If you don’t already know, the Chuunichi Dragons won the Nippon Series this year! I listened to most of the games on NHK Radio (I don’t have TV right now, but I don’t really need it). Honestly, I hadn’t been following baseball so much this year, but enough to know what was going on in the playoffs.

This year, there was the first ever playoffs in the Central League (The Pacific League had been doing it for a few years). Those are called the Climax Series. The first series is a best of three between the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. (In this case it was Chuunichi in 2nd place and the Hanshin Tigers in 3rd place.) The Dragons swept the first two games against the guys from Osaka. The next round is a best of 5 of the winner of that series and the winner of the league. This year the Dragons finished 1.5 games back of the Yomiuri Giants - they’re basically the Yankees of Japan, with the biggest payroll and the biggest popularity, etc. So obviously I have a great deal of disdain for that team. The Dragons also swept the Giants in 3 games, which was awesome, of course. In the Pacific League, the Nippon Ham Fighters, out of Sapporo, won the division again, just like last year. The Chiba Lotte Marines (who won the Series in 2005, and are probably best known in America for having Bobby Valentine as their manager), beat the Softbank (whose phone I have, and used to have Tadahito Iguchi play for them when they were sponsored by Daiei) Hawks out of Fukuoka, and then lost to the Fighters in the League finals. So that brought up a rematch of last years Series.

In the Series, the Dragons lost the first game, and it looked a little scary. But then they came back and won four straight to take it all! It’s the first title for the Dragons in 53 years, so it’s quite significant. The greatest thing about it is this, though, is that in the final game, the starting pitcher for the Dragons, Daisuke Yamai, had a perfect game through 8 innings, but they took him out for the closer Hitoki Iwase for the 9th, and they had a combined perfect game. Man, I wish I could have seen it, but I had some work-related stuff going on. No biggie though, it’s still exciting for me.

So that evening, I happened to be in Sakae, the center of Nagoya, to observe how a Japanese city reacts to a championship. I’ve been in the middle of a lot of big sports celebrations in my life - most notably Michigan’s NCAA Basketball Championship in 1989 and the Red Wings Stanley Cup of 1996. This celebration seemed a little more, well, subdued. Nagoya’s a big city, like 2 million people, but they still have to leave at 12:00 to catch the last train. So there wasn’t the big throng of screaming fans until the late hours. But, the parade isn’t until the 17th, so we’ll see what happens. There was a significant crowd at Central Park Fountain, and lots of singing and spilled beer and stuff, and so I can’t say I wasn’t impressed. Also, I did take a video with my phone of all that, and the costume they stuck on the fountain’s statue, but due to technical difficulties with my phone’s video format, I can’t show it to you at the moment.

Anyway, this brings to 8 the number of teams that I root for that have won the whole thing in my lifetime. Let’s take a look, shall we?

1. Detroit Tigers MLB ‘84
2. Detroit Pistons NBA ‘89, ‘90, ‘04
3. Detroit Red Wings NHL ‘97, ‘98, ‘02
4. U of M Basketball ‘89
5. U of M Hockey ‘96, ‘98
6. U of M Football ‘97
7. Denver Broncos NFL ‘97, ‘98
8. Chuunichi Dragons ‘07

And I’ve been a big White Sox fan for a long time, but I’m not even going to put their recent title in that list. I don’t mean to brag or anything, it’s just kind of cool. But you know what else - it’s also caused me to not take sports so seriously so much anymore. Except of course for writing these long detailed posts about Japanese baseball. Anyway, I think I’m rambling.

Thanks to a comment from Susan, I realized I hadn’t posted pictures looking out of my apartment. Actually, I had, I just hadn’t posted a link to them here. So here are a few. The view isn’t spectacular or anything, but at least it’s interesting. I have something I can look at without people 10 feet away from me looking back, as it was in my old apartment. I also added a few pictures from the inside, like my wall with my maps, kanji poster, and aircon on it.

izumi apartment

Today, I rode up to Kakuouzan (覚王山), an area with a couple of shrines and some really nice houses between my house and my work. Not too much to say, except that I really like the kanji on the far right of the sign, because it’s an old style kanji that you don’t see so often. Also, there’s this photo of my favorite traffic light status. There are a few intersections in Nagoya that employ this particular combination of lights, and I have no idea what it means, because the same intersection also uses the plain green light in its series. Also notice the battery of cameras flanking the signal.

覚王山

On Saturday, my friend Hiromi invited me over to her house for a fantastic meal where I met her family and her friend Atsuko. The meal was fantastic, and so was the company.

広美さんの所で

Housewarming

On Sunday, I had a housewarming party, and it was a smashing success. At one time, there were 18 people crammed into my little roku-jou, it was amazing! This is the first time I’ve hosted a party at my place in about four or five years - the last time was when I lived on Fulton Street in San Francisco. I was so happy that so many people showed up, and I think everyone had a good time. For food, I just made up a bunch of rice and had various kinds of donburi - gyuudon, ikura, magurozashimi, etc. Then, as you can see, we ordered a pizza later. Even though it was really loud, none of my neighbors were around and it wasn’t so late, so I don’t think it was a problem.

Thanks again everyone for coming! And thanks bringing all the food and drink and gifts!

Today I did something I never thought I’d do. Now, I’m not very good with kids. At all. In fact, I’m usually kind of uneasy around them. I never know what to say to them. Add to that, the language barrier (ok, I can understand a little, but after just a year and a half, I’m still not very confident in Japanese.) So why in the world would I go to this volunteer function where we had to entertain orphans all day? I don’t know. And I was really nervous going into it. I went there with my boss, Steve, early this (Sunday) morning at 8 o’clock. I was really dreading it. But it turned out to be fantastic and really rewarding. We just basically hung out with these two little girls who are the sweetest in the whole world. Natalia-chan (2nd grade) and Yukie-chan (6th grade). I still didn’t talk all that much, and basically just hung on to their balloons and purses for them, but I really had a wonderful time.
I was amazed at how well-behaved all the kids were. And how much food they ate. That had me a little worried - as if they might not get enough food usually. It’s really sad to think that these kids don’t have any regular parents to go home to. It was also interesting to see a little Russian girl speaking perfect Japanese. I really want to do something like this again, though. People talk about how rewarding stuff like this is, but I never thought it was my cup of tea. Maybe I’ve changed…

Meiyou Day Camp

This is actually my second attempt at making fried rice that tastes like what they make at Tu Lan. This time, I used a little MSG and some sesame oil upon the suggestion of my friend Candice. Other noticeable differences include using nasu (Japanese eggplant) and squid instead of broccoli (which they used in their vegetarian version at Tu lan) or shrimp or chicken. The red stuff is Sriracha, which I slather on all my Tu Lan fried rice anyway. OK, so it didn’t taste exactly like Tu Lan, but it was close enough, in that it was one of those dishes where you just sit back and enjoy the taste with your eyes closed. Add to that the fact that I didn’t have to trip over any crack whores on the way to this dish, and I’d say I’m at the point where I don’t miss Tu Lan anymore. Oh, crap except for the imperial rolls. Ok, that’s the next project.

I love my new apartment. One of the great things about it is the nice real kitchen it came with. So I try to cook all sorts of things, sometimes real recipes, and sometimes stuff I just make up. Really, I’m not a very good cook, in that I don’t know how to cook many different kinds of cuisine. (And really, since I don’t have an oven or a microwave, my options are still kind of limited. Many of my friends, like Tom, Harry, Candice, et many al. are far superior.) But I’ve been having a great time just gathering random ingredients and cooking them up. And I really do love to cook for other people, even though my opportunities have been kind of limited up to this point. Anyway, anytime anyone wants to come over for dinner sometime, let me know and I’ll be happy to cook for them. The results won’t be pretty, as these pictures can attest to, but I think it should taste pretty good and it will be a fun time.
  

Today I went outside in the sauna to Osu, the place south of Sakae where there are a lot of cheap electronics stores and stuff. Kind of like a poor man’s Akihabara. Anyway, I saw this vending machine there that had ramen in a can. And I　wasn’t the only one amazed by it. Nearly every passerby stared and remarked about this product.

Ok, so it’s not actually noodles, but to keep a noodle-like consistency in the environment of a hermetically-sealed can, they use konnyaku (蒟蒻), this is a product made from a plant used in a lot of Japanese food (frankly, I’m partial to the konnyaku boiled in miso). Anyways, I tried some of the cold stuff (hiyashimen), and it was, well, not really ramen. The stock was pretty delicious, and tasted like something that they put a lot of thought into. But there were two pieces of bamboo shoots, and one little chunk of meat or something. It comes with a kind of nifty little plastic fork, but that’s a really strange utensil to be eating ramen with. So I think this product would be really nice on a camping trip, when you don’t have a stove available. But as it is, you can go one block from this machine to Sugakiya and get a real bowl of ramen for the same price. So the jidouhanbaiki thing - I don’t think it’s going to make it. (And by the way, even though lots of people who made comments about this stuff, and how amazing it seemed, I was the only one who actually bought a can during the few minutes I was around the machine.)   

Ok, so before all the misery with the phone, I went to an absolutely fantastic little meal of oysters and wine with a few former students. It just reminded me of how my friend Dan said that he’s never had a bad meal at any restaurant in Japan. This wasn’t Japanese food at all, but everything was exquisite. Especially this salad here, which had, was it oysters or something else? and avocado, and a spicy sauce, and eggs. And raw oysters from everywhere from Ishikawa to New Zealand to Hokkaido to Australia. Wonderful meals like this are one of the many reasons I love this place.

oysterbar