![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Irabu-fest and other Kochi adventures
I got up early this morning and went to Kochi Ballpark so that I could watch the Kochi Fighting Dogs play against the Ehime Mandarin Pirates.
You will, of course, be astounded to learn that the Kochi Fighting Dogs mascot is, infact, a fighting dog:
The game was starting at 10am -- the first of a doubleheader -- and I arrived around 9:30. There aren't really any covered seats at this place beyond ones under umbrellas and/or under the wooden concessions treehouses, but I found a seat in front of the shady seats so it wasn't quite as awful as it might have been otherwise. I still got a pretty bad sunburn overall for the day, where I sweated off my sunscreen. The highs were in the 34-35 range, which is like 93-95 F I think. Some guys were giving out small cups of cold Japanese tea from a big cooler and I was going back every inning for another cup.
The reason I was there was partially because I wanted to watch a baseball game in Shikoku -- this fills my goal of seeing a game on each of the four major islands -- but also, because Hideki Irabu was starting for Kochi and that was just too fucking weird to pass up. I'm not an Irabu fan, but when his starting debut with the KFD coincides with my day in Shikoku, I felt like I just HAD to go watch this one.
So yeah, I saw him pitch, for the first time in yeeeeeeears. He wasn't too awful for a 40-year-old I guess -- 7 innings, 3 runs, 5 walks, 3 strikeouts, something like that. It was somewhat comical watching him field bunts is all, as he'd kind of waddle over to get them, but he did get them, so I guess that's good. The game was eventually a 4-4 tie as the bullpen gave up a run after he was off the mound. Strange that both Shikoku League games I've seen have been ties, isn't it?
After the game, by which point I was pretty much totally ready to leave because 4 hours in the sun was starting to melt my brain, it turned out Irabu was doing a signing session for 10 minutes, so I went and lined up for that and got his autograph on a Kochi shikishi. I greeted him in Japanese and in English asked him whether the weather was better here or in CA. His reply was something like "I think it's better to be in Japan right now." I thanked him for the autograph and wished him good luck.
Came back to the hotel, took a shower, then caught up with Carl and Oren and we went to Kochi Castle.
Actually, we went by way of the street market and first ate taiyaki and then some sherbet. I had yuzu-flavored, which was interesting. We saw old dudes in the park playing shogi, and then we went up the castle. I say "up" because that's pretty much what you have to do -- first you climb the huge hill of the keep around the castle, and once you get inside, the main building is just up up up up up. What sucked is, once you ran out of up, that particular level was under construction, so you couldn't even really look out and see the city from there. I was kind of sad about that. But I guess we kind of learned stuff about the Tosa region and about this Yamauchi guy who apparently decided to join Tokugawa at the battle of Sekigahara and ended up being granted a huge part of Shikoku for kicking butt.
We got Indian food for dinner in the covered Obiyamachi street, at a place called Masala. It was actually kind of decent. We saw a guy who had also been at the castle at the same time as us, it turns out he's from England and riding his bike from Kochi to Fukuoka over the next week or two. Crazy.
I did laundry after dinner, and I think Carl and Oren went off to find some Go center that Oren wanted to walk to.
We went to a game center for a bit and I introduced them to Quiz Magic Academy. We played like 3 games, and our last game we actually made it to the Final Four part, BUT the other opponents picked the "typing selection" questions and we totally couldn't keep up with that. Oh well. We also played a game that involved throwing plastic balls at a screen to hit targets which was kind of fun. I forget what it was called.
Now, I'm back at the hotel. In the morning I will try to go back to Tokyo, straight through... assuming the Moonlight Nagara is running. If it's not, I'll probably end up stranded in Gifu or Nagoya for the night. Hooray.
You will, of course, be astounded to learn that the Kochi Fighting Dogs mascot is, infact, a fighting dog:
The game was starting at 10am -- the first of a doubleheader -- and I arrived around 9:30. There aren't really any covered seats at this place beyond ones under umbrellas and/or under the wooden concessions treehouses, but I found a seat in front of the shady seats so it wasn't quite as awful as it might have been otherwise. I still got a pretty bad sunburn overall for the day, where I sweated off my sunscreen. The highs were in the 34-35 range, which is like 93-95 F I think. Some guys were giving out small cups of cold Japanese tea from a big cooler and I was going back every inning for another cup.
The reason I was there was partially because I wanted to watch a baseball game in Shikoku -- this fills my goal of seeing a game on each of the four major islands -- but also, because Hideki Irabu was starting for Kochi and that was just too fucking weird to pass up. I'm not an Irabu fan, but when his starting debut with the KFD coincides with my day in Shikoku, I felt like I just HAD to go watch this one.
So yeah, I saw him pitch, for the first time in yeeeeeeears. He wasn't too awful for a 40-year-old I guess -- 7 innings, 3 runs, 5 walks, 3 strikeouts, something like that. It was somewhat comical watching him field bunts is all, as he'd kind of waddle over to get them, but he did get them, so I guess that's good. The game was eventually a 4-4 tie as the bullpen gave up a run after he was off the mound. Strange that both Shikoku League games I've seen have been ties, isn't it?
After the game, by which point I was pretty much totally ready to leave because 4 hours in the sun was starting to melt my brain, it turned out Irabu was doing a signing session for 10 minutes, so I went and lined up for that and got his autograph on a Kochi shikishi. I greeted him in Japanese and in English asked him whether the weather was better here or in CA. His reply was something like "I think it's better to be in Japan right now." I thanked him for the autograph and wished him good luck.
Came back to the hotel, took a shower, then caught up with Carl and Oren and we went to Kochi Castle.
Actually, we went by way of the street market and first ate taiyaki and then some sherbet. I had yuzu-flavored, which was interesting. We saw old dudes in the park playing shogi, and then we went up the castle. I say "up" because that's pretty much what you have to do -- first you climb the huge hill of the keep around the castle, and once you get inside, the main building is just up up up up up. What sucked is, once you ran out of up, that particular level was under construction, so you couldn't even really look out and see the city from there. I was kind of sad about that. But I guess we kind of learned stuff about the Tosa region and about this Yamauchi guy who apparently decided to join Tokugawa at the battle of Sekigahara and ended up being granted a huge part of Shikoku for kicking butt.
We got Indian food for dinner in the covered Obiyamachi street, at a place called Masala. It was actually kind of decent. We saw a guy who had also been at the castle at the same time as us, it turns out he's from England and riding his bike from Kochi to Fukuoka over the next week or two. Crazy.
I did laundry after dinner, and I think Carl and Oren went off to find some Go center that Oren wanted to walk to.
We went to a game center for a bit and I introduced them to Quiz Magic Academy. We played like 3 games, and our last game we actually made it to the Final Four part, BUT the other opponents picked the "typing selection" questions and we totally couldn't keep up with that. Oh well. We also played a game that involved throwing plastic balls at a screen to hit targets which was kind of fun. I forget what it was called.
Now, I'm back at the hotel. In the morning I will try to go back to Tokyo, straight through... assuming the Moonlight Nagara is running. If it's not, I'll probably end up stranded in Gifu or Nagoya for the night. Hooray.