Of Stupid Beards

As is common for this blog, the title refers to something that may (or may not, depending on how I feel) appear at the end, but certainly not the beginning.

So, once again, I've trawled the depths of the internet so that you don't have to.  This trawling includes many game related websites, none of which will make it onto this page because you already think I'm nerdy enough, without me shouting out 'LOOK AT THE BUMP MAPPING ON THAT.'

Anywho, the first thing I saw on the BBC website was this article about piracy in Japan.  Democracy in the west is predicated on the idea that if you piss enough people off, they won't vote for you.  As such, the massively unpopular ideas rarely make it into law.  As a prime example there have been many people who have advocated improving the NHS (an example plucked from the air) by changing the very system itself.  As luddites, or 'voters,' as they're colloquially known, don't like change, the improvements have been vetoed in favour of spending eye-watering sums with no targets, aims or ideas.  Of course there are the few who make substantial sums by virtue of having gone to school with some otherwise exceptionally well to do peer or lord, but the majority are lumped with a slow, inefficient system that benefits senior administrators financially, and no one else.  The result is a system that doesn't work.  Yay for democratic powers!

The alternative is Japanese democracy which works very much like this:  I am the president of Japan.  My friend who runs Sony, doesn't like people pirating songs.  I will therefore enact a law that breaks the constitutional foundations of our country, because he will invite me to tea parties.

In many cases, the person who summons the idea is brazenly the same friend with whom we wish to dine, as in the case of this piracy law in Japan.

'This revision will reduce the spread of copyright infringement activities on the internet,' (ed - no it won't) said the body's chairman Naoki Kitagawa, who is also chief executive of Sony Entertainment Japan...' (ed - boldness added by the nobhead author)

So, they put someone who had clear ulterior motives, in charge of an organisation whose purpose is to lobby the government on behalf of a billion dollar company, in order to enact laws that are unjust, to further infringe upon the rights of the luddites.  Of course, the 'voters,' in Japan are more placid than those in England even, meaning they can do whatever the hell they want; and make no mistakes, they do.  Let this be a lesson for everyone in England - when you find yourself on the ass end of an unlawful arrest, with no access to a lawyer, food or water, and you're starved to death by a gestapo-esque secret police who are above the law, the incremental steps they took to get there could have been avoided had you decided to do something about it, instead of just sitting on your great big, gelatinous asses.  Take heed.  (Of course you won't, that's why 1984 is ever more referred to whenever someone mentions the state of human rights in contemporary society).

The next article is one about the EU.  Apparently we've been pissing people off in Europe (hot news just off the press).  The germans don't know whether to kick us out, the french have all but made up their mind (as this story, based off blogs of all things, seems to indicate).  No one else seems to care.  Should England sever all ties, it would of course be disastrous.  We wouldn't be able to handle worldwide finances without incurring heavy levies and taxes and this would mean losing 99% of all our income.  The other 1% are farmers, and they wouldn't be able to flog their stuff abroad, both because they'd be priced out of the market, and the government wouldn't be able to prop them up.  Gutted.  Should we abscond, someone else will take our place within four or five minutes, and we'd have permanently lost our source of income.

On the flip-side, screw the frogs and krauts, we don't need them as long as we have america.  Oh, they don't have any money anymore.  Well, maybe the chinese have forgotten about the opium wars by now?  Well, there's always Iran...

In sporting news, Nicky Hayden is one of my new favourite riders.  He is ballsy to the point of recklessness, and that merits a special place in my heart.

Take this for example:

Fuck that for a game of soldiers

It's not tiddly winks, but goddamn that's a big one.

He followed the above highside with this ballsy attempt at saving the bike.  As the various commentators have noted, he could have bailed a dozen times before he hit the barrier and slid to a painful, if unspectacular stop.  No one knows as of yet (as far as I know) why he didn't, but I suspect with his recent track record (pun) he was trying to save the bike to save the team from rebuilding yet another one.

It's worth noting that I've used the word ballsy so many times because it really conveys the kahoonas on this guy - gutsy or brave really don't have the same impact for my money.  Again, he deserves respect, and gets it from me.

Everyone seems to think he's okay.  Christ on a bike, the more I watch it the more horrific it gets.  He damn near does two flips, and that's only at 40mph!

The next clip comes from the hyperbole machine that is the BBC.

A typhoon hit mainland Japan last night, making landfall at Okinawa some hours prior.  By all accounts it was quite strong when it reached Okinawa, but when it came to mainland Japan it was weak and pathetic.  Having said that (or written), it wasn't a particularly earth-shattering one even over Okinawa.  They do like to hype these events though, so we got this self-evidently factually inaccurate report.

It's self-evident because the car is not in the air at any point, nor is it picked up.

It's made all the more hilarious by the slow-mo, as if trying to prove the validity of the headline.

Not funny for the man who owns the car though.  Poor guy.

If you want to see something that's actually impressive, watch the first plane land here.  That's a ballsy pilot.  Ballsy again, see.  Irreplaceable in the English language.

Nearly at an end now, this article makes me hate England.  Then it makes me hate humanity.  It turns out that dog-dirt sounds (not worthy of being called music) are enjoyed by people regardless of social upbringing, this pile of shit having bridged the language divide from korea to England.  What a shithouse state of affairs you lot must be in if you listen to this utter tripe.  Christ.  Go take a long, hard, semi-suicidal look at yourselves, people of England.

If you were one of the morons who partook of this crime against humanity, take out the 'semi,' from the previous sentence.

And finally, onto the bit about the beards.  In Japan, having a beard is sinful.  The vast, vast majority of men are physically incapable of growing facial hair, so to save their blushes beards are considered unsavoury by the aforementioned vast majority.

This is a problem for me because I'm fantastically lazy.  So lazy I can barely keep my eyelids open outside of rugby related activities.  This is a high-priority concern because I grow facial hair at a rate that would make Rapunzel blush (presumably her facial hair grew pretty quickly too) and cannot be bothered to cut it every day.  So far I've been getting by on weekly shaves that entail me looking like a spotty devil, rather like this, at the start of the week, then in the middle I look ruggedly handsome, and at the end I look like a stowaway aboard a transatlantic cruise powered by dreams.  Think Tom Hanks, if he spent another eight or so years on the island.

I'm pretty sure I would get fired if I didn't shave at all, so I devised a cunning plan.  If I shave just a little bit, to give the appearance of giving a flying one, they won't fire me.  I don't have to spend the requisite hours shaving it all off, taking mere moments instead - and I get to look like a complete douchebag in the process!  Bonus!

This came about from talking to someone who only shaved every time he scored a try, which was surprisingly often given his position.  I vowed to do the same (only tries for Lion count) but wondered how to enact that plan without turning into cousin It.

Anyway, this first trial resulted in a loss of moustache, next week I might keep the tache attached to the beard, and shave it down a bit, hoping to look like this:

I'm starting to get the old white hairs (hehe).  It's indicative of imperfect cell division, don'cha know.

But more than likely ending up like this:

You have to imagine green/black eyes instead.

Why all the beard talk?  Simple; I've nothing else better to talk about.

Bye.

#EDIT#  I just noticed someone left me a message on the previous post:

hahahahahaha
where do you get the brilliant words? soooooo funny

There are two possible options here:  He is a sincere fan, or a bitter, sarcastic dick.

Considering the fact that the kind of person who would sincerely leave a message of this kind probably isn't inclined to read anything I write (non-pop culture, non-fashion, non-celebrity) I have to assume he's option B.

In which case: Dick.

Telecommunicable

So the past few days I've been a little ill.  It's nothing major, but I feel it best to stay away from exercise.  As such, my new found collaboration with a rugby team up the road (coaching kids) was interrupted on Sunday.  I tried contacting the coach several times, but despite a phoneback from him (which I missed by a fraction) I was unable to relay my sickness.  What makes it more frustrating is that he's left messages for me, that I can't access because my phone is indecipherable.  Endeavour to make contact, I suppose.

I also haven't been to the gym for a week, which is unlike me. In this time I've been toying with the idea of running to the gym, as I feel general fitness is my current weakness.  The route covers a lot of road, and has a number of stops (for traffic lights etc) so it would suit my generally desired type of fitness (I always have an eye focused on rugby).

There are two problems I can foresee with this:  It takes twenty minutes by bike, when I'm burning.  By burning I mean I spend the entire time, trying to overtake cars.  I'm all over the road, swinging left and right trying to get there in as little time as possible.  When I do arrive, I generally do half an hour of upper body work before I start on the legs, because they're pretty jellified upon arrival.  Ultimately, this means a 45-50 minute run to the gym, a workout, then another 50 minute run back.  I despise running, in all shapes and forms - it's torture.  To spend the equivalent of an entire rugby match just running around; with nothing to tackle and no try line seems ludicrous.  On the flip side, there can surely be fewer things better for fitness than that.

The other problem is one of shoes.  I have a viable pair of shoes to run in right now, but they won't last a year of running like that.  At least, they won't offer any kind of protection for a year.  My knees are aching now, and I've not even tried running there yet.

I predict this cold will have flown by Friday, at which point I will attempt running to the gym.  Luckily, the two week hiatus will result in me losing at least a kilo, (as was the trend when I first arrived) so it will be slightly easier to haul myself along.  I don't know what other people experience when they go for a run, but I just feel like I'm trying to push a walrus along sandpaper that's glued to the floor.  It's like pushing an immovable weight, on a floor with an infinitely high friction coefficient.  I feel the same when I play rugby, especially when I don't have the ball or I'm not about to tackle someone - the difference is the disappearance of this burden when the time comes to act.  I guess that's the amazing effect of adrenaline.

#Edit

I'm watching a group of kids warming up to participate in P.E.  I can't remember ever warming up for P.E, except in the rare case that we actually had to do some exercise (this was rare, in the compulsory portion of my education).  What I notice, is that they completely disregard conventional Western wisdom (contradictory?) with regards to correct warmup procedure.  We're all taught not to 'bounce,' that is to say, fling a body part to the point at which it is fully extended/stretched and quickly tense that muscle to pull it back to the starting position.  This view hasn't reached Asia yet, apparently, and while fine for these kids (they're not really trying and don't care enough to injure themselves) I wonder if this is one of the reasons for relatively poor performances among Japanese athletes.  I've seen rugby teams here do the same thing, and I cringe.  I watch people in the gym do the same thing, and cringe.

Watching the chinese warm-up on the track prior to their events during the Olympics, I noticed they employed a more 'Western style,' approach to warmups.  Perhaps it is more indicative of a lack of interest in improvement, then, than one of the myriad outright causes.

#Edit 2:  So Japanese people use e-mail with their phones, not SMS.  SMS is outdated enough that you can't send one, unless the recipient is on the same network as you.  Imagine that in England, with the 50 different networks available.

You Son of a Bitch

So let me regail you with a short story.

This happened not long ago, in a land far away.  (This land happens to begin with a k and rhymes with diarrhoea).

I was playing table tennis, when a Korean arrived.  I suggested we play together, and he beat me two full sets.  The first was decided, 21-19.  The second 26-24 (roughly speaking; a number of extra points were played).  I decided I'd had enough, so proceeded to annihilate him, 21-10.  Having agreed to play five games/sets, he valiantly decided to call it a day, and left the table.  He didn't say a word, put his bat back or the ball.  He just left.

Asshole.

Although he won more games, I completely destroyed him mentally - and, afterall; isn't making new friends what internationalisation is all about?

(He was good at table tennis though, I'll give him that.)

(And he took about five forehand smashes to the face, so fair play to him for lasting that long.)

What a Hectic Week

So this week has been all kinds of crazy.

First off, work is a real pain at the moment.  We have to write end of year reports for all our kids.  This is a nightmare, because each child needs a custom written report; not like England, where each kid falls into one of three pre-defined categories, each with a standard form.  I've known classmates who received identical school reports, with someone else's name and date of birth.  Each comment is bespoke, and each one requires five to ten minutes.  Multiply that by eighty or so and you see how annoying this particular task is.  It would be okay if we had fewer daily and weekly tasks to complete - but I guess there is never enough time.

My finger is officially healing in the wrong direction.  It's pointing outwards, where the same finger on the other hand is pointing inwards.  I've managed to keep the actual pain of it from my manager and co-workers, so I shan't be discouraged from playing sport by them.

On the sporting side-note, I might finally have cracked the american football conundrum.  There is a training session next Wednesday, and I've been invited along with a couple of colleagues.  It's not rugby, but beggars can't be choosers.  Plus I'll finally be able to fold some chumps and work out the inner aggression I've been barricading inside.  Who knows, maybe I'll be able to lay out some of the aforementioned colleagues too!

I made a girl in my year six cry by pronouncing her name incorrectly.  I checked, it wasn't swearing, and it wasn't rude - I just said it wrong.  If she hasn't figured out that people make mistakes by the age of twelve, I fear for her growing up.  When she steps outside of the school gates for the first time, her little head will explode.

We played a little basketball on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and again on Wednesday this week.  Basketball is fun, but there are a couple of societal rejects who play, who score fewer than I do.  This would not normally be a problem, but they whoop and yell and shout and scream as if they were gods.  Not to mention that they hit me and push me, (past the point of it being a foul) and jump on my toes; and when I run at them with the ball they call fouls that would make a footballer blush.  They're pathetic, and must have been bullied by someone who looks like me at some stage in their lives.  I have heard that one of them plays american football though, so I will go out of my way to destroy him.  If I break both of his legs, then he can't play basketball next week and I will be much happier.

We played football with a group on Wednesday.  It was good fitness, but I'm worse than hopeless at football.  I still can't see the appeal of it, if I'm honest.  I'd play any day of the week though, I was up and down the pitch like a terrier (a mentally handicapped one, but a terrier nonetheless) and as a result have surely gained .1% lunch capacity over my previous fitness.

So basically between the gym, basketball/football and work, I've had no time to even write an entry on my blog.  (I finished at 7pm today, went to the gym but wasn't really feeling up to it and came back early.)

I'm going to finally pick up an alarm that works this weekend, if I survive tomorrow, that is.

Basketball, and the Art of Not Falling Over

Basketball is quite good fun; if you're with friends, are playing non-competitively and don't mind being terrible at something.

It's kind of like bowling, in that you can practice one specific action one hundred times, and only hit it perfectly five times; all the while thinking, 'hold on a second, I did it exactly like this last time, why didn't I get it right?'  It's extremely frustrating, and when you only get a basket once every ten minutes you question why you're playing in the first place.

The reason, in case you're wondering, why I play in the first place, is fitness. It's exceptionally challenging, especially when everyone else is so much better than you are.  Everyone else runs half as much as you, (and incidentally - pockets twice as many points) while somehow making you run in circles.  I'm not really sure how it works, but the upshot is that an hour of basketball leaves you high and dry, wrung out etc.

It's definitely good for general all-round fitness, and when we finally get to play some american football, I'm going to be ready.  For what?  I'm not sure yet, but I'll be ready nonetheless.

The Day of Baseball and Sorting my CV Out.

(see the comments section for the corrections to this post regarding Japanese language)

So today was the 'printing all my junk out' day that I had planned.  I aimed to get it done well in advance, but didn't have the motivation really; then I suddenly woke up in a cold sweat last night worrying about what would happen should I not  be able to print anything out, or I not be able to find where the station is.

I tried printing my CV off in the hostel, but it wouldn't download the files from Hotmail for some reason.  I then ventured out into the world of internet cafe's here.  It's absolutely crazy.  The one I went to was half internet cafe, one quarter manga cafe, one quarter DVD rental place.  It's absolutely incredible.  Everyone has their own little booth, and a sliding door thing so it's very closed and private, entirely unlike the internet cafe's in Europe.

So I had to print out a few things, which I did, and then went hunting for the printer.  (The clerk spoke no English, and my Japanese isn't good enough to ask for the printer)  So I'm walking around this place, prying into all the nooks and crannies, and I found a food vending machine, a drinks machine, floor to ceiling racks of comics and books and an awful lot of nerds playing games I've never even heard of before.  All in all, it was quite an interesting, albeit minor glimpse into the world of geek culture here.

Also, they open 24 hours, and 8 hours is 1500円, so if I can't find a hostel for whatever reason I can stay at one of these places.  Some even have showers...




The baseball thing is a bit hit and miss though.  I'm not really sure whether it's today.  The symbol for day is sun, and the symbol for month is something else.  So I stood at the sign outside the stadium (it's right next door to my hostel) for about five minutes, trying to figure out the time and date of the match.  As far as I can figure out it's at 6PM tonight.  I think.  I'm really not sure.  A couple of friendly looking girls (of indeterminate age; if I've not said before I have no idea how old women (or men for that matter) are here.  (Use of double parentheses, slap on the wrist!)) so maybe I'll ask them.

Oh no, it turns out the girls next to me smoke!  Ewwwww.

However it also turns out they're incredibly helpful, despite not speaking any English.  So today is １０月５日。  The fifth day of the tenth month!  Amazing!  So yeah now all I need to decipher is whether it's a home match or away match, I'll just turn up and see what's what, I have the right date for something at least.  If anyone is interested, month is pronounced tsuki, day is pronounced hi.  I think.  Maybe that's just the way it's typed on the keyboard.  Who really knows with this language?  I think they just make it up as they go along just to confuse foreigners.  'Haha that'll confuse 'em,' kind of thing.

I'm amazed at the number of people that smoke here, and how socially accepted it is.  I wonder if they've had the health nazi/health terrorist propaganda we've had in the UK.  If they have, and they continue to smoke then I have to say, I'm impressed.  They're worse/better than the French for ignoring health based criticism.

Does make my eyes sting though... annoying.

Anyway, I've figured out how to ask where kamiooka is at the ticket  office, so I'm off there now.

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So the match was fantastic.  I really enjoyed it.

I went into it wanting to hate everything about it, but it's completely different seeing baseball live, opposed to watching it on television.  Another important factor, I think at least, is that the baseball I've seen on tele has been American; this sport was very much Japanese.

There weren't many people there because it was absolutely pouring down for most of the match, thank god I had an extremely waterproof jacket on!  But the people who did attend were in good voice and high spirits.  Interestingly they segregate fans into home and away quite vociferously, and upon asking several member of the 'help desk,' staff, in English, what's what?  They relented and found someone who spoke English.  So I bought a ticket, chose the home fans section and headed on in there.  Everything is so orderly, it's unreal.  Both sets of fans has a band playing songs, but they take it in turns to do this.  And when your side is batting you have to sing different songs, depending on who it is that's batting!  Nuts.  What's even more crazy is that everyone knows every song.  There were maybe a dozen of us who didn't know the songs.  All the kids, men and women were singing all the songs for all the different batters.  All the pitches were cheered as if they were the last in a grand final.  Fantastic stuff all round.

I was a little disappointed to find the beers here aren't served in 2 litres buckets like in America, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the manner in which the beers arrived; more on that later.

I was also surprised by the number of balls that ended up in the crowd.  I calculated, before I even sat down, how many rows up and down, and how many seats left and right I could reach, should a ball find its way to me.  Using my super foreigner powers I was able to sit down in an empty row and keep it for the entire match giving me the perfect opportunity to catch something coming my way.  Unfortunately again, the nearest ball was three rows down from me, too far.

If you were wondering, five seats left or right, one row below me and four rows above me is my estimated catching range.

A man even came round to make sure we were all ok when the ball in our general vicinity, and martials blow all kinds of whistles to warn you!  Cool.

So onto the pictures!

So I took this because of the history China and Japan have.  I'm surprised they're allowed to do business here, it's quite surprising to see these banks around.

Having said that, the area I'm staying in has a massive Chinese population, and a big China town.  It's also really expensive, which is  surprising because the Chinatown in London isn't as expensive as here, and the ingredients have to be sourced from much further in Europe... Strange.

As one of my friends suggested, the Chinese who've moved over here must have gained a taste for louis vuitton bags.  Every woman has one here.  As far as I can tell prices start at one hundred pounds.  This is where Japanese money goes, it seems.

A random picture of a pond, with the ubiquitous carp in its reasonably clear waters.

So where is this I hear you ask?

It's inside the stadium grounds of course...

There's actually a park inside the stadium, it has all kinds of benches, green areas and this pond.  Amazing.  Imagine a koi pond inside the wembley grounds or twickenham.  Weird no?

Ok so they're doing some work on the top floor of this tall building.

I only noticed this when they started leaving, but a group of them were sitting on the edge where that one guy is now and they were eating lunch or something.  That net looks suspiciously like something for catching tools rather than people.  Health and safety seems to be self imposed here.

So dragons are everywhere here, in their shrines and temples, and like this little guy, pieces of art depicting them are commonplace too.

I love all the different styles they have, from the really mean looking ones to something nice and tame like this guy.  His spikes and spines are all rounded off, presumably because there's a kids park within 20 metres of here, so impalement is probably quite likely.

So they do have the health police here too!  It turns out people just ignore it.

I can't read the sign, but I'm pretty sure the picture is reasonably clear.

Close-up below.  (kind of closer anyway)

Poor kid.

Ok so no sooner had I left the, 'smoking kills children,' sign, than I came across this sign here.

It's even in English, that's how serious they are about enforcing this law.  It's talking about a large shopping street that I was standing on, no smoking on this street.

And then I found this:

A guy, sitting opposite the sign, looking at it.  Smoking.

This made me laugh, and was also deserving of two pictures.

A wide-shot of the scene as I looked on laughing.  I'm surprised the view isn't shaken from me chortling to myself.


It turns out there are lots of signs telling people not to smoke, don't do this, don't do that.

But people only seem to follow the ones that make sense.

Awesome.  Of course being a foreigner I break most of the rules all the time, and people just look miffed without ever doing anything.  This holds its own separate set of problems.

NOB Hair Design.

This picture needs no further explanation.

So a few days ago I took a picture of the biggest building in Japan.  I also thought, (I might have written it as well) that it was a little disappointing height wise.

However, when I was walking around Yokohama I noticed that you can see it from almost anywhere.  It really is gargantuan.  It's the width and depth of the building as much as the height, it's an imposing structure.

The shape is also peculiar, and seems to be completely different from any other skyscraper I've seen.  The four corner are far more pronounced than the sides between them, and it looks as if they're four separate towers holding the whole thing together.

So we now move onto the baseball pictures.

This was just before the match started.  I was in the white half of the stadium, the reds were our opponents for the day.

I later found out the reds were the hiroshima carps, but I still don't know who we were.  I couldn't read the name on the board, it was too difficult!

So the stadium is pretty empty in this picture.  It filled up a lot more, but was still nowhere near being capacity.

Everyone also had the full body poncho things, which I should have bought in hindsight because my legs got very wet.

What most people didn't think to bring though, was a little towel to dry the seat off!  I remembered this, and got some envious looks!  Strike one for the foreigner.

So the stadium pretty much looked like this, only with people milling around all the time.  People were constantly up and about the whole time, getting drinks and food.

They even sell noodles here!  Instant noodles in a polystyrene pot.

So one of the players on the opposing team managed to hit the ball out of the park, over the stand in this picture.

According to the statistics man it was a 150m hit.

It's really annoying to see that the runs the opposing teamm scored were all from foreigners though.  This is Japan, and Japanese baseball, essentially dominated by Americans.  My team didn't have any foreigners, and we lost.  I wonder if the two things are related.  Looking at the league tables it may well be.

Ok so this isn't the best shot for seeing the beer delivery girls, but it is the best shot for seeing the things they have to carry.

These poor girls take these big heavy things of beer all around the stadium for most of the match, and they look way too big for them to carry.  Plus they all got completely drenched.

Then they have nutters like me taking pictures of them!  What a crappy job...

Two innings in and the carp have got a run.

The stand you can see to the left of the scoreboard is where all the carp fans presided.

So this star shaped mascot was firing toys and fluffy things into the crowd during the intervals.  Normally teams swap round in under 2 minutes, but every third innings they take five minutes or so, enough time for these guys to come on and do stuff like this.

They had cheerleaders too, so this part is completely american.

So I managed to snap this beer delivery technician before she went on her way.  I didn't force her to do the bunny rabbit ears; it's a reflex action here.  Photograph, do the ears.  It's automatic, like tying your shoelaces.


But you can also see how much it's raining in this picture, so like I said before, it must suck to be these guys on a day like that.

I guess there's always the remote possibility of being slugged by a ball to liven your day up a little.

Ok so this particular girl freaked me out.  She was Japanese and she spoke Japanese fluently, but she had blue eyes.

They stood out so badly, she felt like a Japanese albino or something.  Really creepy.

So this is moments before the guy running back to first base gets out.  D'oh.

I was initially surprised by how accurate their throws were, but then I remembered they have mitts that essentially make it more difficult to drop a ball than catch one, which is why the scores are always so low I guess.

Ok this is another picture of the devils bride.

You can more clearly see her eyes in this one.

Freaky.

My camera is nearly out of batteries at this point, so nearly at the end of the pictures.

This is a little past the halfway point, and the carp have 3 runs, the whites have none.

Unfortunately that's how the game ended, despite us ending the final innings with a runner on second and third, with a batter everyone seemed to rate.  He struck out...  Loser.

It's also worth noting that all their runs were homeruns...  So our fielding was pretty good, it's just that our batting and bowling (pitching) were pretty shoddy.

So this is the scoresheet, and despite it being only the seventh innings, this is how it ended.

The last three innings are the best though, because everyone has had a few drinks and is quite well spirited by this point.  The small crowd made absolutely tons of noise.  I don't know whether it's the stadium design or that face the crowd are cooped up in offices for most of their lives, but the noise was fantastic, as was the general atmosphere.

So this was another breaktime performance.  I don't think there were any cannon this time, but the little star did about fifty backflips just to make his way onto the pitch, and by the time he made it all the others were leaving, so he just ran off.

He must have been dizzy!

Another view of the various mascots.

One of the benefits of being on the losing team on this occasion was that all the half-time action occurred on our side of the pitch, being the home team and all.







Ok so now we move onto the movies!




So this is a view of the enemy.  Those flags are actually pretty huge, and one of the guys carrying it got blown over, which was quite funny.  I didn't capture that part on tape though.  This is just a shot to get the sense of the minimum level of activity of those guys, at all stages in the match.  They were jumping around for hours.  Beats going to the gym I guess.




So I luckily managed to catch a catch.  One of the home team caught a carp out!  Wooo!  Well done him!

It didn't really help in the grand scheme of things, but I think it proves my 'good fielding, poor everything else,' theory from earlier.



The crowd favourite song of the night.  I've  no idea what everyone is singing, but this particular song was the crowd favourite for sure, and everyone loved singing it over and over again.

I've also just noticed the kids looking at me thinking, 'what the hell is this stupid foreigner doing,' which I didn't notice until I played it back just now.  Oops.



So this is one of the cheerleading intervals.  They weren't firing anything into the crowd this time, but they were all doing a surprisingly well rehearsed dance routine.  I'm amazed at how well practiced these guys seemed to be.  And even in the pouring rain they were enthusiastic about it.  Good Job!

So  that was my day.  I'm definitely going to watch another baseball match, it's a sport I thought I'd hate, and still continue to hate watching on the television, but turns out that I love watching it live.