![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chiba fighters weekend, part 2
Wheeee, sitting here munching on Hokkaido omiyage from people, mostly potato sticks and milk cookies and such. Yum.
Saturday in the LF stands at Chiba is a lot like a family reunion in some ways, because everyone comes from all over Japan and comes early and stays late. Seriously. I saw friends from Sapporo and Asahikawa, and from Kobe, and from Sendai, and from Nagoya... really, compared to some of these people, I barely make any roadtrips to see the Fighters in that I only do 4-5 a year instead of the every-weekend deal that people like Mineji do. Oh, and of course I also saw friends from all over the Kanto area as well. I even saw my "little brother" from the Tokyo Dome, and gave him some Hiroshima Carp cookies omiyage.
Before the game I chatted with Brian Sweeney, who is pitching tomorrow. Or more like, I interpreted for Akki, who's always like "I'm Sweeney's biggest fan but I can't speak English!" Akki told me to tell him all kinds of things, like he gave him omiyage from Hiroshima, and apparently Akki met Brian's family in the IF stands and gave them omiyage too, and he said to tell Brian to be the game hero in the Tokyo Dome series in August and throw us baseballs in the outfield stands. Like I said, crazy stuff. Brian actually knows who Akki is though, he was like "ask him why he's not wearing glasses today?" Heh.
And yeah, I gave people Carp omiyage, so they mostly gave me Hokkaido omiyage, except the dude from Kobe who gave me these AWESOME coffee cream daifuku. Seriously, stuff to die for. He told me that one of the players loves that stuff too, but I forget who.
I saw my friend K and asked if he was at Jingu for the Marines game a week or two ago. At first he didn't understand what I was asking, then once he did he was like "...oh... umm... yes I was, how did you know that?" and I told him I was also in the Marines cheering section with some Marines fan friends. He seemed really surprised/embarrassed but I was like "don't worry, it's our secret."
Anyway, there was a game, we yelled a lot, and the Fighters won, but it turned out to be closer than it should have at 5-4. Lots of home runs and stuff for a change, including back-to-back homers by Itoi and Nioka. Whoosh.
I ended up riding the train halfway home with Sakamoto because I hadn't seen him in a while and he seemed to want to hang out for a bit -- said he isn't sure when his next Fighters game will be. We looked at the Hiroshima photos I had on my small camera, since he'd actually seen the stadium under construction but hasn't been there yet for real.
Seriously, good times. I swear to god this kind of stuff simply doesn't happen in the US.
I've lost count, too, but I think today's game was around my 55th or 60th game this year. I finished off my Fighters first scorecard book, which means I've kept score at 50 games total (I had to start another non-Fighters book too) plus alpha. Yikes. Either way, I am well on target for going to over 100 baseball games this year, and will probably finish with a number ridiculously higher than that.
Oh, and that stray cat living outside my house? Had kittens. They are also living in the front space between my side door and the laundry room. I tried closing the laundry room door, not sure if it'll stay closed though -- the cats got ahold of my outdoor slippers and have been playing with them, though I really kind of needed new slippers anyway since these were already falling apart. The downside to having a stray cat and her kittens living here, though, is that I hear meowing a lot and if I open the side door, the cat gets PISSED at me and just starts hissing and growling until I close the door. This may be a problem next time I try to do laundry. We'll see.
Saturday in the LF stands at Chiba is a lot like a family reunion in some ways, because everyone comes from all over Japan and comes early and stays late. Seriously. I saw friends from Sapporo and Asahikawa, and from Kobe, and from Sendai, and from Nagoya... really, compared to some of these people, I barely make any roadtrips to see the Fighters in that I only do 4-5 a year instead of the every-weekend deal that people like Mineji do. Oh, and of course I also saw friends from all over the Kanto area as well. I even saw my "little brother" from the Tokyo Dome, and gave him some Hiroshima Carp cookies omiyage.
Before the game I chatted with Brian Sweeney, who is pitching tomorrow. Or more like, I interpreted for Akki, who's always like "I'm Sweeney's biggest fan but I can't speak English!" Akki told me to tell him all kinds of things, like he gave him omiyage from Hiroshima, and apparently Akki met Brian's family in the IF stands and gave them omiyage too, and he said to tell Brian to be the game hero in the Tokyo Dome series in August and throw us baseballs in the outfield stands. Like I said, crazy stuff. Brian actually knows who Akki is though, he was like "ask him why he's not wearing glasses today?" Heh.
And yeah, I gave people Carp omiyage, so they mostly gave me Hokkaido omiyage, except the dude from Kobe who gave me these AWESOME coffee cream daifuku. Seriously, stuff to die for. He told me that one of the players loves that stuff too, but I forget who.
I saw my friend K and asked if he was at Jingu for the Marines game a week or two ago. At first he didn't understand what I was asking, then once he did he was like "...oh... umm... yes I was, how did you know that?" and I told him I was also in the Marines cheering section with some Marines fan friends. He seemed really surprised/embarrassed but I was like "don't worry, it's our secret."
Anyway, there was a game, we yelled a lot, and the Fighters won, but it turned out to be closer than it should have at 5-4. Lots of home runs and stuff for a change, including back-to-back homers by Itoi and Nioka. Whoosh.
I ended up riding the train halfway home with Sakamoto because I hadn't seen him in a while and he seemed to want to hang out for a bit -- said he isn't sure when his next Fighters game will be. We looked at the Hiroshima photos I had on my small camera, since he'd actually seen the stadium under construction but hasn't been there yet for real.
Seriously, good times. I swear to god this kind of stuff simply doesn't happen in the US.
I've lost count, too, but I think today's game was around my 55th or 60th game this year. I finished off my Fighters first scorecard book, which means I've kept score at 50 games total (I had to start another non-Fighters book too) plus alpha. Yikes. Either way, I am well on target for going to over 100 baseball games this year, and will probably finish with a number ridiculously higher than that.
Oh, and that stray cat living outside my house? Had kittens. They are also living in the front space between my side door and the laundry room. I tried closing the laundry room door, not sure if it'll stay closed though -- the cats got ahold of my outdoor slippers and have been playing with them, though I really kind of needed new slippers anyway since these were already falling apart. The downside to having a stray cat and her kittens living here, though, is that I hear meowing a lot and if I open the side door, the cat gets PISSED at me and just starts hissing and growling until I close the door. This may be a problem next time I try to do laundry. We'll see.