Marinerds, etc.

I went shopping today in Kichijouji with a coworker. She was showing me a housewares/etc shopping building called the Loft, and we found the most AWESOME. JAPANESE. BASEBALL. GOODS. EVER.

Okay, maybe not ever, but here, get a load of these (sorry for photo quality, these were taken with my cellphone and I can't edit them)







Yes, these are "Kattobashi". Chopsticks made out of recycled broken baseball bats.

No, really.

(This is funny if you know that "Kattobase" is what you cheer when players are at bat, to mean "Get a hit!", essentially. And "hashi" are chopsticks. They had them with logos for every baseball team in Japan.)

I bought a pair of Fighters ones, even though it was like Y1300. I couldn't resist. I mean, these are made out of real baseball bats, and they're chopsticks, and I had just been thinking I needed chopsticks, and... I also got a little baseball glove thingy as my chopsticks rester. They also had bats, and little glass baseballs.

The bat in the display was actually one of Michihiro Ogasawara's. I tried to explain to my coworker about how I used to be completely in love with Ogasawara when he was with the Fighters, and now I don't like him with the Giants, but I think that seems sort of weird to the Japanese, like you should still cheer for the player no matter where they go, if you like them. I dunno. Either way, it was neat to see one of his bats there, but it still makes me sad.

I wonder whose bat the Fighters chopsticks came from? It doesn't say on there.

Anyway, I ended up not going to a Seibu-Orix game this weekend, nor any game at all, because I got a phone call from a friend and we ended up hanging out Sunday instead. ("Yeah, it wouldn't take much to talk me out of going to today's game, but NEXT WEEK when the Fighters are here, there's no way anyone's keeping me out of Tokorozawa...") I may actually go up to Sendai for the Eagles-Fighters game next Monday to make up for it; we'll see what kind of plans I have next weekend.

And if anyone's in the Tokyo area and wants to come with me to cheer for the Fighters on Sunday (8/26), feel free. (Or if you want to go to pretty much any game in Kanto on a Sunday or Monday, or just hang out sometime and chat baseball...)

I still need to theoretically finish and upload my Yokohama game thingy from last weekend. I'm so lazy.

Oh yeah, and Saturday night I was watching this 24-hour TV marathon on Nippon TV, and who's sitting there in the front row of TV talent/celebrities next to popstar/idol Hideaki "Tackey" Takizawa? Why, none other than my very own favorite TV celebrity, Tsuyoshi Shinjo. His white teeth and lovely smile seemed quite perfectly in place next to the rest of the TV stars.

As an aside, I am rooting for Saga Kita high school in Koshien. I didn't want to declare that until fairly late because I didn't want to jinx them like I jinxed Tomakomai last year, but... due to scheduling I've managed to see like three of their games. And for a school which had never won a game at Koshien before this year, the fact that they are in the final 4 is just plain awesome. Though, they've also played an insane amount of innings -- even the game against Teikyo went 13 innings on Sunday. They should have won it in the 9th; they had two guys on and no outs, but failed a squeeze play. And then they were saved by a cannonshot throw by outfielder Babasaki to nail a Teikyo runner at the plate in the top of the 12th or the 13th inning, I forget when. It was still pretty exciting. Their team seems to be helped by having two strong pitchers - #10, Baba, and ace #1 Kubo, so they have been splitting a lot of the games, rather than just having one ace who takes all of the stress. Tomorrow are the Koshien semi-finals, and I think that means the final finals will be on Wednesday afternoon. Yikes. I may have to come up with a reason to go shopping at the Daiei store with the big TV section during the afternoon again...