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

Ueno Park Hanami

This weekend I honestly wanted to go down to Ueno to the museum. I felt like I needed to get out of Utsunomiya for a day or so, and I'm more cultural than this blog may imply. Also, the cherry blossoms are blooming in Tokyo, so I wanted to take a look at the scenery and the big party that it causes.

I got on the train, a little later than I planned, and 2 hours of slow train later, I got to Ueno station. Obviously, my first stop was the bathroom. As I walked out, I ran into a guy I know and his wife. They were apparently on the same train and had come to have a little hanami (flower-looking tailgate) party. I said maybe I'd run into them later. I walked another 20 yards and saw another guy I know and his girlfriend. The party had reached critical mass, so I got pulled in.

We walked into the park to look for somewhere to set up base camp. It really was very pretty, but I think there were more people than flowers. The crowd was crazy. I hear that people show up at least the night before for a decent spot, if not days before.
We walked past these guys, I knew I was in the right place. We'll get back to them later.

We found a tiny spot to set up. It looked like you aren't allowed to walk there, but we weren't first, plus, hey, I can't read the sign. We hunkered down behind a horse statue and under a tree that had a few too many birds for my comfort. To my left were some drunk businessmen in suits, to the right was a nice little homeless village. I drank my beers and watched to people for a while. One of the suits got pooped on. A little while later, another guy showed up, and we set out to brave the crowd and find a better place to sit. We didn't find one, but we got this nice, absolutely straight picture.

After we got back to base camp, and I at some yakisoba and meat-on-a-stick, I was ready to do some drunk wandering. I saw a guy in a panda suit in the distance and went to track him down for a picture. Before I got to him, I was distracted by the guys with the beer from earlier:

OK, so they don't want to upload my video. I'll try YouTube: Nope, Google video. Ok, 4th try.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6353692882071418879

I couldn't understand what they were saying, but this went on for at least half an hour while I watched. We decided they were some fraternity playing every one's favorite game, Drink and Puke.

Not long after that, everyone else decided to head back to Utsunomiya, but I still had the drunk wanderlust. I said goodbye and set off to make new friends. After walking along for a little while, I saw a guy in a Pikachu suit and a girl in a something else suit and decided to follow them for a little while. While they were posing for pictures, I spotted a couple of cute girls and asked them what the girl was supposed to be.

I talked to these girls for a while, focusing on girl A for what seemed like a good reason. Find out they're both nurses, 24 years old, etc. General small talk. After about 20 minutes, though, I found out she's engaged, so I suavely (I think) segued over to girl B. Turns out she's got a boyfriend, too. Sorry, I forgot their names. While I'm talking to these girls, this old guy joins in. He wants to be my friend. I had some camera problems (probably changed some setting without realizing it) so this is the only picture (and memory) I have of the last 2 hours before I went home. It's displays my state pretty well. Don't worry, I got my hat back.I'm about 100km North of Tokyo, and if my calculations are right, we should get the cherry blossoms this weekend or so. That means I'll get to re-do it all closer to home.

Better Friday Revisited; or, Inside the Temple of Doom

It's been a long time since we've celebrated "Better Friday", and with good reason. We're all grown up, and my parents don't go to Florida for spring break anymore. Although, this year they did, but that's not what made a somewhat "Better Friday" possible. My manager, who I interviewed with in Ohio and has been back in Japan for a few years now, is leaving Honda to be a bigger dog at supplier. Friday night was his going away party.

When a peon like myself leaves, they have a party at a bar. When a big dog like Yoshino-san leaves, they go all out. They had the party at the giant wedding reception place next to my apartment. You know the one, there's a picture of it somewhere on here. The place is a crazy, one stop wedding shop. They sell you the clothes, host the service (Western or Shinto), host the party, have a bus to pick up guests at the station. They may even sell rings or have a travel agent. Here's the website.

http://www.bellevie-u.com/

I've been dying to know what was inside that place, but I didn't think I'd ever step foot in there. I even considered trying to crash a wedding, but I think I might be spotted before I get very far. I went in and I was directed to the 5th floor before I really had time to look around. I knew going in that it would be a big party, but I had no idea. I did the math, tables were arrange 4 X 4, with 10 at a table, so there were about 160 people there. And we were only 1 of the party rooms.

They did the traditional "Kampai" to kick things off, and then went through a little "this is you life" thing. No engineer party is complete without a PowerPoint presentation. Once they started feeding people, nobody paid any attention to what was going on . Yoshino-san got up to say his goodbyes and only the people sitting at his table were really listening.

I realize I haven't had any good stories lately, so I figured after the party, I would go with the flow to the 2nd party that seemed like it might be wildest. Next thing I know I'm in car with 3 guys I don't know and 1 guy I barely know, headed god knows where. I got a phone call from Suzuki-san, and since I had no idea what was going on, I handed off the phone. Next thing I know, we're picking up Suzuki and 2 other guys, putting us a little beyond the advertised seating capacity of the Honda Elysian.

Went to the hostess bar, but on the other side of the station. I didn't even know there were hostess bars on the other side of the station. Anyway, after the normal "Hey Dan-san, say this to her", we called it a night.

In other news, it's definitely springtime here, which is great, because baseball is on TV. Even if I don't care about the teams, at least I can understand it. This weekend was the start of the springtime high school tournament and a couple of pre-season exhibition games between Japanese teams (Giants and Tigers) and the Red Sox and A's, so it's been non stop baseball on TV. I'd like to go to the bar Monday and watch the Sox-A's game, but I haven't found a legitimate sports bar here yet.

They also do a fine job of covering any Japanese players in the majors, so I'll be able to follow the Indians, at least when Kobayashi is pitching. I caught this on the TV, it says the Indians lost to the Yankees 7-6, and I assume the bottom says Kobayashi pitched 1 inning, no K's or hits, but that just an educated guess.

One interesting thing I'm noticing, watching all these high school games, is it seems like all the teams wear white uniforms. Maybe some colored trim (usually blue), but always white or off-white. Makes it hard to tell the teams apart if you can't read the name on the front.

Work, Sleep, Drink, Repeat

Sorry I haven't updated this for a while, but I've had neither the time to write or anything to write about. I've settled into a nice, comfortable routine. What routine, you ask?

Monday:
Get up, jump in my Life Turbo and drive to work. Get there about 7:30, study/drink coffee for half an hour before clocking in. Work until 2, drive home, jump on my bike and ride to school. Learn Japanese for 3 hours, home at 6, make dinner, clean, do some of the stuff I didn't do on the weekend.

Tuesday:
Get up, walk about 15 minutes to the bus stop, ride the bus for an hour or so to go 5 miles, get to work around 8:30. Work until 9, get on the bus, home around 10, go to bed.

Wednesday:
Observe the "union rules" and only work for 8 hours. Do some more of the stuff I put off on the weekend.

Thursday:
See Tuesday.

Friday:
See Monday. After class, eat dinner, head to the bar, drink to much, sleep too little.

Saturday:
Suffer through a hangover. Eat dinner, head back to the bar. Go to the dance club down the street from the bar. Drink too much, sleep too little.

Sunday:
Suffer through a hangover, maybe cook a nice American style breakfast.

So, life hasn't changed too much.

Now, some pictures. I was going to post a picture from the bar, but my computer doesn't like to talk to my Japanese cell phone, so I can't get the pictures off. Here's a picture of another bar, that seems to be closed now.

The other day, my computer told me to back some stuff up, so I went to buy some blank DVDs. I bought these ones, figure I could put the spares around the apartment to throw dodgeballs at.

I saw this sign outside a pachinko parlor as I rode past and thought it was funny. Looks menacing.