Greetings from Thursday. Today was very quiet – Kuniko was gone at work and at a party so I had the place to myself all day. I originally had planned to take a trip out to Port Island to see the new college(s) they built out there. I saw a TV show saying how nice it is to walk around because they built a lot of parks and walkways. But, I have what feels like the precursor to a cold. Instead of going out I stayed home and stayed warm, just eating some leftovers and drinking lots of orange juice.
I’ve had this “I’m getting sick” feeling for the last two days, and so far I’ve escaped any actual sickness. Let’s hope I get away with it again.
In the afternoon I was sick of being in the house, so I took a long walk to north Okubo and then walked back. It was nice to get outside and enjoy the great weather – lots of sunshine.
Since Kuniko was off partying with her ex-coworkers from Kunei, I just worked on the leftovers from last night (lots of cheese and crackers) and watched the Hanshin Tigers fight a losing battle with the Yakult Swallows. The Tigers have a new pitcher this year from America, and he was pitching tonight. He looked really nervous but got through six innings giving up just one run. They brought in a reliever to pitch the seventh and he promptly gave up three runs. Ouch.
The fun thing about watching a foreign guy pitch was that the commentators talked all about foreign players and the experience of coming to Japan to pitch the whole night. I learned a lot of interesting things – mainly about how these players are perceived by regular Japanese people. I also like to imagine what it is like for the players themselves getting used to living in Japan. That must be a real tough adjustment.
One of the commercials during the game featured the wife of the new foreign pitcher, an American woman who was doing a promo to remind people not to drive to the ballpark, because there is no parking there. I think that is pretty much true, but the sponsor of the commercial was the owner of the team, the Hanshin railway company, who happens to own the only train line that leads to the stadium. Of course they want you to take the train.
Anyway, this American woman was explaining all this in English, and they had subtitles underneath, but they were in English too. I think they were relying on the commentator at the beginning of the commercial and at the end of the commercial to take care of the comprehension, and just use the American lady to grab your attention. Interesting…
I’m off to bed pretty soon – I need to get some rest before the cold catches up with me. Tomorrow is another off day, and it is actually my last day of spring break before school starts on Monday. If I’m feeling good I might go try a new yakitori in town…
