Saturday, May 21, 2011

First Morning Baseball Game

Let me begin by saying that the average player on the other team was around 50 years old, including a left fielder who was in his 80s. They treat baseball much the same way Americans treat slow-pitch softball, it's just a way to get together with friends and have a good time. So with that, I will continue this writeup as if we were up against the 2008 Warhawks.

So the day begins with a 3:30am alarm. I ate a nice traditional Japanese energy meal consisting of rice balls with various things in the middle such as salmon/cheese, egg salad and tuna salad. My ride arrived on time at 4am and we were the first ones to the field to begin warmups.

As people begin to show up they say that I am the first foreigner to play Noheji morning baseball. So seeing as I was the Jackie Robinson of this league, I knew I had to be on my best behavior all the time and the people would stare at me funny. I do a pretty generic jog around the field and stretch out like usual and it's maybe 4:15, first pitch in 45 minutes. I am informed that I'll be the only pitcher today since the other two pitchers on the team couldn't make it. I don't want to throw too much, so after about 10 minutes of playing catch, I start getting closer and closer to my partner to signify that I'm about done.

But every time I got within 60 feet of him, he always said "Toe-masu...back!" and so I would go back and play more catch. This would repeat a few times, I would back up, throw a couple times, then get close and each time I would get closer, he would scream something in Japanese, motion for me to go back and say "Toe-masu...back!" After a good half hour of throwing and the game starting pretty soon, the catcher finally arrives and they have me throw in the bullpen with the catcher. Of course I had to pretend to be superman but my arm was already dead by this point.

Meanwhile, as I'm warming up in the bullpen, I notice some weird gathering of people in the infield. I assume it's a meeting or something, but then I see two people with bats in their hand standing about 10 feet behind home plate and separated by about 5 feet with no L screens or nets anywhere on the field. And then of course they start taking batting practice right there on the field, pitchers maybe 40 feet away not even paying attention when the other teams batter was hitting. Crazy. For those of you unfamiliar with baseball warmups, usually one team bats at a time with a pitcher behind a net that blocks any balls from hitting the pitcher (since during batting practice, the pitcher stands much closer to the batter than in a game) and it would be considered suicide to throw batting practice without such a net.

So anyhow, I've been throwing for 45 minutes straight and the game is about to start, we have maybe 5 minutes of downtime and so I get out my wallet to go buy something from the vending machine in our dugout. As I reach for my wallet, one of the other players was like "ooh Toe-masu...drink?" and I was like "hai" (yes) and he was like "ah, my treat." And so we go and stand in front of the vending machine.

I'm going to take a quick break from the story and teach you a little Japanese. ゴ is a character that is pronounced "go" and コ is pronounced "ko." The only difference of course is the little quotation marks above the "go" ゴ コ. マ is pronounced "ma" and ン is pronounced "n"

So back to the action, we're in front of the vending machine and there is a pretty crazy font that I haven't seen before on one of the drinks and I look at it and see マンコ。 He asks me what I want and I had no idea what "manko" was so I said "マンコ。。。おいしいですか?" (is Manko delicious?) and he gives me an absolute death stare and starts bursting out laughing. Turns out that there were the little apostrophes that I didn't see and so it was supposed to be "mango." マンゴ means "mango" and マンコ "manko" is about the most offensive thing you can possibly say, it is a slang word for "vagina" and basically translates to "pussy." So our conversation went like this:

"What would you like?"
"Is pussy delicious?"

The team really got a good laugh out of that one. So anyhow, the game starts and I'm on the mound for the top of the first. The opposing batter steps in who was easily their youngest player and probably about my age. He had the eyes of an angry coach Hoefs, the muscles of a young Coach Heiderscheit, the speed of a young Coach Perchinsky and the goatee of Coach Hucke (black instead of red, of course), he was a worthy challenge for my introduction to Japanese baseball. He worked the count full and I didn't want a lead off walk so I gave him a nice meatball down the middle and he slapped it to right for a base hit, there goes my dreams of a opening day no hitter. Luckily by about the 5th batter, there was nothing but 2008 Tom Corcoran's in the lineup (aka not anyone to be scared of), so it was pretty smooth sailing through the bottom of the lineup.

My first plate appearance was also worth noting. I was getting my game face on with my angry-must-hit-ball-hard look and ready to go when suddenly the pitcher yells out "ganbatte toe-masu!" basically "good luck Tom!" And then everyone on my team starts yelling "over the fence" and "ganbatte!" I don't really know how to respond so I just take off my helmet, bow and say "arigato gozaimasu!" (thank you). And so of course this throws me off and I'm smiling way too much to be a big scary hitter so I let the first two pitches go by right down the middle. After working the count full, I go after a high outside pitch and get it up middle and get my first hit and RBI in my first plate appearance. Good start.

Not too much else to note, other than the fact that as soon as we would get of the field and it was our turn to bat, at least 5 people on our team would light up cigarettes and start smoking right there in the dugout.

It ends up not being close, we win 14-0.

My final lines were:
Batting: 2-3 2B BB 4R 4 RBI 2SB
Pitching: 5 IP 7K 0BB 4H

Definitely a great time and well worth waking up at 3:30, can't wait for the next game!

So a quick summary of differences between Royals baseball and Japanese morning baseball.
  • Royals are much much better.
  • 5 people smoking in the dugout after each half inning.
  • Opposing team yells "Go Toe-masu!" Every time I bat.
  • Vending machine within arms reach of the dugouts.
  • Change balls after each hit.
  • They clean balls by running water over them to rub off the dirt.
  • Everyone lines up and bows at the beginning and end of each game.
  • Everyone plays catch after the game to cool down.
  • Warmups consist of the pitcher throwing for 45 minutes straight.
  • Both teams take batting practice on the field at the same time and no L screens are used.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Crazy Baseball Stat

Here's something that hasn't happened before in my 20-year baseball playing career.

Over the past two games I had a stretch of at bats where I was 0-5 with 5 official RBIs and 8 runners scored in those 5 at bats.

On Monday, twice I came up with a runner on third, and twice I came up with runners on second and third. The two times with a runner on third, I hit weak grounders up the middle and the runner scored while I got out. The two times I came up with runners on second and third, I hit hard grounders, one at the second basemen, one at the first basemen and each one got by the fielders and I reached on errors, and two runners scored each time.

Monday's batting line 0-4 4 RBIs 2 R 6 Runners scored during my at bats.

Then sure enough, we are the visiting team and the leadoff batter gets a hit, second batter gets walked, and I come up with runners on first and second. First pitch to me is a wild pitch and runners advance to second and third. And of course, I hit a weak ground ball to short and he overthrows the first basemen and two runners score.

So for 5 consecutive at bats, my line was 0-5 5 RBIs 3R 8 Runners scored during my at bats.

Luckily I ended the streak in my next at bat by getting a nice liner to the gap.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Wake up time

This definitely isn't blog-worthy but I figure this will be the only time in my life when it will happen, so I might as well make note of it.

For 4 days in a row, I will get up 2 hours earlier than the day before.  2 days ago I woke up at 10, yesterday I woke up at 8, today 6 and tomorrow 4.  Just an interesting observation and I definitely will not wake up at 2 the day after tomorrow so the streak will end at four days..  If only I had woken up at noon 3 days ago.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

News in Japan

I am starting to understand more and more of the news and I must say, American news networks should take note.

I just watched a story about an outbreak of food poisoning at a restaurant (5 people have died and about 100 are sick) and the story was not about pointing fingers and blaming people.  The story began by introducing the three places where the meat could have been contaminated.  First the reporter took a tour of the slaughterhouse where the meat came from and documented the methods that the slaughterhouse used.  They checked current meat stocks and demonstrated how they take pride in their quality control processes.  In the end, they talked about extra safety precautions they will add to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

Next they showed the company that shipped the meat to the restaurant. Again they showed how the shipment process worked and then ways they were preventing the situation from happening again.

And then they go to the restaurant and show the kitchen where the meat is prepared and repeat the same process of explaining the process and what they are doing to improve.

Finally they show some of the customers who were sick and document their stories.

As almost an afterthought, at the end of the story they said the owner of the restaurant had resigned and he gave his apology.

And that was it.  The story was about what was being done about the situation and ways to improve in the future.  This is so different than American news stories.  They would have focused on blaming the meat producers, demand that the owner of the restaurant give them lots of money and there would have been very little, mention of things that were being done to improve the situation.  They would have told everyone that if you eat any meat, you will die.  They would have said it was the worst epidemic of food poisoning in history and that this could potentially get worse and end the meat industry.  They would have said it was the democrats/republicans (depending on which news channel you were watching) fault for cutting funding to the FDA and then blamed the FDA for not catching the contaminated meat until it was too late.  They would have a press conference for Obama and got his thoughts on the event and then spend 2 hours either attacking or praising what he said.

This was also blatantly obvious in the news reports of the Sendai earthquake.  In Japan, nothing except stories about how they are cleaning up Sendai and what they are doing to improve the situation in the Fukashima nuclear plant.  Stories that did not place blame on anyone, but instead focused on what was being done.

American news networks covering the Sendai earthquake: Worst disaster in history!  All of Japan will become a nuclear dead zone!  We can detect high levels of radiation in the ocean even in America!  Everyone in Japan is going to be evacuated!  Are we safe here in America?  Glen Beck saying it was God's way of showing the world that he was unhappy with what the democrats were doing.

Whenever I watched the news in the US, I ended up feeling angry at the end of the story.  Whenever I understand a news story in Japan, I end up feeling informed.

So yea, I think two huge things that makes life in Japan so enjoyable is the complete lack of political segregation and unbiased news networks.  Hardly anyone in Japan cares what political party you belong to, nobody blames the other party for the making their lives terrible.  News stories are about improving current conditions, and nobody worries about what politicians say.  I will definitely continue to get my world news from Japan sources when I return to the States, and I will be a much happier person because of it.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Productive day

Hi Heather, mom and papa.  Sorry I haven't been updating much.  But anyhow I just thought I'd like to remember today since it was super productive.

1) woke up at 4 for morning baseball.
2) Talked to you three
3) Went to the dentist
4) Mailed a couple more packages.
5) Picked up a package
6) Went shopping
7) Finished Minna no Nihongo I
8) Played 5 games of starcraft.
9) Watched my 150th episode of One Piece and definitely can understand it a little bit.
10) Understood a story on the news about food poisoning at a yakiniku restaurant.
11) Posted some 恐山写真 (yasorezan pictures)
12) Took out the trash.

Also, I have given up my desire to translate 10,000 sentences.  Writing out sentences was taking way too long and I don't really care too much about my writing ability.  I am now focusing on listening and reading during my study time, then whenever I feel like a break, I'll try to strike up a conversation with a coworker to practice talking.  My top 3 goals are to be fluent at reading, listening and speaking Japanese, writing comes in a distant fourth.

And also, a story about the kindness of Japanese people.  About 20 stories like this have happened to me but I never get around to writing the stories and end up forgetting so I want to make sure I remember at least a few of them.

So the cherry blossoms have started blooming so I went for a walk in Atago Park, the place in Noheji with the most cherry trees.  As soon as I enter the park I see a group of about 10 people sitting down with a grill and having a little picnic and we make eye contact and I gave out a hearty "ohayo gozaimasu!" (good morning!) and they return the greetings and then, in their adorable Japanese accents ask me to come over and join their picnic.  Of course I can't turn down this offer so I sit down and, although it's only about 11:30, it's Japan, so they are drinking.  The first question they ask me is "do you drink beer?" and I said "dijoubu" which I thought meant "no thanks" but I guess it meant something else because they instantly put a beer in my hand  and do a cheers and crack open the beer and everyone laughed and celebrated.  Now of course I couldn't just be like "no actually I don't want this" and of course it's one of the giant 500mL beers so I begin to do work struggling to finish the beer.

  Meanwhile, on the grill they have scallops cooking and they look absolutely delicious.  Turns out that the group were all fishermen and these scallops were their morning catch.  The scallops were probably the freshest I would ever eat and they just kept putting them on my plate.  After about 10 scallops and when I get about half done with my beer (an hour later) they pick it up and are like "ooooh, to-masu...more?" and I remember back that to when I said "no thanks" and that ended up in a beer, so this time I just flat out say "no no" and they are like "oh ok!  No beer? Sake then!" and they pour me this giant cup of sake.

After a good 2 hours or so, I stuffed full of amazing scallops and I thanked them and went on with my walk through the park and enjoyed the beautiful cherry blossoms.  I will surely miss the kindness and generosity of Japan.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Goals

Every day:
  • Anki (Clear my completed decks)
  • Watch Japanese TV

By Jan 1 2010

  • 50 episodes of 1 Piece
  • 500 kanji from RTK

By Feb 1st

  • Finish RTK

By March 1

  • 100 Episodes of One Piece HOME
  • ski/snowboard 10 times
  • Do first half of Rosetta Stone (8 units). HOME
  • Finish the core 2000 Level 1 anki deck SCHOOL

By April 1


  • 150 Episodes of One Piece HOME
  • Finish Japanese Core 2000 levels 2-3 SCHOOL
  • Finish the Japanese Graded Readers level 2

By May 1:


  • Have at least 5 days with no English. Watch lots of TV and movies so I can be fully immersed in Japanese. (2 of 5 done, phone calls with Heather allowed)
  • Understand 90% of the level 2 Japanese Graded Readers


June 1 2011

  • JLPT lvl 4 (not quite) I'd probably get about 50% on the test, 60% is passing.
  • Finish Minna no Nihongo I
  • Get my ko2001 deck down to 5000 cards (around 5300ish)
  • Have at least 5 days with no English. Watch lots of TV and movies so I can be fully immersed in Japanese. (0 of 5 done, phone calls with Heather allowed)
  • Understand 80% each of the level 3 Japanese Graded Readers.
  • Clear all reviews in Anki (my RTK deck had over 1000 reviews due for a while)

July 1 2011

  • Finish Minna no Nihongo II
  • Get my ko2001 deck down to 4000 cards
  • Finish Core 2000 (get each deck down below 100 cards) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  • Have at least 5 days with no English. Watch lots of TV and movies so I can be fully immersed in Japanese. (0 of 5 done, phone calls with Heather allowed)
August 1 2011


  • Clear my RTK kanji deck at school
  • Understand at least half of one piece/pokemon/final fantasy advent children/conversations between teachers/news/tv without subtitles/morning teachers meetings
  • Get my ko2001 deck down to 3000 cards
  • Have at least 5 days with no English. Watch lots of TV and movies so I can be fully immersed in Japanese. (0 of 5 done, phone calls with Heather allowed)
September 1 2011


  • Beat Metal Gear Solid 3 for PS2 in Japanese
  • Beat a Final Fantasy game in Japanese(right now leaning toward FFXII)
  • Get my ko2001 deck down to 2000 cards
  • Return CLAIR advance course books to Val (aka, finish advanced course)
  • Get Core 6000 down to about 500 cards per deck.
  • Have at least 5 days with no English. Watch lots of TV and movies so I can be fully immersed in Japanese. (2 of 5 done, phone calls with Heather allowed)

      November 1 2011

      • Finish writing the names for all my teachers.

      December 1 2011


      • Pass the JLPT level 3 (actually take the test, not just practice tests online)
      • Speak very little English.
      • Finish the 5 cmps anki deck
      • 0 cards in my ko2001 deck
      • Finish Japanese Core 6000 (get each deck down below 100 cards)
      • Finish every episode of One Piece

      July 2012