Tokyo.Wicked.Baseball.

Saturday, Michael and I headed down to Tokyo for the day. Michael went around Tokyo with Arnulfo, while I went to see Wicked (in Japanese) with the ladies. I have never seen Wicked and didn’t know too much about the story except that it is The Wizard of Oz from the witched perspective. I didn’t understand the show completely, but read a small synopsis prior to show. I enjoyed the show a lot and can’t wait to watch the show in America! Through the music and gestures, it was easy to figure out what was going on, but if I enjoyed the show in a language I can barely speak, that means it’s going to be a million times better when I can understand it, right?!?! After the show, some of the ladies went to the baseball game to meet up with some of the other fellows. We went to a Tokyo Yakult Swallows vs Hiroshima Carps game at the Jingu Stadium. Baseball is huge in Japan, so it was a great experience. The crowd was very interesting. For each of the all-star players, the crowd would chant something in Japanese and usually mention their name. No one player had the same chant, it was so crazy how into the crowd was. This shouldn’t surprise us anymore, but it does. The food available at the game…takoyaki, yakisoba, ramen, gyoza dog, etc.. I think we should come to expect that takoyaki, yakisoba, etc. is Japan’s hot dog, funnel cakes, etc., but somehow it still amazes us. Oh, the ball park also allows you to bring in your own food and drinks. How cool is that. The result of the game was Swallows 1, Carps 0. After the game, Michael, Arnulfo and I headed back to Utsunomiya. I was able to experience the packed train with the extra push to get everyone into the train. It was quite full for 5 or so stops, but Michael managed to get a few pictures. I could not imagine doing that every day! On Sunday, Michael and I went to an ikebana class (Japanese Flower Arrangement), it was interesting because the instructor compared Japanese style flower arrangement to Western style. We received the information from the cultural festival in March, so we thought it would be taught in English, it was not. Thankfully Stacey went with Kawai-sensei, which also happens to be Michael’s sensei. She was kind enough to translate what the instructor said. We were given the opportunity to arrange the flowers based off of some tips the instructor gave us, but in the end the instructor went around to each person’s arrangement and explained why she is “rearranging” most of the flowers. I think she rearranged all but 1 flower for me. We also found out that it is a monthly class, so I think I might be learning some more ikebana. Until next week…have a good one!

More Hanami...

This past weekend consists of hanami, hanami, and more hanami. The cherry blossoms are fully bloomed in the Utsunomiya area and it’s beautiful. The cherry blossoms last for 2 weeks so we must appreciate their beauty while they are here. On Saturday, we met up with all of the OAPs at Hachimanyama Park (八幡山公園) in Utsunomiya. Michael, Azumi-san (Michael’s co-worker) and I headed there around 11:00am and called it a night around 9:00pm. It was quite the day. In Japan, for hanami people gather in the park or wherever the sakura trees are and enjoy the day. There’s lots of food, drinks and fun, basically one big party outdoors. We sat around most of the day meeting new people and catching up with the ones we haven’t seen in awhile. On Sunday, Michael and I had our own hanami day. Michael drove me up to Honda where there were lots of sakura trees and a small park, （貸しの森公園）. The pictures that we took don’t really justify the true beauty of the sakura trees. My favorite is when the wind blows a little and it rains sakura. To finish off the weekend, we bought a grill! We’ve been looking for awhile, but came across a pretty good deal. Our first meal on the grill was American-spec hamburgers and chicken wings. We couldn’t find hamburger buns, so Michael used French bread and I used butter rolls. I never realized how much a misses a big, fat, juicy hamburger!