games on TV. Also picked up baseball tickets for 9/21 and 9/22 in Osaka! So I will have gone to all 12 stadiums just this year alone! Whee! Oddly I will have also seen the Fighters in every PL stadium and the Baystars in every CL stadium.
So speaking of the Baystars, I went to Yokohama tonight to cheer for them against the Hanshin Tigers. Daisuke Miura was starting! Hama no Bancho! Yay! It got off to a rocky start, 3-0 down in the first inning, but fortunately Satoru Kanemura was pitching for Hanshin and he had his traditional 5th inning meltdown and so the Baystars ultimately won 6-3. Hahahaha it's so nice being on the OTHER side of a Kanemura 4.2-inning meltdown for once, after all those years with the Fighters. Takuro Ishii hit a home run and I was in my total Ishii Fan Mode so that was pretty awesome. We sang happy birthday to Uchikawa, too.
The dumbshit thing, on my part at least, is that, well, on my left was a mother and son, and on my right was another guy who had come there alone. And he was really nice and we cheered together and even did the alternating yells and stuff, which was AWESOME, I never have anyone to do that with. AND he looked at my scorecard and was telling me about how awful the 19-2 blowout was on Sunday, and so forth. And so why the hell I was too shy to actually say anything like "hi, my name is Deanna" and asked for an email address or whatnot... I don't know. I feel stupid now, I really should have introduced myself or found out his name at least so if I saw him again I could say hi.
Oh yeah, and the kid sitting to my left was adorable. He told me that I write kanji better than he does. And he wanted to be on the big screen so I let him wave my Takuro Ishii towel with me and we were both yelling "TAKUROOOOO!!!" but to no avail.
I bought a Yoshimura towel at the Baystars store after the game, and also got 3 more pinbadges. Funny, I got one I already had, so I gave it to a random guy who had just bought one too. He offered me Koike, but I already have that one too. Another lady offered me Yokoyama since she hates him, but I had JUST gotten it. I was like "Anyone have Takuro?" and they're all like "No. We want him too!" I did get Kimiyasu Kudoh, though, that was kinda cool.
Loooong train ride home. Found out about Masa's win. Watched Ainori when I got home. The new chick is Yamaji, a crazy girl from Aichi prefecture. She seems kinda messed up. Maybe she is supposed to be there for Shrek? I dunno. Also wonder when there will be a new guy.
Sigh, I hate when weekends end :(
Also, I have now REALLY been in Japan for a year, I arrived here last year August 4th.
Which reminds me that I need to go to the shiyakusho and get my gaijin card modified. I hope it's not too late.
Jeff and Anthony and I, the resident Dragonbutts, had a bet going. I said that Dragons pitcher Masa Yamamoto was gonna get 200 wins by his 43rd birthday on Aug 11. Jeff said he'd do it in September. Anthony said he'd finish the year stuck at 198 or 199.
I win. And so does Masa. 200 times, infact. <34 <34 <34
Okay, so that aside..
Sunday afternoon I slept in, and took a train up to Sendai in the early-mid afternoon. There were some train delays going to Omiya but I still got on a 14:06 shinkansen, which got me to Sendai at 15:33. I found the bus terminal and bought a ticket for a nighter bus back to Tokyo, BUT sadly the one that costs 3500 yen can only be bought online or something like that, so I ended up on a JR bus that cost 6100. Oops.
Went to Kleenex Stadium Miyagi -- yes, that is really the name of the Stadium Formerly Known as Fullcast -- and walked around a bit, then went in. It was only 4:15 for a 6pm game, so I went out to the outfield and stood by the fence with some other Fighters fans who were hoping for autographs. Me, I was not hoping for autographs, I was hoping to annoy Fighters pitcher Brian Sweeney again.
And sure enough, he came out and we chatted for a while! He's a funny guy. He totally recognized me and said hi, and was impressed that I was still stalking the team up to Sendai and all. He signed stuff for some people and asked me if I was really fluent in Japanese, and I said "not really, but I have decent listening, and by the way, everyone is saying what a totally nice guy you are for signing." He said he's studying Japanese, "but it's muzukashii". Hehe.
(A Japanese guy offered me an autograph board to get signed but I just got my ticket signed, which I even told Brian -- "they all think I'm a crazy American because I'd rather get my ticket signed than a board.")
So, that was funny. And everyone around me was, as usual, totally surprised. Ryan Glynn and his son were out on the field too but I didn't try to talk to them. Dunno why, I'm a little afraid of Ryan. I'll work on that.
I was sitting in reserved outfield seating BUT in Sendai there are no trumpets, and the reserved seats had a lot of Eagles fans, so after doing the lineup and I could barely hear anyone I said screw it and went up to find a seat back in unreserved. And well, as I was looking for a seat, I see this old guy waving at me and he's like "HEY! IT'S THE TOKYO DOME AND KAMAGAYA CRAZY GAIJIN GIRL!" And I'm like "HEY! IT'S THE TOKYO DOME AND KAMAGAYA OLD MAN!" Hehe, so he invited me to come sit with this big group of Fighters fans, the Sendai gang called "Michinoku Fighters". Michinoku is apparently an alternate name for the Tohoku region, so I learned something new. Anyway, these guys were crazy but very cool, and Kamagaya Ojisan is REALLY the nickname for the old man (I sent Hiromi an email like "Dude, I found Tada-san" and she's like "oh, we just all call him the Kamagaya Ojisan, you should too"). He even told me that he has his own Fighters blog on Ameblo called 鎌ヶ谷おじさん. Go figure. I think I accidentally called him Oyaji-san though, I hope that wasn't too big a mistake on my part :(
So, I yelled a lot with everyone for 3-4 hours and the Fighters lost anyway. That was sad. I had a good time, but it's a shame, especially Tadano losing. I also didn't keep a scorecard for a change. And, I was sitting right up front with the ouendan so I learned a bunch of new songs; notably, they always yell "ナイスバッティング！ ナイスバッティング！ もう一つおまけに ナイスバッティング！" after all hits and before the other appropriate songs, and they also had this really funny song to the tune of Ten Little Indians, only it went, in Japanese, "First guy, second guy, third guy, strikeout, fourth guy fifth guy sixth guy, strikeout" etc, ending in "ganbare [pitcher], ganbare [catcher]"
After the game I ended up going to an izakaya with Kamagaya Ojisan and a whole bunch of other people and I posted that photo in the last entry. That was pretty crazy. Then I got on a bus and tried to sleep, but I kept waking up anyway.
I got home around 6:30am, and went to sleep until around 12pm. I had considered going to Yomiuri Land to watch the Olympic baseball team's practice, but decided that'd be too strange, plus I should do laundry. So, I laundered. It was SO HOT OUTSIDE anyway, I am glad I didn't go to Koshien this weekend, I did watch some games on TV. Also picked up baseball tickets for 9/21 and 9/22 in Osaka! So I will have gone to all 12 stadiums just this year alone! Whee! Oddly I will have also seen the Fighters in every PL stadium and the Baystars in every CL stadium.
So speaking of the Baystars, I went to Yokohama tonight to cheer for them against the Hanshin Tigers. Daisuke Miura was starting! Hama no Bancho! Yay! It got off to a rocky start, 3-0 down in the first inning, but fortunately Satoru Kanemura was pitching for Hanshin and he had his traditional 5th inning meltdown and so the Baystars ultimately won 6-3. Hahahaha it's so nice being on the OTHER side of a Kanemura 4.2-inning meltdown for once, after all those years with the Fighters. Takuro Ishii hit a home run and I was in my total Ishii Fan Mode so that was pretty awesome. We sang happy birthday to Uchikawa, too.
The dumbshit thing, on my part at least, is that, well, on my left was a mother and son, and on my right was another guy who had come there alone. And he was really nice and we cheered together and even did the alternating yells and stuff, which was AWESOME, I never have anyone to do that with. AND he looked at my scorecard and was telling me about how awful the 19-2 blowout was on Sunday, and so forth. And so why the hell I was too shy to actually say anything like "hi, my name is Deanna" and asked for an email address or whatnot... I don't know. I feel stupid now, I really should have introduced myself or found out his name at least so if I saw him again I could say hi.
Oh yeah, and the kid sitting to my left was adorable. He told me that I write kanji better than he does. And he wanted to be on the big screen so I let him wave my Takuro Ishii towel with me and we were both yelling "TAKUROOOOO!!!" but to no avail.
I bought a Yoshimura towel at the Baystars store after the game, and also got 3 more pinbadges. Funny, I got one I already had, so I gave it to a random guy who had just bought one too. He offered me Koike, but I already have that one too. Another lady offered me Yokoyama since she hates him, but I had JUST gotten it. I was like "Anyone have Takuro?" and they're all like "No. We want him too!" I did get Kimiyasu Kudoh, though, that was kinda cool.
Loooong train ride home. Found out about Masa's win. Watched Ainori when I got home. The new chick is Yamaji, a crazy girl from Aichi prefecture. She seems kinda messed up. Maybe she is supposed to be there for Shrek? I dunno. Also wonder when there will be a new guy.
Sigh, I hate when weekends end :(
Also, I have now REALLY been in Japan for a year, I arrived here last year August 4th.
Which reminds me that I need to go to the shiyakusho and get my gaijin card modified. I hope it's not too late.
no subject
That's Doala, the koala primary mascot of the Chuunichi Dragons, the team in Nagoya. IIRC, they also have two secondary mascots, who are actually dragons.
Gratuitous Wikipedia Link!
Heh, it occurs to me that you'd be able to read the Japanese page also.
no subject
no subject
Doala is the most awesome mascot in Japan. I am almost a bigger fan of the mascot than I am of the team these days to be honest.
I didn't have a Masa Yamamoto icon, so Doala was the closest thing at hand.