{"id":1114,"date":"2012-10-16T02:17:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T07:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ironcheffans.info\/wordpress\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2012-10-16T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T00:38:08","slug":"my-trip-to-japan-niigata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ironcheffans.com\/?p=1114","title":{"rendered":"My Trip to Japan – Niigata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 6 – Our day in Niigata<\/p>\n

After a magnificent Saturday in Sendai, it was time to head to the other coast of Japan and spend a day in Niigata. Niigata<\/a> is on the northwest coast of Honshu. We weren’t there too long, but our day and night in Niigata<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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. \ud83d\ude42 ) 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.<\/p>\n

We had the privilege of seeing what is called a “countryside game” in Niigata. HERE<\/a> is a great explanation of countryside games written by our companion on the trip Wayne Graczyk. You can read more about Wayne HERE<\/a> 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<\/a> is a chain of resale stores in Japan. See a commercial on Youtube<\/a>.) 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<\/a> about the game. (They should have had some pizza<\/a> for him like Seibu did.)<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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<\/a> is a write up of the game by a Swallows fan. Official Box Score<\/a>\u00a0from the NPB website.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> I recognized<\/a> on<\/a> the shelves<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

Videos: Train from Sendai<\/a>, Train from Sendai 2<\/a>, Giants vs. Swallows in Niigata<\/a>, One more train video<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n \t

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