Seoul Mate

The Seventh Fleet returned from its summer deployment at the end of August but the Ancient Mariner hasn't had much of a chance to enjoy his last autumn in Japan. His presence has been required/desired/requested at conferences hither and yon just about every other week since early September. This week it's Seoul, South Korea. The week after next he'll celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary in Northern Virginia while I do some last minute holiday shopping at the Tokyo Prince Hotel where the embassies converge annually under the auspices of Ikebana International to sell crafty items (and Cuban cigars).

With all this dashing about, we've decided to skip the traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year and spend four days tasting Japan instead. We have the rest of our lives to stuff turkeys and mash potatoes but only seven more months to get our fill of Japan. And he'll probably be deployed for a chunk of that time.

Garden at Imperial Villa in Nikko, November 2011

We're going to Tokyo for two nights and then on to Hakone where we hope to glimpse some fall foliage and commune with nature when our Kindle batteries run out of juice.

Beer Tastes Better at Baseball Games

We saw the Yokohama Bay Stars trounce the Honshin Tigers tonight. I usually travel to the Tokyo Dome to scratch my baseball itch but could not resist the chance to check out Yokohama Stadium when the Seventh Fleet proposed a group outing.

Getting to Yokohama Stadium from Yokosuka is easy.  You can either ride the Keikyu train to Yokohama and switch to a JR train that will take you to Kannai station or you can hop off the Keikyu train in Kamiooka and take the subway to Kannai.  The stadium is right across the street from the JR end of Kannai station.  If you exit the station at the subway end, you could end up walking two or three blocks.  A little exercise won't kill you. 

Ninjas?  No, those are Power Rangers celebrating a run.

We sat in the upper deck above first base. Walking up two flights of stairs to reach our seats, we found restrooms conveniently situated on the landing. I've missed a lot of innings over the years while waiting in long lines outside of ballpark restrooms, so I appreciated the architect's thoughtfulness in carving out facilities just for us Section 8 fans.

There's the Sapporo Beer Girl!  We'll take two, kudasai!

Just like at the Tokyo Dome, cute young girls scampered up and down the aisles offering four kinds of beer, whiskey, and chu-hi. The Tokyo Dome beer girls carry their beer in little keg backpacks but the ones in Yokohama poured beer from cans. We sampled Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin, and Yebisu beer. My favorite, Yebisu, cost 50 yen more than the others but I consider it seventy cents well spent.

I'm going to try to visit more ballparks this summer and next spring. For research purposes, of course.