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US-Japan college baseball
I forgot to mention that on Sunday I actually found what might be the SECOND Pop'n Music machine anywhere near my house! (I mean, seriously, there isn't one in the arcade in Akabane station, there aren't any in Jujo that I know of though I haven't looked THAT hard, there isn't one in the Motohasunuma arcade either, so the nearest ones I know are in Oyama (which is a hell of a bike ride to go to play Pop'n) or in East Akabane, way the hell down La La Garden, PLUS that machine is never, EVER EVER EVER open and usually even has a line to play.
But it turns out that in the arcade on the 6th floor of Ito Yokado, they have a totally lame-ass Pop'n machine, but it IS a machine. It's still a Pop'n Music Party machine, IE Pop'n 16, rather than Pop'n Movie which is 17 and in every OTHER arcade. Also, it has no card reader, and the lighting reflects on the screen in a really annoying way... but DUDE it is a Pop'n machine hidden in an arcade that nobody goes to and 100 yen per play. Gah, I already spend too much time in Ito Yokado as is, but...
Anyway, as for Monday, after school I went down to the Tokyo Dome for the US-Japan Collegiate tournament Game 2, which Japan won 7-5. I went with my fellow blogging friend Gen; he got there early and saved us seats about 15 rows up from the USA dugout. He likes Yuki Saito, I like Tatsuya Ohishi, we both got to see our favorite pitchers out there eventually.
Funny thing is, all the Japanese people were oohing and ahhing at the USA college guys like "OMG! They're so big! They look like major leaguers!" and I'm thinking... holy crap, they DO look big. And these guys are just college freshmen/sophomores? There were a few normal-sized guys who were built like real human beings but for the most part, the USA college players were all these 6-foot-plus bodybuilding types with huge arms and shoulders. So Gen and I were talking for a while in the differences in mechanics how the players throw and play due to different body types. Seriously, I had forgotten what it looks like when everyone is throwing and hitting with just their arms rather than using all of their body strength. It looks weird. And a game with no ouendan is ridiculously quiet. It pains me to realize that I will probably have to give up baseball as a hobby whenever I move back to the US.
And have college baseball kids always done this ridiculous thing where the entire dugout empties to congratulate guys or just give them pep talks or whatever? It was nuts and I don't remember ever seeing that before -- like a pitching change happens for Japan and the entire US dugout empties to talk to the guy who was standing on second. Etc.
Also, the lady sitting in front of us turned out to be an even BIGGER college baseball dork than I am. We kind of both outed ourselves when Ohishi came out to the mound in the 6th -- I was like "OH MY GOD IT'S OHISHI!!!!" and got really excited and started bouncing up and down in my seat. The lady turns around and asks (in Japanese) "are you a fan?" and I'm like "I'm a HUGE fan! he's my absolute favorite college baseball player in Japan!" and it became clear that both of us had seen him play enough to recognize him warming up by his big yellow glove more than anything... and so as other guys came into the game we were both getting excited to see them, especially the Tohto and Big 6 guys (haha, I'm all like "hey, it's Tanaka from Rikkio," and she's like "Soh-chan!") and so on. She was telling me some stuff about the Koryo kids -- I didn't even know that former Waseda 2B Hiroki Uemoto had a younger brother going to Meiji now who was also from Koryo, since Shohei Habu came into the game and is from Koryo HS too. Also she had stories about Tomoyuki Sugano, who is apparently Tatsunori Hara's nephew, and a pretty good pitcher at Tokaidai.
Whee.
After the game Gen and I hung out talking at Suidobashi for an hour or so. Ran into Jim Allen, who had been covering the game for Daily Yomiuri, and I hadn't seen in bloody forever. Then we went into the station around 11pm... and the Chuo-Sobu lines were stopped thanks to an "accident". Fuck. So I took the Mita line back to Motohasunuma instead, got in around midnight, then walked the 20 minutes home from there. It's really crazy how I can do that here -- in the US there wouldn't be a "take the alternate subway home and walk a mile down poorly lit streets at midnight" option, you know?
Now, time for another day of school.
I sprayed my mattress with bug spray last night... but my feet are pretty bitten up. It's somewhat disgusting. I was going to wear capri pants to school this week but I think it will freak out the kids if they see my legs.
But it turns out that in the arcade on the 6th floor of Ito Yokado, they have a totally lame-ass Pop'n machine, but it IS a machine. It's still a Pop'n Music Party machine, IE Pop'n 16, rather than Pop'n Movie which is 17 and in every OTHER arcade. Also, it has no card reader, and the lighting reflects on the screen in a really annoying way... but DUDE it is a Pop'n machine hidden in an arcade that nobody goes to and 100 yen per play. Gah, I already spend too much time in Ito Yokado as is, but...
Anyway, as for Monday, after school I went down to the Tokyo Dome for the US-Japan Collegiate tournament Game 2, which Japan won 7-5. I went with my fellow blogging friend Gen; he got there early and saved us seats about 15 rows up from the USA dugout. He likes Yuki Saito, I like Tatsuya Ohishi, we both got to see our favorite pitchers out there eventually.
Funny thing is, all the Japanese people were oohing and ahhing at the USA college guys like "OMG! They're so big! They look like major leaguers!" and I'm thinking... holy crap, they DO look big. And these guys are just college freshmen/sophomores? There were a few normal-sized guys who were built like real human beings but for the most part, the USA college players were all these 6-foot-plus bodybuilding types with huge arms and shoulders. So Gen and I were talking for a while in the differences in mechanics how the players throw and play due to different body types. Seriously, I had forgotten what it looks like when everyone is throwing and hitting with just their arms rather than using all of their body strength. It looks weird. And a game with no ouendan is ridiculously quiet. It pains me to realize that I will probably have to give up baseball as a hobby whenever I move back to the US.
And have college baseball kids always done this ridiculous thing where the entire dugout empties to congratulate guys or just give them pep talks or whatever? It was nuts and I don't remember ever seeing that before -- like a pitching change happens for Japan and the entire US dugout empties to talk to the guy who was standing on second. Etc.
Also, the lady sitting in front of us turned out to be an even BIGGER college baseball dork than I am. We kind of both outed ourselves when Ohishi came out to the mound in the 6th -- I was like "OH MY GOD IT'S OHISHI!!!!" and got really excited and started bouncing up and down in my seat. The lady turns around and asks (in Japanese) "are you a fan?" and I'm like "I'm a HUGE fan! he's my absolute favorite college baseball player in Japan!" and it became clear that both of us had seen him play enough to recognize him warming up by his big yellow glove more than anything... and so as other guys came into the game we were both getting excited to see them, especially the Tohto and Big 6 guys (haha, I'm all like "hey, it's Tanaka from Rikkio," and she's like "Soh-chan!") and so on. She was telling me some stuff about the Koryo kids -- I didn't even know that former Waseda 2B Hiroki Uemoto had a younger brother going to Meiji now who was also from Koryo, since Shohei Habu came into the game and is from Koryo HS too. Also she had stories about Tomoyuki Sugano, who is apparently Tatsunori Hara's nephew, and a pretty good pitcher at Tokaidai.
Whee.
After the game Gen and I hung out talking at Suidobashi for an hour or so. Ran into Jim Allen, who had been covering the game for Daily Yomiuri, and I hadn't seen in bloody forever. Then we went into the station around 11pm... and the Chuo-Sobu lines were stopped thanks to an "accident". Fuck. So I took the Mita line back to Motohasunuma instead, got in around midnight, then walked the 20 minutes home from there. It's really crazy how I can do that here -- in the US there wouldn't be a "take the alternate subway home and walk a mile down poorly lit streets at midnight" option, you know?
Now, time for another day of school.
I sprayed my mattress with bug spray last night... but my feet are pretty bitten up. It's somewhat disgusting. I was going to wear capri pants to school this week but I think it will freak out the kids if they see my legs.