On Money, and Other Mundane Matters
 |
| Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome, 2011 |
Nippon Ham Fighters vs. Softbank Hawks
Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome
Pacific League, Nippon Professional Baseball
Fukuoka, Japan
14:00
Outside of the Game:
It was another early travel day, waking at 6:30 to get my train to Hakata Station in Fukuoka. As part of my reservation at the Station Hotel, I had breakfast included, but it looked like I wasn't going to get to use it, as the restaurant did not open until 7, and my train was at 7:20. When I asked about this at the front desk, they told me to go in early to get breakfast, since I paid for it in advance and all. I do love Japan sometimes.
The hotel was only a short walk to the station (which I suppose it would have to be if you're going to name yourself the “Station Hotel”), and I found my bullet train easily enough and with about ten minutes to spare. I dragged myself onto another immaculate train and worked on my scorecards and this thing for the duration of the ride to Fukuoka.
Hakata Station was yet another edifice to Japanese design and layout. After orienting myself to the maps of the area, I found the proper exit and took the short walk to my hotel. As it was early in the morning, and I wasn't able to check in until later in the afternoon, I left my bags, and went on my happy way back to the train station to get the subway to the game.
And then it began. I decided to take out some money, as I was running on the low side because I hadn't gotten money out since I landed at the airport on Thursday. I stopped in one of the many 7-11s in the area that are supposedly on the US network and tried to take out some money, and it said my card was rejected. And I didn't think much of it, because that was the exact same error I got last year when I tried to get some money on a non-US network bank. Perhaps 7-11 wouldn't work anymore. It didn't overly concern me at the time, as there was a post office right by the train station, and I could get some money there.
At the post office, I had a repeat of the above, but it gave a much clearer message that the transaction was rejected by my bank. This gave me pause. I didn't think all that much of it, as I had money to get through the next day or so, and there was a CitiBank ATM in the main shopping drag in town. I knew my card worked with those, as I had gotten my money on the first day at the airport at one. So I got on the subway to the game and put it out of my mind until later.
It was another uneventful subway ride back from the game, and I walked back to the hotel to check in. I dragged my bags to the elevator and checked into my room. I did the standard unload, and then had a quick soak and shower before heading back out into the world.
I decided to walk to Tenjin, which is apparently the happening section of Fukuoka. It was only about fifteen minutes from my hotel, but I was again met with surprise by the hotel desk when I said an American was walking somewhere. Or maybe they were surprised that anyone was going to walk when you had a perfectly good transit system right there for you.
Travelling down to Tenjin I managed to have a route that took me through the red-light part of town, but thankfully, I was not again asked my intentions. The first thing I did when I got to Tenjin was to seek out the CitiBank ATM to try my luck. After a bit of looking around, I found it, and I was greeted by the “transaction declined by your bank” message again. So it was definitely a problem with my bank, and it would have to be dealt with. Marvelous.
 |
| Shopping district |
I walked around for a while, poking in and out stores and just generally tiring myself out. I had a quick chicken noodle dinner and headed back to the hotel. As it turned out, it was almost exactly the right time to begin calling America to deal with my bank, so I made the expensive call. As the evidence had pointed, they had put a hold on my card for my “safety,” and then chastised me for not telling them that I was leaving the country. Surprisingly calm, I mentioned I had used my card successfully in three separate countries, including Japan, in the last three years and there were no incidents “for my security” until now. After suitably proving my identity to the call farm, they promised to un-hold my account and put a travel notice on it (as I should have done) so I wouldn't have to deal with this again. Arigato, jerk-bag. At that point, it was time for bed. I had an early day the next day, I was pretty tired, and now I was annoyed to boot.
The Stadium and Fans:
 |
| Home plate to center field, Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome |
The Softbank Hawks play at the Fukuoka Yahoo! Dome, which as I understand it, is right down the street from Altavista Stadium. The stadium lies a healthy walk away from the nearest subway station, and to get to it, you have to traverse through “Hawks Town Mall,” a shopping center and sports complex that featured a good deal of US baseball merchandise, not to mention a lot of American chain stores such as Hard Rock and Adidas.
The stadium grounds themselves are quite extensive. There is a huge DugOut store on one side of the stadium that sells anything and everything in Hawks merchandise, including items such as rulers and rice balls, not that I bought any of that. All around the stadium were also creepy hand statues. I mean that as it is written: molds of hands incorporated into odd modern art statues. I assume them to be people who performed in the dome over the years (as some of the hands were identifiable as the members of Bon Jovi and Frank Sinatra, for example), but I have no way of confirming or denying the hypothesis. The hand statues were lorded over by a giant hand giving either the “peace” sign, or the Japanese picture “V,” also undetermined by this reporter. I’ve found that you just have to take some things in Japan on faith.
Another big attraction at the Yahoo! Dome is the Sadaharu Oh Museum, worked into the center field area of the park. For the uninitiated, Oh is the biggest baseball hero is Japan by far, and holder of the world professional home run title. He is seen as the paragon of Japanese baseball for most, and his managerial career included a run with the Hawks, who have leveraged this to their advantage.
 |
| Entrance to the Oh Museum |
The museum is exhaustive, in addition to providing an eagle-eye vantage onto the field from dead center field. It provides extensive information on his playing and managerial career and statistics, but it has encyclopedic information on his family and formative years, going as far as to recreate his family restaurant in the exhibit on his youth. A giant merchandise stand shows off all of the tie-ins he has spawned over the years, and the museum features a recreation of a typical Japanese home at the time Oh set the home run record, with the TV continuously playing the historic shot.
Not a statue or record is overlooked, and a practical area has activities that let you sit in as a catcher for a simulated big-league pitcher. That exhibit was a huge hit with the older set the day I went, with a line stretching down the museum. The facility ends up with the inevitable (and well-stocked) gift shop and a restaurant, just like Oh’s family ran.
The Yahoo! Dome itself is a single-level domed ring, with on-field seating along the baselines as so many parks in Japan feature. The cheering section bleachers are separated from the regular seating area, and all the concessions are located along the promenade ring that circles outside the seating area. Ringing above the regular seats are party or luxury boxes that extend most of the way around the seating area.
Particularly of note is the ginormous main scoreboard in the stadium, which stretches from the end of left field to the end of right field. It is in three sections, with the “left wing,” the area in center field, and the “right wing” in right field, broken up with some ad space between sections.
The MC at the game was a bi-lingual American, whose tendency to break from over-enthusiastic “announcer-talk” Japanese seemingly randomly into English was fairly disconcerting to my ears. The crowd seemed to love him, so what do I know? He also did English lessons with young fans on the scoreboard in-between some innings.
 |
| Learning is fun. |
The Hawks packed the house with loud and involved fans, and the home cheering area was rocking. Perhaps even more surprising was that the visiting Fighters, from as far away in Japan from Fukuoka as you can get while still being in Japan, had a numerous contingent in their cheering area that steadily supported their team through their unsuccessful campaign.
 |
| Serious business |
At the Game with Oogie:
 |
| Here we go again |
I was sitting in the area behind home plate just to the left on the third-base side. A mother with a small boy was in my row, and in front of me was a man and his teenage son. Outside of getting some furtive glances from the boy as to what I must be doing with all the writing and picture taking, there wasn’t much of note for me at the game.
The Game:
 |
| First pitch, Fighter vs. Hawks |
This game easily featured the most strikeouts I have ever witnessed in a game in person. The Hawks notched 17 Ks, while the Fighters downed a respectable 6, for 23 total. The Hawk’s starter Settsu got 12 by himself (and the scoreboard was ready to celebrate each one with a new graphic), so you probably see how this game is going to go.
The Fighters went down in order in the first, and the Hawks started scoring immediately. A leadoff walk was followed by a foul-out on a two-strike bunt, and then a hit batsman put two runners on base. A single brought home the leadoff man, and this was followed by another hit batsman, and some sternly raised eyebrows. A fielder’s choice brought home the second run, and a subsequent single brought home the third, before a strikeout ended the bleeding at 3-0 Hawks.
The Fighters all struck out in the top of the second, interrupted only by a double, and then the Hawks went right back to it. A leadoff double was followed by a single, which brought home the lead runner when the third baseman botched a relay. A single moved the runner over to second, but the tail runner was erased when the next batter hit into a double-play. Another single brought the lead run home, but was erased himself when he was gunned trying to make it to second. Still, the Hawks had a comfy 5-0 lead.
And the Fighters went down in order again, with another strikeout mixed in. The Hawks got a runner to third but didn’t score in the bottom of the inning. The Fighters finally got something going in the fourth: Back-to-back singles led off the inning, followed by two quick outs. But the next batter hit a clean single to center, sending home one run, before the last strikeout of the inning – 5-1 Hawks.
The fifth went relatively quietly for both sides, but the sixth started with the Fighters center fielder taking the third pitch out of right field, for a 5-2 score. And then the side went in order, with two strikeouts.
That would prove the Fighters last gasp. Outside of some scattered hits, both sides went quietly into the night, with the Hawks starter being inexplicably pulled at the end of 7. The Hawks relief staff kept up his strikeout work, notching five more in two innings. The overpowered Fighters went down to defeat, 5-2.
The Scorecard:
Fighters vs. Hawks, 06/26/11. Hawks win, 5-2.
It was back to the Scoremaster for this contest. On the surface, it wasn't much notable except for the strikeouts, but when I did the work completing it, there were a couple of surprises that came out, besides the surfeit of “K”s, both forwards and backwards. Nearly all of the Fighters outs were recorded by the catcher (obviously), first baseman (another gimmie), or the center fielder, with a line-out to the second baseman as the only outlier.
The Hawks, for their part, got put out six times by the shortstop, which is just unusual. It is even more so considering there was only one double-play in that total. Numbers, baby.
The Accommodations:
 |
| Chisun Hotel Hokata |
For this one-nighter, I put in at the Chisun Hotel Hokata, a Japanese business hotel just down the street from the station. I wasn't able to check-in until after the game and left early in the morning, so I spent relatively little time there.
It was exactly as I expected it to be, with small Japanese-style rooms, featuring a functional desk worked into the proceedings and a closet bathroom with the Rube Goldberg tub/sink/toilet combo all mushed together. The command console on the bed featured an ambient noise selection, which filled the room with easily-listening and classical instrumentals that had a very calming effect, which was appreciated after the somewhat trying day I had. It was entirely adequate for is purpose, and if I remember correctly, the room cost me $30, so all-in-all, an excellent bargain.
2011 Japan II
No comments:
Post a Comment