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Sapporo, Trip 2, Day 2
WTF do you mean I have to check out in 9 hours and go home like 11 hours after that?
Yeah, so today I infact did go to the Shiroi Koibito Park. I walked to Odori on the way there and got my photo taken in front of the clock tower and TV tower, then tried to go to the Fighters store in Marui Imai but go figure, today it was closed. So, off to Miyanozawa, which is the end of the Tozai line. Something I loooooove about Sapporo is that it is on a grid, so everything here is like... the subways are the Nanboku ("south-north") and Tozai ("east-west") and Toho ("East-toyohira"), and the stations are often things like "kita 24 jo" which basically is like having a "North 24th St." station.
Chocolate factories are neat, though this one was like, 80% museum and 20% chocolate factory. There were a lot of things about history of chocolate and about the Ishiya company, and the entire building is made to look like a Victorian mansion, which is surreal. You get to see the factory for just a LITTLE bit, though even that part is pretty neat, what with shiroi koibito cookies being hurled upon the workers through conveyor belts. It's very Wonka. There was also a little "quiz rally" paper that I got when I came in, which had 5 questions about the factory and a questionnaire. People were looking at me funny but I actually did the quiz, in Japanese, reading the clues as I went along (one was really annoying like "which is the machine that is used to stir up the chocolate 45 times?" and it's called conching or something). There was a cafe and I ate a chocolate parfait while looking at a little mechanical doll show in the clock tower there, as well as overlooking the Consadole Sapporo practice field which is across the street. I get the impression Ishiya is a major sponsor for Consadole.
After the chocolate factory I came back to the hotel, dropped off my stuff, grabbed my baseball stuff, and off to the Sapporo Dome!
Before the gane I didn't see anyone I knew, but I met a family of foreign Fighters fans! The guy is from England and the girl is from Portland and they have two sons, and have lived in Japan for many many many years and in Sapporo at that. I was so shocked that I almost missed the first pitch of the game talking to them.
The Fighters clobbered the Hawks 5-1, since Darvish pitched and the only run he gave up was a homer to Matsunaka. Go figure. Justin Germano started for the Hawks and yeah, he wasn't bad but he wasn't good enough to beat Darvish. I cheered a ton. It was Itoi's birthday, despite that this is the Inaba birthday weekend.
OH and I did pinbadges before the game and I didn't get anything really new and exciting. Shinji was my FC one (and I have him already) and my other 5 were Ohira (have him), plus the May and February stars (boring) and then Tsuda and Watanabe... both minor-league guys. Alas. There's always tomorrow, plus I found the trading area, so we'll see.
I had a Kensuke bento, which was not as good as the Inaba bento.
After the game while talking to the aforementioned foreign family again, THEN I suddenly ran into a ton of people I know. Naomi and Mineji and Nori and Yume and so on and so forth. Very confusing. Also found the Inaba picture exhibit, which was really cute.
Came back to the hotel after that -- actually first walked to Tsukisamu-Chuo station because Fukuzumi was too packed. Dropped off my stuff, realized I was hungry, so I walked around downtown and I ended up getting ramen at a yatai outside Sapporo Station. Weird thing is it was run by an older lady, and while I was eating the guy next to me tried to talk to me in English. I was like "Sorry, I'm not in English mode right now, can you please talk to me in Japanese instead?" and so I ended up talking to him and the yatai lady for a while about the Fighters and Sapporo and whatnot. It turned out he was just trying to talk to me because he had stayed in the USA earlier in the year and felt awful that he had nobody around to speak Japanese with, so he figured I was feeling the same way -- plus he said he had NEVER EVER seen a foreign female wander into a yatai to get ramen so it was just plain WEIRD. So naturally I had to sit there chatting in Japanese for a while instead. Honestly, when he did speak English he wasn't bad at it, but I mean, I really have started thinking of it to the point where speaking English is my job and speaking Japanese is my hobby and even though I suck at speaking Japanese, I'd rather do that than speak English, given the choice.
The yatai lady gave me a refreezable ice pack thingy. Said it would help when it is hot outside, and that I could also bring it to the sapporo dome. Hmm.
Anyway, back to the hotel, I took a bath and now should go to sleep. Not sure exactly what I'll do tomorrow... game at 2pm, doors at noon, flight at 9pm or so... I think a trip to Marui Imai or to the Sapporo Mint store will be in order, perhaps. Also I should go to the Dome when the gates open tomorrow and see if I can find anyone else I know as well as try to say hi to the ouendan for real... I mostly know the non-Sapporo ones but I saw people I recognized too.
My feet hurt a ton.
Yeah, so today I infact did go to the Shiroi Koibito Park. I walked to Odori on the way there and got my photo taken in front of the clock tower and TV tower, then tried to go to the Fighters store in Marui Imai but go figure, today it was closed. So, off to Miyanozawa, which is the end of the Tozai line. Something I loooooove about Sapporo is that it is on a grid, so everything here is like... the subways are the Nanboku ("south-north") and Tozai ("east-west") and Toho ("East-toyohira"), and the stations are often things like "kita 24 jo" which basically is like having a "North 24th St." station.
Chocolate factories are neat, though this one was like, 80% museum and 20% chocolate factory. There were a lot of things about history of chocolate and about the Ishiya company, and the entire building is made to look like a Victorian mansion, which is surreal. You get to see the factory for just a LITTLE bit, though even that part is pretty neat, what with shiroi koibito cookies being hurled upon the workers through conveyor belts. It's very Wonka. There was also a little "quiz rally" paper that I got when I came in, which had 5 questions about the factory and a questionnaire. People were looking at me funny but I actually did the quiz, in Japanese, reading the clues as I went along (one was really annoying like "which is the machine that is used to stir up the chocolate 45 times?" and it's called conching or something). There was a cafe and I ate a chocolate parfait while looking at a little mechanical doll show in the clock tower there, as well as overlooking the Consadole Sapporo practice field which is across the street. I get the impression Ishiya is a major sponsor for Consadole.
After the chocolate factory I came back to the hotel, dropped off my stuff, grabbed my baseball stuff, and off to the Sapporo Dome!
Before the gane I didn't see anyone I knew, but I met a family of foreign Fighters fans! The guy is from England and the girl is from Portland and they have two sons, and have lived in Japan for many many many years and in Sapporo at that. I was so shocked that I almost missed the first pitch of the game talking to them.
The Fighters clobbered the Hawks 5-1, since Darvish pitched and the only run he gave up was a homer to Matsunaka. Go figure. Justin Germano started for the Hawks and yeah, he wasn't bad but he wasn't good enough to beat Darvish. I cheered a ton. It was Itoi's birthday, despite that this is the Inaba birthday weekend.
OH and I did pinbadges before the game and I didn't get anything really new and exciting. Shinji was my FC one (and I have him already) and my other 5 were Ohira (have him), plus the May and February stars (boring) and then Tsuda and Watanabe... both minor-league guys. Alas. There's always tomorrow, plus I found the trading area, so we'll see.
I had a Kensuke bento, which was not as good as the Inaba bento.
After the game while talking to the aforementioned foreign family again, THEN I suddenly ran into a ton of people I know. Naomi and Mineji and Nori and Yume and so on and so forth. Very confusing. Also found the Inaba picture exhibit, which was really cute.
Came back to the hotel after that -- actually first walked to Tsukisamu-Chuo station because Fukuzumi was too packed. Dropped off my stuff, realized I was hungry, so I walked around downtown and I ended up getting ramen at a yatai outside Sapporo Station. Weird thing is it was run by an older lady, and while I was eating the guy next to me tried to talk to me in English. I was like "Sorry, I'm not in English mode right now, can you please talk to me in Japanese instead?" and so I ended up talking to him and the yatai lady for a while about the Fighters and Sapporo and whatnot. It turned out he was just trying to talk to me because he had stayed in the USA earlier in the year and felt awful that he had nobody around to speak Japanese with, so he figured I was feeling the same way -- plus he said he had NEVER EVER seen a foreign female wander into a yatai to get ramen so it was just plain WEIRD. So naturally I had to sit there chatting in Japanese for a while instead. Honestly, when he did speak English he wasn't bad at it, but I mean, I really have started thinking of it to the point where speaking English is my job and speaking Japanese is my hobby and even though I suck at speaking Japanese, I'd rather do that than speak English, given the choice.
The yatai lady gave me a refreezable ice pack thingy. Said it would help when it is hot outside, and that I could also bring it to the sapporo dome. Hmm.
Anyway, back to the hotel, I took a bath and now should go to sleep. Not sure exactly what I'll do tomorrow... game at 2pm, doors at noon, flight at 9pm or so... I think a trip to Marui Imai or to the Sapporo Mint store will be in order, perhaps. Also I should go to the Dome when the gates open tomorrow and see if I can find anyone else I know as well as try to say hi to the ouendan for real... I mostly know the non-Sapporo ones but I saw people I recognized too.
My feet hurt a ton.