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.