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...