Marinerds, etc.

Hi guys -- I'm not dead, honest. Just feeling kind of burnt out after the season, and was REALLY busy last week with my school, and well, there's no real reason for me to translate news when someone else is doing that. I even skipped the Jingu HS/college baseball tourney last weekend in favor of watching hockey instead. (Which was really awesome. Thanks, Simon!)

But, this Sunday I'll be going to the U-26 NPB vs. College game, which I'm psyched for, though I'm not really sure who I'll cheer for. (Probably the college kids, since the NPB team couldn't be bothered to include Hiroki Ueno. No, just kidding. Mostly.)

And the other thing I'm planning to go to, unless the weather turns truly crappy, is the Shonan Sea Rex fan fest on Saturday. That's the Yokohama Baystars minor-league team, which I am infinitely more interested in than the ichi-gun team these days. So while I was looking up info for that I figured I'd check in and see when all the NPB fanfests are -- if I get bored and the weather's reasonable, I might try to stop in on the Seibu Lions or Yakult Swallows fan fests on Monday too. I figure there can't possible be anything this year more disturbing than Yoshinori and Masaru Satoh in drag last year...

Anyway, almost all of the fan fests are during this 3-day weekend, though one or two are next weekend. And there's the Giants parade on Sunday too.

Pacific League Fan Fests

Nippon Ham Fighters
November 21st (Saturday)
11:00 - 16:00
Sapporo Dome
300 yen

Rakuten Golden Eagles
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
10:00 - 16:00
Kleenex Stadium
Free

Softbank Hawks
November 22nd (Sunday)
11:00 - 16:30
Yahoo Dome
1200 yen

Seibu Lions
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
10:00 - 15:00
Seibu Dome (and surroundings)
Free

Chiba Lotte Marines
November 21st (Saturday)
10:00 - 15:00
Chiba Marine Stadium
Free

Orix Buffaloes
Nov 29th (Sunday)
10:40 - 14:30
Kyocera Dome Osaka
Free

Central League Fan Fests

Yomiuri Giants
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
Starts at 10am
Tokyo Dome

Also, there's a Yomiuri Giants Victory Parade
November 22nd (Saturday), 10:00 - 11:00am, Ginza area (Otemachi to Shinbashi)

Chunichi Dragons
November 28th (Saturday)
11:00 - 14:00
Nagoya Dome

Yakult Swallows
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
Starts at 11am
Jingu Stadium
Free (I think)

Hanshin Tigers
November 21st (Saturday)
Starts at 11am
Koshien Stadium
(This event seems to be sold out.)

Hiroshima Carp
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
10:30 - 15:30
Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium Hiroshima
(I think this is also sold out, actually)

Yokohama Baystars
November 23rd (Monday / Holiday)
10:00 - 15:30
Yokohama Stadium
Free

Shonan Sea Rex (Baystars minor-league team)
November 21 (Saturday)
11:00 - 14:30
Yokosuka Stadium
Free


I haven't really been to a LOT of fanfests here aside from the Fighters Kamagaya ones and a Baystars one a few years ago, so I don't have any particular recommendations, just throwing this info out for anyone who might be interested in it. I'll certainly try to blog about this weekend for y'all, whatever I end up doing.