第79回都市対抗本大会!

[dr4b]

Today I went to the country-wide industrial league baseball tournament! Well, it runs all week, so really I went to one game, specifically ENEOS vs. JR Shikoku. ENEOS pretty much is one of the biggest teams in this tournament in terms of winning a whole lot, and JR Shikoku is kinda one of the hick teams from the west, essentially. So it should be no surprise that ENEOS won and infact murderized the Shikoku team... well, not really, just like 5-1. But ENEOS's starter Tazawa was perfect through 5 innings and basically, once I decided to wander over to the ENEOS side to take pictures, he gave up his first hit of the game, which was also a home run. Haha.

I went to this game with Simon (baseball friend) and his friend Chris. We got balcony seats for 1500 yen each and it was in the SUPER NICE balcony part of Tokyo Dome with comfy chairs and all. I wanna go back just to sit in the nice seats again :) If JFE Higashinihon makes it to the semifinals I will definitely have to come back for that and see my pet catcher Okazaki.

The best part of the game was probably the marching bands each team had. Well, they didn't march, they just sat in the stands and played music and there were cheerleaders and all. I took a few videos.

This one is for dvarin. It's the JR Shikoku marching band playing a particular J-Pop song I hope he recognizes...

And this is the ENEOS marching band just playing a generic cheer song, complete with crazy ouendan and all. Takamatsu taose!

The industrial tournaments are interesting. Most big companies in Japan have several sports teams that actually compete with each other, and lots of employees have to come to the big matches (so the Dome was filled with ENEOS employees tonight). I'm not entirely sure how the players and the cheerleaders and the band factor into the company... I believe everyone works normal 9-5 jobs and then does the sporting stuff on the side, but who knows.

Anyway, now I'm at home. Watching TV. First was SMAPxSMAP.. They had the Japan softball women's team on it first and that was awesome... then they had Will Smith and Charlize Theron and that was not. Charlize Theron's a royal bitch on the show, wtf, is she really like that?
Whatever. The softball part was great. As part of the Bistro SMAP they made a dessert that was a model of that bizarre stadium in China and inside they made message cookies for each player ("413 pitches", "great home run", etc). That was cute. Stupid was afterwards when each of the softball players got kissed on the cheek by SMAP members. I'm thinking, "I bet those girls are really happy to be getting kissed by such popular stars, when in reality, the SMAP guys should be honored to get to kiss the Olympic gold medalists!"

Then Ainori, where we got two new members, Umeo and Goya. We'll see what happens but I can't help but wonder whether having all of these total wackos on the show (Goya, Shrek, Yamaji) is good or bad.

Also, it seems that the reason Yasuo Fukuda's face is all over the news is that he resigned as Japan's prime minister tonight. Whoops.

SMAP are having a concert series in the Tokyo Dome at the end of September!!! I wonder if I can get tickets? And if I can convince anyone to go with me even if I do? Maybe I'll just get one ticket and bring a book or something.

Comments

[kawaru.livejournal.com]

Would have liked to see Will Smith on Japanese TV. Oh well.

A friend studying in Aomori took a pic of the TV screen and mailed it to me last night saying "this thing's on every channel, can you read it? What's going on?" And I said, oh another one bites the dust. They've had over 90 prime ministers in like 120 years. That's kind of a broken government right there. Or they're just making sure everyone gets a turn. "But it's Shinichi's turn to be PM this month!"

I'll go to SMAP if you come down here in two and a half weeks for Bonnie Pink!

[dr4b]

I like Bonnie Pink but I basically know like... 3 songs by her. When is it?

Also SMAP is coming to the Nagoya Dome but in November and on a weeknight. Boo.

[kawaru.livejournal.com]

I think it's the 18th or so. Which would be a weeknight. ;_;

[teravell.livejournal.com]

I'll go see SMAP! =D

[dr4b]

Really? They do have shows on Sunday and Monday up here. I was kinda thinking to try for Monday because it's less likely to sell out. I don't know when ticket go on sale though (one site seemed to indicate 9/14).

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Of course. That's one of the ones I actually like off your car music CD. :P

[dr4b]

When they started playing it I thought of you and was like "OMG MUST RECORD AND YOUTUBE THIS FOR CARL"

Just because I mean, how often do we get to hear marching bands playing Jpop? :)