Tokyo take 2 (part I)

Tokyo Take 2 (part I)

We left Nara Friday morning and headed back to Tokyo for one last blowout weekend before I jumped on a plane to head back to the states. After resting up in Nara for a few days we were all ready for a weekend of fun and excitement in the big city.

Japanese Professional Baseball

We kicked off the weekend by checking out a Japanese professional baseball game. Although traditionally known as America's past time, baseball has become extremely popular in Japan, where it has been played since the 19th century.

The professional baseball rules in Japan are essentially the same as those of Major League Baseball here in the U.S., with a few differences. In Japan tie games are allowed and certain technical elements are slightly different: a smaller baseball, strike zone, and playing field are used. The Japanese baseball is wound more tightly and is harder than an American baseball. The strike zone is narrower "inside" than away from the batter. Also, five Japanese league teams have undersized home fields. A controversial rule also allows a team to have no more than four foreign players, limiting the cost and competition for expensive players from other countries.

We were in Japan for the typhoon season but Friday night was about the only time that it rained during our entire trip. Of course that had to coincide with the night we decided to go to a baseball game.

The stadium could not have even been half full for the game, which probably was a result of the fact that it was pouring rain and the team we were watching was already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. After the game I turned on the television in my hotel room as I was getting ready and caught a more meaningful game and the stands in that game were absolutely packed.

Still, of the people who actually showed up to our game, there was a good amount of enthusiasm for the teams.

One thing that I found interesting about watching a game in the Japanese baseball league was the amount of organized cheers and chants that the fans participated in throughout the game. There was a little more than the "take me out to the ballgame" and "hey batter batter" stuff that you see in American baseball games.

I took some very poor videos of a few of a guy who sat next to us who seemed to be leading a number of the chants.


I think there were different chants for different situations, like hitting a home run or striking out a batter, but I wasn't entirely sure.



Either way it was a lot of fun. To me it seemed more like a college football game than a professional baseball game with the amount of enthusiasm and personalized cheers and chants.

I also enjoyed the refreshments at the game.

For starters they have much more attractive beer vendors,

who will pour you a draft beer instead of a bottled or canned beer.

The snacks also were a trip. My mid game snack consisted of egg roll hot dogs and fried octopus balls, both of which were pretty amazing.

Roppongi

After the game we decided to check out one of the more famous nightlife areas of Tokyo - Roppongi. Roppongi is a big night club area that is a popular destination for Western tourists and other ex-patriots. Basically I'd say Rappongi is a little racier than other areas of Tokyo - there are more bars, nightclubs, strip clubs, restaurants, hostess clubs, cabarets and other forms of entertainment.

Also, if you are a group of white males walking through Roppongi at night it is inevitable that you will be approached at seemingly every corner and every bar you pass by dozens of black men trying to convince you to come to their bar. There are what feels like hundreds of them and they get in your face, initiate conversations, and all promise the same things - the coolest bar or strip club in Tokyo with the hottest women. We were advised that these people get paid to bring people into clubs and that usually the places they lead you are nothing like they describe.

We just went to some of the places the tourist books mentioned, none of which were all that fun in and of themselves, but we managed to have a pretty good time.

The only highlight of the night for me was when I was approached by two girls and the following dialogue ensued:

"Do you know who you rook rike?"

"No.....who do I look like?"

"You rook rike Nick Rachay"

I'm not sure how much I agree with that statement, but for some reason I thought it was hysterical that people in Japan (a) know who Nick Lachay is and (b) think that I rook rike him.

Had I known this earlier on the trip I may have tried to get us some better treatment from the locals - some Nick Lachay/98 degrees type treatment.