Royals Blue October

 

This is a few weeks overdue, but I need to write a tribute to this years KC Royals team.

While I enjoy sports, I'm not a huge sports person. We usually go to a game or two per season; in a year we'll hit up baseball, and maybe college basketball. I'd like to go to an NFL game (Lambeau Field is on my life list), and for a few years we've tossed around attending a major league soccer game, but have never acted. While I enjoy the camaraderie of sporting events, the prices are generally too high (I'm looking at you Chicago Cubs), and we haven't lived in a city with many winning sports teams, with Jayhawk basketball being an exception.

Having said all that, I love going to Royals games. The cost is low- generally $15 a ticket for the seats we get, they have good Boulevard Beer, and there are decent food options like veggie hot dogs. The K is a great place to watch a game, and it's close to our house. We went to one game this year, back in August, and really enjoyed ourselves.

Then came October. And that wild card game. And all the rest.

It was so amazing to see Kansas City come alive with joy as the Royals marched towards the World Series. T-shirt vendors popped up on street corners. Cars had blue flags flying from the windows. Our neighborhood had fireworks going off at the end of every game, and people just seemed to be happier. Little dude's Japanese school took a group photo and sent it to Aoki, the Japanese player on the team. Everyone wore blue for weeks. The games we watched at the local bars were filled with smiles and high fives. We watched most of the playoff games- I even watched some while on a work trip to Texas. Although we didn't win the Series, it was still really fun to see KC light up, to see friends post pictures from playoff games, and to see all the fountains and buildings drenched in blue. While I know that many of the players will be off to new places next year, I still look forward to going to the first game of the season, and to seeing how we do next year. It was a great October.

野球 Baseball

 The view from our seats.

Last Sunday, little dude and I took the subway down to Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants - Hiroshima Carp game. I don't really have a baseball loyalty in Japan, and there are five teams in the expanded Tokyo metro area, so I picked the Giants as they are generally a winning team. No luck. Although the Giants are doing generally well this year, my lifelong streak of picking losing baseball teams (see also: Chicago Cubs, KC Royals) followed us to a 10-3 final score. At least my KU Jayhawks win in NCAA hoops, and my Green Bay Packers can represent in the NFL, so all is not lost in sports.

 Tickets.

 This wasn't my first Japanese baseball game (Joe and I attended a Yokohama Baystars game years ago), but it was my first sporting event in a dome. While it was nice to not have to worry about sunburn, it was a bit stuffy inside, and I missed the ambiance of the outdoors.

 Sushi concessions. 

The concessions were fairly diverse- from sushi and bentos to hot dogs and hamburgers. There were beer vendors, but also those selling whiskey and plum wine. Taking after his grandpa, little dude attempted to eat his weight in churros. I enjoyed a pretzel.

 Let's go Giants!

Rirakuma towel, noisemaker, and tickets.

Cheering for your team in Japan is definitely a specialized, intense activity. The Carp had full bands and a routine with small plastic bats that all of their fans knew and did in unison. The Giants have a towel swinging thing when they score- which little dude was sooooo excited to participate in. We bought a towel on our way in to be able to partake, and he did so. With gusto. So much so that he hit the girl sitting next to him with the towel (she took it in stride, thankfully), and nearly fell out of his seat, making friends with the girls in front of us. 

 Giants fans doing the towel dance.

Going to a baseball game was a great way to celebrate the start of summer, a fun way to experience something different in Tokyo, and it was fun to teach little man about the game. Thankfully he is still trying to understand the basics, so my limited knowledge of the rules still holds sway. We'll see how long that holds true for....

Let's Go Bowling!

 

 Is there anything greater than tacky bowling shoes?

The past 24 hours around here haven't been the greatest. I suddenly came down with a pretty severe stomach bug yesterday afternoon, and it was a tough evening and morning for me. We had to cancel plans with a friend today, and spent most of the day around the house. The weather was beautiful though, so we went to explore a new park in the late afternoon hours when I was starting to feel better, only to have the park keeper come and lock up the gates early. Tears from little dude ensued (it was a pretty neat park). I thought I could remedy this with a round of taiko at the arcade, but we arrived at the arcade with just enough time to see all the fun games, and to be informed that kids under 18 have to leave at 6. No tears, but I mumble of "bummer" and a pretty long face. So, what to do with so much frustration? Go bowling.

 

 

Push a button for your size, shoes spit out the bottom. Return to the box at the left.

 

 

Bowling alleys- the same the world over.

The bowling alley in Oji was just like every other bowling alley I've been to. Ever. Anywhere. We did bumper bowling, and they had these neat ramps for kiddos- a bonus as without these his technique is to set the ball down and then push it, which results in the ball barely making it to the pins. This was little dude's second bowling experience, and he was soooo excited every time we took a turn. I, admittedly, am a terrible bowler. My score today was 88 (with bumpers, people) as compared to the four-year old's 66. But, I still thoroughly enjoy a trip to the bowling alley, mostly because I think of The Big Lebowski the entire time I'm there.

  

 

Getting our Lebowski on.

  

 

Anticipation. Will it be a strike?

I leave you with the Jesus scene from Lebowski. Really, the first minute and a half are the best. I think I need a White Russian.....

 

Rocco's Pizza + Green Bay Game

 

On the suggestion of a friend, I have now found Rocco's.  It's kind of the-greatest-thing-to-happen-ever. Or at least the greatest thing to happen this week. Ti and I went on Wednesday evening to watch the Green Bay- Detroit game, replayed, but who cares? I was able to avoid the score for a few days and watch the game as if it were live. And, since it was replayed, we didn't have to watch any commercials. It was so great to chat with the NY-native owner, watch some NFL, drink some beer, and eat some really good pizza. AND, it's close to my apartment. Score one for Kita-ku.

 

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March Madness

 

Last weekend we went to the first round of the NCAA playoffs.  We saw UNC-Villanova and KU-WKU at the Sprint Center in Kansas City's Power and Light District. Although our seats were on the upper deck, we were able to see the game really well. It was awesome to be with what was essentially a home crowd for KU- the arena was nearly full with over 18,000 people- and to cheer on the Jayhawks in their first round win.

Pre-game we had a drink with all the pep rally folks in P&L, it was chilly, but still a great day to be out with a huge crowd of KU fans.

 

 

Warming up!

  

KU won, but it was an exciting game (this is the final score). It made it all the more interesting to see the game on Sunday, in which we defeated UNC. Looking forward to this weekend's games- Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Ice skating

 

Here's the perfect cold winter date night: pho and ice skating. 

For years Joe and I have tried to have a skating date, but something always gets in the way. A few years ago we were able to skate in Yokohama when we were living there, but it was really warm out, so the ice had a layer of water on top of it and as a result we cut our time at the rink short. Not ideal. This weekend we finally hit the ice together under ideal conditions. I grew up taking figure skating lessons and skating frequently, this was Joe's second time. He did great, and we really enjoyed the Ice Terrace at Crown Center; it was outdoors and urban, but not too crowded and definitely affordable. The rink had decent music, and a nice atmosphere, plus the evening temperature was around 30 degrees. We had a fabulous warming dinner of pho and noodles beforehand at the delicious Vietnam Cafe, and enjoyed over an hour of skating and some apres hot chocolate. Yay winter!

 

Battle of the Bean

 

 

This past Saturday we ran the Battle of the Bean 5K in Leawood, Kansas. This was a great race for a few reasons- first off, the charity was Happy Bottoms, which provides diapers for KC-area babies and toddlers in need. Until I read about Happy Bottoms in the newspaper a few months ago I wasn't aware that WIC and other similar welfare programs don't cover diapers. It was great to see the huge pile of donated diapers on race morning! Second, the theme was coffee vs. cocoa, so there was plenty of Roasterie Coffee post-race and all runners got both Christopher Elbow chocolates and a scoop of Foo's Frozen Custard. Basically, this is a trinity of local Kansas City deliciousness. In addition to race t-shirts we received mugs- even though I ran for Team Coffee, I used mine for a big cup of hot cocoa on Sunday afternoon. The course was through a well-manicured suburban neighborhood, not the most thrilling scenery, but a pleasant course on a chilly January morning. Joe came in about six minutes before me at 30 minutes, and I finished in 36 minutes (the clock time in the photo wasn't my time through the chute- which was done in waves). Not my greatest time, but not too bad for post-holiday middle of winter either.

Last game of the season

Today was mostly overcast here, but as I was sitting at my desk this morning, cloudy skies out my window, I thought back to Sunday afternoon and the Royals game. We had free tickets thanks to little man completing the KC Library summer reading program, and enjoyed a perfect sunny afternoon game at the K. This was my first late season baseball game, and in many ways it was a more relaxed atmosphere, as the Royals are out of the playoffs. KC played the Indians (and lost... by a lot....), and we enjoyed all the usual trappings of baseball- (veggie) hot dogs, fries, beer, and we even saw the Royals hit a home run, complete with fireworks. Cheers to the end of summer!

Olympics

Thankfully, I'm better at baking cupcakes than decorating them.

I'm pretty excited to watch the start of the 2012 Olympics tonight. In 2008 we were settling into our house in Ono, and I have such fond memories of the fantastic Beijing opening ceremonies accompanied by a take-out dinner and fireworks on the neighboring mountainside that we could see from our hilltop location. I also loved watching track and field events with a group of international teachers while supervising high school English camp, especially when the Jamaican teachers were jumping around the room after Usain Bolt's win. One thing I will not miss is the repetitive judo coverage!

These are simple White Cupcakes with  Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting. I cheated and used store bought icing and frosting tubes, which I already had around the house. In retrospect, I should have taken the time to get out the frosting tips, but I didn't want to take time away from other tasks, and they are just for us and a friend visiting from out of town, so hopefully the novelty outweighs the cake wrecks factor.

Go team U.S.A!

All Star Day

It's All Star Day here in KC.

While we're not going to the game, or partaking in the many festivities around town, including a parade on the Plaza and Fanfest at Crown Center, I am looking forward to watching the game this evening, probably with some Waldo Pizza. The above photo is from a game we went to at the K last year in June.

Go National League!

September!

Since the end of August/beginning of September, things have been super hectic with work around here, so I'm behind on the daily photos. I've still been snapping, but haven't had the chance to post as frequently. In any case, September started on a regular Thursday with a common summer activity- backyard evening hoops.

Cubs-Royals

Friday night brought the Cubs to Kansas City for inter-league play. We had a great time watching the Cubs win 6-4 at the K, and also enjoyed a great post-game fireworks show. There seemed to be as many Chicago fans as KC fans!

Spinning

Wednesday evening cycle class at the Y. Yes.

Royals-Twins

Saturday evening was spent with the fam out at Kauffman Stadium to see the Royals play the Twins. Despite the Royals loss, we had fun letting the kiddo play in the outfield kids area and watching the general theatre of an MLB game. The best part of this game, however, was not the thrill of the crowd or the free bobbleheads we received at the door, but rather the discovery of vegetarian hot dogs at one of the concession stands on the main level. VEGGIE HOT DOGS! Thank you Royals, for thinking of all of your fans. So exciting!!

March Madness

Exhibiting a bit of Jayhawk spirit, even if we did lose the game to an eleventh seed....

Basketball

It's March, so it's basketball crazy time at KU. On Thursday I had lunch with some friends at the Union, where the Big XII tournament games were broadcast on a big screen t.v. I'm not so into sports, and don't really become interested until the National Championship games, but it was still fun to view the game with a group of KU fans. Rock chalk!

Baseball 野球

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The weekend that Joe moved up to Yokohama was a three day weekend, as we had Monday the 20th off for Ocean Day. The weather was lovely, and we took the opportunity to go see a baseball game, Yokohama Bay Stars vs. Chunichi Dragons. The photo above is Joe exiting the subway, below is us in our general admission outfield seats. Even though the Bay Stars are the worst in their league, the game was really crowded, so we had a hard time finding seats. As we stood near the top looking for a place to sit, two kids (behind us in the photo) came up to us and told us to come with them. They and their Mom had two seats near them, and gave them to us. Their Mom was a former English teacher and was using the opportunity to have the kids practice their English. They were really cute, and we scored first row seats!
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As most people do, we brought in snacks and drinks from the convenience store across the street (no bag check, no ban on outside food and drink), but Joe still wanted to buy a beer to have the full baseball stadium experience. We decided against buying food, as it was hot dogs or takoyaki (fried octupus balls), neither being a favorite of ours. His beer came with an almond and fish snack packet, which he said was good. I stuck with my conbini peanuts, though I do love the almond and fish shaking hands on the packet.
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Literally, almonds and fish.
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It's Hoshi, the Bay Stars mascot!
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The field at Yokohama Stadium; all astroturf except for small areas of dirt right around the bases and the pitchers mound.
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Scoreboard. They had a Hamster Dance Competition, and this guy, perhaps in a hamster suit, won. It was hilarious.
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The fans in the outfield were crazy. Each player has their own cheer, and there were cheerleaders in the crowd who organized the chants for each player. There were also two bands in the outfield. You can get a better idea of the crowd unity and enthusiasm from the video I posted below.
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The outfield crowd. We didn't win the game, but there were lots of exciting moments, and it was really fun to see how enthusiastic people were. We also thought it was interesting how the gender ratio of the crowd was almost even, and there were not many intoxicated people, it was a very family-oriented atmosphere. Go Bay Stars!
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Yokohama Bay Stars Video

A Metaphor for a Hot Summer Day...

One of my favorite skiing experiences was from my time in Oregon. Skiing on Mt. Bachelor, sometimes the clouds would come in low and sit mid-way up the mountain. I would take the chair lifts up to near the top of the mountain, above the cloud line. From there all I could see were the other distant cone-shaped volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range poking through the sea of clouds. It was incredibly clear, exhilarating, and beautiful, yet a little creepy, isolating, and surreal at the same time. As I would ski down the mountain I would enter the cloud cover, and everything became slightly foggy. It was hard to see the trail ahead of me, but I was still able to follow it, and had to let go of my urge for complete control over the situation. Eventually, I would near the bottom of the mountain, and things would clear up again below the cloud line. By then I was fatigued, and while I had an impression of the skiing that I just did, everything was a bit convoluted. I was thinking about this experience today as an apt metaphor for my current study of Japanese.

Right now one of my daily class assignments is a reading passage. These are “real world” passages, things from the newspaper or books, not the nicely edited textbook passages of beginner and intermediate Japanese. For homework we read the passage, and then answer comprehension questions on the passage and the more difficult vocabulary (in Japanese). When I begin my preparations for these passages, my feeling is like that at the top of the mountain, I have all my tools for study (dictionary, grammar reference book, pencil, eraser, glass of water, and a clean sheet of paper) and things are clear and exciting. All too soon the cloud cover comes in- I get mixed up on a certain grammar point, or a vocabulary word is used in a sense that I’m not familiar with. I usually fall down a few times here, as I feel like I have blue square ability (intermediate) but I’m on a black diamond run (advanced). Then I get to the comprehension questions and it’s all a little bit blurry, yet somehow I manage to get it (or at least most of it). By the end, my brain is tired and I feel exhilarated that I just completed something challenging and rewarding.

Perhaps my metaphor seems flaky or far-fetched (especially for the non-skiers or language learners), but in many ways skiing and Japanese elicit similar emotions for me. I love both of them, yet they both involve a bit of pain. For the most part they are good for my health, yet they probably are also causing me some problems (knee problems from skiing and carpel tunnel from practicing kanji). Neither is an inexpensive pursuit, and in the end both the mental exhaustion from my course and the humidity of the Japanese summer have me wondering, how many days until ski season starts?

Sumo 相撲

On Sunday March 8 we went to the Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka. The tournaments occur six times a year, three times in Tokyo, once in Fukuoka, once in Nagoya, and once in Osaka (for a helpful beginer's guide to sumo click here). As we approached the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium we saw the crowds outside awaiting the arrival of their favorite rikishi (wrestler). From up close the size of the rikishi was amazing, according to the program most of them were over 6 foot and near 300 pounds.

















Inside the gymnasium, we took our seats and watched the Juryo Division matches (lower division) for about an hour.
















At about 3:30 the Ring Entering Ceremony began. The rikishi all wore beautifully embroidered aprons and entered the ring, walking around the circle as their names were announced. It was interesting to see how many rikishi are from Mongolia and Eastern Europe.
















More ring entering ceremony...




















...and some more ring entering ceremony.















Then the Makuuchi Division matches began. The rikishi in the photo below was particularly huge, this was taken just after he won his match.















Joe watching the tournament.















Of course there was limited edition Hello Kitty, and of course I bought one. Here she's dressed as the Yokozuna is during the Ring Entering Ceremony, complete with the super-heavy hemp rope belt and paper ornaments.















More tournament action...















... and some more. We were seated in the upper-level seats (read: cheaper seats), but the closer boxes had Japanese-style floor seating and tea service.















Later in the day the matches became more exciting, as the higher ranked rikishi were the last to wrestle.















Me watching the tournament.















Some of the ritual that happened before each match. While the rikishi would wrestle for only about a minute, they would stare each other down and have a little psycholgical battle for about four mintues prior to their match.















The higher ranked rikishi had sponsors, and the sponsor banners were paraded around the ring before the match. This rikishi had Hello Kitty as a sponsor! The Kitty banner is the first one. Another rikishi had McDonalds as his sole sponsor, they paraded about five banners.
















More of the pre-match ritual.
















The score board. The rikishi are listed as either East or West (top or bottom on the board), and the winner of the match has a red light next to their name. This photo was taken during the last match, so both names have the red light.

After the tournament, me and a foamcore cut out of one of the more popular rikishi.

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The tournament flags outside of the gymnasium at the end of the tournament. There were drums played from atop the gymnasium to announce the end of the days matches. All in all, I found sumo to be much more interesting than I thought it would be. It was Joe's idea to go to the tournament, so I give credit to him for peaking my interest in the sport. The ritual of the tournament was facinating, and I enjoyed the rhythm of the day.

As we walked back to the subway we came across a Mexican restaurant near Namba Station, in the Hips Building. I forgot the name, but it was fantastic!