oh baby! it'd been a looooong winter, and with Saturday, that all came to an end, the flowers came out, the birds sang, the bees buzzed and it was good. although fall and winter belong to football, in japan football is unwatchable. all winter i was a caged animal. I'd been yearning to get out to the ballpark to enjoy some cheer, and beer and some sports action. Kawasaki Frontale X Kashiwa Reysol got me out. mornin and i headed out around noon, we stopped off at a grocery store called Otento to get some food and beer. i picked up a sweet chicken cutlet sandwich (チキンかつサンド) and some fried chicken (から揚げ), both of which were very tasty. we got to the stadium at about 12:30 and settled down in a little park across the street at a picnic table to eat and wait for melvis. melting faces came around at about 1:15. 1:50 rolled around and we headed back over to the stadium to get in and get some seats.
surprisingly, they had opened the gates before the scheduled 2pm time and so we got a bit hosed with our seats. we ended up sitting on the corner, pretty decent, but far from the supporter's section, and thus, a bit quiet for my taste. oh well. we had 2 hours to kill so there was a lot of drinking done. i made it through a 6-pack before kickoff. also, when we walked in, we received a wine glass featuring the 'comedy' duo ......... and inside the box both mornin and i won a chance at a prize. we headed out of the stadium and around the corner to test our luck with the raffle. nada. we both got a cheap bag. it's a kinda cool design, but i wanted a free jersey...kickoff! buya! the game was a bit slow, we didn't set ourselves up for as many chances as usual and it was pretty obvious that some opening game jitters and rust was effecting our play. Reysol put a sloppy goal in early in the 2nd half and later, my boy, Chong Tese put in an equalizer and that was it for the scoring. a 1-1 draw to start the season. damn. well, it's a long season, but i hope we can get 3 points out of the next game. there was an adorable little girl sitting in front of us, she provided a lot of entertainment for us when the game got slow.
after the game we all were heading back but i had some trouble with my front tire. no air. i pumped it up once but it went flat again. i tried and tried to get air in, but it just came pouring out again and again. i gave up and just rode home on a flat tire. i was exhausted. there is a pretty decent amount of hillage between my place and the river and on a flat tire, it is not fun.
after getting home, it was time to watch the WBC match up of Japan and Korea. it was a slaughter. the game was called in (i think) the 7th inning because Japan was up by more than 10. amazing, considering in the 2006 WBC Japan lost to Korea twice, and more recently, lost to them in the Olympics. mornin and i headed out around the 5th inning to get dinner, some tasty okonomiyaki at 浜しん.Sunday was a good ol', mostly lazy day. the morning (afternoon) was spent doing a little neighborhood shopping with a lunch at the high noon cafe in 御嶽山 (ontakesan) where we grubbed on some tasty sandwich action. after lunch, it was back home for call of duty, American idol, Korea vs. China (another blowout), tasty ravioli dinner and finally some amazing race! a full, and exciting day!
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