Koshien

I've always liked baseball. I spent several birthdays watching the Rockies play at Coors Field (and before them the Denver Zephyrs - who else remembers them!!) growing up. I always caught at least one game every summer, and in my previous job as an engineer, was lucky enough to work with some awesome people who took us to the opening day game every year (you rock Dave E!!) ^^

In Japan, baseball is pretty big.

In fact, I might even go so far as to say it's more popular here than at home. We like to call baseball "America's pastime", but really, I think Japan loves it more.

Sure, the US has more pro teams, more money, the best players, and a longer history with the sport. We invented it, and it's definitely an important part of our culture. But consider this: there are 12 pro and 12 minor league teams in Japan; a country roughly the size of California. And, unlike just about all other imported sports, they have a Japanese word and kanji for it. In Japanese, baseball is 野球 yakyu. The first character means "field", the second is "ball". Soccer is サッカ sakka, basketball is バスケットボール basukettobo-ru, volleyball is バレーボール bare-bo-ru (no "v" in Japanese), golf = ゴルフ gorufu.... you get the idea. All in katakana, all words imported from another language. But baseball? Baseball is yakyu.

These days I mostly watch my junior high teams play, though I have seen a couple of pro games. Occasionally, if I am feeling especially playful, I'll even go practice with the teams after school.

What I haven't seen a lot of are high school games, since I don't teach there. And high school baseball is big here. Like, REAL big.

Culturally speaking, it's everywhere. In manga (Japanese comics), tv shows, movies, you name it. This summer the big thing to see is the movie version of the popular tv drama (itself an adaptation of the manga) "ROOKIES".

From wikipedia: Rookies is the story of an amateur teacher, Koichi Kawato, who is faced with the challenge of guiding a high school baseball club composed of delinquents. The students are wary of him and often threaten Kawato, but he refuses to abandon them and continuously speaks highly of recognizing their dreams. Eventually, the team is assembled and they dedicate their time to achieve their dream of going to Koshien.

A group of thugs and bullies, redeemed through their dream of going to Koshien.

You may be wondering what this magical place is. Amusement park? No. Tropical Island? No.

Koshien is a ballpark. A professional baseball stadium, located in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and home of the Hanshin Tigers.

It's also the location of the two High School Baseball Tournaments, held every March (since 1924) and August (since 1915). In fact, Koshien stadium was built to host the tournaments. It opened in 1924, but didn't become the home of the Tigers until 1936. The tournament games even take precedence over the pro ones - if they need to be rescheduled the Tigers have to postpone any conflicting home games (^_^)b

The games held at Koshien are the culmination of tournaments all over the country. While the one in the spring (the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament) is more selective (only 32 teams), the summer National High School Baseball Championship is more popular. It consists of 49 teams - one from each prefecture, and two each from Tokyo and Hokkaido (since there are so many schools there - in Tokyo because of population density and Hokkaido because it's huge). So basically, every year in August all the prefectures play against each other in one huge showdown.

The games are quite popular, even being broadcast on the television network NHK.

And this year, I went ^^

My former JTE, who is arguably a bigger baseball fanatic than I; actually, not even arguably, he IS a bigger fan than me; and I went to Koshien Stadium for one exceptionally awesome day of baseball. Since the games are so popular, we decided to go relatively early in the tournament - on the 4th day. And since Takayama is pretty far from Nishinomiya (between Osaka and Kobe), we had a looooooooong day of it too.

Because of the popularity of these games, getting tickets ahead of time is extremely difficult. All of the pre-game tickets were sold out before we even had a chance to try to get them, so we had to buy our tickets the day of the game. And you can only buy game-day tickets at the stadium.

On that day there were four games, the first started at 830 am. This meant we had to leave Takayama by 4am.

Yes, 4 am.

2 hour drive to Gifu City, then a 1.5 hour shinkansen ride to Osaka,

and another short train ride to Nishinomiya got us to the stadium around 8am

Bought our tickets, ran inside, and got some pretty awesome seats!

Under the shade, and right behind home plate ^^


I've mentioned before about some of the differences in watching baseball games in Japan vs the US. For the most part, these games went down the same way my junior high games go, except with a WAY bigger audience.

To start, both teams run out and greet each other with a bow and "onegaishimasu!" (one of those ubiquitous Japanese phrases that is used all the time and defies all attempts to give it a blanket translation; it comes from the word for "wish" , often means "please", and in this case is basically "let's play a good game!")

This is then followed by what I have termed the "game siren" - sounds like an air-raid or tornado siren and marks both the beginning and end of the game.

When I go see a junior high game, usually the cheering consists of the family of the team members (and at Miya's games, mostly just myself, ha ha ha). But since high schools are much larger, and also because of the awesomeness of getting to play at Koshien, the cheering for these games more closely resembled the pro games I've seen.

There were four games on this day, which we watched, one after the other, from 830 am on. I didn't know any of the teams, although I did recognize the names of some of the cities they were from. My JTE knows more than me and was able to inform me a little, but for the most part we just enjoyed watching the games. Which basically went like

And

^^The boy at bat in those videos' name is "Momiyama". And wasn't it SO kind of that man to stop right in front of me when the runner came in from 3rd??!? //sarcasm

At the end of each game, the players go back to the infield and once again greet each other, this time with an "arigatou gozaimashita!" greeting of thanks. And then the siren plays again.


The winning team will then remain on the field as their school flag is raised and their school song is played on the PA

The losing teams all collect some of the dirt from the field to keep as a souvenir of getting to play in the tournament. Apparently a tradition started in 1949.

So there we sat, enjoying the games, for 8 hours. And potentially ending up on TV, as the commentator box was just in front of us ^^

Does anyone else find it amusing that the camera is being protected by a straw mat? ha ha ha ha ha, I love Asia!

We finally had to leave around 430 pm to catch the train back to Gifu City. So it was time to bid farewell to Koshien

Leaving that early meant we missed most of the last (and most exciting, of course) game of the day. The score was tied when we left, both teams well-matched, a real showdown of baseball ability. It even went to extra innings. A real tragedy not to see it.

...but... when there's a will, there's a way. This is Japan! THE land of technology and gadgets.

We watched the rest of that game with our cell phones on the train
v(^_^)v

Not quite Fuji...

A six hour hike snaking up a volcano, following a column of headlamps through the dark, and reaching the summit in time to witness a breathtaking view of the sunrise. A timeless tradition that everyone in Japan should do at least once in their lives. The summit of Mount Fuji.

This is not that story.

This is the story of how I had planned to climb Mt. Fuji, but ended up visiting the city of Yokohama instead.

... let me explain.

Back in July I made a plan with a friend of mine to climb Mount Fuji in August. Since he works for a Japanese company, we decided that it would be best to do it on a weekend and settled on August 8 for the day of our ascent.

As luck would have it, he managed to talk his boss into giving him a day off on the Friday before, so we bumped our plan up a day in the hopes of a slightly smaller crowd and more sleep before going back to work on Monday.

Unfortunately, fate interceded, and he ended up having to work that day anyway. To make a long story short, we decided with the extra day of work and the likelihood of the weather being bad anyway, we'd have to postpone our journey. This now meant I had a day by myself in the Tokyo area, when all of my friends there would be working.

What to do? After my initial disappointment at not getting to climb the mountain, I decided to be an optimist and make lemonade out of the lemon that was handed to me. I went to Yokohama ^^

All I knew about Yokohama before this trip was that it is the second largest city in Japan, and that it was the first port opened (in 1859) after the arrival of Matthew Perry. I had also heard it described as the favorite city of several of my fellow ALTs, more than enough reason to check it out.

Since I hadn't brought my guidebook with me (it's quite heavy and who wants to haul that up a mountain?) I had virtually no information whatsoever on what to do once I arrived in the city. So I went to the tourist information center, got a map, and off I went.

My first stop was the shopping area Motomachi and the former foreign residence area, Yamate. Here you can find lots of western-looking houses, shopping

and a Catholic cemetery ^^

Then I headed over to check out the Chinatown, rumored to be the best in Japan (and, apparently, the largest in all of Asia).

It was full of shops (a nice, air-conditioned break from the rather intense heat) and restaurants

and as any self-respecting Chinatown should, comes complete with a Starbucks.

It also has a lovely Chinese temple, Kantei-byo

so full of color!


Next I wandered over to the harbor to lounge in the breeze and shade of Yamashita Koen.

Where I actually fell asleep for a while in the glorious, glorious grass. Oh, how I miss grass! They just don't have a lot of it here.

After my nap, I decided to take a harbor cruise. While it was nice to get out on the water and enjoy the breeze, as far as harbor cruises go, this one was fairly so-so. Things I saw:
The bay bridge

The bay

The city

The pier

The only non-Japanese person on the boat ^^

The pier was pretty interesting though. Not only does it look like a spaceport out of a Star Wars movie, it has a fantastic wood and grass promenade on the top


Tell me that doesn't look like a skateboarding fantasy.

Down a little further from the pier is the Minato Mirai 21 area, full of shops and restaurants and an amusement park. It also has a lovely red-brick warehouse (that has been converted into many shops and restaurants) called Aka Renga Souko

where they had set up a large sandbox

and were preparing for a rock concert on the following day.

I'm not entirely sure who they were, but their dress-rehearsal made for awesome accompaniment to my tasty BLT dinner ^^

On the way back to the station to catch a train back to Tokyo, I strolled past "Cosmo World", home of what was the largest Ferris wheel in the world when it was built in 1989 (and still the world's largest clock)

And a beautiful view of the Landmark Tower


Not quite Mount Fuji, but all things considered, not a bad way to spend a Friday either (^_^)

Happy Anniversary Japan, Part II!

Today I have lived in Japan exactly 2 years ^^ Last year I wrote a post and took a picture to commemorate, so I figured this year I should do the same. Unfortunately, the weather has been absolute CRAP! lately so it's all rainy out behind me... but, at least this time I remembered to take the picture earlier, and I have a better flash now!
July 29, 2007

July 29, 2008

July 29, 2009

Slightly tanner this year, but still nothing compared with when I first arrived, ha ha ha, oh Japan v(^_^)v

Tomorrow, yet again, I shall head to Gifu city to get the new ALTs!

First day of summer vacation, and what do I do? Get up early for my students, of course!

I'm going to Tokyo today with a good friend of mine who is leaving Japan in about a week :(

Since it's her last weekend she said she wanted to go to Tokyo. So, although I've kinda been there a lot, I really had no choice but to go again ^^ darn! Tokyo! Man, that's rough.

Today is also the first day of summer vacation (FINALLY!), and of the regional baseball tournament. If I wasn't going to Tokyo of course I'd be going all weekend (or however long my teams last). BUT, since I'm leaving I figured I can't go. I was pretty disappointed, actually, since I've watched ALL of the tournament games the current Miya san nen sei have played in. I came to Japan right at the start of the second term in their first year of junior high school, which is when they can start playing in games. Also, I was really lucky that my former JTE at Miya was a coach on the team at the time, so it was easy for me to go; I was only able to start watching Kuguno play once I got Tank.

Anyway, in Takayama (and maybe the rest of Japan too, I'm not sure), after the tournaments associated with the first term end, the san nen sei (9th grade) have to stop playing in order to study for the high school entrance exams. So this will be their last tournament, assuming they don't get the top spot and go on to the prefectural game at the end of the month.

On top of this, after the san nen sei retire, there will only be 9 players left on the Miya team. There is a minimum of 10 players required to join tournament games, so essentially, this is also the last tournament for the entire team until the new kids come next spring and boost their numbers.

So there I was, 2 years of game watching under my belt, and prepared to miss the last one. And then last night at the end-of-term party for Miya JHS, while telling the baseball coach I can't go, it occurred to me. My bus for Shinjuku isn't until 130 pm, I'm not meeting my friend until 1, the game starts at 9am. I CAN GO. For the start, at least. Better than nothing...

Unfortunately, it's all the way in Furukawa, which is like, at least a half hour north of Takayama, plus. Even more since I live south of the city. And on top of that I don't know where the baseball ground is there. So I'm meeting the team at the school by 715 ^^

This time yesterday I had a nice, free, Saturday morning waiting for me. In which I could laze around a bit before meeting my friend and going to Tokyo. At the very least, I could sleep in.

Now I'm up at 530am, ha ha ha

PS it's currently raining. Won't that be ironic if I get myself over there only to find out the game has been postponed and I can't see it!

Tanabata

Today is the Japanese holiday of Tanabata. It's a "star festival" that was imported from China sometime during the Heian Period (794 to 1185). The festival is held on the 7th day of the 7th month in most parts of Japan... except here in Hida where it's a month later, in August. Many festivals get pushed back by a month here; supposedly because the altitude makes the weather about a month behind that of the rest of the country (according to the locals anyway). Whether they do the same thing somewhere like, say, Sapporo, I'm not sure ('_^) I have also heard that many areas observe it August 7 because that more closely coincides with the 7th month of the traditional lunar calendar that was followed in Japan before the Meiji Era.

At any rate, although they don't hold the festival for it until August, everybody here knows Tanabata is SUPPOSED to be on 7/7, as evidenced by the "tanabata jello" I had in my school lunch today (oh yes, school doesn't end here for 2 more weeks) ^^

The premise of the festival is as follows. According to the legend (originally from China and tweaked to fit Japan), the two stars Vega, known as Orihime (weaving princess) and Altair, known as Hikiboshi (cow herder star) represent two lovers who are separated by the Milky Way "river". Only once a year are they able to meet, on the 7th day of the 7th month, for one night.

I feel especially sorry for Hikiboshi in this tale, as not only does bear an incredibly unfortunate name, he also appears to have been very unlucky in his choice of father-in-law.

From wikipedia:
Orihime (織姫, Weaving Princess), daughter of the Tentei (天帝, Sky King, or the universe itself), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川, Milky Way, lit. "heavenly river"). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星, Cow Herder Star) (also referred to as Kengyuu (牽牛)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime no longer would weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter’s tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet.
(link)

The main features of the Tanabata festival are the colorful lanters with streamers and bamboo with wishes. Since it hasn't been held here yet this year I can't show you any pictures of them... but, oh, wait...

I have pictures from last year. Lucky you!

According to wikipedia, the streamers on the the lanterns represent the strings Orihime uses to weave

How true that is, I have no idea. I didn't ask ^_^

The best decoration/feature of the festival though, in my opinion, are the wishes. They are written on 短冊, tanzaku, colorful strips of paper, and then attached to bamboo. According to wikipedia, In the Edo period, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper.. These days, however, people write wishes for anything.


I think the bamboo and the paper are burned after the festival, similar to other wishing customs in Japan. And in case you were wondering, yes, my wish is hanging there in the picture, and no, I'm not telling you what it was =D

Unfortunately for the lovers this year, today has been completely overcast with periods of no, light, and very heavy rain. At the moment, if my ears are to be believed, we are currently in a period of medium-to-heavily-rainy. Looks like the magpies won't be making any bridges tonight.

HOWEVER, thanks to Hida's relatively-chilly weather, the lovers will get a 2nd chance next month. Keep your fingers crossed for better weather then (^_^)b

July 4, 2009

Baseball games by day:


Fireworks at night:


Happy Birthday USA!!!

Happy Basude =D

This goes out to my Step Dad Fritz, who is having his "29"th birthday today ^^


Happy Birthday - Click here for funny video clips