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.