Part 6 – Our day in Niigata
After a magnificent Saturday in Sendai, it was time to head to the other coast of Japan and spend a day in Niigata. Niigata is on the northwest coast of Honshu. We weren’t there too long, but our day and night in Niigata were a lot of fun. I wish we had more time there. (That one sentence pretty much sums up the trip, “I wish we had more time there.”) One of the interesting things I saw leaving the station were bags of dried(?), smoked(?) whole fish. Of course, I had to grab a couple of pictures of that. After a quick stop at the hotel to drop off our bags, the group split up again.
Lynn and I decided we wanted to walk around town before heading to the stadium. As we were walking down the street, Lynn said, “That guy has an Astros hat on.” After some encouragement, I caught up with the man and tried to communicate that we had the same hat on. Between pointing at the two hats, and his family helping him realize what I was pointing out to him, he finally realized what I was talking about. I got a quick picture with him and went on my way. I’d like to think they had a story to tell for the rest of the day about the crazy white guy who chased him down and wanted a picture. 🙂
We saw a lot of interesting shops and signs as we walked around Niigata. We didn’t go too far because we knew we needed to get out to the stadium for the start of the game. We were standing on a corner waiting for the light to change when a young lady came up and stood next to us. Being the friendly fellow he is, Lynn turned to her and said, “Konnichi wa.” She looked at us for a few seconds, and then asked, “Are you guys lost?” in perfect English. Why was her English so good? It turns out that she was from Colorado and was in Niigata working as an English teacher. (Unfortunately, we didn’t take a picture with her. So, if you’re an English teacher in Niigata and talked to two guys walking down the street, send a picture and I’ll put it on here. 🙂 ) We decided we should head toward the stadium, but since we had wandered the streets of Niigata, we weren’t entirely sure where the stadium was. We started walking in the direction we thought we should be going before finally asking a couple of Japanese guys while waiting for the light to change. I asked where the baseball stadium was in my best broken Japanese. They guys looked at each other, then one of them said “nagai” and pointed at his legs saying “very long, long” in his best broken English. I said “nagai, far away?” and then I smiled and said, “Taxi.” They both laughed and nodded that yes, we should probably take a taxi to get to the stadium.
We had the privilege of seeing what is called a “countryside game” in Niigata. HERE is a great explanation of countryside games written by our companion on the trip Wayne Graczyk. You can read more about Wayne HERE to understand just how much of an honor it was to have him along at the games with us. We arrived at Hard Off Echo Stadium in plenty of time for the game. (Hard Off is a chain of resale stores in Japan. See a commercial on Youtube.) We would see the Yakult Swallows take on the Yomiuri Giants in a rematch of the first game we saw on Friday. I liked the stadium, as the view of Niigata over the outfield stands was great. It was definitely a different experience compared to the previous day’s game in Sendai. It was not nearly as lively a crowd, but the usual outfield cheering sections were active. There seemed to be plenty of empty seats, one of the many things Wayne wrote about in his column about the game. (They should have had some pizza for him like Seibu did.)
There are some differences between MLB and NPB that I have enjoyed experiencing, but there is one that I wish I could have avoided. Today’s game ended in a tie. I didn’t mean to turn this into a Wayne Graczyk link-fest, but HERE is an article about the stalling tactics used by some Japanese teams. It seemed like the Giants were playing for the tie in this one. HERE is a write up of the game by a Swallows fan. Official Box Score from the NPB website.
After the game, we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go out for dinner somewhere in the neighborhood. After walking past some clubs with some questionable characters hanging around outside, we finally settled on a little restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel. It was time for some Japanese ramen. Since every time I tried to ask them to leave out something (I didn’t want an egg in my ramen, for example) the girl just pointed at the menu again, we finally just told her to bring two bowls and I ate around what I didn’t want. It was delicious. I think Lynn has a couple of pictures of our dinner that night. I’ll post them here when he sends them to me.
We walked around the neighborhood a little more, stopping by a couple of places including one little bookstore where I got to bore Lynn with my talk about the different manga I recognized on the shelves. It was back to the hotel to take advantage of the only free wifi I came across to send a few emails and pictures before heading to bed. Tomorrow, we head back to Tokyo.
Videos: Train from Sendai, Train from Sendai 2, Giants vs. Swallows in Niigata, One more train video
According to the Fuji TV website, the next installment of Iron Chef will be a 2 hour special airing on Friday, October 26th starting at 7:00 PM. I’ll keep my eyes open for any other news about the show. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about it as the date approaches. I’d love to get someone to record it for us. (Worst case scenario, I’m up at 5:00 AM that day and watching a small, pixellated window in KeyholeTV.)
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/ironchef/index.html
UPDATE (10/15): Thanks to a comment below, we now know the new Chairman and announcers. The chairman will be actor Hiroshi Tamaki. (I know him mainly as Chiaki from Nodame Cantabile.) You can see more images of the new chairman HERE. The new announcers will be Mizuki Sano (You can see Sano in this Beyond Kitchen Stadium clip.) from Fuji TV and Yurika Mita. (She apparently sings, too. You can buy her single.) It looks like Ota is being replaced with comedian Daisuke Miyagawa.
Here are the links and stories from around the web and our comments section:
http://www.tokyohive.com/2012/10/tamaki-hiroshi-to-host-the-new-iron-chef-on-fuji-tv/
http://orendsrange.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/hiroshi-tamaki-is-iron-chefs-new.html#.UHvDnG9kQwA
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-10-14/new-iron-chef-chairman-is-nodame-cantabile-tamaki
http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/20121015/oth12101505050010-n2.html (This story says they will not announce the Iron Chefs until the broadcast.)
VIDEOÂ and VIDEO of Mita winning an arm wrestling matches against another female announcers.
VIDEO of Mita co-hosting Mitapanboo.
Nineteen years ago today (10/10/1993), the first episode of Ryouri no Tetsujin aired on Fuji TV in Japan. To commemorate this birthday, I’m posting an episode that is very special for a couple of reasons. First, this is an 85 minute “no-cut” episode. That means it is 85 minutes long and shows the entire 60 minutes of cooking. I don’t believe I have any other “no-cut” episodes up at this time, although more are coming soon. The second reason this episode is special is the Iron  Chef doing battle. Most fans of Iron Chef outside of Japan have seen only one battle (110 – Chicken) featuring the first Iron Chef French Yutaka Ishinabe. Of course, it was the only battle he lost. (Thanks, Food Network.) Now is your chance to see him do battle again. There are many more “new” episodes to be posted in the next couple of weeks, including a never before seen special.
315OA – Karei (Flounder) Battle – Yutaka Ishinabe vs. Tomoyuki Sawaguchi – 04/14/1995
This episode is in Japanese with NO English subtitles. This episode is in two parts.
This episode is a “no-cut” episode that lasts 85 minutes and features the full 60 minutes of cooking time.
I have uploaded this episode in the format it was received (.MPG). The zipped file containing both parts of the episode is a very large file (5.5GB). I have also uploaded the usual smaller .avi versions for those without the space/bandwidth for the larger file.
ATTN: There is a problem with the audio in the .avi files. I will have to fix it tonight when I get home. Sorry about that, everybody. I have re-encoded the avi files and uploaded them again. The Watch Video links and Download links for the smaller .avi files should work properly now.
My Trip to Japan 2012 – Part 5 – Sendai
So much cool stuff happened on this day. I’m sure I’m going to forget something. Saturday morning, and it’s time to head out of Tokyo for a couple of days. Our first stop is the largest city in the Touhoku region, Sendai. After a couple of days in the middle of one of the world’s busiest cities, it was nice to get different view of Japan on the train ride up. We took the Shinkansen to Sendai. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed back to the station. We needed to get a new memory card for Lynn’s camera. How did we ever expect to find a memory card for a camera in Japan? Luckily, we found a shop to buy one for him. 🙂
Lynn and I broke off from the group and went looking for a pachinko/slots establishment we saw advertised on the outside of the building. Imagine the loudest buzzing, clanking arcade you’ve ever been in, then multiply that by 10 and you might have an idea of what it was like in there. We did see some nice Eagles memorabilia there. Also while underground, we came across the scooter/bicycle parking area under the station. There had to have been 1500 bikes under there.
We decided were going to walk from the station to the stadium since it wasn’t that far. While looking at the map, we were approached a Japanese gentleman who asked us what we were looking for. We told him the baseball stadium and he gladly showed us the way to go. He started walking along with us. We thanked him for the directions and he went back toward the station. Thank you Yuuji for your assistance. We continue down the street toward the stadium, taking a few pictures along the way. A few minutes later, Yuuji comes around the corner. He gives us his phone number and e-mail address and even invites us to sit with him at a music festival that night. Unfortunately, we had other plans so we were unable to attend with him, but just being invited was a very cool thing to me.
We finally made it to Kleenex Miyagi Stadium, and we were in for an outstanding afternoon of baseball and fun in the stands. Before we even went into the stadium, we were amazed by all the activity outside. Once we got inside, we found our seats and got settled. The atmosphere was somewhat more lively than the previous night’s game at Jingu Stadium. The Seibu Lions had a great cheering section in right field. (We would take in a Lions home game in a few days.) And the Eagles fans in the stands around us were really fun to be around. There was some unique mid-game entertainment. Lynn made a lot of new friends giving away some baseball themed gifts to the fans around us. The 7th inning celebration with the balloons was a lot of fun. The Eagles won the game 6-5 in walk-off fashion.
That would have been enough to make it a great day, but the night was just getting started.
The “other plans” that prevented us from taking Yuuji up on his music festival offer were a barbecue at the home of Marty Keuhnert. (You can learn more about Marty at his website.) We had a great time enjoying the spectacular view from Marty’s balcony and talking with some of the players. The freshly grilled burgers and sausage were also outstanding. And while that was wonderful, there was still one more event that would make today even better.
Earlier in the day, while walking around Sendai, I mentioned to Lynn that there was a Japanese band I liked, Monkey Majik, that was based in Sendai. (You can see some of their music videos HERE.) We were sitting outside at one of the tables when I saw what looked like a familiar face getting some food inside. I wasn’t sure I was seeing right until I saw a second person I recognized. I turned to Lynn and said, “Hey, remember that band I was telling you about earlier today. Well, they’re here. Monkey Majik is HERE!!!” (Well, half of Monkey Majik was there.) And while I didn’t want to interrupt them while they were eating, I had to go say something. I approached Maynard Plant and said to him, “I hate to disturb you while eating, but I just had to come over and say something. I am a huge Monkey Majik fan.” He thanks me and then asks if I live in Japan. I said, “No. I live in Texas.” Needless to say, he was surprised. Surprised enough to tell his Japanese wife and her friend, which drew a reaction from both of them. We talked for a while about why I was in Japan for the baseball tour, how he met Marty and all kinds of things. I kind of felt like Chris Farley a couple of times, “Remember that song you did and that video? That was awesome.” His brother Blaise comes inside for a minute. I get a picture (coming soon) taken with the two of them, get a compliment from Blaise on my Brand Legendary Mike Modano shirt, and I go back outside one happy camper after chatting a few more minutes with the two of them. Both Maynard and Blaise were incredibly cool guys and patient with their Texas fan. Later, right before we left, we were sitting around a table outside talking with Maynard about eating healthy. (I obviously had zero to contribute to that conversation.) Anyway, I was hanging out with Maynard Plant from Monkey Majik!!! And that brought my day in Sendai to a perfect close.
Videos: Bike parking under Sendai Station, Eagles fans cheering on their team, Manager argument, Mid-Game Entertainment, Seibu Cheering Squad, Balloon release during 7th inning stretch, Lynn making new friends