b?'s magical mystery stadium tour! #5

#5: Kleenex Stadium Miyagi　クリネックススタジアム宮城
Location: Sendai City, Miyagi Pref.
場所：仙台市、宮城県
Team: Touhouku Rakuten Golden Eagles
チーム：東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルス
Capacity/定員: 23,000
Opened: 1950

At #5 on our tour we head to the most northern stop on our journey to the city of Sendai (仙台) in Miyagi prefecture (宮城県). Until the last moment Kleenex Stadium Miyagi was sitting pretty at #2. what, you ask, caused me to knock it down to #5 then? well, it was a tough decision. I guess it comes down to accessibility. it's just in a far off land that most people wouldn't care to visit normally. I think it's a wonderful stadium with a longer history than you would guess (especially because there was not a pro team there until 2005?). After the Touhoku Rakuten golden eagles(東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルス) moved there, the stadium went through several renovations to create a very unique stadium. There are more seating choices than any other stadium in Japan and also unique is that the home fans' main cheering section is in left field. The stadium is a short bus ride from Sendai station and buses are frequent. What makes k stadium stand out also is the number of quality restaurants around and in the stadium. There are tons of great choices and i recommend the beef tongue curry (牛タンカレー), a local specialty. Security... Kleenex Stadium Miyagi is the only stadium that I've sat anywhere besides the outfield and if you sit in the infield, be ready for a strip search! they are serious! i also sat in the outfield and that is pretty average as far as security goes.Also, it should be noted that you can freely come and go from the stadium after receiving a simple hand stamp, something i haven't seen anywhere else.
Eagles fans are good. They've really rallied around their new team and are very supportive however, because it is still a new team, most of the cheers are pretty generic and the team song (sounds very classically right-wing-ish) is played over the loud speakers complete with words during the 7th inning stretch. Another reason i knocked this one down, lack of tradition. Still, one of the best/most interesting/unique baseball stadiums in Japan. Oh, did I mention that it is named "Kleenex Stadium Miyagi"????????

location: +1
history: -0
fanmasphere: +2
concessions: +5
smoking: -1
bathrooms: +2
sight lines: +3
field surface: +1
outside: +2
surroundings: +5
seats: +3
atmosphere: +2
security: -0

total: +25

Sendai! 仙台

Sept. 2008
Oh yes, it’s about time I got around to this. The Sendai trip. I’m a bit removed from it now so some of the finer points might be a bit grey now, but I’ll try my best to capture it.
So the trip began very early one Sunday. September 14th to be exact when mornin and I headed over to Tokyo station to hop on the Shinkansen （新幹線）bound for the north. We arrived some time around noonish at Sendai station. The area around the station was very clean, very new, and very nice. We stopped at a Rakuten Eagles （楽天イーグルズ）team store to pick up a few goodies for the game that afternoon and the next afternoon as well and then headed over to the hotel that was supposed to be about 1 minute from the station. Who did the calculation I will never know, but it was not 1 minute from the station by anyone’s calculation… The hotel was nice enough, fairly new, fairly central to the city, nice enough. After checking in, we headed out for the stadium, my main reason to go to Sendai in the first place. The stadium is about a 5-7 min bus ride from the station. There is also a subway that goes over there too, but we opted for the bus. So here it is, Kleenex Stadium Miyagi!
That’s why I wanted to go. Not only did I cross off the last outdoor baseball stadium in Japan from my list (excluding the new Hiroshima stadium (Mazda Zoom Zoom) set to open next year), but I had a new 2nd favorite. This place was really cool. Kleenex is a fairly old stadium, much older than you would expect by the looks of it, but very clean, an abundance of stuff surrounding the stadium (shops, restaurants, and games for the kids) and it’s named “Kleenex Stadium Miyagi! The best part though is the inside. There are tons of different seating choices, I would venture to guess more variety than any other stadium than I’ve been to. The 1st game we went to ended with a Rakuten victory! It was a good game despite the light rain that fell at the beginning.

After the game we headed back to the station and headed off to some station to grub down on one of Sendai’s most famous foods, BEEF TONGUE! （牛たん） We headed to the #1 place listed in the guide book magazine that I purchased weeks before called “Aji Tasuke.” （味太助） After a shortish wait in line we got in and got some tongue and chowed down! It was pretty decent, I’m not much of a fan of the stuff to begin with and even though it’s a specialty of the city, it didn’t help me enjoy it that much more.

After dinner we headed back to Sendai station for another one of Sendai’s famous foods, “zunda mochi.” （ずんだ餅） This stuff is sticky rice balls covered in the sweeeeeet sweeeet green soybean sauce. Man it was sweeeeeeeeet! It was OK, but too sweet for this guy. An experience none the less.
Day 2 in Sendai began even earlier I think (the 3rd early ass/little sleep day for me in a row, and I was tired!) as we headed out for Matsushima. Matsushima is one of Japan’s 3 beautiful views (日本三景) and the second one I’ve been to (the 1st one I went to was Miyajima （宮島）near Hiroshima (and the 3rd, that I haven’t been to is Amanohashi　（天の橋） in Kyoto))　We walked from the station down to the docks where we jumped on a boat to take a ride around the bay to see the many islands that dot the bay and give Matsushima it’s fame. It was quite beautiful but the most amazing thing was the sheer number of freaking seagulls that fly around the boat and pluck these little shrimp flavored snacks from the boat riders’ hands… just astounding! The speed that they display as they swoop in and grab the snacks is awesome and the stamina that they have to follow the boat for a good 30-40 minutes as the boat swings around the islands. Shocking, especially for someone, me, who isn’t so cool with birds in general.
After Matsushima we rocked back to Sendai and then we were off to our second Rakuten game. This one was a loss, but we had pretty nice seats, actually, the first time I’ve sat in seats at a game that were not in the outfield. Nice enough, but the security level was waaaaay more strict than the day before when we were in the outfield. Something to note, if you are smuggling beers into the stadium.
That was about it for Sendai. We went back to the station, collected our bags and picked up a few souvenirs and then headed back to Tokyo. I was a pretty good trip, mornin and I had some good fun even though the weather could have been better.

One last thing, on the 1st night while walking near the station I encountered the lead singer of the “Monkey Majik,” a band of mostly foreigners that sings often in Japanese and who are just f’n terrible! They were playing a show in Sendai that evening. Google them and check out their terribleness if you want. Terrible.

6 months lost... post #1: "Play balls!"

Here's a post I wrote way back when (maybe may?) but never put up. I'm putting it up now because if I wait to put pictures with it, it might never show up. So, pictures will come later, enjoy!


Hey hey hey! So it's that time of year again, the smell of the grass, the crack of the bat, and the drinking of the beer. It's a great thing. Over here the baseball season starts slightly before the start of the season back home, and so this year I got out to my first game on April 1st. This season started in Yokohama, at Yokohama stadium with a game between the Yokohama Baystars, and the Yomiuri Giants. The day began with a trip to a penis festival in Kawasaki (that'll be saved for another post) and ended up with a blowout. The Giants put a beating on the Baystars 10-1, with Yokohama's 1 run coming late in the game, while several of our companions were on the way home with someone who had a bit too much to drink in the scorching hot sun. Seems that baseball + beer + heat seems to spell disaster fairly regularly.

Two days later I headed deeper into Tokyo to Jinju Stadium to root on my Hanshin Tigers against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. It was a real exciting game with spats of rain, a grandslam by Kanemoto (on his B-day), Esteban Yan's Japanese debut, and a free hamburger (given to me by a fellow Tigers supporter) all rolled into a 4-3 Tiger's win. This sweet game was the home opener for the Swallows, however it was far from a sell-out and heavily populated by Tigers fans. Roughly 2/3rds of the crowd was Tigers fans. It was great.

April 7th came around and it was off to Urawa up in Saitama to take in my first J-league game. I must say I'm not the biggest soccer fan, however I have been to a World Cup match, for the experience mostly. I am a fan of the Urawa Red Diamonds (known more commonly as the Urawa Reds), mostly because my favorite Japanese player plays for them. The stadium, Saitama Stadium 2002, which is also the Japanese National Team's stadium of choice, is a bit far from me, but it was worth the trip. Reds fans are super! hunbun and I got there close to 2 hours before kickoff, and all of the seats in the super fans section were already taken, so we ended up sitting just to the left (our left) of them. I'd say that they were just about as exciting as the game itself which ended in a 2-1 comeback victory over Jubilo Iwate. Thrilling victory really.

To wrap up the month of April, Deuce and his lady and I headed back to Yokohama Stadium, this time for a game between the Baystars, and the Chunichi Dragons who were in 1st place at the time. The game was really good, the Baystars were able to come away with a 5-4 victory, the key was that the Dragons' big bopper, Tyrone Woods, struck out 4 times, most of them with men on base. Suck it Woods! The day ended with a trip to good ol' An An, scrumptious!