Trip Overview Part 12 - Days 15 & 16 - Yokohama, Tokyo and Departure
I had a full day planned for Saturday, May 25th, which would be my last full day in Japan. I had tickets for that afternoon's Baystars game and I was planning on stopping off at Mint Yokohama on the way to the ballpark. After the game, I had plans to meet up with John E. Gibson of the Japan Baseball Weekly podcast for dinner somewhere in Ikebukuro.
First things first though as I needed to again address my breakfast situation. I had resigned myself to the fact that my hotel was only offering something I found inedible - rice cakes wrapped with seaweed - but luckily there was a Family Mart conbini a block or two away. I wandered over and picked up some food I could eat and took it back to my room - although I did grab coffee in the hotel lobby on the way back.
I took the subway over to Tokyo Station to catch the train to Yokohama. This was the first time I had been in the station on a weekend and it was astonishingly busy. I mean, it was busy on the weekdays that I had been there in the previous two weeks but it was even busier today. I mentally changed my plans for the next day - I had originally intended to store my suitcase at the station for a few hours after checking out of my hotel and then catching the Yamanoto line and monorail to Haneda later. Dealing with the crowds at the station, though, convinced me I'd be better off leaving my stuff at the hotel and taking the subway to the airport instead.
Yokohama Station was almost as busy and I navigated the crowds as best I could to make way over to Marui City Mall and Mint Yokohama. I spent less than a half hour in the store and then dove back into the crowd at the station to take the quick train ride to the ballpark - it's only about a six minute trip to Kannai station which is only about a block from the ballpark. The Baystars were taking on the Hiroshima Carp and the train was full of fans for both teams.
It's not obvious but the entrance to the park that is closest to the train station is actually in the left field corner. My ticket, however, said that I needed to go in at gate 1 which meant I had to walk all away around the ballpark. I didn't mind too much, though, because if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have seen the display they had commemorating the 2020 Tokyo Olympic baseball and softball events that were held at the stadium in 2021:
As I passed the outfield gate, I noticed a car parked next to it, facing the field. A number of people were taking photos of it but I had no idea what the significance of it was so I didn't take any. Its purpose would be revealed shortly.
Once I finally made it inside the park, I made a beeline for a display about the history of both the current ballpark and the park that previously had stood on the same site. I had seen this display on my first trip to the ballpark back in 2013 but I had recently learned from Deanna that the plaques of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig that used to be by the foul poles had been moved to the display area. The park that had previously been on this site was used in the 1934 All American tour and both Ruth and Gehrig had hit home runs during the game. I had not known about the plaques in 2013 and my visit to the ballpark in 2019 was...uh...not good so I hadn't been able to see them until now.
I picked up a Keita Sano bento box for lunch and made my way to my seat. My seat was behind home plate but up towards the top of the stadium. I had not realized just how steep this part of the seating bowl was - I think it rivaled the bleachers at Koshien. I was texting John during the game and at one point I mentioned needing some pitons, a hammer and a Sherpa to get up and down to my seat. The view was great though:
There were some pregame ceremonies going on with some sort of junior dance team/cheerleader squad routine. At one point it seemed like there was a hundred or so dancers of all ages all over the field. Once they left, the starting lineups were announced. (I was disappointed that Shugo Maki was out with an injury as he's probably my favorite Baystars player.)
After that, things got a little weird. There was an announcement made, some fireworks went off, the center field gate opened and that car I had seen previously came out onto the field. It came all the way onto the infield before stopping and then two men got out and waved to everyone. The crowd went wild. They got handed a microphone and started talking.
What I eventually learned is that the two men were actors from a TV show from the 1980's called "Abunai Deka" or "AbuDeka" which translates to "Dangerous Detectives". The show has spawned a series of movies and this event was a promotion for the latest one, "Dangerous Cops: Home Coming". The two actors were Hiroshi Tachi who plays Toshiki "Taka" Takayama (he's the one in the black suit) and Kyohei Shibata who plays Yūji Ōshita.
The two of them did the first pitch ceremony, with Shibata delivering the pitch and Tachi acting as umpire. They then participated in some other pregame hijinks before being presented with their own Baystars jerseys and posing for photos with Daisuke Miura and Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh. Here's a video that the Baystars published on Twitter showing all the festivities:
Despite not knowing what was going on or understanding what was being said, it was a lot of fun watching it all. The actors were obviously having a blast. I've been holding out hope that this will make it onto a "Ceremonial First Pitch" card but it wasn't in the 2nd Version set and I'm not sure Fusion will have anything that early in the season.
Once everything with the actors was over and everything was pulled off the playing field, the game finally started. Hayate Nakagawa was on the mound for DeNA with Shogo Tamamura pitching for the Carp.
It was quickly obvious that this game was going to be a slog. It seemed like every batter went deep into the count and fouled off several pitches. The Carp scored single runs in the top of both the first and second innings but DeNA scored five runs in the bottom of the second before making an out. I started wondering if I was in for a repeat of Tuesday night's 23-0 Hawks game but they didn't score any more.
The Carp fought their way back slowly, since nothing was happening quickly in this game. They scored a run in the fourth and two in the fifth to tie the score but the Baystars scored once in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead.
I was continuing to message John and was starting to get concerned about being able to meet up with him that evening. It had taken something two hours and fifteen minutes to get through the fifth inning. I had originally figured that the game would be over around 5 and I'd be in Ikebukuro by 6 but that was starting to look unrealistic.
There was a scary moment in the top of the sixth when Tyler Austin went after a foul popup and fell into the camera well on the first base side. He caught the ball but apparently bruised his wrist and had to come out of the game. Given that Austin has had issues staying healthy, it could have potentially been really bad but luckily I don't think he missed much time.
It was odd, though, because suddenly it seemed like a switch had been thrown and the pace of the game picked up considerably. There started to be relatively quick, 1-2-3 innings and I started to think it'd be possible for the game to be over by 5:30. But my hopes were dashed when Tomoki Ishihara tied the game with a solo home run off Yasuaki Yamasaki in the top of the eighth.
The game dragged on. John and I eventually decided we'd meet up for coffee on Sunday morning before he went to work since there was no way I was going to get to Ikebukuro before 8 PM. Neither team scored in the tenth or eleventh inning but the Carp exploded for three runs in the top of the twelfth. The Baystars went somewhat quietly in the bottom of the inning (they got one hit but all three of their outs were strikeouts) and the game finally ended around 7:15, some five hours and fifteen minutes after it started. The final game of my trip was a 9-6 Carp victory which kept my streak of always seeing the Carp win intact (they're 4-0 in games I've attended between this trip and the 2019 one). Here's a video of the game's highlights, somehow condensed down to only four minutes:
I can't remember why now, but for some reason, my trip back to Tokyo from Yokohama took forever. It should have only been a little over an hour but I didn't get back until after nine. I hadn't had any dinner yet and was disappointed that the Yoshinoya near my hotel had already closed. At this point I was too tired to consider looking for something else and I ended up picking up some food from a nearby Lawsons and taking it back to my room.
Sunday morning started with a another Family Mart run for breakfast before I got all packed up and ready to go. I checked out of my hotel but was able to have them store my suitcase until the afternoon.
Ryan met me at the subway stop just outside my hotel and we headed for Otemachi station to meet up with John. John had told us to meet him at the Dean & Deluca's near the station but we had some difficulty figuring out which one he meant. We eventually found each other but only had a few minutes to talk - although I did record a question for the podcast.
Once we parted ways with John, Ryan and I had to figure out what we wanted to do. We had considered going to Coletre as I wanted to see if they had the new BBM Giants team set. We took a look at the store's Twitter feed, though, and realized it was going to be closed that day due to a card show elsewhere in Japan. We then considered going to Mint Kichijoji before finally deciding to go to Nakano Broadway to check out the Mandarake shop(s) there. Besides Mandarake, we looked for cards in a couple other shops but didn't see anything.
It became time to get ready to head to the airport all too soon so Ryan and I said our goodbyes and I hopped on the train to go back to the hotel. I picked up my bags and caught a subway to Haneda. Everything went smoothly and my plane left on time around 5:15 that afternoon.
I was a little worried on the plane as I was sitting next to a couple with a small baby but he was a trooper, sleeping a lot during the flight and not being super-fussy. I discovered that the plane's in-flight entertainment system had "The Godfather" and since it's one of those movies I've been somewhat embarrassed that I'd never seen, I finally watched it. I also tried to watch some old Simpsons episodes although I kept nodding off during them which was probably a good thing.
We landed in Chicago and I was a little unhappy about how I had to make my connecting flight. We had (obviously) arrived at the international terminal and customs was pretty easy to get through. What was odd was that I had to pick up my checked luggage, walk though a door and immediately hand it off to someone for it to get on my domestic flight. It seemed like that could have been done by the luggage folks since the bag was already tagged to go to Baltimore. I then discovered that I had to go through security again when I got to the domestic terminal as there was no way to get there from the international one without going outside the secure area.
I had about three hours between flights so while these things were kind of annoying, they weren't any big deal. I had time to get something to eat before I boarded my flight to Baltimore. We were supposed to leave at 6:30 and get into Baltimore around 9:30 but things didn't go as planned. First we were delayed so that a couple people flying into the airport would be able to make their connecting flight (us). Then we couldn't pull away from the gate because of other planes being backed up on the taxiway. Once we were finally able to pull away, we had to go into a weather hold as thunderstorms were moving into the area. There were a bunch of us on the tarmac waiting:
We finally took off around 9:30 Chicago time, nearly an hour after we were supposed to have landed at BWI. The storm had moved off towards Lake Michigan as we took off:
We got into Baltimore a little after midnight. I had arranged for a limo ride home which not only was cheaper than leaving a car at the airport for two weeks, it was probably safer than me trying to drive the hour home after traveling for something like 20 hours. The limo service was aware of my flight delay and was ready to get me as soon as I retrieved my luggage. I finally made it home around 2 AM on the morning of Memorial Day. After we slept for a bit, my wife and I went out for breakfast and then we headed down south of Baltimore so that I could meet (and hold) my granddaughter for the first time.
I don't think this will be my last trip to Japan. While I did a bunch of new things, I still have not seen a Dragons' farm team game, the Buffaloes play in Kobe or the Fighters play in Sapporo. I'm not sure when I'm going to make it back though.
This is obviously the last of the "Monsters Of NPB Tour II" posts (a name that John had given my 2019 trip and I thought was appropriate to adapt for this trip). I can't believe it took me almost six months to finish these. I do have one more trip-related post to do but I'm not sure how soon I'll get around to it.
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