I told myself to take it easy today. These blog sessions are completely worth not getting sleep for but at the same time, I don’t want to burn myself out on vacation. So, instead of cutting back on the blog, I decided to do a little less today. Basically one day to decompress a bit from the constant motion I've been keeping up since I got here. It turns out I still did a lot but that wasn’t my goal, that has to do with Japan having so much to offer that even down time can be eventful. Hopefully this will come across in my post today.
I woke up hungry, actually, backing that up, I went to bed hungry. I know I'm eating well on this trip but I keep forgetting that the long walks/commutes back to my hotel are usually done on an empty stomach since I eat so much earlier. I need to remember to get a snack at night, there is more than enough food out here that I don’t think this should be a problem, it will also allow me to try out the Japanese deserts, yum!
I wake up and knew I had to get something to eat but I didn’t want to eat in Ikebukuro cause I've done that the last two mornings and I wanted a change so I told myself that I’d wait until I got to the Tokyo Dome City to eat. This was sort of a good idea, unfortunately it was a transfer in Shinjuku and a longer commute than I thought to get here. I didn’t get lost at all, but my stomach wasn’t thrilled with me.
I got to the Tokyo Dome City and realized that anything I was going to eat the there would cost a lot and be touristy, for example, they have a Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory, ‘nuff said. Here are a few pictures of the Tokyo Dome City to give you an understanding of what it is. I think it’s similar to the Seattle Center but on a larger scale, they both feel very 1970’s which might work better in Japan than it does in the states. They both have amusement parks and sporting events.
I try walking several blocks away to get some more real food that wouldn’t cost one of these (points to my arm) and one of these (points to my leg). I stumble upon a place that has one of those vending machine ordering systems, you know, I spoke about it in an earlier blog, where you find what you want in the window and order using the corresponding number all on a machine, no waitress necessary. I love this system, it makes me smile.
I’ve been craving gyoza (dumplings) since I got to Japan. I went into this place because the meal you see above cost me 380 Yen, about $4 with no tip of course. I left here incredibly full and it was less than most 6” sandwiches from Subway. This trip is making me seriously rethink how much I ever pay for food. Anyways, the gyoza was fantastic, I need more of these tomorrow. The rice that came with it had stir fry chicken with little crunchy bits that were amazing and the sauce was perfect. I could’ve had this meal 10 times in a row and wanted an 11th. Once my meal was done, I wasn’t ready to move so I took a picture of myself because I realized I never get to see myself on this trip since I'm all alone with no one to take my picture so I'll start doing it for myself!
It was really great, almost tasted like Picari Sweat except a little richer. If Picari Sweat is Fiji, Calpis is Evian, both are water but the consistency is different. I love how the refreshing drinks in Japan taste like creamsicles, maybe after I work out I should just cut out the middle man and eat creamsicles, mmm, that sounds delicious AND healthy!
After the Calpis, I head over to the ticket booth to buy tickets for today’s baseball game. It’s a big game, Giants vs.. Tigers, supposedly the Japanese version of the Red Sox/Yankees. Ticket was about $40 which was discounted since I'm a foreigner. I don’t know why foreigners get discounts but hell, I'm not complaining.
Once the ticket is mine, I explore the Tokyo Dome City a bit. I see this rollercoaster and really really want to ride it but there were some raindrops randomly, barely a drizzle, but enough to get them to close it down so no luck for me. Damn shame, I've been itching to get back on a rollercoaster. Here is the roller coaster going through the Big O. Good god people, please keep your minds out of the gutter.
There are some malls around with some incredibly weird Japanese stores that I waste some time walking around. I sit down for a bit just to people watch, my body needed this, it’s still in pain from the day before. Once I get up from walking, I decide on a little adventure, and this usually means going down a random hallway hoping I stumble upon something good. That didn’t happen this time but I did find a McDonalds and was a bit hungry. I knew I'd go to a McDonalds before I left Japan, I guess now is that time.
So McDonalds was great, weird having a double cheeseburger because it doesn’t matter where you are when you eat at a McDonalds, it all tastes the same. I guess that's what we get with frozen foods being shipped around the world. I want Kobe in Japan!
After McDonalds I decide to walk around. I know there is a park nearby and I love parks so I wanted to check this one out. This one cost 300 Yen and since I didn’t have a ton of time before the baseball game, I didn’t want to spend the money and not get the most out of it. As I walk I see a bunch of kids practicing baseball…
Quick story, one time when I was living in Westwood, NJ I stopped by a baseball field near my apartment and there were kids practicing there. I took my camera because it’s such a great thing to see little kids loving baseball. Unfortunately, the parents who were also there didn’t agree. I got sooo many dirty looks. Today was much much different. I was able to hang out for a bit and enjoy watching some baseball without being that weird guy at a little league field with his camera. Thanks a lot puritan and paranoid USA!
As I walk past the park I didn’t go into, I did see signs for a roof garden and if you’ve been reading my blog so far, you should know that I would never pass up this opportunity. This is time for me to put on my headphones and meditate and contemplate, two things I plan on doing a lot of when I come home. It’s also a chance to take some pictures of myself using the timer setting, this was fun and another chance to get pictures of myself to prove that I'm actually in Japan.
Ok, time to head into the dome. It’s so nice seeing a baseball game and pretty funny that I'm seeing a Japanese baseball game this year before I see an American one especially since the Mariners home opener was only two days earlier. Here is the stadium well before the 6pm start time.
The stadium is a living breathing thing, they have what basically is a mall on the bottom floor with non-stop shows and contests happening all the way up to when the game starts. You can basically sit down on the bottom floor and just watch the spirit squad entertain you. These are basically cheerleaders which are as popular, if not more, than the players themselves.
He’s a great baseball fan so we had some really great talks about Japanese and American baseball. It was wonderful having a conversation again. At this point in the night I took off my KEXP Seattle t-shirt and put on my Giants t-shirt I bought, I totally fit in, not.
Up next is a series of photos of the stadium and the fans. I’ll talk about the fans after I show a picture of them.
These guys are incredible, no other way to explain it. I’ve seen a lot of baseball games in my life and it’s a very passive sport. The only real fan activity I've seen was the roll call the Yankees fans do and even that ends before the game even starts. Here is how it’s set up…
The left field bleachers are for the visiting team fans, the right field bleachers are for the home team’s fans. It’s pretty much how college football in America is set up. Whichever team is up to bat, their respective fan section stands up and sings the entire inning. It depends on the batter that is up, each batter has a song and these song can be 30 seconds or 5 mins, depends on the length of the at bat. There is a band and a group of guys leading the audience. They are in complete unison both with their voices but also with their body movements. It’s a sea of these people and knowing that both teams do it and are respectful and quiet when it’s the other fans turn is nothing short of breathtaking. This doesn’t get old even after 9 innings of very loud noise.
Baseball is a game where nothing happens for long periods of time so to be excited and singing and standing for 9 innings is amazing. Usually people wait for something to happen, in this situation the players try to make the cheering worth it. It’s very very difficult to truly explain but I took some videos so you can see what I saw. It won’t do it justice but it will give you an idea of how it goes.
So that hopefully let you see how the fans are and why I want nothing more than for this to happen in America. Baseball is huge in Japan and I see why, but I also see why it’s not as popular in the USA as it once was. Ok, enough of me being on a soapbox for a while, I am trying not to be that guy who will now say everything is better in Japan, I won’t, well, I might.
Here are some more pictures from my time at the game, including one from my friendly neighbor who offered to take another picture for me after the game was over. See if you can spot that picture in the group below, I bet you can’t!
I noticed they had takoyaki. I’ve had this before and was never sold on it but I figured I should see how it really should be done and good lord it was amazing.
For those of you who don’t know what takoyaki is, it’s a fried octopus ball with mayonnaise, ponzu, and katsuobushi shavings. In America, whenever I had this, the octopus was pretty minced, in Japan, it’s intact and so much better because of that. This was delicious and definitely great street food for 500 Yen.
Oh, and on a side note, I told a co-worker (one who is in Hoboken) that I'd get her a Giants hat since she has family here and really really wanted one. Of course I'd do this, thinking how hard can it be to find a hat near the stadium right? Man, this took me about 8 hours to find it. The reason it was so difficult was because you can’t find the ones the players wear anywhere and when I say anywhere, I mean anywhere! I realized I needed to get one so it was either the one I see everyone else buying or nothing at all and it’s better to have the wrong one then to just come back empty handed. I bought the Addidas one and I'm hoping it’s what she wants.
Like I said, she works in Hoboken so knowing me, I'll remember to bring it home from Japan but not from Seattle to Hoboken the next time I go home.
On the way to the train station, I saw a girl with tattoos on her legs. Considering every girl in Tokyo shows off 95% of their legs at all time, I can safely say that no girl I've seen so far has any tattoos. So, the girl I saw tonight is part of the Yakuza, I believe it, but mostly cause it's bad ass that I saw a female Yakuza member!
Also, it was Orange Day at the stadium. No I have no idea what that means either but here is a large stack of oranges.
Well, that’s it for day 4. I’m actually getting pretty upset about having to leave Tokyo in a few days. There is so much more I want to do and I'm completely in love with this place. Maybe Kyoto will make me forget about it while I'm there.
The plan for tomorrow is Namjatown, Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, and Shibuya. It’s gonna be a busy day and I can’t be out too late because I want to do the fish market at 5:30am on Friday morning. Oy vey!
Oyasuminasai.
- DAK
I woke up hungry, actually, backing that up, I went to bed hungry. I know I'm eating well on this trip but I keep forgetting that the long walks/commutes back to my hotel are usually done on an empty stomach since I eat so much earlier. I need to remember to get a snack at night, there is more than enough food out here that I don’t think this should be a problem, it will also allow me to try out the Japanese deserts, yum!
I wake up and knew I had to get something to eat but I didn’t want to eat in Ikebukuro cause I've done that the last two mornings and I wanted a change so I told myself that I’d wait until I got to the Tokyo Dome City to eat. This was sort of a good idea, unfortunately it was a transfer in Shinjuku and a longer commute than I thought to get here. I didn’t get lost at all, but my stomach wasn’t thrilled with me.
I got to the Tokyo Dome City and realized that anything I was going to eat the there would cost a lot and be touristy, for example, they have a Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory, ‘nuff said. Here are a few pictures of the Tokyo Dome City to give you an understanding of what it is. I think it’s similar to the Seattle Center but on a larger scale, they both feel very 1970’s which might work better in Japan than it does in the states. They both have amusement parks and sporting events.
This is the entrance, in the background is what they call the “Big O”. Yup, I'm not making that up.
This was noon on a weekday and there was a ton of people at the horse track betting part of the Tokyo Dome City. At least it’s outdoors, not like those nasty OTB places that I wouldn’t be caught dead near.
I try walking several blocks away to get some more real food that wouldn’t cost one of these (points to my arm) and one of these (points to my leg). I stumble upon a place that has one of those vending machine ordering systems, you know, I spoke about it in an earlier blog, where you find what you want in the window and order using the corresponding number all on a machine, no waitress necessary. I love this system, it makes me smile.
I’ve been craving gyoza (dumplings) since I got to Japan. I went into this place because the meal you see above cost me 380 Yen, about $4 with no tip of course. I left here incredibly full and it was less than most 6” sandwiches from Subway. This trip is making me seriously rethink how much I ever pay for food. Anyways, the gyoza was fantastic, I need more of these tomorrow. The rice that came with it had stir fry chicken with little crunchy bits that were amazing and the sauce was perfect. I could’ve had this meal 10 times in a row and wanted an 11th. Once my meal was done, I wasn’t ready to move so I took a picture of myself because I realized I never get to see myself on this trip since I'm all alone with no one to take my picture so I'll start doing it for myself!
Yes, I know, I never smile, I smirk and even that’s more than I'd like to do. Sometimes I even look angry during a picture but I promise I’m not.
After this breakfast/lunch combination, I find a vending machine and get this drink called Calpis Water. I’ve seen ads all over for it and was curious what it was. Looking at this picture, it looks foggy, almost like it would be milky water. The commercials claim it’s refreshing and with an easily made fun of name like Calpis, how can I go wrong?
It was really great, almost tasted like Picari Sweat except a little richer. If Picari Sweat is Fiji, Calpis is Evian, both are water but the consistency is different. I love how the refreshing drinks in Japan taste like creamsicles, maybe after I work out I should just cut out the middle man and eat creamsicles, mmm, that sounds delicious AND healthy!
After the Calpis, I head over to the ticket booth to buy tickets for today’s baseball game. It’s a big game, Giants vs.. Tigers, supposedly the Japanese version of the Red Sox/Yankees. Ticket was about $40 which was discounted since I'm a foreigner. I don’t know why foreigners get discounts but hell, I'm not complaining.
Once the ticket is mine, I explore the Tokyo Dome City a bit. I see this rollercoaster and really really want to ride it but there were some raindrops randomly, barely a drizzle, but enough to get them to close it down so no luck for me. Damn shame, I've been itching to get back on a rollercoaster. Here is the roller coaster going through the Big O. Good god people, please keep your minds out of the gutter.
There are some malls around with some incredibly weird Japanese stores that I waste some time walking around. I sit down for a bit just to people watch, my body needed this, it’s still in pain from the day before. Once I get up from walking, I decide on a little adventure, and this usually means going down a random hallway hoping I stumble upon something good. That didn’t happen this time but I did find a McDonalds and was a bit hungry. I knew I'd go to a McDonalds before I left Japan, I guess now is that time.
Bubbly Fun! Small fries, double cheeseburger, teriyaki burger, and ketchup not in a packet but in a much better dipping form.
So McDonalds was great, weird having a double cheeseburger because it doesn’t matter where you are when you eat at a McDonalds, it all tastes the same. I guess that's what we get with frozen foods being shipped around the world. I want Kobe in Japan!
After McDonalds I decide to walk around. I know there is a park nearby and I love parks so I wanted to check this one out. This one cost 300 Yen and since I didn’t have a ton of time before the baseball game, I didn’t want to spend the money and not get the most out of it. As I walk I see a bunch of kids practicing baseball…
Quick story, one time when I was living in Westwood, NJ I stopped by a baseball field near my apartment and there were kids practicing there. I took my camera because it’s such a great thing to see little kids loving baseball. Unfortunately, the parents who were also there didn’t agree. I got sooo many dirty looks. Today was much much different. I was able to hang out for a bit and enjoy watching some baseball without being that weird guy at a little league field with his camera. Thanks a lot puritan and paranoid USA!
As I walk past the park I didn’t go into, I did see signs for a roof garden and if you’ve been reading my blog so far, you should know that I would never pass up this opportunity. This is time for me to put on my headphones and meditate and contemplate, two things I plan on doing a lot of when I come home. It’s also a chance to take some pictures of myself using the timer setting, this was fun and another chance to get pictures of myself to prove that I'm actually in Japan.
This is what I'm looking at in the picture above.
After a while just sitting here enjoying the peace and tranquility that these city parks provide, I decide I should head over to the Tokyo Dome for the game. I want to see how they do pre-games and what the atmosphere is like for a Japanese baseball game. It’s like a circus!
This is called Prism Hall, I'm not sure why. There is a wall of water on the left which might have something to do with it but I wasn’t able to find out.
Yes, there is still a place in the world where the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are still popular and surprise, it’s Japan.
A side project of mine on this trip has been to find the weirdest videogame I can find. Yesterday was the irate dad game, and now it’s this one. I have no idea what you do but it involves a jumbo cup of noodles. I wonder if I can find something even weirder than this.
Ok, time to head into the dome. It’s so nice seeing a baseball game and pretty funny that I'm seeing a Japanese baseball game this year before I see an American one especially since the Mariners home opener was only two days earlier. Here is the stadium well before the 6pm start time.
The stadium is a living breathing thing, they have what basically is a mall on the bottom floor with non-stop shows and contests happening all the way up to when the game starts. You can basically sit down on the bottom floor and just watch the spirit squad entertain you. These are basically cheerleaders which are as popular, if not more, than the players themselves.
There is the spirit squad along with two Giabbit’s, the Giants mascot. I have no idea what they are doing but the spirit squad pretended to shoot them and now they are playing dead. You will notice none of the people watching are kids, I think this is intentional.
I’m thirsty so I get a green tea in a juice box. What Japanese kids bring to school!
After all of this I finally get to my seat. Really good seats and the guy I was sitting next to was Japanese but spoke some good English so I was actually able to ask him to take a picture of me, here is the result.
He’s a great baseball fan so we had some really great talks about Japanese and American baseball. It was wonderful having a conversation again. At this point in the night I took off my KEXP Seattle t-shirt and put on my Giants t-shirt I bought, I totally fit in, not.
Up next is a series of photos of the stadium and the fans. I’ll talk about the fans after I show a picture of them.
These guys are incredible, no other way to explain it. I’ve seen a lot of baseball games in my life and it’s a very passive sport. The only real fan activity I've seen was the roll call the Yankees fans do and even that ends before the game even starts. Here is how it’s set up…
The left field bleachers are for the visiting team fans, the right field bleachers are for the home team’s fans. It’s pretty much how college football in America is set up. Whichever team is up to bat, their respective fan section stands up and sings the entire inning. It depends on the batter that is up, each batter has a song and these song can be 30 seconds or 5 mins, depends on the length of the at bat. There is a band and a group of guys leading the audience. They are in complete unison both with their voices but also with their body movements. It’s a sea of these people and knowing that both teams do it and are respectful and quiet when it’s the other fans turn is nothing short of breathtaking. This doesn’t get old even after 9 innings of very loud noise.
Baseball is a game where nothing happens for long periods of time so to be excited and singing and standing for 9 innings is amazing. Usually people wait for something to happen, in this situation the players try to make the cheering worth it. It’s very very difficult to truly explain but I took some videos so you can see what I saw. It won’t do it justice but it will give you an idea of how it goes.
Fans during starting lineup
Fans when player comes up to bat
Extremely organized fans!
They can celebrate too!
So that hopefully let you see how the fans are and why I want nothing more than for this to happen in America. Baseball is huge in Japan and I see why, but I also see why it’s not as popular in the USA as it once was. Ok, enough of me being on a soapbox for a while, I am trying not to be that guy who will now say everything is better in Japan, I won’t, well, I might.
Here are some more pictures from my time at the game, including one from my friendly neighbor who offered to take another picture for me after the game was over. See if you can spot that picture in the group below, I bet you can’t!
The spirit squad comes out on to the field in between innings, like cheerleaders do at a basketball game. I’ve never seen this before at a baseball game.
I was able to understand a lot of this actually, not because of the Japanese writing, but because having been to enough baseball games, I knew what should be what.
The guy who took the picture told me to wave. I kinda went with the high five look. I was sooo close to putting up the peace signs like a Harajuku girl.
Another comment about the game before I move on to something else. The vendors are all women, probably between the ages or 16-20. They constantly walk up and down the aisles and at most times, there is two of them there at any given moment. They offer everything from bento boxes to alcohol. If you want food, you are never more than 60 seconds from a vendor coming near your seat and offering you some. They do it in the most polite way. They walk to the bottom, bow to you, and then walk with their hands up till someone stops them. I saw the same girls about 50 times during the game and they never failed to do this process, I was really really impressed.
Also, one last comment on Japanese girls before I really move on from the baseball game. They are the most adorable creatures on planet Earth. The fact that their voices really sound like that and it’s not Hollywood making us think they do, is remarkable. They are like stuffed animals but living breathing stuffed animals. Ok, that’s all about the Japanese girls, just had to mention it.
After the game, in keeping with the hope of not being hungry when I go to bed, I decide to get some food. I don’t know what it is about me but I can always find the food being served out of a vehicle, like Pa Pa Crepe’s the night before.
I noticed they had takoyaki. I’ve had this before and was never sold on it but I figured I should see how it really should be done and good lord it was amazing.
For those of you who don’t know what takoyaki is, it’s a fried octopus ball with mayonnaise, ponzu, and katsuobushi shavings. In America, whenever I had this, the octopus was pretty minced, in Japan, it’s intact and so much better because of that. This was delicious and definitely great street food for 500 Yen.
Oh, and on a side note, I told a co-worker (one who is in Hoboken) that I'd get her a Giants hat since she has family here and really really wanted one. Of course I'd do this, thinking how hard can it be to find a hat near the stadium right? Man, this took me about 8 hours to find it. The reason it was so difficult was because you can’t find the ones the players wear anywhere and when I say anywhere, I mean anywhere! I realized I needed to get one so it was either the one I see everyone else buying or nothing at all and it’s better to have the wrong one then to just come back empty handed. I bought the Addidas one and I'm hoping it’s what she wants.
Like I said, she works in Hoboken so knowing me, I'll remember to bring it home from Japan but not from Seattle to Hoboken the next time I go home.
On the way to the train station, I saw a girl with tattoos on her legs. Considering every girl in Tokyo shows off 95% of their legs at all time, I can safely say that no girl I've seen so far has any tattoos. So, the girl I saw tonight is part of the Yakuza, I believe it, but mostly cause it's bad ass that I saw a female Yakuza member!
Also, it was Orange Day at the stadium. No I have no idea what that means either but here is a large stack of oranges.
Well, that’s it for day 4. I’m actually getting pretty upset about having to leave Tokyo in a few days. There is so much more I want to do and I'm completely in love with this place. Maybe Kyoto will make me forget about it while I'm there.
The plan for tomorrow is Namjatown, Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, and Shibuya. It’s gonna be a busy day and I can’t be out too late because I want to do the fish market at 5:30am on Friday morning. Oy vey!
Oyasuminasai.
- DAK
