Friday night date
night.....disaster or another adventure to add to the book? OK, let
me back up a bit. On Thursday Mark and I decided to go to the
Softbank Sea Hawks baseball game on Friday night. On the way home I
told Mark we could stop by a Family Mart and purchase the tickets. I
had been told that the local little markets had a machine where you
could get your tickets. We have a Family Mart and a 7-eleven right
near our house. Mark stayed outside watching the bikes while I “ran”
in to get the tickets. First I walked all around the shop to see if I
could find the ticket machine. I was hoping it would be obvious and
that it might have an “English” button. Who was I kidding? Any
way, I finally had to ask the woman working if she spoke English. She
didn't so I had to use my best pantomime skills. I pretended to throw
a baseball into the air and hit it with a bat. She smiled and said
baseball. Now I knew that she knew what I needed. She took me to the
machine, but when I saw it was all in Japanese I told her “no
Japanese”. She was trying to assist me the best she could. I
communicated in many different actions and hand gestures that I
wanted two tickets for the Friday game for about 1000 JPY. Once we
got to the part of the selection process of picking seats she was
lost. She didn't now what to pick. She called over a young man that
was working there with her to help me out. Now, he did speak a little
English so I was confident that I would be soon leaving with the
tickets I needed. He kept asking me about the seats. I just kept
telling him good seats in an “open area” for about 1000 JPY each.
He finally got..or so I thought...that I wanted to be able to sit
someplace where I would be able to see the infield. He chose the area
around the first base. I was very happy about this. He said the seats
were about 2000 JPY each. I paid it because in my mind I was going to
have good seats for Mark's first baseball game in Japan. The lady and
man were very nice and we all had a good laugh while they tried to
help me. I finally left and explained to Mark what all was involved
with buying the tickets. It was a good experience and at that time I
thought I had succeeded.
Jump to Friday evening. We left
school right at 4:30 PM (which is the earliest we can leave) to bike
home and feed the cats and leave our school stuff at home. We got
home and changed and fed the cats. Then we were off for our Friday
night date night. The date was a first in Japan, too. I was so
excited because I knew Mark was going to get a kick out of the game,
the cheering and of course the balloon thing they do. We rode our
bikes to the Yahoo! Dome and found the bike parking which is huge on
game nights. We had planned on eating at the game because they have
so much food and so many different kinds of food to choose from. We
got our food and then headed off to find our seats. I found one guy
who spoke some English so he pointed us in the direction of the 5
section. I was getting more excited because the view was great from
the area we entered. Once you get in there there are ushers who look
at your tickets and take you to your seats. We had a young lady who
was leading us to our seats. We were climbing up and up and up and
up. I was worried that we were going up so high. I guess that should
have been the least of my worries. Once we got to the highest level
we could go to she then took us BEHIND the last row of seats. There
was the railing that you see at all of the venues. She led us behind
and showed us how we could hold the rails and STAND UP!!! Yes, I said
stand up. She then did the “no” signed by crossing her arms into
an “x” and pointing at the seats in front of us which basically
meant we were not to sit. I thought she was kidding......but she
wasn't. For some reason there are enough people in the world too
stupid to buy tickets for actual seats. I was so bummed! I couldn't
believe that I paid 4000 JPY to stand at a baseball game. That is $51
to STAND at a baseball game. We began to laugh about it because I
would have cried otherwise. It was just so unreal. Who in their right
minds would ever pay that much to stand at a game. Now, I am not
talking about an area that is open seating and you can sit on
something...there was NO SITTING to be had. Ugghhhhh...I still can't
believe it. So, I was thinking that the guy did not know what he was
doing or the joke was on me for buying those tickets. Mark and I
lasted 2 innings and then we were out of there. It is not good on
your feet or back to stand on hard concrete very long. I was very
disappointed so we did the only thing we could to make ourselves feel
better. We went and had a drink.....at Starbucks. That made it almost
worth the trip out for the night. I actually had a new drink called a
“Crunchy Caramel Frapp”. Very delicious!!! We then walked around
Hawks Town which is a shopping center that I have blogged about in
the past. After our “big” night out we went and got our bikes so
we could ride home. As we were going home it began to rain. Yes, it
began to rain. Luckily it was not a down pour or anything. Enough to
make it hard to see through my glasses though. We stopped at the
Fukuoka Tower to take a photo and then we went home. Nothing like
coming home from such a fun date night and being sweaty and wet from
the rain and humidity.
So, I am trying to decide if this
date night was an adventure or a disaster date. What do you think??
You can weigh in on this one. We have not given up on the baseball
games though. We are planning on buying tickets for the September
29th afternoon game. I found a site in English which also
has a map of the seat. I am going to see if someone from work would
be willing to help me purchase my tickets so I can make sure I am
buying seats (that you can sit on) with backs in a good area. I am
willing to pay more if I know I can sit for the game. I'll let you
know how that turns out.
Well this week has gone by so
quickly. I can't believe that it is already Saturday. Tomorrow my
shipment arrives. We have 32 boxes arriving from the states. Everyone
thinks that is so many, but you have to remember there are 16 small
boxes and 16 medium boxes. So if you were picturing huge boxes you
need to think again. I do know now that I am here that I did probably
ship too much. Yes, I admitted to probably shipping too much. It
isn't that I didn't know the living accommodations in Japan would be
small, but I guess I didn't picture how little storage places there
would be. I have decided that I will keep what things I use and/or
need (want) and maybe get rid of the rest if there are places who
take slightly used items. I know there are second hand stores, I just
don't know what they will or won't take. That will be another blog
down the road. First everything has to arrive and get put away.
Today was a quiet day. It was
raining when we woke up and it rained for most of the morning and
early afternoon. Once the rain let up we needed to go to 7-eleven to
pay a bill I got in the mail. Here you go to the little stores and
pay with cash. They stamp it and give you a receipt. After that we
went to buy groceries.
I am posting some photos from the
game and then some of beautiful sunsets that I have seen this week.
Every night the sunsets are just so beautiful.
Enjoy and there will be more to
come....
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