06/28 - Root Blue, Go to Busy Shinjuku

A blast from the past

and some shelter from the rain

for Mune's old team


A face in the crowd

when there are this many faces

is the smile of light



Saturday afternoon is the perfect time to take in a baseball game, so Tim and I headed to the Seibu Dome today for the second time, to see the Saitama Seibu Lions take on the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. It was raining pretty heavily, so it was a good thing the Lions play in a dome, even if it is open all around the perimeter. I wanted to catch a game this weekend because I wanted to see the Hawks, since they are current Toronto Blue Jay and personal favourite Munenori Kawasaki's old team. Mune played for the Hawks for ten years, amassing tons of awards and winning two Japan Series titles. It was also a good weekend to go because it was Lions Classic 2014, which meant that both teams were wearing throwback uniforms. The old style uniforms looked really cool, featuring some colour combinations I would not describe as common in North American pro sports. The Lions wore light blue with red and green trim, while the Hawks were decked out in white uniforms with brown pinstripes and orange trim. The best part of the hawks uniforms was that their batting helmets had the head of a hawk painted on them as though the player had a bird's head. (Check out the styles here.) I thought it was funny that even the team sponsors were from the past. Every team in Japanese baseball has a company name in the title, generally the company that owns the team or a company owned by the team's owner. Seibu is the name of a huge conglomerate that runs department stores and train lines among other things, and SoftBank is one of the largest cell phone providers here. But for this weekend, in their throwback unis, the SoftBank Hawks were once again the Daiei Hawks. Daiei is a supermarket chain here. When we researched some of the history of the Lions that day I found out some interesting facts. First, the Lions actually used to be located in Fukuoka, the home of their opponents. Second, a very famous Blue Jay once played for the team. Tony Fernandez, a player who hilariously played for the Blue Jays four separate times in his career played for the Lions in 2000, a year before his last stint in Toronto. Jays fans should all forever love Fernandez not only for his own play, but for the fact he was also part of the trade that brought Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar to Toronto. Alomar and Carter were instrumental in the Jays first World Series in 1992 and then Fernandez joined them in 1993 when he was traded back to the Blue Jays and helped the team win their second straight championship. I think it's super cool he is part of Seibu Lions history too, even though he only played in Saitama for one season.

Tim and I bought tickets for the outfield section, so we could be in the area with all the diehard fans, but when we got to right field where all the Lions crazies and the band were we realized there were no seats for our section, just some green carpet on the concrete. We took in a little of the pre-game ambience before heading to a section where we could stand comfortably and look for some free seats. We had to use the guise of buying some KFC to get into a nicer section.

I wore my Blue Jays #66 Kawasaki t-shirt to the game today, even though I was cheering for the Lions. I was happy that the Lions won their second straight with me in attendance rooting them on, but I wanted to rock my Kawasaki t-shirt to the game anyway. On the train after a boy and his mom wearing Hawks gear checked out the shirt, front and back, with great interest. Then an older guy who was wearing tons of Hawks merchandise looked at my chest and said "Blu-ey Jay-soo". I smiled at him and showed him the name on the back and he grinned at me for the rest of the ride.

After a brief stop at home, I headed out for the night. I met some of my former students and friends in the incredibly busy Shinjuku Station. The station has the Guinness World Record for busiest transit hub in the world and has over 200 exits. Luckily, my friend Yoshi organized our meeting point, going as far as to warn me to go to the East Entrance, not the Central East Entrance. I was a bit bewildered but luckily Yoshi spotted me, then with the help of his phone we found our other two friends Yuki and Koki. The four of us went and walked through the Golden Gai, an area of tiny alleyways full of absolutely tiny bars. Then we walked around Kabukicho, Tokyo's "Sleepless Town" to find a place to eat. Kabukicho is named after a Kabuki theatre that was never built and is supposed to be a bit of a seedy area but I didn't see anything other than a staggering amount of people. We had to hunt a bit to find a restaurant that could fit us in and when we finally did we had to wait for and take a busy elevator up to the 6th floor where it was, so we could eat some Kyushu food. The food was delicious and the company was great. All three of the gentlemen I shared supper with have fantastic English and I got to witness how hard they worked to achieve their impressive skills while they were in Vancouver. It was very nice to catch up with them, Koki and Yoshi for the first time in Japan and Yuki for the second.

When we finished Yoshi and I walked together to the station while Yuki and Koki went to play some billiards. Shockingly we ran into Harris, a teacher I met at our company's orientation day almost two months ago. It was a huge surprise to spot an unexpected familiar face in such a hellaciously busy place, so we took a few minutes to chat and share some of our Tokyo experiences. Harris, now used to basic level students, was also impressed with Yoshi's English. When he told Yoshi how good his English Yoshi replied "You flatter me." Which modestly did more than confirm Harris's belief.