38 years

In 1985, the Hanshin Tigers became Nippon Ichi (number one in Japan).

On that winning team was Akinobu Okada, who played 2nd base.

Who would have imagined he would be the winning head coach for the Hanshin Tigers in 2023?!

(He did have a chance in 2005, but they ended up losing to the Chiba Lotte Marines, which I wrote about here and here.)

We were disappointed with the television stations who cut the winning interviews while the coach/players were still speaking!

Definitely discrimination and wouldn't have happened if the winning team was someone else.

Congratulations, Tigers!

sigh

So the Hanshin Tigers won the Climax Series (CS).

They were “already” League champions...

I really don't care for this part of the season because CS allows the 3rd place team to play the 2nd place team, the winner goes up against the 1st place team and whoever wins goes on to play in the Nihon Series (NS) (like the World Series).

You outright win your league and there could be a chance you don't advance to the Nihon Series due to these CS play offs...

NPB says these play offs are supposed to be similar to MLB's division play offs, well, there are WAY more teams in MLB, which is why MLB needs play offs...

Both leagues (Central and Pacific) have finished their CS but now we need to wait a whole week before the Nihon Series even starts?!

Let's go....

this and that

Monday, went for a physical check-up.

Been wanting to try Mr Waffle's soft serve, so had this after my check-up.

70% dark chocolate...delicious!

Hoping my check-up results will be good.

Sunday, got the Covid-XBB vaccine coupon in the mail.

Tuesday, made my appointment for next week.

We were wondering why Satoshi didn't receive a coupon in the mail, he called the center and found out that when he received his previous vaccine (#4) , they had already put in another coupon for him (probably because they didn't know when the vaccines would start up again) and he had received his previous vaccine (#4)  because of his health risks.

Confusing, but luckily he didn't throw out the paperwork after #4...we (I) made his appointment and it's in two weeks...

We'll definitely start masking after our vaccines...hoping it will be cooler by then.

This guy was job shadowing the train dude at the station..see what happens when you stand in front of Kat.

1st time trying NOMS...lychee gummies with li hing & lemon peel...ono!

I was reading something that said you could freeze tsukemono.

So, I tried it with the tsukemono I bought when we went to Kyoto.

Took out the yuzu daikon and let it defrost in the refridge overnight.

After defrosting the tsukemono stayed quite crisp.

Hopefully the others will be just as good.

Overtourism is taking over Japan...I think they plan to limit the number of climbers for Mount Fuji.

And if you plan to visit Japan especially for Halloween...Shibuya's mayor says don't.

Congratulations to the Hanshin Tigers for winning the Central League.

It's been 18 years since the last time they did this.

While they were getting close to winning the league, they would call the championship, “are”(ah-ray) which means “you know” or as we say in Hawaii, “da kine”, so as not to jinx their luck. 

Hopefully they'll be able to do well in the Nihon Series (like the World Series)

We have a holiday on Monday, have a safe weekend.

alternative to the bubble gum

Monday is Taiku no hi (Sports Day), it is a national holiday. So in commemoration of this day, I want to talk a little bit about...baseball.

In America, do the baseball cards still come with that really hard piece of gum? or do they just sell the cards without the gum?

In Japan, we get our baseball cards with....chips! Calbee, a large snack maker sells these 22 gram bags of chips with a packet of two cards attached to the bag.

Throughout the year, Calbee puts out 3 phases of the cards and you can get all sorts of players and stats, cards with hologram coatings, pretty exciting stuff...and so far, we've never gotten the same card! They also have a soccer version for you J-League fans.

Well, the play-offs (which the call "the climax series") start this Friday. But I need to rant....there are only 12 teams in the whole Japanese pro baseball league, I think the MLB has double that or maybe more? No reason to have play-offs here! they should just make more teams so there is more competition and more chances for the unknowns to get out there and play the game. They have only recently started having inter-league play where the teams of the 6 Pacific league teams get to play against the 6 Central League teams which is quite interesting and exciting. Up until then it was Pacific vs. Pacific and Central vs. Central and only during the "world series" do the two separate leagues' teams match up against each other,

So I shake my head as the play-offs start and hope that the Tigers (in 3rd place) can come from behind and whip everyone's butts to get a chance to play in the Japan's version of the world series.

Go Tigers!

p.s. Satoshi has been saying he wants to become a housewife and that I should go to work. I know why he says this....it is because our tv can view two baseball games (the play-offs) at the same time (one side with sound) and is being televised while he is at work! (as if watching the game was the only thing I did around here!)

die-hard fan

If you thought the rice farmer in Okayama was a die-hard Hanshin Tigers fan. There is a rice vendor in Ishibashi (where we live) who delivers rice on his Tiger-striped bicycle and in his Tiger-striped truck. If you look at the picture with the bicycle, you'll see his black and yellow shirt which he also wears when he goes on deliveries. (is he dedicated or what?) In Japanese, they call a fan like him Torakichi, which means he's crazy for the Tigers. He's been on the local news several times and featured whenever the Tigers are doing well. I guess you could say he's famous, well, in our neck of the woods, anyway.

During the day, I've often passed him along the street and he always smiles and says "hi". When we passed his shop today, he was there and graciously let me photograph his vehicles.

Although the Tigers are losing their steam, they have 8 more games until the end of the regular season. Hopefully, they'll be able to maintain their 3rd place position so that they can go to the play-offs.

I've had this peeve ever since moving to Japan..for all those television stations out there, show the end of the game!! What's the point of even broadcasting a game if you aren't going to show the end of it! (They will cut off a game in the bottom of the 9th inning with 2 out, just to show 5 minutes of commercials!)

Go Tigers!

odds & ends

Gosh, here I was ready to fly into Autumn and the weather decides to go backwards back to Summer. The past couple of days have been so hot and miserable!

So many different things that I want to post about, so I thought I would just round up some of them into one post.

Owariya's soba-ita. Thin, crisp wafer's made from sobako (buckwheat flour). We got these from Satoshi's mom awhile back, and I remembered to take a photo of them just before we finished them off. The main shop in Kyoto serves soba, hopefully we get to try this place one day.

A quick lunch of yakitori from Toriya. Zuri (which I think is the liver of the chicken), is chewy and crunchy at the same time, momo (the thigh area) and tsukune (a meatball-like concoction with minced chicken, green onion and part of the cartilage). I also like nankotsu (cartilage).

I was surprised at the different clouds. The one in the background looks lit up, while the rest were in darkness.

A rice farmer in Okayama prefecture decided to spice up his fields and show off his love for the Hanshin Tigers (a baseball team in Osaka (Satoshi's favorite)) with the team logos made from rice plants. Apparently he started doing this the year that the Tigers took League champs in 2003. Ever since, he's continued with the help of hundreds to help him plant and harvest the rice. He uses different varieties to achieve the different colors and donates the rice that is harvested to the Hanshin Tigers' team. (when the rice is about to be harvested, the logos turn a golden yellow with black--the teams colors.)

My new strawberry plants. I found them in the shopping arcade yesterday for only a 100 yen each (about US$1)! I didn't know this until recently, but the fruit come straight from the flower (that yellow center will turn into a strawberry).

central league champs!!

Well, it took the Hanshin Tigers 2 years to win the Central League Division. This year they had Inter-league play (against the Pacific League) which made competition more interesting.

After the Pacific League has their play-off, the Nihon Series (like America's World Series) will begin. Hopefully the Tigers can take the Nihon Series and be No. 1 in Japan (I experienced their league win in 2003 but have yet to experience the Nihon Series championship!! *hint, hint)

This time, I am definitely staying away from the department stores...(last time it was nuts!!)