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more Osaka...
after writing that entry yesterday, I wandered around umeda as planned.
had dinner at a place called Hirokazuya, which is a little okonomiyaki joint in the middle of the red light district of Umeda. It also is around the corner from the hotel I stayed at last time I was in Osaka, two years ago, and it was really good when I went there that time, so I managed to find my way back. YUM.
after that, I went through some arcades in Umeda, and ended up at the Hep Five Navio building, which is notable because it has a gigantic ferris wheel sticking out of it. last time we were there i wanted to ride it but didn't get around to it, so this time, despite there being a LIGHTNING STORM going on, I rode the ferris wheel. It was raining so hard that one of the guys operating it came in like "uhh... maybe we should shut the thing off, huh?" but then let more people on anyway, so... it's very interesting to be at the top of a ferris wheel in the middle of a storm. Really.
I came back to the hotel and slept for like 11 hours after that. I was just so tired.
By the way, there is a Kura Sushi in the first floor of my hotel. No joke. So I had lunch there today. They have a lot less selection than the one in Saitama that I go to regularly, although they had some different stuff too, so that was nice.
Today I went out to Kobe for the afternoon. Wait, first I found the Mint sports card store in Umeda. But they had only 3 bikkuriman stickers and no appreciably interesting Tigers goods or whatever, so oh well. Some 1973 calbee cards were fun to look through I guess. I also stopped by the Tigers store in the Hanshin department store so I could get some omiyage for people. Then I went to Kobe, to Sogoundokoen Station, which is where Skymark Stadium is. I thought I'd get to sneak in, maybe, but it turns out there was a KANSAI BIG 6 college league game going on. Oops. I approached some of the supposedly college guys hanging out outside the gate to ask about the game, and I would ask my questions in Japanese and they would answer in retarded broken English and giggle like idiots about it. I seriously thought about just telling them to knock it the fuck off, in Japanese, but figured that would just make it worse. As it is, they informed me that it was a "berry bootifur stajium" and that it was "twelbu hundred en" to see a game there, and I didn't feel like spending that much money just to walk around inside for like 10 minutes. I walked around the outside of the stadium and took some photos anyway. Here's my favorite, by the Orix Blue Wave Wall Of Fame:
I stopped in the information booth for the Sports Complex after that and talked to an older lady who used to work as part of the Seattle-Kobe Sister City organization. No joke. She was really nice and talked to me in Japanese, and was more like "you came here from SAITAMA?? are you nuts??" rather than "you came here from AMERICA??"
then, I went to Koshien to cheer against the Hanshin Tigers. And all I have to say is, I really don't like Koshien. I didn't like it when I went there two years ago and I still don't like it now. Everything about it as a stadium sucks ass. The food is AWFUL. AWFUL. The layout is AWFUL and you are really separated from the players no matter where you are, but especially the outfield. The place I ended up sitting, you couldn't even see the scoreboard because there was a gigantic light-structure in the way... and yet the area was really DARK and hard to see for writing my scorecard. The seats are cramped and small, you have to climb a billion stairs to get anywhere, and the bathrooms are absolutely disgusting (and no western toilets but that's not REALLY a valid complaint I suppose). I realize Tigers fans love it for the atmosphere, but since Tigers fans kind of bug me, the atmosphere also isn't that great to me. the only kinda cool things to me are 1) watching the entire stadium do Kanemoto's song 2) and the entire stadium doing the Wasshoi chance music and 3) Kyuji Fujikawa entering the stadium to that Lindberg song. That's really it. Just the fact that I was sitting in Visitor's Cheering Seats and there were Hanshin fans sitting in the THIRD ROW of that section, that's annoying. although with only a few exceptions, including one dude who got carried off by the cops, the Hanshin fans were relatively courteous about those damn AWAY fans.
At least Takuro Ishii was in the starting lineup, but he went 0-for-3 :(
one funny part: in the 6th inning or so, the scoreboard shows away scores. They show the Giants are beating the Crap out of the Carp. The Hanshin fans are all like "OH FUCK"!
...then they show that Ramirez hit HR #41, tying him with Yokohama's Murata. All of us Baystars fans were like "OH FUCK!"
So for a brief minute or two we're all together as one, like "FUCK THE GIANTS FUCK FUCK FUCK"
and then we went back to being like "ok, you guys suck, I hope you lose"
The Baystars DID lose, though at least it was only 3-2, not getting totally killed. That aforementioned Fujikawa had a 2-inning save. And stuff. Yoshimura hit a 2-run homer and that was the only runs for the Baystars... shame it wasn't Murata though :(
Getting home sucked, but now I'm back at the hotel. I apparently missed Kuwata on SMAPxSMAP mostly, and then Ainori had some actual plot so that was good. But the custard taiyaki I bought on my way into Koshien station was cold by the time I got home to eat it so that was bad.
In case you are counting, which you aren't, today I completed my tour of all the stadiums in Japan in 2008 alone. I completed going to all of them at some point in my life two months ago when I went to Kyushu, since I only had two left when I moved to Japan, but now I've been to them all this year, including Skymark technically. Whee. Also I saw the Fighters in every PL stadium and the Baystars in every CL stadium. Funny how that worked out.
Tomorrow Osaka Dome (IT'S SHUNSUKE DAY!!!), then I go home to Tokyo. Whee.
had dinner at a place called Hirokazuya, which is a little okonomiyaki joint in the middle of the red light district of Umeda. It also is around the corner from the hotel I stayed at last time I was in Osaka, two years ago, and it was really good when I went there that time, so I managed to find my way back. YUM.
after that, I went through some arcades in Umeda, and ended up at the Hep Five Navio building, which is notable because it has a gigantic ferris wheel sticking out of it. last time we were there i wanted to ride it but didn't get around to it, so this time, despite there being a LIGHTNING STORM going on, I rode the ferris wheel. It was raining so hard that one of the guys operating it came in like "uhh... maybe we should shut the thing off, huh?" but then let more people on anyway, so... it's very interesting to be at the top of a ferris wheel in the middle of a storm. Really.
I came back to the hotel and slept for like 11 hours after that. I was just so tired.
By the way, there is a Kura Sushi in the first floor of my hotel. No joke. So I had lunch there today. They have a lot less selection than the one in Saitama that I go to regularly, although they had some different stuff too, so that was nice.
Today I went out to Kobe for the afternoon. Wait, first I found the Mint sports card store in Umeda. But they had only 3 bikkuriman stickers and no appreciably interesting Tigers goods or whatever, so oh well. Some 1973 calbee cards were fun to look through I guess. I also stopped by the Tigers store in the Hanshin department store so I could get some omiyage for people. Then I went to Kobe, to Sogoundokoen Station, which is where Skymark Stadium is. I thought I'd get to sneak in, maybe, but it turns out there was a KANSAI BIG 6 college league game going on. Oops. I approached some of the supposedly college guys hanging out outside the gate to ask about the game, and I would ask my questions in Japanese and they would answer in retarded broken English and giggle like idiots about it. I seriously thought about just telling them to knock it the fuck off, in Japanese, but figured that would just make it worse. As it is, they informed me that it was a "berry bootifur stajium" and that it was "twelbu hundred en" to see a game there, and I didn't feel like spending that much money just to walk around inside for like 10 minutes. I walked around the outside of the stadium and took some photos anyway. Here's my favorite, by the Orix Blue Wave Wall Of Fame:
I stopped in the information booth for the Sports Complex after that and talked to an older lady who used to work as part of the Seattle-Kobe Sister City organization. No joke. She was really nice and talked to me in Japanese, and was more like "you came here from SAITAMA?? are you nuts??" rather than "you came here from AMERICA??"
then, I went to Koshien to cheer against the Hanshin Tigers. And all I have to say is, I really don't like Koshien. I didn't like it when I went there two years ago and I still don't like it now. Everything about it as a stadium sucks ass. The food is AWFUL. AWFUL. The layout is AWFUL and you are really separated from the players no matter where you are, but especially the outfield. The place I ended up sitting, you couldn't even see the scoreboard because there was a gigantic light-structure in the way... and yet the area was really DARK and hard to see for writing my scorecard. The seats are cramped and small, you have to climb a billion stairs to get anywhere, and the bathrooms are absolutely disgusting (and no western toilets but that's not REALLY a valid complaint I suppose). I realize Tigers fans love it for the atmosphere, but since Tigers fans kind of bug me, the atmosphere also isn't that great to me. the only kinda cool things to me are 1) watching the entire stadium do Kanemoto's song 2) and the entire stadium doing the Wasshoi chance music and 3) Kyuji Fujikawa entering the stadium to that Lindberg song. That's really it. Just the fact that I was sitting in Visitor's Cheering Seats and there were Hanshin fans sitting in the THIRD ROW of that section, that's annoying. although with only a few exceptions, including one dude who got carried off by the cops, the Hanshin fans were relatively courteous about those damn AWAY fans.
At least Takuro Ishii was in the starting lineup, but he went 0-for-3 :(
one funny part: in the 6th inning or so, the scoreboard shows away scores. They show the Giants are beating the Crap out of the Carp. The Hanshin fans are all like "OH FUCK"!
...then they show that Ramirez hit HR #41, tying him with Yokohama's Murata. All of us Baystars fans were like "OH FUCK!"
So for a brief minute or two we're all together as one, like "FUCK THE GIANTS FUCK FUCK FUCK"
and then we went back to being like "ok, you guys suck, I hope you lose"
The Baystars DID lose, though at least it was only 3-2, not getting totally killed. That aforementioned Fujikawa had a 2-inning save. And stuff. Yoshimura hit a 2-run homer and that was the only runs for the Baystars... shame it wasn't Murata though :(
Getting home sucked, but now I'm back at the hotel. I apparently missed Kuwata on SMAPxSMAP mostly, and then Ainori had some actual plot so that was good. But the custard taiyaki I bought on my way into Koshien station was cold by the time I got home to eat it so that was bad.
In case you are counting, which you aren't, today I completed my tour of all the stadiums in Japan in 2008 alone. I completed going to all of them at some point in my life two months ago when I went to Kyushu, since I only had two left when I moved to Japan, but now I've been to them all this year, including Skymark technically. Whee. Also I saw the Fighters in every PL stadium and the Baystars in every CL stadium. Funny how that worked out.
Tomorrow Osaka Dome (IT'S SHUNSUKE DAY!!!), then I go home to Tokyo. Whee.
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EVERYBODY SAY! (SE-KI-MO-TO!) EVERYBODY SAY! (SE-KI-MO-TO!) (Although he started the game you went to. He was just a 9th-inning pinch hitter at the game I went to.)
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