Tokyo (Day 5)
Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the... OK, hold that thought.
We're in no real rush today, we get up latish and slowly get ready. There is a simple plan for today - get to Tokyo Dome, suss it out and get ready for the BASEBALL!
It's about an hour walk so off we go. We head through some new parts of town that are pretty nice. It's a perfect spring day. Low 20s, sun's out, t-shirt on.
There is a large park with some shrines and lots of cherry blossom trees, one has just burst open and another is right on the brink. Aparently this is a special one since there is large crowd hanging around and news crews with cameras at the ready. (Evidentally it popped the next day; we see the news story on a Japanese channel)
We keep wandering towards Tokyo Dome. Another stop in at Subway to try and offset the constant late night ramen. We get to "Tokyo Dome City" a few hours before the game.
We check out the merch tent, but suprise-suprise its mostly over-priced rubbish. Courts is heading down my path and offically adopts the Seattle Mariners as another team by buying a hat. Jeff later picks up a small peice of Ichiro Suzuki memorabilia. He's the 45 year-old Japanese player who currently holds the hit record in the MLB and future Hall-of-Famer. By all accounts he will be playing his final games in front of his home crowd in this opening series. Super exciting since he is like a god here.
We head to a garden nearby and relax for a bit (a.k.a Jeff snoozed and Courtney read). Such a pretty and tranquil spot. The Japanese do this very well (obviously); while they work hard, they know how to do peacefulness. We've noticed that as soon as you step away from a busy area, Tokyo is generally very quiet. What they are missing in Tokyo is grass though. No areas for activity from what we've seen. Where does one kick a footy?
We're getting itchy feet and head back closer to the Dome. We have a couple of drinks and wander around. The crowd is building up, Jeff chases down Stomper for a photo. We have a quick bite of fried chicken and then in we go.
Quite a sureal feeling inside the Dome. We sit down and watch the tail end of the Mariners batting practice. They take their safety quite seriously - security guards blow their whistles if there is a ball heading for the crowd.
We grab a quick bento box each and some drinks and return to our (tiny) seats. The game starts and we settle in for hopefully a good game. We aren't dissapointed, lots of runs coming in the first few innings, including a Grand Slam :) to Seattle :(
The crowd cheering Ichiro's name for every ball he faced, cameras flashing everywhere. Unfortunately he is subbed out of the game after two at-bats. The electicity in the air fades somewhat.
Oakland aren't able to threaten the scoreboard and the Mariners win the first game of the season. The main difference was the pitching; none of the A's could find their groove tonight.
A's Lose. A's Lose.
We head off home and sneak in a quick ramen at the most authentic (seediest) place we could find. Always a good way to end the night (which is regretted in the morning)