Day 8 Japan
Today I travel from Hiroshima to Osaka.
I checked out pretty early so I could get on the move again. Since the castle at Kumamoto was a bust I've decided to make a stopover at Himeji. Their castle is supposed to be one of the top castles in Japan along with Kumamoto and Matsumoto castles. Since it is on the way to Osaka it's a nice convenient stop for a half day.
So I have a fairly uneventful train ride to Himeji where I find a locker to dump my bag in for a couple of hours then find the tourist information centre to see what else there is to do around the castle area.
The Tourist Information Offices around the southern end of Japan have been really good. They have been well equipped with free maps, English speaking staff and plenty of good suggestions if I tell them what I'm interested in and how much time I have. I'd recommend making using of them if you ever go to Japan and have a flexible itinerary.
The nice old lady at the TIO gave me a map (not that I needed it ... as soon as you walk out of the station you can see the castle immediately down the end of the main street) and some good suggestions about the best way to walk and a couple of nice viewing spots before I get to the castle.
So I followed her directions and walked through a nice shopping arcade then into a random building and up to the 4th floor to have a really nice view of the castle. Took a couple of slightly blurry pictures as it was through glass but hopefully they turned out OK. There's always google images with a few million better photos than my phone will ever take.
The castle is beautiful. It's been masterfully restored and it's this bright white beacon on top of a small hill overlooking the town. It really is impressive. The thing I like about the Japanese castles so far is that they may not have the longevity of European castles (they are made of wood after all) but I certainly find them more aesthetically pleasing. They are just so nice to look at. They feel like places to live rather than defensive structures.
I trundled off towards the castle and saw a bunch of older Japanese people doing what I assumed was tai chi or something similar so I stopped to watch for a few minutes. One of the guys noticed me and gave me a pamphlet about Jesus. Yeah nar. Time to move along.
Finally into the castle grounds and it's just as impressive up close. I went in and was very pleasantly surprised. The Hiroshima castle had basically been turned into an office building with museum exhibits. This one was completely empty and all it did was showcase the construction of the castle and structure of the rooms. All the floorboards, posts, walls and beams were visible and it was really really beautiful. This is exactly what I imagined when I thought about Japanese castles. Huge planks and beams burnished to a dark colour due to either wood stain or age and it looked pretty close to how it would have looked a few hundred years ago.
It IS a reconstruction. They had to disassemble what was there and rebuild it a few years ago so it does look pristine but it's still fantastic. I walked through the whole castle and its grounds and was very glad I made the decision to stop here.
I had planned to see a garden or something next door and maybe get some lunch but was really satisfied with the castle so I just went back to the train station to head to Osaka.
I didn't really have much in mind for visiting Osaka. It seems to be a modern city that's more about eating, drinking and shopping than history and temples and whatnot. The main attraction that I wanted to see was Dotonbori which is some big shopping/party district with a gazillion neon lights. No real plans other than that.
So I checked into the hostel and didn't have much to do so I sat down and tried to figure out how to buy baseball tickets. I've heard the baseball thing is a really event in Japan. The Japanese apparently really get into it. I spent a good half hour surfing the net trying to figure out how to buy tickets online and after seeing there was a game tonight I just decided to go down to the stadium and see if I could pick up a ticket at the gate.
Osaka was my first real exposure to the Japanese public transport system. All the other places I've been have either been small enough that I've been able to walk most of it or I've ended up on a tram or free bus. Osaka has a bunch of subway and train lines that are run by different companies and my JR Pass only works with those routes run by the JR company.
Osaka quickly became very confusing for me. For some reason I found it really hard to find my way from Osaka JR station to the Osaka <whatever> station. Despite the huge number of signs everywhere it took me ages to find my way to where I was supposed to get the train to the stadium. Then figuring out the ticket process was another thing. For this particular railway you have to look at a map to figure out how much the fare costs between the 2 stations you're travelling through then buy a ticket for that amount of money. Most systems you just say "I want to go here" and the thing calculates it for you and tells you how much to put in.
It may be obvious to others but I was confused and had to get some help buying a ticket. I didn't really understand what happened at that point but I ended up with a return ticket so I could get to the game.
Tonight's game was between the Hanshin Tigers and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Since I was in Osaka and the game was at the Hanshin Tigers' home ground I decided I was going to be a tigers supporter.
Got to the stadium with HEAPS of other people and found a gate that sold me a ticket. Walking to my gate I found the official tigers merchandise store and figured it would be rude to walk into my team's game without wearing their colours. Walked around the store for a while and finally decided on a baseball cap. I needed one anyway since I lost my Mongolian Ways cap somewhere in Japan (sorry JoJo!) so I chose the brightest one that fit my head.
I also got Amy some minion stickers because obviously the minions support the Hanshin Tigers as well.
I had considered getting some beers from the 711 across the road to take in with me (assuming you could in Japan) but I saw them doing bag searches at all the ticket gates so assumed you could not take booze inside (like Australia). Turns out I was wrong and could have saved myself a fair bit of cash. Ah well.
Found my seat with the help of a friendly usher and only shit this place was full! I reckon the stadium was at 95% capacity. Tons of people were wearing Tigers colours (obviously - best team ever) with a few small sections of the opposition. My seat was a little past the third base and I was a couple of rows from the front. Seemed like a reasonable seat.
The stadium itself wasn't huge but it was modern and seemed in really good condition. The field was full of beautiful green grass and the dirt was a nice rich colour. Big screens around the place and the weather was beautiful. I grabbed a bento box on the way in for dinner and I was ready to watch my first ever baseball game at the ground.
I had a GREAT TIME! But baseball is boring as shit. It's way more boring than cricket and that can get pretty boring by the end of day 4 or 5 of a test match. It seems to be a game with prolonged periods of nobody doing anything except not being able to hit the ball followed by the opposition team doing the same thing. Then occasionally someone will hit the ball and score.
Which means I spent most of the game looking at the crowd and they really made the game for me. They are so into it!
Each time team had a band playing songs and they only seem to play while they are batting. Apparently each player on the team has a different song and the people sitting next to me knew the words to all of them and sang along. There was laughter, cheering, singing and everyone seemed to be paying attention to the game and there was genuine appreciation when the opposition scored or made a good play.
There were also a bunch of very attractive girls (I say girls because they can't have been older than 19) running around selling drinks and snacks. I obviously partook of their services (since I didn't bring my own beer). Fun watching your money and beer get passed down a chain of people to get to you.
And each team seems to have their own "thing". The opposition tonight all have green umbrellas. Periodically (not sure what the trigger was) they would all raise their umbrellas and move them up and down a few times. Looked pretty cool with the small number of people there ... I can only imagine what it would look like with a full stadium. The best team (Hanshin Tigers ... Keep up people!) have big yellow balloons they all pulled out during the seventh innings. At the end of the innings the entire stadium released their balloons and they flew all over the place making a squealing noise. Looked really cool!
Despite my dislike for the game I did find myself staying until the end because the game was tied right up until the final innings. At two outs, two strikes and two balls in the tenth innings the batsman from the mighty Hanshin Tigers hit a home run to win the game!
GO LOCAL SPORTS TEAM! DO THE THING WITH THE BALL!
The stadium erupted and everyone left by 10pm in a great mood.
Baseball sucks. But I would totally recommend going to a Japanese baseball game for a great experience.
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