Baseball in the Rain

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3

I set an alarm for myself for 10am. Elizabeth and I were meeting at 10:50 to catch a train to Otsu. Her school's baseball team was competing for the all-prefecture championship. On the platform, we met up with many of her students. They were all delighted that she was going. We took the JR, then had to transfer to a private like Kai-something line. It was a cute little train that didn't go too fast and stopped a lot through winding little residential neighborhoods through the foothills of the mountains.

One we exited, we walked to the stadium, bought our tickets and joined MORE of her students inside. We joined the school's cheering section and were quickly handed plastic fans. These ended up being the Japanese noisemaker. And they do make a pretty good noise when you clap with them. Our team's cheering section dwarfed the other team's. There was a well-organized mother section, complete with matching t-shirts, hats, and towels.

Elizabeth knows nothing about baseball, so I explained outs, strikes, balls, and scoring to her. She was getting better by the end, although she really doesn't care too much about sports. We did get a picture of her there so we could prove to her boyfriend that she actually did go to a baseball game.

Whenever our team scored, the students in the section in front of us formed trains and went backwards and forwards in their isles, then hit each other on the head with their fans. Honest.

We ended up winning 3-1 at the top of the 9th. It had been drizzling all game and was a bit cold. It was raining harder as Elizabeth pulled out her umbrella and we watched the closing ceremony. Both teams lined up on their side of the field, then an official followed by a girl in the team's school uniform carrying a giant stick with a giant baseball poster on it marched the entire team in a zig-zag path onto the field so they ended up lining up in a straight row from the other team. Japan has too much time on its hands. There were some speeches, a flag was presented to representatives of our team along with a box (of what I can only assume were medals) and then our team's reps went back to their places and the other team's reps came out and get just a box. Then both teams were marched (honestly, march step!) so they faced each other, and they bowed to each other, then they were marched back to the stands so they faced us, then they bowed to us. Then, they started acting like kids and whooped and cheered and tackled each other.

Monique and I left in the drizzle. I was exhausted and could have slept on the train. We ended up walking to the homestore on the far side of the station together to price futons. I'm also looking for a spice rack, but didn't see one. We checked out another futon place (that was really, really expensive!) then headed back to MyCal and separated off. I went to look at choppers and almost bought one, but the people at check out told me it was a juicer (I'm skeptical) so I didn't.

I ended up going to hyaku-en and picking up a few necessities, then walking home in the rain.

At home, I cooked the frozen pizza I picked up yesterday for dinner. It was nothing compared to the ones Lonn used to make me, but it was still delicious. I scarfed the whole thing down. It's also not unreasonably priced, although it is small. I've also been munching traditional Japanese rice and red bean desserts. I figure at least they must be healthy, but they're a bit addicting. I'd picked them up for the movie last night, but still have leftovers.

Then, it was blog updating time. Catching up on everything has taken me several hours. I should NEVER let myself fall this far behind again. If I do, yell at me. Yell at me if I'm more than one day late. Thank you, Lonn, for telling me to update.