Baseball - Hanshin Tigers vs. Tokyo Yakult Swallows
One of the big things I wanted to do here was go to a baseball game. I may not know much Japanese but I'm pretty sure I won't be tooooo much out of my element even if I didn't understand what was going on.
Much thanks to Amy's husband Kentaro who got me my ticket which Amy mailed to me at my hostel in Kyoto! It was a match between the Hanshin Tigers and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Normally the Hanshin Tigers do not play at the Kyocera Dome (their home team is the Orix Buffaloes), but in August they share it with the tigers? Either way, it was an impressive stadium that holds about 36,500 for baseball games and I didn't see one empty seat.
The seats were slightly terrifying as they did not have any rails or backs to them. I feel like if you got drunk, you'd easily fall. I was situated in center-left Outfield, smack between the Tigers and Swallows cheering sections. (I wasn't sure where I was sitting and if you sit in a cheering section you CANNOT wear clothing or support the other team). Great view of the game and alot of fun fans around me.
Some things I noticed about watching a baseball game in Japan:
- They seem to review calls more than Jay's games. Reviewed at least 2 before the 4th inning was done.
- The Swallows had this fun umbrella cheer/choreographed routine they did whenever they got a runner home. Like legit popped open these tiny umbrellas. Rihanna would be so proud.
- there were at least 2 wild pitches that hit players! And you could hear a PIN drop in the stadium while the fans waited to see if the player was ok
- Theey let each time have thier own 7th inning stretch song which they call the Lucky 7
- They have cheers for individual players like "katobasay oh yo hama"
- There were LOTS of mound huddles. I feel like they really support their teammates
- Trumpets and drums help to lead the cheers!
- Snacks included a mix of Japanese food (I.e yakatori, tayoyaki) and western food (I.e. French fries). I had draft beer, French fries and a chocolate churrito.
The Tigers ended up winning the game (5-3), so that was icing on the cake.
A night in Dontonburi
After two cancelled food/drink tours (one out of fear of the typhoon and one from a sick tour leader), Daisy (my American travel friend who I met in Tokyo) and I decided to still meet up and do our own thing in the Dontonburi area of Japan.
Dontonburi is the bright lights, bar and good area of Osaka. It gives off a mix of consumerism and Blade runner... and the misty rain only added more to its vibe.
We met up at the Glico Running Man, a very specific and busy landmark of the area. Dodging selfies, we went to a restaurant to try Osaka's version of Okonomiyaki. This time we didn't get seated at the teppanyaki grill but rather they brought it over to us and served it to us on our own hot grill after it was made. It was delicious but didn't have the noodles that the Hiroshima version did, so I think in the end I preferred Hiroshima style.
We walked around and tried some more street food. We ate candied strawberries and grapes (muscat). They were like tiny candy apples and if I find out I got a cavity in a few weeks, this would be it's culprit.
Next snack was the Cheese Coin. It's basically a hot pancake that is filled with hot and stringy white cheese. Basically, my vibe. The sly joke of it being in the shape of a 10 ¥ coin but actually costing 500, is not lost on me either.
Then it started to rain a little harder so we popped into a random alley that turned out to showcase different murals and paintings of Dontonburi! Such luck!
We decided to go get a drink and when pondering where to go, we looked up and saw a neon sign for "bar". Why don't we go there? I suggested. So we headed it up and it was this ADORABLE kawaii bar with cute neon lights and a partnership with New Zealand Manuka honey? They gave us a phrase book written in English so we could communicate with the adorable servers even better. The owner was there too to give us tips and his business card for us to check out his other karaoke snake bar ? (We declined). Daisy had some whisky drinks and I had a lychee cocktail and a plum wine with soda and rocks. We never really did find out its name. But wander down the right back alley in Dontonburi, look up and you may find it like we did.
Daisy had to catch the last train back to Kyoto and it was SO much fun to spend a night with a new friend. We were a little worried about the weather because tomorrow was...
Typhoon Day - Tuesday Aug 15th
Typhoon Lan had been in the news all weekend with lots of a fanfare and hype. It was to hit Osaka in the early morning of the 15th and last for the day. I had heard of the devastation it left in the southern tip of Japan at the beginning of my trip so I was a little nervous going to bed.
Trains were cancelled, flights grounded in advance, stores were shut, people were buying everything off the shelves in Family Mart... but turns out, it was nothing! I heard rain and wind outside in the wee hours of like 5-6 am and it rained consistently until about 4pm, but it wasn't flooding or trees down or power outages. It apparently got downgraded to a tropical stoem. We have had WAY scarier thunderstorms in Canada.
My hostel, Fon Su, was a quirky little place with a comfy bed and a nice little Cafe for breakfast. The biggest quirk I saw was that the entrance to the shower was like half a door that you had to scoot under to get inside and then slide the door for privacy. When I returned home from my Dontonburi night, I saw this posted on the wall.
How fun! I had tried tayoyaki at my bar tour in Tokyo, but to make it here with a local would be next level. So after I woke up, had breakfast, chatted with a dude named Omar from Israel, and sorted through some photos and napped, I went to the common room to try my hand at making takoyaki.
Takoyaki is this famous Osaka street food. It's basically small balls of dough with octopus inside and a delicious sauce & mayo poured on top. Some of the other ingredients inside were tuna flakes, shrimp crunchies (mini tempura crunches?), green onions and ginger. The batter is similar to a pancake kind of batter.
You grill it on a special tayoyaki grill, making sure to rotate them to cook each side a golden brown. I was told that it is likely for most homes to have one of these grills and most people enjoyed them as snacks. At the stalls in Dontonburi, they sell them in groups of 8 which seemed like a lot to me, but I ended up eating 10 of my 16 I made. They were so good and the octopus doesn't really add too much taste, just a bit of chewy texture for that part. They are also piping hot.
After the takoyaki expeience, I asked the staff where I could go since most everything was closed (🙄). Apparently the mall near the Kyocera Dome was open so I headed back there to Aeon Mall. I wandered through each floor, taking time to notice things I probably wouldn't have if I had been rushing. Almost bought 1000 cute clothes for Hannah but couldn't figure out sizing. I DID buy some of my Korean face moisturizer (Nature Republic) which I got for half the price I would pay for it in Canada!!!
In the mall, I got suckered into a kids Gachapon and claw game amusement area. I tried some vending machine popcorn (meh), won 2 hair scrunchies from a claw game and spent about $25 on a scooping/pushing game to win a Keychain that I have no idea what it's from. But the dopamine rush of finally getting it was worth it! 😅😅😅
I was on the hunt for a Hanshin Tigers shirt but didn't find one there, so figuring that maybe Dontonburi would be open for tourists, I headed back there with my umbrella in hand. No luck. Found the shop, but it was shuttered for the Typhoon. I hit up a Don Quijote, a cheap souviner/catch all store and then headed home to enjoy my soba noodles dish and ice cream from Family Mart. Typhoon Day complete.
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