Socks rocked off

All I can say is...wow.


I've heard that Japanese baseball fans were hardcore, but I was not expecting something on the level. Many of the students I've taught had hyped up the Hanshin Tigers so much that I felt it would be disrespectful to delay going to a game any longer. Tonight was the night. Location? Koshien. Opposing team? The Seibu Lions. Play ball!

Having only been to two Blue Jays games in my life, my baseball experience has been somewhat limited. Granted, watching baseball is usually as fun watching paint dry so I wasn't sure what to expect. Meagan and Val also being non-baseball fans came along to see what the fuss was about. Becky, one of the Japanese staff I've had the pleasure of working with also came. It's funny because she said she kinda liked the Tigers, but as soon as the game started you could tell she was way hardcore because she knew all the cheers, actions and player names. Casual fan my ass!

The game started promptly at 6 and even though many of the seats were empty, the main cheering section to our right (Cheer right) was already in full force. Their numbers would soon be bolstered by a thousand more. All the fans had small, mini, hollowed out plastic bats chained together nunchuck style to make the stadium rumble. In each section there were guys standing up at the front leading the cheers as well as drummers keeping the beat and trumpeters to punctuate the already deafening roar. It felt more like I was at a concert watching the hypnotic movements of the main cheering section's plastic bats with some baseball off to the side. Imagine having your socks rocked off for three hours with no break. Awesome is just barely acceptable in describing the fever pitch atmosphere.

The most amazing aspect of the night was the sheer enthusiasm of the entire crowd. No heckling, no fighting spectators, just pure unadulterated fun. With an extensive playlist of cheers/chants on loop, the crowd was always ready to go and on their feet at a moment's notice. With Japanese society being so structured, it was amusing to see even their fun time so structured. From what I could understand, most of the players had their own cheers. Hitting a home run, a single, getting the other team out, and catching a fly ball all had a specific cheer. Even when the other team changed pitchers there was a cheer accompanied by bat hitting actions.

Here's the crowd singing the other team's pitcher off the field. Burn!




That's enough reading. Picture time!



NO WAVE?! That's the only move I know! The seats didn't have backs on them so there could have been some freak wave accidents in the past that would've prompted such a harsh ban.



No crackers or peanuts or cracker jacks. Not even a hot dog! Of the Western faire in the hot foods section you could score some fried chicken and fries. However, I opted for the curry rice with pork cutlet. It looks disgusting but I assure you it was quite tasty. Curry and baseball, together at last! Also on the menu was soba or udon in soup. That was tempting, but the stairs were perilous and I'm a clumsy idiot.


To the right! (The ultra hardcore cheering section)

To the left!


At the top of the 7th inning, everyone started breaking out these balloons. We forgot to get ours at the front. :( My only problem with these balloons is the uncanny resemblance they have to a certain microscopic organism which shall remain nameless. You know, for the children. What happened next is..well...let's just say it's appropriate. Peep the vid below.




One of my favourite shots. Taken around 8:30 when almost all the seats were filled. When we go back next time I'll definitely have to get some better shots of the infield and players.


The lovely ladies. Which one's Becky again? Also, I have no idea what Meagan is staring at.


The cheerleaders in our section. The old lady in the yellow jersey was rocking it from the time the game started until it ended. You go grandma.

Oh yeah, before I forget, here's the crowd's response to the game winning home run:



We definitely plan on going back soon, but next time we'll be prepared with nunchuck bats in hand to add to the rawk.

Japan Delight #3

The snacks!

Sure, I miss my Sour Cream n' Bacon Ruffles and Cool Ranch Doritos, but there's a whole world of snacking to be explored here. Of course there's Pocky , and the dozens of flavours in it's line up, but that's only scratching the surface. Besides, cylindrical cookie snacks has a new champion, and that's
Toppo . More to come shortly.

I bring to you, GYOZA CHIPS!



We normally just call em' dumplings, and man are they fantastic. I could probably eat 20 of those things in a sitting. It's disgusting, I know. But hey, if you've ever eaten 20 McNuggets in one sitting you'll know what I'm talking about. Besides, it's a perfect complement to a good bowl of ramen.

Back to the chips...they taste JUST LIKE the gyoza! It's blowing my mind. Really. If there's anything food companies here do perfectly, it's simulated flavors. Hooray for chemicals! Props to Val for spotting these at the store when I was writing up the last post.

There's a 7/11 right outside our building so expect more of this hard hitting food/snack expose to come. That and I'm somewhat of an eataholic. Go fat!

This fire is outta control, we're gonna burn this city, burn this city!

Waaaaaaaaay back in the frigid days of March (Lousy Smarch weather!) we went to Nara yet again for the yearly Omizutori festival. It's a festival of Buddhist origin that runs for about a week.



The monks at the temple (part of the Todaiji temple area) burn massive torches made up of dried pine branches. The "promo" pics we saw elsewhere made it look like they light up the balcony of the temple but really it was just an elaborate camera trick. Jerks.


If you look to the left of the picture above, it takes about four guys to haul those burning torches up the stairs. Guess you wouldn't really wanna burn the place down eh? Did I mention the temple is pretty much 100% wood? It was also dry out. Thankfully, they have lots of experience as this tradition has been going strong since 752 without pause.



The monkly men would start on the left and run to the right of the balcony leaving a cool flame trail effect. Even better was the throngs Japanese people 'oohing' and 'aahing' every time a torch was run across. Even better was the 50-ish old lady screaming "Sugoi! Sugoi!" (sugoi means "amazing) for 20 minutes straight. It's awesome when grown adults sound like 13 year olds. It's like watching shitty fireworks! I kid, I kid.



Here's a zoomed out shot. The place was rammed with people and the area in front of the temple was a little hilly so it was difficult to get a good shot. There was also a bunch of monster pine trees in the way.




The sparks flying off the torch are supposed to grant you good luck if they touch you. Getting burned is awesome!


Summer is almost upon us and from what I hear it's festival season! Hopefully I'll be able to bring more Japanese goodness you way soon. :)

Our childhood was lacking.

Hey guys!

Has it been two weeks already? Regrettably, updating seems more of a chore these days. The stupid part is, I don't even work that many hours, but between keeping the apartment in order, running errands and planning lessons, blogging seems like an afterthought. BUT, I have lots to share and tons of photos from Tokyo so hopefully I can put those up soon. If I'm on your friends list on Facebook, check my photos, they're already up!

This is gonna be a short one today...I saw this while in the port area of Kobe and just had to show you guys. It's totally awesome! Check it:




Why didn't we have this when we were kids!? From the look of the mechanical beast and the wear and tear, this thing has probably been driven poorly by children for quite a while now. All we had were those shitty horses and cars in front of arcades and grocery stores. Oh well. I'll just have to re-live that part of my childhood here...

More to come soon...