Sunday we woke up about 7:30 in the morning to the sounds of equipment and people moving around outside. At first it sounded like the monthly community cleanup, but since that’s always on Saturday, I didn’t know what it was. It was still going strong at 8:30 or so, and then I realized that since it was raining yesterday, they must postponed it to Sunday. I decided that it was probably too late for me to join the party, and instead stayed tucked into bed with Kuniko.
Around 11 Kuniko and I went outside to meet up with Yasu, who invited me to go with him to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. This year the Tigers are doing pretty well, and Yasu had tickets for a sold-out game against the Nihon Ham Fighters. Their name actually comes from the company that owns them, Nihon Ham – so it’s not that they are good at fighting hams. They are just good at fighting, I guess.
Anyway, all three of us had lunch at Ito Yokado, and then Kuniko went back to my place to study and relax for the day, and Yasu and I caught the train to Koshien stadium.
This was the second time that I’ve been to a Tigers game. The crowds were heavy and we bought a six pack of beer and some tea at the local Daiei store. We also bought some balloons to set loose in the seventh inning, and then we went inside the park. We had bleacher seats, so we picked a decent pair of seats near the Nihon Ham Fighters fan club, and settled in to watch the game.
The game was a blowout, and not in our favor. The final score was 10-3, and it 7-0 after the second inning. Ouch. Most of the cheering was done by the fan club in front of us, and they really enjoyed the game. It always surprises me that there are so few arguments or fights at the games that I’ve been to. That’s considering that you can bring your own booze into the park – and still people don’t get (too) out of hand.
We caught the train home, and during the long trip back there was a funny instance of language miscommunication. Before I went to the game, Kuniko had offered to have dinner waiting for me when I got back. So, on the way to the game I told Yasu that right after the baseball game I needed to go back because Kuniko was cooking me dinner. He said, “fine, that’s great”, and that was it.
Fast forward to the train ride home and just as we walked out of our station towards Ito Yokado, Yasu asked me, “I need to take a shower, so what time should I come over for dinner?”
I was surprised, and I had to think fast. How do you say “Actually, you’re not invited to dinner” to somebody? However, I didn’t want to invite him over without knowing what Kuniko had planned. In the end he said he would finish his shower in about forty minutes, so I figured that would be enough time for me to buy food and cook it if it turned out that we didn’t have enough.
I got home and Kuniko was studying hard. There was the smell of dinner in the air, and it smelled good. Right away I told her about our surprise guest, but she just laughed and said that there was plenty of food. She went over to the store to buy a little bit of salad while I was in the shower, and soon after we all sat down to a delicious meal. Kuniko had made cabbage wrapped beef, rice, miso soup, and we had a duck salad on the side. Everything tasted great, and we even had one cabbage wrap to spare for my dinner later this week. No problem!
Kuniko went home later that evening, and I did some final cleanup and went to bed. I’m really tired out from the weekend, and I’m hoping it doesn’t affect my performance at school this week…
