Saturday, November 29, 2008

When It Rains It Pours, The Barrage Hardcore

Watching a lot of Japanese television.  I just saw the retirement ceremony of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks baseball team manager Sadaharu Oh in which roughly half of the team cried.  While I am a firm believer that "there is no crying in baseball" I have to say, it was pretty moving.
Wikipedia had a pretty interesting tidbit about Mr. Oh:

"In 2001, American Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes, playing for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, hit 55 home runs with several games left, equalling Hawks' manager Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run record. The Buffaloes played the Oh-managed Fukuoka Hawks on a late weekend series in Fukuoka. Rhodes was intentionally walked during each at-bat. Hawks catcher Kenji Johjima could be seen grinning as he caught the intentional balls. Oh denied any involvement and Hawks battery coach Yoshiharu Wakana stated that the pitchers acted on his orders, saying, "It would be distasteful to see a foreign player break Oh's record." Rhodes completed the season with 55 home runs. League commissioner Hiromori Kawashima denounced the Hawks' behavior as "unsportsmanlike." Hawks pitcher Keizaburo Tanoue went on record saying that he wanted to throw strikes to Rhodes and felt bad about the situation."

Apparently, in his day, the guy could hit baseballs.
I have also been watching this show which is pretty damned hilarious.  They take comedians and challenge them to make 5 randomly selected audience members laugh.  The audience members try their hardest not to laugh and the comedians are all put in the same set/situation.  Even not knowing the language, that junk was funny.
Japanese tv is all about food.  Man its hard watching tv here if you are hungry.  That and ice skating, good gravy there is a lot of ice skating on tv.  
Went for a walk around Shibuya and Harajuku today.  It was pretty awesome.  The park at Harajuku is pretty amazing.  I need to spend more time there.  I am thinking I will try to hop the train tomorrow and go into central Tokyo, maybe check out the imperial palace.
I have some photos from today but I'm not in the mood to upload them right now.  Tough noogies for you.
OK, hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
Matthew

2 comments:

robert said...

Good gravy.
I'm glad to see that your blog language has become more and more polite, the longer that you are in Japan. Also, TV seems to have infected your thinking. Even your current ejaculatives are food-oriented. For those of you new to the comment section, this is an Asian-themed pun.
Ice skating strikes me as being a peculiarly Japanese event. Arcane. Completely esoteric rules. Sumo wrestling on skates. Noh drama in the cold. Vague isolated splendor. Subtle movements with the constant potential for pratfalls. Weepy sentimentality, and ruthless gravity.
Do they use thundersticks in the crowd? Do the thundersticks come with your flatscreen tv, so you can participate at home?
It's pitch dark here at 10:00 a.m. I'm living in a tunnel.
Dad

Liz said...

I think that Asian game shows are the best. In Japan, do they have the dating ones? I don't like those as much as the others. The person always falls in love by the end of the 30 minutes and that's weird.

Why is Dad talking about thundersticks? Is that what he wants for Christmas?