Sapporo Day 2 - Baseball & Beer

Saturday morning I got up sort of early to head to my one remotely cultural plan for Sapporo, Hokkaido shrine. Nice little shrine, quiet, not much to see. There was some sort of pottery / dish sale going on, almost like a flea market with about 10 different shops set up selling the same type of tea pots and plates. After I did some shopping, I had to run to the other side of town to get to the Fighters game.

The Sapporo dome looks like a giant thing of jiffy pop with a straw pointing out of it. The straw is an observation deck, but I didn't think there would be much to observe so I didn't go up.It's another one of those multi-sport stadiums. It's got good old fashioned AstroTurf baseball field, and when it's time for soccer, they drive in a grass field and shift the lower deck around. But for baseball, that means that there's a ton of space between the foul lines and the seats. This actually came into play a couple of time where I thought the ball would be in the stands but they just ran over and caught it.
I sat through one of the less exciting 10 inning games I've seen and watched the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters lose 2-1 to the Seibu Lions. Then I waded through the subway station back to the hotel for a little break before heading to the beer gardens.

I had scoped the place out the day before and decided to bypass the Suntory and Asahi gardens and went straight to the Kirin beer garden. It had the best music. It was Sunday night, but the whole park was packed and after I bought some Japanese chicken nuggets I scouted around for a place to sit I finally found a spot at the end of a table and started to sit down, but when I asked the people on the other end if it was OK, they said to join them. Nice people. I had a ticket for a beer, but they immediately poured me one from there giant beer tube. I hung out with these guys for a couple of hours. They apparently got a much earlier start than I did. They were my immediate friends. The one guy kept trying to give me his shirt. I finally managed to chip in 1000 yen for the next beer-tube, but I must have gotten 6 beers and paid for one. Worked out really well for me.
The beer gardens shut down at 9:30 on the dot, when they turn off the lights and the music and urge everyone to leave. My new friends (whose names I don't remember) went home and I went to the next bar.

Also the night before, I had noticed a bar that the internet recommended, so I headed over there. Rad Brothers bar. They had a good slogan on their menu, so I new it would be OK:I sat down and started trying to talk to the Russian girl next to me, but the only language we shared was broken Japanese, so we both gave up pretty fast. Meanwhile, another guy came in who looked like he spoke English, so we started talking. I asked what he was doing in Sapporo and he said working. So I asked what he did, of course thinking English teacher. But when no, Pro Wrestler. So I talked to him for a while, since there's a lot of interesting conversation inherent in "I'm a Pro Wrestler in Japan". Then another guy came in and sat down. What's he do? Jazz Musician. Usually, I think I can make my job sound cool. This night was an exception. All I cold think of was "An engineer, a wrestler, and a pianist walk into a bar..."

I hung out with the jazz guy and Phil Atlas for a few more hours and a couple more bars until it was time to give up. Lots of beers, new friends, and an invitation to go to a wrestling show. All in all, a good random night in Sapporo.

Sapporo Day 1 - Planes, Trains, and Monorails

This weekend I made the last long baseball trip I had left, up to Sapporo to watch the world-famous Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters at the Sapporo Dome. Getting there was a bit of a headache, though.

First, since my credit cards don't like to work in Japan, I had to find another way to pay for the plane ticket. Luckily, since Japan is still a very cash-based society, there was another option in place. When I made the reservation (a couple months back) all I had to do was head up to the 7-11 with the cash. That was the easy part.

Saturday morning, I got up nice and early and walked to the train station, got some coffee, and jumped on the early shinkansen for Tokyo. Then I just had to transfer to the Tokyo loop line local train, then transfer to the Tokyo monorail to get to the airport. Flight was of course delayed. Then, once I got to the Sapporo airport, the plane parked on the tarmac and a stairway pulled up, so you have to take a bus to the terminal. Then I took a train to Sapporo station, a subway, and a short walk, and I was at my hotel by 2:30.

I was meeting my Japanese teacher there around 4:00. She's from Sapporo and was going to be there anyway, so she volunteered to show me around town. While I waited, I went to check out the big park that runs down the middle of town, Odori Park.

During the winter, Sapporo is famous for the snow festival that takes place in Odori park. During the summer, they set up beer gardens instead. The park is around 12 blocks long, and each brewery sets up their own beer garden, taking up about a block of the park. All told, there were 7 or 8 city blocks worth of beer gardens.

They've been doing this for a while, so they know how to cover all the bases.
After I met up with my teacher, we went to see the sights. First up was the former Hokkaido government office building. It's a big brick building, mostly famous because it's old.
Next, we went to Sapporo's most famous attraction, the Sapporo Clock Tower. Also mostly famous for being old. It's also not as big as you think it will be. That's why it's on the list of "3 Most Disappointing Sights in Japan".
Last stop before dinner was Sapporo Tower, an imitation Eiffel tower. There's an observation deck that overlooks the park, so we went up and had a look.
After the tower, we went to have sushi. My teacher had a favorite sushi place she wanted to take me to, so I got a taste of what good sushi is, as opposed to the conveyor belt stuff I usually eat. After dinner, we went to a couple of bars for drinks, so I got an idea of where to go for the nightlife in town. Then we called it a night and I went to bed. I had big plans for Sunday. First a temple, then the ballgame, and finally the beer garden. Better rest up.

Osaka - Again

Sunday morning I got on the train for Osaka and spent the hour ride deciding what to do when I got there. ETA was around 10, so that gave me 3 hours before game time. Not enough time for something big, so I decided to find something close to the stadium that I could just walk around for a little while. The place I decided on was America-mura, AKA America Town. I was hoping for something crazy, but since it was Sunday morning, all I got was a bunch of clothes shops and most of them were closed. The shops all seemed to specialize is what they though were American style clothes, which means what you might see on MTV but not on any real people.

The one interesting thing I found was a purse made out of a Tim Lally Chevrolet ad. I tried to explain to the salesman that I was born in Bedford, but I couldn't quite get it across.
Post-America town I headed over to the Osaka Dome. This seems like a place I could get to like. They had a nice little beer garden set up outside, sponsored by Budweiser. It was still early in the day and I didn't have enough time to "Let's Enjoy! Let's Drinking!".
Looks like I made a mistake on my scheduling. I probably should've gone to Osaka on Saturday, 6/12 instead of Sunday 6/13.
I picked up my hat and a Tuffy Rhodes jersey and then kept looking around the gift shop. I found a nice T-shirt that shows how to throw "The most popular curve ball in Japan", some spare rocket balloons, and a rocket balloon launcher.

It was the Orix Buffaloes vs. the Seibu Lions. It was close through 4 or so and then the Buffaloes jumped up 4-1, and it stayed that way for the rest of the game.
I couldn't find a mascot or anything to take a picture in front of. Then, after I took off the jersey to get on the subway, I decided to take this one.

I was getting pretty tired, and I had to be at work in the morning, so it was back on the train to Utsunomiya and I finally got back home around 9. These busy weekends are killing me. At least there's only 4 teams left to see.

Nagoya

This weekend was a big trip down to the Kansai region to finish off the rest of the southern/western teams. It was going to be a jam-packed weekend, as I wanted to try to cram some sightseeing in and go to 2 games about an hour apart. First up was Nagoya for the 2007 Nippon Professional Baseball Champion Chunichi Dragons. It was about a 3 hour train ride and since this is the only time I plan to go to Nagoya, I wanted to get there in time to see some of the sights before the 3 o'clock game, so I got on a 7AM train and headed south.

The plan was to go to Atsuta shrine first and, if there was time, go to Nagoya castle. The shrine was underwhelming. It was set in a nice peaceful park, but the main building was under construction and most of the other buildings weren't very interesting. I wandered around for a while and all of a sudden somebody says "Good Morning". I looked around and saw an older Japanese guy waving, so I said "ohayo goziamasu" back to him. I went over to where he was sitting and we started talking. He spoke really good English (so I didn't have to work very hard) and he offered to show me around the shrine. "next, I want to show you this...and now this" for about half an hour while he walked me around the park. He explained that he lives close by and walks around the park every morning for the exercise and to get away from his wife. All around, one of the nicest people I've ever met, but I didn't get his name or picture, so just take my word for it.

I hopped on the subway and went to the castle. Like Osaka castle, it looks really cool from a distance, but when you get closer you can see that it's a modern concrete reproduction. I got someone to take a picture of me in front of it, but I like the one I took better.
I walked through the museum inside the "castle" and headed over to the game. I missed lunch, so I had to eat there. Being a hungry American, I got the whole Family Snack.
The Family Snack was advertised as a hot dog and fries, but the hot dog wasn't quite right. It was on this giant bun and for some reason, in addition to the ketchup and mustard, there was lettuce, and it was all between the hot dog and the bun. Not the best dog I ever had, but it and a beer filled me up.

Being the defending champs, the Dragons are attracting lots of fans and I couldn't find a good seat for once. Todd and his wife were thinking about coming with me, but I couldn't find 3 seats together. I had to spend more than I wanted and still sat way down the 3rd base line. I shouldn't have, since I saw a bunch of scalpers on the way in and that would've been a good test of my Japanese skills. I probably would've bought an upper deck seat behind a pole for $100.First, a few observances about the environment. The Nagoya dome gets positive points for the beer vendor uniforms. They were actual baseball uniforms with the beer company name on them. Then the lost all those points by only having guys selling the beer. When the Dragons came up to bat in the bottom of the 1st, they got most of the points back, because their lead off batter walked to the plate to Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone".

It was Chunichi vs. the Yakult Swallows. Swallows jumped out to an early lead and were up 1 - 0 for most of the game until the Dragons tied it up. It went to extra innings, and in Japan, there are ties in baseball. They call it after 12 innings. The top of 12 with 2 outs and Yakult had the bases loaded, 3-2 count, and the hit a medium speed grounder to 3rd. The 3rd baseman came up firing and gunned him down and home. One of the more exciting half innings of baseball I've seen.

Bottom of 12 and I was torn. Do I want the home team to win or do I want to see my first tie? I quietly cheered for a tie. Dragons went down in order and everyone just quietly filed out of the stadium. I didn't realize a tie was that anticlimactic.

I went off in search of my hotel but made a wrong turn. Instead of my cheap hotel, I found a very expensive hotel with a lobby full of Swallows players. I couldn't decide if I should try and make some friends and then I realized I was wearing a Dragons jersey and hat and decided it wouldn't go over well. So I moved on, checked in, and went to a place called "Los Tacos" for a delicious taco and some guacamole before going out for the night. But once I found the bar I was looking for, I also found a sign that said they were closed for renovations. I weighed my options and decided to buy a couple beers and go back to the hotel and rest up for the next day. To be continued...

Mt. Fuji

This weekend's adventure was one of the more ambitious plans I have for my time here in Japan, climbing Mt. Fuji. Everyone I know who came here before me told me I should do it, and my OAP "class" (that's how I like to think of the guys who came over with me) decided this was the weekend. We were going to celebrate the 4th of July in a truly American way, by standing on top of another country.

Before we even started, plans started changing. Joe, the guy who suggested this weekend, and his wife had to bail out due to a death in the family, so it was down to Todd and myself. So Friday afternoon I left work really early and drove down to Gotemba with Todd and his family. They were going to stay there while Todd and I climbed a mountain.

The standard way to climb Mt. Fuji is to arrive at the mountaintop in time for sunrise. There's a couple of ways to do this. You can start climbing from the very bottom and climb for 15-20 hours, staying in mountain huts along the way. You can drive to one of the 5th stations, around half way, and leave in the afternoon and spend one night in the mountain huts. Or you drive to the 5th station, leave around 9:30 or 10:00, and hike straight through the night. That's what we were going for.

There's four 5th stations. The city where Todd's wife and baby were staying, Gotemba, has one above it, but it's the longest and ugliest of the routes. Kawaguchiko was on the other side of the mountain, too far away. So that left us deciding between the Subashiri and Fujinomiya routes. We planned on catching a bus from Gotemba station up to a 5th station, so I went to the front desk of Todd's hotel and asked about the bus schedule. Because this was the first weekend of the official climbing season, things weren't in full swing yet. The last bus to either trail left at 1:30. It was already 5:00, so we had to beg Todd's wife to drive us up to the 5th station, so our decision had to be the closest one, Subashiri.

We got to the Subashiri trail head around 8:30, and we were immediately confronted with the best pair of salespeople I had ever seen. The big Mt. Fuji climbing souvenir is a wooden walking stick. Before I even had a chance to look for one, this guy and what I assume was his wife were sizing me up, handing me different sticks to see which one fit. He gave me broken English walking stick instructions and explained that you can get your stick branded at each of the stations on the way up, for a nominal cost.

This guy's wife(?) kept talking about bells. I had heard about these. They tie onto your stick and last about 200 yards before the ringing gets too annoying. I kept asking how much the bells were (I want the whole experience) and she kept saying "Service". I can't imagine what kind of service you get by ringing a bell on a mountain, but I thought maybe that's how they know people arrive at the mountain huts. Apparently the "Service" she was talking about what that they provide the bells as a service for people buying walking sticks, so she tied on my free bells and we started off. I also let myself get talked into a can of oxygen for $10, and I'm glad I had it.

I thought this was going to be pretty easy uphill hiking, just a walking path and not many rocks to climb over. Boy, was I wrong. This was a serious hike. You really have to watch your step, make a plan for every bunch of rocks you come to. After an hour of that, I was already getting worried when we finally got the the 6th station.

There are 10 stations going up the mountain. Each one has a little food and drinks (and oxygen cans) for sale and around the 7th and 8th stations, there's also some "accommodations" for sleeping. Just a little 2 X 5 foot spot on the floor to sleep basically, and for around $60 bucks, we didn't think it was worth it. There's also a guy who burns the brands onto the sticks, but he apparently works the 9-5 shift, and we couldn't get any brands on our sticks at the time we climbed. Nice of the 5th station couple to tell us.

The trail was completely empty. People had warned us that there would almost be a line all the way up the mountain, but that's not what we saw. At the 7th station, maybe an hour and a half later, we met up with a group of American teachers over here with some sort of grant. They were on the last weekend of a 4 week trip, and decided to climb Mt. Fuji.

When we first started out, I though I might be over prepared. I was wearing khaki's, a T-shirt, and hiking boots, and was carrying a 60 liter backpack with a winter coat (waterproof outer shell and liner), spare T-shirt and socks, and rain pants. I also had about 4 liters of water (price goes up with altitude) and food (SoyJoy bars and some stuff called Calorie Mate bars). I also wore a head lamp, but I though I might look like a tool, so I also brought a small flashlight, too. At the 5th station, I though I might be under prepared, since I saw some people with serious fiberglass walking sticks, gaiters over their boots, crazy expansive, alpine rated parkas and snow pants.

When we met these teachers, I decided I was probably about right. They were going the jeans and a sweatshirt way. But some of them were already struggling, and I'm pretty sure they didn't make it to the top, and I honestly hope they didn't. I was up there with a heavy winter coat and gloves and I was freezing my ass off. I don't think they would have been safe.

We had started a little earlier than the guidebooks say you need to in order to make it by sunrise (which around here at this time of year is about 4:30), so we took our time. Around 2:30, we reached the 8th stage, and found the line of people. Apparently the people who stayed in the mountain huts woke up and started climbing. It slowed us down a little, but we were both pretty tired (in every sense of the word) and we were glad for the rest.

Around 3:30, the top was almost in sight, but the horizon was starting to brighten up and we were getting worried about making it in time. The path is too narrow to pass anyone, so we had no choice but to wait it out. Finally, around 4:20, we could finally see the goal. Pass under the torii and you made it to the top, 3776 meters.
We got to the top and had a puff of O2 and a Snickers bar to celebrate and started snapping pictures. That's a high mountain. Once it got light enough to tell, at least.
We found someone to take a picture of Todd and I just before dawn.
We sat down to watch the sunrise and shiver. It must have been a bit below freezing, and the wind was whipping around the top of the mountain hard enough to knock you down. We got our pictures fast and started looking for the way down.
We planned on taking the Gotemba route down, because we had heard it's mostly loose volcanic ash and really easy to climb down. The signs were all kanji, though, so we went about 100 yards the wrong way before we decided to walk further around the rim of the volcano to find the right one. I'm glad we did, because we got a good look down into the crater. I think that big black rock is the only thing holding it all in, like a cork.

We finally started down the right trail around 6:30 or so. Until the 7th stage or so, the path was pretty difficult. Lots of big, loose rocks that were a real pain in the ass after 8 hours of climbing up. Finally, after the 7th station, we got the loose ash we were promised, and climbing turned into walking. But by this point, walking was getting tough enough. We finally got to the Gotemba 5th station just in time for the 10 AM bus back to Gotemba station. We had a quick McDonald's lunch while waiting for Todd's wife to pick him up and take him back to the hotel, then I took 3 trains back to Utsunomiya to sleep. I took a 3 hour nap, woke up for 2 hours, then went to bed around 8:30. 12 hours of good sleep later and I'm awake, but I'm pretty darn sore today.

It was a hell of a long walk to watch a sunrise, but it was worth it. It was definitely one of those "it's the journey, not the destination" things. Now I get a whole week of rest/work before a trip to Nagoya and Osaka to finish off the southern baseball teams. Then a weekend in Utsunomiya, a trip to Sapporo to watch the Nippon Ham Fighters, and I'm back in the USA for 2 weeks.

I Miss Pizza

It's been another busy week, and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. So all you get is this Domino's ad and an update on whats been going on and upcoming plans.
Last week I had a business trip to Hokkaido, where we have a test track. It was fun, the track was much more exciting than what we have here in Utsunomiya. Although I don't have the right test driving license to test on the good course, I got to be a test passenger. I drove around on the less exciting course and almost ran over a fox 5 times.

Saturday was another trip to Roppongi. My mom reads this, so I'll leave it at that.

Finally, in case you haven't heard yet, I'm coming to Cleveland for my brother's wedding, August 2-15. Other than the bachelor party the day I get in and the wedding on the 8th, I don't have any definite plans yet. I want to go to the Browns pre-season game on the 7th if anyone else plans on going. I'm also thinking of going to an Indians game if anyone wants to join me. Other than that, it is my vacation, so if anyone has time to go out, let me know. If I'm spending my vacation in Cleveland, I need to get out.

Yakult

I had every intention of going to the temple next door when I went down to Meiji Jingu Stadium this weekend, but my plan of just stopping in at the bar Friday night didn't work out. So instead of the early train, I got on the not-as-early train. After checking into the hotel in Roppongi, I got to the stadium about 2 hours before gametime. Just enough time to wander around lost and not find the temple.

I didn't make it to the big official temple, but I did find a little portable temple on the back of a truck. It was dedicated (according to the guys around it's T-shirts) to the "God of the Victory". With a guy like this on your side, how could you lose? Reminds me a little of Jobu. I caught the mascot praying. I'm not sure he was serious. Lot's of flapping. When he finished, I was getting closer to take a picture of the statues while there was nobody in line, and one of the, well, I don't know what you call a guy in a T-shirt running a "God of the Victory" truck, but he grabbed me and led me up the stairs. I didn't know what to do, but they walked me through a hand clapping and told me to say "gambare!" at the statue. As skilled as they were with a "God of the Victory" truck, they didn't take good pictures, so I'm not posting the one they took of me praying.

They were celebrating one of the Yakult pitchers 1000th inning that day. I got a nice laminated card. He got about 10 different people from various companies giving him money and gifts and flowers.

The gaem was the Yakult Swallows vs. the Orix Buffaloes. Yakult is kind of like the Mets, I think. They're the "other team" in Tokyo. They're owned by a company that makes some sort of yogurt drink. I've never tried it, but I hear it's good, as far as yogurt drinks go.

The weather started off decent, but I could already see the clouds in the distance. It didn't look good. Luckily, this stadium is famous for doing an umbrella dance when they score, so I was prepared for some rain. I also bought one of the souvenir umbrellas, but it's too small to do any real rain protection with.The rain started when the game started, but it really didn't start coming down until the 3th inning. I got to see Tuffy Rhodes (maybe the 2nd best name in NPB, formerly of the Red Sox, Cubs, and Astros) reach base on a catcher's interference. That was about the only interesting baseball I saw. I dealt with the rain until the end of the 4th, long enough to watch the umbrella dance once, but I was going to meet some friends down in Roppongi, and the bar sounded like more fun than a rainy game so I left early.

I got down to Roppongi around 9, met up with my buddies at the bar, and then went on the normal bar hop. I went back to my hotel and passed out around 5, woke up around 9, and then stopped to buy some hiking boots on the way home.

This week I have a business trip to Sapporo and then back to Tokyo for another weekend there. I already planned my trip up to Sapporo for the Ham Fighters game before the business trip came up, so I couldn't combine trips. Instead I get to make 2 trips up there.