L.W.O.D. '09 vol.1 (July 28 - Aug. 2)

the 1st foray into the L.W.O.D. of this year was a success. dude? came into town in the afternoon on Tuesday and we hung around the house for a bit before heading into town to meet up with tigger, his wife and their friend G-cup. it was all their 1st time seeing a baseball game in Japan and G-cup and Mrs. tigger's 1st game ever! dude? and i showed them the ropes and eased them into the action by playing beer-an-inning. i was trashed after winning but unfortunately our Carp fell to the hated Swallows by some score (around 8-2?). wow, as i write this on the train, some crazy lady with a Mohawk, pink hair and tattoos (namally good) is doing some sort of splits thing on the floor of the train... will wonders never cease? after the game we came back to the butt? base in Kugahara and got some grub at a place called 大吉 (daikichi). it was pretty good, yakitori of all sorts and some other assorted sorts.after dinner, back to the butt? cave for some greatest game ever action! i smoked dude? pretty bad in 2 games which looked pretty ominous for the upcoming week, but when it mattered, we had 3 close games later.

day 2 kicked off the 1st day of the 3 day cricket-esque T.O.C. the 1st day featured 6 games, which will be recounted later, but i was the victor. in the evening we ate some tasty burritos and watched ナニこれ珍百景. it was good.

day 3, we started with a short bike ride for lunch then played 4 games for the T.O.C. and headed out to Jingu to meet mornin and take in our 2nd Carp x Swallows game of the week. neither dude? nor I could power up to do much drinking at the game this time, but the game was good except the annoying overzealous lady Carp fan to our left, the spooky puppet master to the right and the dude with the giant melon! in front of me. but the game itself was basically a reversal of the first game, not too much drama, but a solid win. on the way home, we stopped off in the old neighborhood for some Indian/Nepalese curry. it was a bit weird because when we walked up, it said it was open, but all the lights were off, crazy eco-Nepalese! but they turned on the lights for us and cooked up some good curry.

day 4, the 3rd and final day of the T.O.C.: cricket-esque version, was the big daddy. 10 games. day 1 was 6 because we got a late start, day 2 was shortened from 6 to 4 because of the baseball game, but day 3 was always 10. the most single day game total in T.O.C. history. remember people, each game, short or long is one 500ml can of beer. that's 5 liters of beer! (we actually drank 11x500ml+1 bottle of redhook ESB) it was a very hotly contested day with some very close and exciting matches, and all over fun. in the later half i started to really struggle after being so out of drinking practice since i got whooping cough, but eventually caught my 2nd win and finished strong and done! i woke up the next morning at about 7:30 because i had to work (originally dude? was going to leave on Friday, but his wife told him to stay away longer, but it was too late to take the day off) and i was dying! while i was at work, dude? took an adventure down to Odaiba to see the life-sized Gundam. still waiting on the picture. my train ride in was miserable and the 1st half of my day was just terrible, but eventually the sausage muffins kicked in and i got my groove back for the later half of the day. even though i wasn't able to take the day off, i could still close my schedule in the afternoon so i was off at 4 and made it home about 5 so dude? mornin and i could head over to Todoroki for a large, potentially huge throw down between our fighting Frontale and the f'n FC Tokyo. the Tamagawa Classico! it was dude?'s first J1 game, and oh what a game! the stakes were high, the drama was intense and the action was furious! there was also a HUGE dude sitting in front of dude?! coming into the game, Kawasaki was in 4th place with FC Tokyo in 5th and after a come from behind 2-1 win with our 2nd goal in the 90th (89th?!) min. and Niigata's tie and Urawa's loss (on Sunday), our Frotale took sole possession of 2nd place for the 1st time since the end of last season! we are 8 points (less than 3 games) back of Kashima, with 14 games left in the season, c'mon boys! we walked back from the stadium (took a cab there and our driver was totally inept!) and stopped off in Tamagawa for some Okonomiyaki before heading home.
day 5, dude? and i played another great game of プロ野球 (2-1 me!) then headed off to Kawasaki for some delicious California Pizza Kitchen and then off to Shinagawa and dude? was back to Osaka. the end.

T.O.C. cricket results:
dude?'s results butt?'s results
Day 1:
プロ野球: 0-1
Let's Tap: 7-9
Winning 11 2009: 0-4
UFC 2009: 3-2
NBA 2K7: 40-64
みんなのゴルフ 5: -8 -4

Day 2:
Dirt: 4:32:64 4:58:05
4:19:27 4:59:38
All Pro Football: 28-0
MLB the show: 8-9
Punch Out: 1-3
Wii Ski: X
プロ野球: X

Day 3:
NCAA 10: 15-17
SF4: 1-4
プロ野球: 1-2
Grand Slam Tennis#: 1-3
Wii Medley*: 3-1
MLB 2K9: 9-7
NHL 2K9: 1-2
Mario vs. Sonic: 1-1
Fight Night Round 4: 1-0
Tiger 10: -8 -4
(* Wii medley= 3 holes of frisbee golf, 1 game bowling, 3 point shooting, and 3 more frisbee golf holes)
(# during Grand Slam Tennis, 2.5 beers were consumed)

Day 1 game total: 2-4
Day 2 game total: 2-2
Day 3 game total: 4-5
grand game total: 8-11

Day 1 point total: 58-84

Day 2 point total: 43-12
Day 3 point total: 41-41
grand point total: 142-137