Golden Week VI - Hiroshima

I took the early AM train to Hiroshima, hoping to do some sightseeing before the afternoon game. I got in around 10 AM, took a streetcar to my hotel to drop off my bag and get the tourist map. Not through any good planning on my part, but the hotel was right next to both the stadium and the Peace Memorial Park, so I didn't have to ever really figure out the streetcars.

First stop was the Peace Memorial Park. It was a weird experience. The atmosphere of depressing hope that they managed to create is tough to decide how to react to. They preserved a building in the state it was right after the bomb and dedicated it as a peace memorial. All I could do was think about how people must have been walking though the park just like me that day. It's a tough place to go. All around the park they have thousands of paper cranes, and giant fiberglass paper cranes. They're sent from all over the world in memory of a little girl who died from leukemia after the war. The look cheerful, but then you think about why they're there, and it brought me back down.
Anyway, I decided to leave after a little while and head to the ballpark after checking into the hotel. It looked like they were setting up for some sort of festival. When I went back to the hotel, there was yet another hip hop dance group on a stage just outside.

I walked the ballpark and looked for the hat and shirt shop, but they didn't have as many as the other parks. I had to wade into the only one they had and somehow figure out if I needed a size O or F or 150 or what. I got suited up and went in.
It's another old park, built in 1957. Narrow hallways and really tightly packed-in concession stands. They're building a new stadium that will open next year, but from the people I talked to, nobody knows exactly where it is.

With the benefit of coming alone, I got about the best seats I've ever had at a ballgame. Right by 3rd base in the 2nd row. So there wasn't anyone sitting in front of my to take this picture. By the way, there's no smoking. There was, however, more sun, but I had sunscreen now.
It was a good game. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp (who are mostly owned by Mazda and look just like the Reds) were losing to the Yokohama BayStars 2-5 in the 7th inning. They don't know "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" here. Instead of a 7th inning stretch, they call it "Lucky 7", sing a song, and blow up balloons. These are no ordinary balloons, they're "Rocket Balloons". They have a plastic valve on the end that both limits the flow and and weights down the balloon. What do you do with these? You let them go, and let the grounds crew clean it up.To be fair, they do this at all the stadiums, I just didn't mention it sooner. I got some balloons to take with me. They say "The Balloon of the Victory".

Anyway, the Carp (which in Japanese is Car-pu) were down 6-2 before they came back and scored 6 in the bottom of the 8th to win 8-6. There was the traditional hero interview, and then, to celebrate the win, more balloons.

After the game I took a short break and then headed out to look for the food that Hiroshima is famous for, okonomiyaki. It literally means "cooked as you like it" or something like that. It happens to be my favorite Japanese food. The guidebook promised me a building filled with 30 or so okonomiyaki joints, if only I could find it. It took a while, because it was more nondescript than I expected, but I found it. I couldn't read most of the menu, but I could make out the word "Deluxe", so that's what I went for. Turns out that means with shrimp and cuttlefish, which is OK by me.Okonomiyaki is sort of like a pancake, at least that's what they say, but it's not sweet. It's got a sort of pancake on the bottom, but after that they add some fish, cabbage, an egg, and who knows what else. They make it all on the big hot griddle in front of you, cooking 10 or so of these at a time for all the people there. It's a show in itself. I don't know how they keep it straight.

Afterwards, I decided I was out of Japanese for the day and went to an Irish bar for a beer before bed. Next day was another long one.

Golden Week V - Hakata Dontaku Festival

Day 2 in Fukuoka was set aside for the annual Hakata Dontaku festival. I don't really know what it's all about, but it's one of the biggest festivals in Japan. They set up stages all around town, and it seems like every cultural club, dance school, and music teacher in town puts on a recital. I was told that the parade starts at 10, so I headed down to the parade route early in the morning to claim a spot. Once I found the place, though, they told me that the parade isn't until 1, so I had some time to wander around. After watching a shamisen recital (basically a traditional Japanese 3-stringed banjo), I left that stage and met these guys:

They were really friendly. It reminded me of grabbing someone in a dog suit for a picture in the muni lot. Turns out these guys were headed to the stage I just left, so I went back to see them do their thing.


Of all the shows I saw that day, they looked like they were having the most fun. Plus, those are some crazy pants.

After they finished and I watched a traditional dance, a hip hop dance, and a hula dance recital, it was finally time for the parade. I think everyone who was ever on stage was in the parade and then some. There were a lot of bands, a lot of drums, Mickey Mouse, and a ton of floats that seemed to always have something to do with the Softbank Hawks. The actual players had a game, so they sent these guys instead.
For some reason, there were also samba dancers. I'm not complaining, just pointing it out.
I really underestimated the parade, and went out without sunscreen, thinking it wouldn't take long, and I'd find a seat in the shade. If you're ever at the Dontaku festival, wear sunscreen. I toughed it out standing on a bridge in the sun for about 2 hours before I decided to head to the hotel and nurse my burn a little. But I got distracted on the way back. Who would have thought these guys would be there, although the one on the left looks a little short to be a storm trooper.
Once I pulled myself away from them, I was almost back to the subway when I had to stop in my tracks. It seemed even less likely than Darth Vader, but there it was, a Japanese drag show. My Japanese slang is really weak, but some words, like trans-something, or lesbo-something, came across loud and clear.
After a quick nap, I headed back to the festival to see what it turns into when the sun goes down. Seemed to be most of the same, except for dozens of little food shops that had spontaneously popped up while I was gone for an hour. These aren't the US style hot dog carts. These are full-on temporary restaurants, with temporary walls, chairs, curtains, and even TV's. Fukuoka is famous for these yatai, so I made it a point to eat at one. The owner and his wife's Japanese was such a regional dialect that I couldn't understand a word of it. Luckily, a guy came in and sat next to me (with his wife and 2 dogs). He translated, if not to English, at least to Japanese I could sort of understand.

After the yatai, I walked over to the tourist-brochure-recomended international bar, "The International Bar". It really lived up to the name, with bartenders from Japan, Germany, Albania, and Nepal. Nice people, all of them, but otherwise it was pretty dead. I got them to recommend another place, and went there. Guess which sign is the place I went to.
I stuck around for a little while, and actually ran into people I know from Utsunomiya there, but I had tickets for a 1:30 game in Hiroshima the next day, so I had to call it a night around 1:00 to make it there in time. It's too bad, Fukuoka is a fun town, but I didn't have enough time to really see it all. Hopefully I can get back someday.

Golden Week IV - Fukuoka

Day 2 of my Western Japan baseball tour meant another long train ride. I got to the station around 8 and made my first trip off the big island of Honshu since I got here. I was hoping for some big bridge with a cool view or something, but it's a tunnel, so I slept instead.

I got to Fukuoka around noon, checked into the hotel, and rested up for a little while before heading over towards the stadium. I wanted to start off by checking out the mall right in front of the stadium, Hawks Town. I figured there would be some Hawks-specific stuff there, but no, just a mall. Oh well, at least I was at the ballpark. The Hawks are a pretty modern team, owned by a cell phone company (my cell phone company, in fact). Softbank, the cell phone compny, has some sort of business arrangement with Yahoo, so the game was at the Yahoo Dome.
I got there good and early, since the mall sucked, and watched the pre-game. The warm-ups were amazingly organized. No personal stretching, no individual workouts. It was all team based. Check out the American guy (Micheal Restovich) quiting early.


They also take a full infield practice, like a high school team. I don't think you could get MLB players to do that.

The mascot is a Hawk, no surprise there.
The game between the Softbank Hawks and the Orix Buffaloes was a blowout, and you could tell from the beginning. The Hawks pitcher, Toshiya Sugiuchi, struck out 5 of the first 6 batters, and, with a manager like Sadaharu Oh, you know they can score runs. They started right away, with 2 in the first, and didn't look back. They ended up with 13 runs on 17 hits, and won 13-0.

This time I got to see what happens when the home team wins, and it was totally different than the US. As soon as they got the last out, some guys rushed onto the field to set up a tiny stage for the "Hero Interview". They rushed the players of the game up to stage to answer questions, and every fan stayed put to listen. I don't know what they said, but people seemed to like it. This is Sugiuchi with his arm all wrapped up.

After the interview, the lights went out and I thought it was over, but nobody moved, so I didn't either. It was the right choice, since I got to see the 20 seconds of indoor fireworks.
While they opened the dome to clear out the smoke, the people finally started leaving, about 35 minutes after the game ended. I crowded onto the subway and went to bed to get some sleep before the big festival the next morning.

Golden Week III - Osaka

Sorry for doing this in the past tense, but even a laptop is a little too heavy to be hauling all over Western Japan. So instead, I'll do this in installments, when I feel like it.

I finally got to head out for vacation on Thursday. I had to put it off to fit the baseball schedule, but once I started, I never had time to stop. First destination: Osaka, to see the Hanshin Tigers play against the Yakult Swallows.

2 trains and 4 hours or so after I started, I was in Osaka. I planned things so that I could do a little, tiny bit of sightseeing before game time at 6:00, so I headed for the most famous, touristy place in Osaka, Osaka-jo Park. Osaka castle was a pretty big deal during the unification of Japan in the late 1500's, but unfortunately, when you build the tallest building in town on top of the highest hill, you should make it fireproof. They didn't do that back then, so lightening burned it down several times before they build a cement version in the 90's. It still looks the same on the outside, but inside, it's an 8 story museum, complete with elevators and holograms. I didn't really enjoy it much once I got inside, but the park all around it was great.
After walking around for a few hours, I headed over to my free hotel (Roynet Hotel club points from all my previous trips to Japan, thank you Honda).

I thought it was only fitting to start my Japanese baseball trips by going to the heart of Japanese baseball, Koshien Stadium. It was build in 1924 to host the national high school tournament, and is almost considered holy ground to Japanese baseball players. Kids who make it to the annual August tournament fill up bags with dirt from the infield when they leave. The Tigers play away games for all of August because the high school tournament is more important. It's the biggest sporting event in Japan, comparable to the NCAA basketball tournament. Babe Ruth played an exhibition game there.
Unfortunately, it's on the other side of town from my free hotel. There's absolutely no parking near the stadium, there's signs posted that say "No My Car" to keep you from driving there. That's just part of the owner's genius. The only train that goes to Koshien is the Hanshin Railway, owners of the team. Still, I found my way there early to see what happens. I bought myself some chicken nuggets, fries, and a beer and settled in to "Be Best, The Sports"I figure that, since I don't have a hometown team here, I'm going to go to all the stadiums and "audition" the teams. I had to try on the gear, to make sure I got the whole experience. Does it look like I had fun? One of the benefits of going to games alone is that you get great seats. I was right on the border of the official cheering section. They were loud, they had great endurance, and they were organized. There was always a song going on when the Tigers were batting. I didn't know any of them, but that didn't matter. There were cheerleaders to show me what to do. Notice that there's a guy in front of each section, all looking at the leader. Don't want that speed-of-sound thing to get us out of sync.



It was a good defensive game, with no hits through 4 innings. Finally, in the 6th, Yakult put together a few hits and took a 2-0 lead. They held the Tigers to 1 hit and ended up winning 2-0.

The Hanshin railway thing is brilliant in making people take their train. However, the combination of an old stadium with narrow walkways in and out and having only 1 way to go causes some problems.
My favorite Hanshin story, and maybe my favorite Japanese baseball story, is that they are cursed, like the Red Sox or the Cubs. But they don't blame Babe Ruth or a goat.

In 1985, they Tigers won the Japan series, in no small part thanks to an American player named Randy Bass, who won the first of 2 consecutive triple crowns that year . The fans went wild, and to celebrate, people jumped into the nearby Dontonbori river dressed up like the players. But in Japan, it's not easy to find a big, blond American looking guy to be Randy Bass. The fans were resourceful, though, and went for the nearest white guy they could find, Colonel Sanders. They grabbed the statue in front of the nearest KFC and tossed it in the River, and haven't won the Japan series since.Since I wanted to kill some time and let the crowd thin, to do my part to appease the Colonel, I stopped for a quick chicken sandwich at the nearest KFC. Once the crowd died down, I headed to the hotel to get to bed. I had to be up early the next morning to leave for Fukuoka.

Golden Week II - Giant Buddha

Not just giant, but, according to Guinness, the world's tallest. That's not the beer, it's the book, so you know it's official.

I finally took off my snow tires this morning, and to celebrate, I drove the 2 hours and 100 or so kilometers down to Ushiku to see the famous Ushiku Daibutsu. It's a 120 meter tall statue of the Buddha Amida. I couldn't really picture 120 meter tall statue going in, but when I saw it over the trees coming in, I was surprised how big it is. FYI, the statue of liberty, with pedestal, is 93 meters. I parked and walked in and managed to not trip over anything while staring up at the Buddha.

After buying a ticket for the full show, including a ride up to chest level, I walked into the park around the Buddha. First thing I noticed was this smaller statue out front.

I think it was a Buddha poo, but who knows? Once I recovered from that shock, I moved around back, where there's a small animal park. They have squirrels and chipmunks that kids can feed, but I think the star attraction was the monkey show. Awwww, aren't they cute?

The ride up the Buddha was really trippy. They herd everyone (in this case, 6 of us) into a huge elevator for the first stage of the ride. When the doors close, the lights go out, and you're standing in this pitch black box listening to something that might have been a description of the statue. A minute later, you step out on the 1st floor, or as the pamphlet says "The World of Infinite Light and Life". It was like some 70's nightclub, with little clear plastic Buddhas with colored lights shining through them. Then it's stairs to the next floor, where they have a bunch of pictures of the construction and stuff, before taking the elevator to chest-high. The windows were too small, and the day too cloudy, to really see much, but it was high up. Of course, there was a gift shop up there.

There's not enough pictures of me on here, and I'm pretty vain, so here's a picture I took of myself in front of the Buddha. The one I got someone else to take didn't come out good enough.

On the way home, I stopped at Toys R Us. Here's a special, election-year version of the Game of Life that probably won't be sold in the U.S. Funny, but I didn't think it was $35 funny, so all I got was a picture.

Golden Week I

It's officially Golden Week, or as I like to think of it, spring break. I've got a whole week off to bounce around Japan. I've got plans to go south at the end of the week to catch a couple of baseball games, so I thought I'd start the break with baseball, too. I caught the end of a high school game a couple of weeks ago, and headed back to the park yesterday to see the whole thing. First off, the park is huge. It's nicer than some minor league parks I've seen, and more crowded. And, at 600 yen to get in, more expensive than some AA parks.
Now, since I didn't have a schedule (even if I did, I couldn't read it), I caught the end of one game and the beginning of another. Then it got a little cold, so I left. For the sake of a coherent narrative, I'm going to combine it together into one whole game.

After the most organized and intense pre-game I've ever seen, the teams headed to the dugout. Then they lined up and rushed at each other. I thought they were going to settle by ramming into each other, but instead they just lined up and bowed.

The cheering section got going early. It was louder than I remember high school football games, and they don't have band. Just some noisemakers, 1 big drum, and a lot of yelling. And pink jackets.

The pink coats weren't the only ones in the cheering section. There was also bunch of what I assume were underclassmen, in full uniform, leading cheers and holding up signs. What I liked the best about that was they were evenly distributed around the section. I think they probably had practices just for cheer leading, probably after the baseball practice.

I got some decent shots of the game(s). This is my favorite. Apparently, they teach that Japanese baseball swing early.

On a side note, I saw a few kids kit hit by pitches and not take a base. I think they take making an effort to get out of the way much more seriously than US baseball does.

The games were really well played and really evenly matched. It was 0 - 0 after 5, when the grounds crew came out.

This was, I think, more underclassmen. They raked the entire infield by hand, then laid down new lines. Looked really nice, but took about 20 minutes. Really slows the game down.

The game (the one I saw the end of) went to the bottom of the 10th tied 1 - 1. Kid hit a nice solid single to left-center and the guy on 2nd made it home to end the game. But that wasn't the end of the "show".

Both teams lined back up at home plate, and it the Japan version of the traditional "good game, good game, ..." bowed to each other and the umpires. By the way, there were 4 umps for a high school game. I don't ever remember having more than 2.

After the bowing, the losers went to the dugout and the winners lined up again facing the outfield scoreboard. They took off their hats while the played what I think must have been the school's song and raised what I assume was the school flag.

Finally, after the song, each team ran over and thanked their cheering section.

It was really interesting to compare the Japanese high school game and the American game. There were so many little things that I couldn't possibly remember them all. Every few minutes, something would happen and my jaw would drop. I'm glad I kicked off a week of Japanese baseball by checking out how it gets started.

Hachimanyama Park Hanami

This weekend, the flowers were blooming here in Utsunomiya. Time to do some Hanami closer to home. I learned some things from last week, so I went and bought a cooler and a blanket and a case of beer so I could do it right this time. The people I know were having their party on Sunday, which worked out since I drank way too much on Friday night.

Other people were saving a spot, so I didn't get there until around 1. Loaded up my cooler and blanket and walked to the station, took a cab from there. Somehow, I left my sunglasses in the cab, but they were the cheap ones, so now big deal.

The weather was perfect, about 60 and sunny. Ueno was crazier, but I think Hachimanyama park here in Utsunomiya was more beautiful.

I opened my cooler around 1:30, and there was no looking back from there. I had a little too much to drink. At some point I decided to go for it and try the cuttlefish on a stick. I don't recommend it. It tasted OK, but it was kind of sticky and almost impossible to chew. This picture is after the head fell off.
After the sun went down our party was in full swing, but the park was clearing out. A bunch of us Western folks decided to head out for the after party around 10:30. It had gotten cold, so I had taken off my shirt and put on a sweatshirt instead. As far as I know, the shirt is still in the park. Along with a nice flask of whiskey. I wasn't doing a good job remembering things that night.

We went to the normal place, Ice Man's, but they were closed. After all, it was Sunday night. So we went on to plan B. Near Ice Man's, there's a tiny, tiny little street that's just packed with tiny restaurants. With the cherry blossoms blooming and the lamps lit, it looked like the perfect movie image of an old fashioned Japanese street. After our midnight snack, we went to another bar. It was completely empty, but it was open and it had the greatest name in the history of bar names.
After an hour or two of beers and karaoke, I decided I had to call it a night. Some of us have jobs. I finally got home around 1:30, and didn't make it to work until almost 10 today. So, the final tally:

• 1 cooler: $20
• 1 blanket: $20
• 1 pair of sunglasses: $15
• 1 flask of whiskey, mostly empty: $40
• 1 shirt: $20
• 1 case of beer at Japan prices: $42
• 1 cuttlefish-on-a-stick: $5
• 1 beer at the Delightful Triceratops: $7
• Needing pictures to piece together the best weekend in Japan so far: Priceless