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Sapporo, Trip 2, Day 1
So, this is my second time to Sapporo now... at least I am a tiny bit more familiar with the city.
My mini-HP is being stupidly slow so I'm not adding photos to this post yet...
Anyway, after sleeping like 3 hours I got up and went to the airport, got on my plane, everything was good, short flight relatively. Got into the airport here, took a train to Sapporo, threw my stuff in a train station locker and took the subway to the Sapporo Dome, getting there around 1pm.
Signed up for the 2pm tour and then spent about 25 minutes wandering through the observatory, which is fantastic but not nearly as fantastic as hoped. Bright day though and I could see a ton of the city, very pretty.
The tour was pretty neat -- we got to go into both dugouts, run onto the field and play with 3rd base, throw a pitch in the bullpen, hang out in the locker room, see the showers and cafeteria and so on... Only catch is since the stadium is shared for soccer and baseball and concerts, and we saw the visitor's side, the locker room was pretty much empty. Doh. BUT at least I got to sit in Hichori's seat in the dugout, and I have a photo of me holding Kensuke's bat, and I wore Inaba's helmet but it didn't fit.
Quote of the tour: "Sometimes we hold concerts here, like Arashi and SMAP, and since 90% of the attendees are women, we change half of the men's bathrooms into women's bathrooms for that day."
After the tour I spent some time in the Fighters shop deliberating over everything. Bought a super-awesome t-shirt which basically has a bunch of stuff on it in Japanese about the spirit of baseball, and also got the 2009 limited edition Fighters folders since I can actually use those at school. Debated several other things -- CRAZY shit like a Fighters mouse, or gloves, or other CDs, t-shirts, etc... but figured I'd sit on it for a day. I mean, in some ways I really want some more Fighters t-shirts that don't just have a number and name on them, so I can wear them around for non-baseball days, but at the same time 2500-3000 yen for a t-shirt is kinda steep.
I ate a snack at the stadium cafe -- had something called "Casablanca" which is essentially french toast with flavorings, cut up into chunks and served in a dessert dish. Anyone else ever hear of that? I hadn't and the people at the cafe were really confused by me.
Okay, so after that I came back to downtown and found my hotel and checked in. My room obviously has had a lot of smokers staying in it because it still stinks. Sigh.
Went to Susukino after that, to the Norbesa building, where Hillman's Hangout is located. I fucked up though -- the game was at 6:15 not 6 and I went into the restaurant at 5:45 or so. If I wasn't dumb, I could have ridden the Norbesa ferris wheel while it was still light out. Sigh. But anyway, I sat at the Hangout for like, almost 4 hours, and watched the entire Fighters-Marines game, just like last time I was here.
I ate: BBQ chicken with a salad and a baked potato (which was ok but not to die for or anything), and later, a plate of nachos. The nachos had OMG chili and cheddar cheese and sour cream and jalapenos and salsa and were seriously as good as the stuff I used to eat at Mad Mex. It took a lot of self-control to make them last 2-3 innings :)
The game: Marines went up early on Brian Sweeney, it was 6-0 and 6-1 for a while and then BAM out of nowhere the Fighters scored 6 runs in the 8th inning to go up 7-6 and won the game. Holy shit. Bobby was clearly pissed at a few calls, and he might have been right about them, too. But yeah, the Fighters won and it was NUTS. I think the one good thing about Bobby being gone from the Marines at the end of this year is that I will no longer have to ever feel totally guilty at Marines-Fighters games.
I rode the ferris wheel after that. It wasn't THAT exciting but it was neat to see Sapporo from high up at nighttime.
Then I spent some time in the building's arcade. I played Block People! And sure enough IT REALLY SUCKS when you are playing by yourself. I mean it's still fun but there's just no way you can cover enough ground. Maybe I should try "easy" mode next time I'm by myself.
Came home after that and collapsed, pretty much.
Woke up this morning for breakfast since the meal coupon was included in my hotel reservation, and now I am up and typing this. In a little while I'm going to walk to Odori Park and look around, then get on a bus and go to the Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Park since that sounds like it could be interesting. And in the evening I'll head to the Sapporo Dome again, this time for a game, yay!
My mini-HP is being stupidly slow so I'm not adding photos to this post yet...
Anyway, after sleeping like 3 hours I got up and went to the airport, got on my plane, everything was good, short flight relatively. Got into the airport here, took a train to Sapporo, threw my stuff in a train station locker and took the subway to the Sapporo Dome, getting there around 1pm.
Signed up for the 2pm tour and then spent about 25 minutes wandering through the observatory, which is fantastic but not nearly as fantastic as hoped. Bright day though and I could see a ton of the city, very pretty.
The tour was pretty neat -- we got to go into both dugouts, run onto the field and play with 3rd base, throw a pitch in the bullpen, hang out in the locker room, see the showers and cafeteria and so on... Only catch is since the stadium is shared for soccer and baseball and concerts, and we saw the visitor's side, the locker room was pretty much empty. Doh. BUT at least I got to sit in Hichori's seat in the dugout, and I have a photo of me holding Kensuke's bat, and I wore Inaba's helmet but it didn't fit.
Quote of the tour: "Sometimes we hold concerts here, like Arashi and SMAP, and since 90% of the attendees are women, we change half of the men's bathrooms into women's bathrooms for that day."
After the tour I spent some time in the Fighters shop deliberating over everything. Bought a super-awesome t-shirt which basically has a bunch of stuff on it in Japanese about the spirit of baseball, and also got the 2009 limited edition Fighters folders since I can actually use those at school. Debated several other things -- CRAZY shit like a Fighters mouse, or gloves, or other CDs, t-shirts, etc... but figured I'd sit on it for a day. I mean, in some ways I really want some more Fighters t-shirts that don't just have a number and name on them, so I can wear them around for non-baseball days, but at the same time 2500-3000 yen for a t-shirt is kinda steep.
I ate a snack at the stadium cafe -- had something called "Casablanca" which is essentially french toast with flavorings, cut up into chunks and served in a dessert dish. Anyone else ever hear of that? I hadn't and the people at the cafe were really confused by me.
Okay, so after that I came back to downtown and found my hotel and checked in. My room obviously has had a lot of smokers staying in it because it still stinks. Sigh.
Went to Susukino after that, to the Norbesa building, where Hillman's Hangout is located. I fucked up though -- the game was at 6:15 not 6 and I went into the restaurant at 5:45 or so. If I wasn't dumb, I could have ridden the Norbesa ferris wheel while it was still light out. Sigh. But anyway, I sat at the Hangout for like, almost 4 hours, and watched the entire Fighters-Marines game, just like last time I was here.
I ate: BBQ chicken with a salad and a baked potato (which was ok but not to die for or anything), and later, a plate of nachos. The nachos had OMG chili and cheddar cheese and sour cream and jalapenos and salsa and were seriously as good as the stuff I used to eat at Mad Mex. It took a lot of self-control to make them last 2-3 innings :)
The game: Marines went up early on Brian Sweeney, it was 6-0 and 6-1 for a while and then BAM out of nowhere the Fighters scored 6 runs in the 8th inning to go up 7-6 and won the game. Holy shit. Bobby was clearly pissed at a few calls, and he might have been right about them, too. But yeah, the Fighters won and it was NUTS. I think the one good thing about Bobby being gone from the Marines at the end of this year is that I will no longer have to ever feel totally guilty at Marines-Fighters games.
I rode the ferris wheel after that. It wasn't THAT exciting but it was neat to see Sapporo from high up at nighttime.
Then I spent some time in the building's arcade. I played Block People! And sure enough IT REALLY SUCKS when you are playing by yourself. I mean it's still fun but there's just no way you can cover enough ground. Maybe I should try "easy" mode next time I'm by myself.
Came home after that and collapsed, pretty much.
Woke up this morning for breakfast since the meal coupon was included in my hotel reservation, and now I am up and typing this. In a little while I'm going to walk to Odori Park and look around, then get on a bus and go to the Shiroi Koibito Chocolate Park since that sounds like it could be interesting. And in the evening I'll head to the Sapporo Dome again, this time for a game, yay!