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

Hokkai-go! day 2

June 3rd.
i guess i should mention that the whole trip, i was sick. i had a pretty high fever and a terrible cough. now, nearly 2 weeks later, the fever is long since gone but the cough is still hanging on... but, my spirits weren't dampened! for day 1 in Sapporo we got up early and went over to the Sapporo beer garden (札幌ビール園) to have a delicious lunch and i had some beer! because i didn't feel so well i only put down about 3 or 4 beers (very sub-par for the locale). one of them is only available in Hokkaido, and one of them was only available at the beer garden, the were both pretty good. they also have a museum that was pretty cool and informative, but the cool part was the old style red brick buildings, signature of the frontier days of Hokkaido.after the beer garden we made our way to the Sapporo dome (札幌ドーム) super early to check out the place and get in line.we ended up with pretty good seats (2nd row) and Sapporo dome was pretty decent, wide aisles! but the selection of Carp goods was limited... i couldn't get the road jersey i wanted :( probably gonna have to wait until September.The game was really good, a little back and forth action leading to a 2-2 tie until Brown decided to take Lewis out of the game and our reliever promptly let up 5 runs in the 8th...

an April/May punch to the face of info!

I'm back! i know i haven't been gone, i mean i put up a bunch of pics of sorts and shouted out about America's racism, but it's time to get down to what's gone down for me since the incident last month.
after getting out of the hospital i had some sweet meatloaf for the 1st time in ages!and then a crazy window washer outside my classroom:a picture from that bad ass curry shop in hatanodai (旗の台) i mentioned in 'the happening...' post:stuff is taaaaaste! mornin's insisted on going there like 3 times since we stumbled upon it the 1st time. it's cool, it's scrumpin good(soon)! i mentioned in that same post that I'd be going to my 1st baseball game of the season. i did. and I've been to 3 others since. I've had a rough year. 4 games, 4 L's... the only saving grace was the Frontale game mornin, meltin and i rocked during golden week, 4-1 beat down! back to the 1st game. mornin, melvis, his lady (we'll call her K2) and i headed to Y-town for a baystars x tigers throw down. didn't turn out for the good guys (sorry deuce!) all because of our starting pitcher, Fukuhara (福原), going too long. F'n new manager, Mayumi (真弓), has made a bunch of bad calls so far this season. It was pretty cool because somebody wrote "しね" on the Giant's mascot! Ha!Ha!
Don't forget to get yourself some Tigers P.C.P.2nd game i went to was for round-face's wedding party. it was good times, first time I've sat home side at jingu (神宮) in about 3 years, and 1st time I've ever rocked my Aoki (青木) jersey. another loss at the hands of B-stars... I'm for sure a much bigger B-stars fan, but since it was round-face's day, it was still a let down (again, sorry deuce!). i did hear some great news that day that I'm not sure if it's cool to post here now, but good news! congrats round-face! get your katsup here!
onto golden week... i had 9 days off, and the 1st was spent watching Frontale whoop Kyoto with a massive 2nd half performance! I expected more from a team that's all about the "Hardcore Naked!"my boys! (they had a big 3-2 comeback 2 days ago over 1st place, and hated rivals, the Urawa Reds, in Urawa! their 1st home loss of the year! Forza Kawasaki!)　before the season opener melvis, mornin and i had our pic taken for a game day program but we couldn't go to the game that it was for because it was a Wednesday. luckily, mornin found a back issue at the 2nd game and POW! there we were:Too bad the reporter messed up and said that we were from Kawasaki city, Ota-ward (川崎市大田区)... It's actually Tokyo (東京). Which we told her.
tight! right? for the next couple days mornin and i just hung out, watched some TV and that was about it, it was good times.
next, i found some Jesus Body, just read it, and be amused:melvis and i tried a mini-T.O.C. with dude? and melvis failed! next time bro! mornin and i next headed out for a game up in Saitama (埼玉), her 1st trip to the stadium since it had a dome put on it. i wanted to get one of the new Lions jersey and it is sweet! but we were there to cheer on our Golden Eagles!Stupid lady in the bottom walked to much, otherwise the pan-o-rama woulda been a bit better... another loss... next couple days dude? and i rocked another mini-T.O.C. and mornin and i just chilled some more. to wind up golden week, mornin and i went over to Jingu for a Tigers x Swallows game in a (at times) driving rain. another loss... so to quantify my record on the year is 1-1-4... my next scheduled game isn't until June 3rd up in Sapporo, our fightin Hiroshima Carp taking on the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. hope i can get another win on the board!
most recent action was Mr. infidel's going away party. he's heading back to the U.S. to hit up law school, go on boy! the party was intense, some dancing, some capoeira, and a ton of drinking! as far as i can remember, my final count was: 3 tall boys of beer, 2 tall boy chu-his, 3 cups of beer, 2 cups of something called 'reggae punch', 3 cups of vodka and some juice and a shot of tequila... it was a wicked night. gonna miss Mr. infidel, but i know in a few years i'll have a lawyer who'll hopefully hook me up pro bono! bu-ya!

b?'s magical mystery stadium tour! #3

#3: Hiroshima Municipal Stadium　広島市民球場
Location: Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Pref.
場所：広島市、広島県
Team: Hiroshima Toyo Carp
チーム：広島東洋カープ
Capacity/定員: 31,984
Opened: July 20, 1957

We've made it to the final 3, and you can't go wrong with any of them. the final order took some serious thought and I'm sure it will be up for debate but with this selection, it is set. 3 stadiums left, 3 days to 1st pitch, get your tickets now!
so at #3 we have Hiroshima. My experience with Hiroshima is a bit tainted because i had a horrible sunburn from waiting outside before a game last May. But, the only reason Hiroshima was destined for only 3rd is that it no longer exists (for the sake of argument). After 51 years of service, Hiroshima Municipal Stadium (Also refered to as Hiroshima Civic Stadium) has been retired in favor for Mazda Zoom Zoom! Enough about that.One fault Hiroshima has is that it feels (and was) thrown together quickly. It was built in only 7 months! there are very few concessions available and about 2 tiny bathrooms for the entire left field section! What Hiroshima lacks in building planning, it makes up for in charm. From its retro-dirt infield to its minor-league dimensions to its reddish-orange foul poles it feels like a wonderful place to watch a game. it feels very intimate. Hiroshima also has a big advantage in that the team name does not (usually) contain a company name (along with Yokohama) and is owned mostly by the city. This leads to Hiroshima having some of the best fans in Japan, loyal to the end with one of the best chants in all the land. However, it is a bit overused. Hiroshima is also the only place where you don't actually need to leave the stands to smoke, just climb to the top of the bleaches and fire it up with a nice view of Hiroshima castle. Ah, location. Hiroshima municipal stadium had the best location of all. A perfect downtown spot, across the street from the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム).This is a huge loss for the new stadium, however, it will be a bit more convenient as the new stadium is placed right next to the tracks at new Hiroshima station (新広島駅). The new location will be much better for out-of-towners, but it will lose a lot of its atmosphere. I'm sure the carp fans will still show up in force. I'm excited at the prospect of visiting the new stadium because it's a unique design and from what I've heard, it'll be more like a U.S. stadium as it's gonna be the only stadium in Japan with different distances to the right and left field walls! crazy! I'm not sure what the plans are for the land on which Hiroshima M. Stadium stood, but I'm sure it will not be nearly as interesting, nor have the cultural significance of Hiroshima Municipal Stadium For all its faults and because all of its charm, Hiroshima M. Stadium will be dearly missed. お疲れ様, 広島市民球場!

location: +5
history: +4
fanmasphere: +3
concessions: -4
smoking: +10
bathrooms: -4
sight lines: +4
field surface: +5
outside: +5
surroundings: +5
seats: +1
atmosphere: +4
security: +5

total: +43

L.W.O.D. '08 pt. 1: Days 1-3

So here it is, the post.
L.W.O.D. '08 had all the makings of epicness that you've come to expect from me, however it ended up being much more... some word that doesn't mean 'epicness.' It wasn't bad at all, I had a really good time, just much more laid back than I was expecting. I think butt? and dude? were pretty wiped out generally after day 2. Find out more!

Day 1 (Sat):
I got off work and headed over to Gotanda to meet up with dude? who had been working his ways on express trains throughout the day from Osaka. I can't remember how long it took, maybe he'll comment about that later, but it was a looooong ride that's for sure, お疲れ様！ We headed back on the train to my place, met Meltin faces, and mornin and got ready to go over to Ramen 526. You can see the Scrumped review here. This turned out to be a really bad idea. It was really tasty (as always) but it was just so unbelievably filling that for the first half of the Conbini challenge pretty much all we could muster as far as commentary was 'uhhhhhh.' It was pretty bad. But the conbini challenge ended up being a winner. After a break in the middle at a Lawson that didn't sell beer! We all made a bathroom trip and felt back on the right path and we eventually made it back to my place for a bunch more drinks and some rocktacular Karaoke action! mornin played cameraman and got some really good pics from the challenge, the two best were for sure this little series: you had to be there to get the full effect, but me turning my head ruined dude?'s attempt to pull my 'tongue in the ear' photo trick.
There are a ton of good pictures from this night, and I might put another post about it, or put them up on flickr some time, wait for it...
here's an amazing shot from karaoke:
Day 2 (SUN):
Got up at a pretty decent hour and prepared to head out over to Jingu Stadium for the first of a 3-day baseball extravaganza! I woke up feeling a little hung over and with a completely trashed voice, but I downed a bunch of water hoping to feel a bit better before we headed out... it didn't work. I started to feel really sick while we sat around and played some NCAA so I made a trip to call the dinosaurs and suddenly felt a ton better! So we headed out and hoped for the best but got the worst. We got in and got our seats and went around to some of the shops at the stadium waiting for it to start, praying that the rain would subside. It got worse and worse and right about first pitch time, there was an announcement made that the game was being canceled. What a crushing defeat. We had been looking forward to all the games on the schedule, but none more than the first one, at the best stadium on the tour, and the only game featuring the Hanshin Tigers. It was a sad day, and we just headed back, played NCAA and did an auction draft for a fantasy football league... disappointing...

Day 3 (MON):
Got up, played some more NCAA then headed down to Yokohama stadium for game 2. More rain and dude? hadn't been feeling so good but we were just hoping that game would be played as scheduled. Luckily it was! We got in our seats but found that although they we good (1st row) it was a pain in the ass because vendors constantly walked directly in front of us so we headed further up in the stands and were asked to move a bit closer because the seats we were in hadn't actually been sold. The security guy was nice enough about it and just told us to move down a few rows. There were many, many seats to choose from. When the game started there couldn't have been more than 2000 people there and although more people came later in the game, after the rains had calmed down a bit, it couldn't have been the more than 8000 people that the newspaper said it was the next day. I'd guess 4500 or so. Carp came away with a 3-2 victory, and it was a pretty good game to take in.

Summer `08 vol. 1 (vol. 26!) beer!

feast on my hairy tomatoes! 1st episode of the summer `08 season is in the books! Just news!
by the way, I accidentaly called out Dale Ellis, I`m sorry for that Dale, you`re a good guy! I meant Nate McMillan, eat it Cap`n Mac!

GW #3: Hiroshima/Miyajima-nanyo～!

広島・宮島なんよ～
Day 3: May 3rd
Day 3 started butt-ass early as I woke up at 5:30 and left the dude? pad at about 6am. I made my way to Tamade station with the rising sun.I made my way to Shin-Osaka station and got on the first Shinkansen that came along... it was packed!
I got to Hiroshima at a little before 9 am and then headed over to the stadium for my first visit to Hiroshima Stadium! I was super excited and made my way to the line after picking up my new Carp jersey. I got in line at about 10am and waited... for a long ass time... in the baking hot sun! Needless to say, I got a horrible, horrible sunburn! I have pretty fair skin and just got scorched. I forgot my sunscreen in my other bag (the one I left in the coin locker at the station) and mornin' didn't arrive with some for me until around noon. The game was great (Carp held on for a 4-3 victory), and the stadium was great, but it was also really hard to enjoy because I was just scorched! scorched! It was really hot all day... I got some good pics, and here they are:
After the game mornin' and I headed over to the hotel, and I took a nap and then we headed out for some aloe and some of Hiroshima's most famous food; okonomiyaki! We went to a place that was in the Hiroshima magazine I had picked up a few weeks back that was pretty close to the hotel called Rei-chan (麗ちゃん). The line was pretty long, but moved fairly quickly, not quick enough for one screaming baby that ended up sitting right across from me... The shit was really good, again, hard to enjoy with my wicked burn... but, here's what it looked like:

Day 4: May 4th
The day started with the sun coming up (=early). We headed over to the department store down the street to grab some medicine and some breakfast before the big day of sightseeing around Hiroshima and Miyajima. God that medicine was great! I woke up in so much pain (by the way, really just my arms hurt. My face and neck and legs weren't too bad, but my arms...) and after taking some medicine, and smearing on some more I was ready to roll! We took a taxi over to the Carp team store to pick up a couple more things and then walked over to Tokyu Hands to get some sandals and a hat for me (I felt wrong walking around in a red Carp jersey and blue Dodgers hat...) and then took the street car over to the A-bomb dome (原爆ドーム). It was really interesting. Lots of tourists, and that's cool, but it was strange to see so many people smiling or holding up their fingers in a #1 sign when they were having their picture taken in front of that building... Here's some pics: After The dome we headed across the river to the peace park and then to the museum. It was quite a heavy feeling. It was a stark contrast between the glorious day, and the flower festival happening all around and the images that we saw inside the museum. A very interesting place, and an amazing 50 yen charge to get in. I was expecting 500, or maybe even 1000, but 50! That's great! I'm not gonna put up anything from the inside (I only took a couple of pictures of the models of the city that they had, and yes photos are ok, no flash though) because you should go see it yourself, but here's a couple of pics from the park that surrounds it: So after the peace park, and the museum mornin' and I took a short break and then weaved our way through the flower festival traffic and headed back to the street car station and headed on our way to Miyajima...

Day 4: May 4th cont.
After a transfer in Nishi-Hiroshima （西広島〉we made it down to Miyajima-guchi　（宮島口） sometime around 2pm and headed straight to an Anago-don restaurant to try Hiroshima's 3rd most famous food (#2 is Kaki （カキ）(oysters))　conger eel（アナゴ）. It was really tasty! Here it is!:After lunch, mornin' and I boarded a ship and headed over to the island of Miyajima. It's a very short boat ride but pretty cool, you can get a good view of the island's most famous feature, the Torii （鳥居）in the water, on the way in. The island is pretty cool, after you get off the boat, you take a walk through the shopping streets and then you can enter the shrine for a price... don't remember how much it was exactly, but I think it was 300 yen. The shrine was pretty cool, like others, I guess most similar to Heianjingu in Kyoto, except that it's on the water. The only problem (besides the millions of people that were there) was that we didn't get to the place until the afternoon, so it was low tide and the water wasn't actually surrounding the shrine, and not even up to the famous gate (Torii). As the afternoon went on, the tide did begin to come in, but I recommend going in the early morning so that the tide is in, because the place closes at 6pm, before it's really back in again. Next time... Another cool thing about the island is all the deer that are just roaming freely around, and for the most part are cool with the folks. There are some signs up warning people of the deer, but no one seemed to pay much attention to them and I saw many people f'n with them a bit too much. I was hoping for the deer to start a revolution and kick some ass, but on that day, they didn't :( On the backside of the temple is a street leading deeper into the island and you can find bus that will take you to the ropeway leading to the mountain in the center of the island. At the top of the ropeway is a monkey sanctuary! There are also a bunch of other sight spots up there and you can hike up to the top of the mountain, but I wanted to see some monkeys! Didn't happen... We debated for a bit whether or not we'd have enough time to do it and at last we decided to give it a shot. It's only a short ride up, and we thought about just taking it up and back, but when we arrived at the base of the ropeway there were soooo many people waiting! Of course there would also have been tons of people waiting at the top so we bagged it, and got our money back (I think it's about 800-1000 yen for the trip) and decided that something that can be saved for next time! We walked back through the streets and grabbed some Hiroshima sweets called Momiji-manju （もみじ饅頭）. The fried one was actually really good! We ordered 2 cream ones and I accidentally got a An (sweet bean paste) and normally I can't stand the stuff but it was actually good, but mornin' and I switched and I ended up with the cream baby! Tasty! We also got some cold ones with some kind of yogurt stuff in them that I didn't care too much for, but oh well. After that we just walked around, took a few more pictures and then got back on the boat and headed for the mainland, then back to the station to get our bags and jump on the Shinkansen headed to Osaka swollen red arms and all!

Hiroshima was rad, except for the wicked terrible sunburn!

I think I'll put out a bonus Hiroshima/Miyajima picture post, with smaller pictures, after I finish the whole trip update. I got tons of pictures from that part of the trip!