Flying Porter YTZ-YOW

After spending four jet-lagged days in Toronto, I flew back home to Ottawa in time to watch Canada's men's hockey team win gold. I'll post more about the Olympics shortly, but here I just want to talk about the short flight on Porter Airlines, a relatively new entrant in the market and one that seems to get everything right.Porter began flying back in 2006, using Toronto's Island Airport, now known as Billy Bishop Toronto City Centre Airport. There...

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Orlando Titans 16 at Toronto Rock 12 (NLL) - February 27, 2010

With the Leafs off due to the Olympic break, the NLL's Toronto Rock had a rare chance to host a Saturday evening game. The Orlando Titans were the visitors coming of a double-OT loss to Boston the week before in what was the longest game in league history. The Rock were on a 2-game losing streak themselves but were still perfect at the ACC. These two squads were the top of the east so it promised to be a good game.The ArenaThe Rock play at the Air...

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Hershey Bears 2 at Toronto Marlies 3 - February 25, 2010

After lunch with an old colleague (Thanks Rob) and a much-needed nap to cure the jet lag, I boarded the streetcar to head over to the Ricoh Coliseum to watch some AHL hockey. The Maple Leafs' affiliate is the Toronto Marlies, and they were hosting Hershey, who are the farm team of the Washington Capitals.The ArenaThe Ricoh Coliseum is located on the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds just west of downtown. Two streetcar routes, including...

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Stuck in Detroit

So much for getting to watch the Canada-Russia quarterfinal. A passenger on my flight from Tokyo took ill and forced a diversion to Winnipeg. The three hour delay caused me to miss two connecting flights. Naturally the flight I was in time for was completely full. So I get to spend an evening in the Detroit airport waiting for my late flight to Toronto. I'll see if a sports bar will show the game, but I'm not hopeful.Update: Things worked out after all. I don't know why I thought that HockeyTown airport wouldn't have the game on. I found a bar...

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More on the Olympics

NHK sucks a bit lessLast week I complained about NHK's coverage of the Winter Olympics. Somebody must have been listening, because since then, I have seen a lot more coverage. Today, they even showed the Canada/US hockey game live and in its (rather depressing) entirety. Another discovery was that they were live streaming other events on-line. So I was able to watch Canada's Jon Montgomery win the gold medal in men's skeleton, as well as all the bobsled crashes yesterday. Even better, this live streaming comes without commentary. It would be great...

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Surprise trip to Toronto and Ottawa!

I've had it with the Olympic coverage here, so I've decided to do something about it - spend the last few days back in Canada. OK, I'm not being entirely truthful; I'm not returning home just to watch the Olympics. In reality, I had a bit of good news that freed up the last week of February and the first week of March. The only question was where to go. With my parents still living in Ottawa, I knew I had to spend a few days there, and a quick check of the hockey schedule revealed the Senators would be hosting the Rangers on March 2nd and then...

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Why Japanese Olympics coverage sucks

I am not a big fan of the Olympics, and it's probably because I've lived in Japan for the last several Olympiads. It's said the Games bring out the best in people; this may be true for the athletes but it's certainly not true for fans or broadcasters, who become extremely and annoyingly nationalistic. For a country like Japan that is already far too self-centered, the coverage on NHK becomes downright nauseating.The worst case happened today, Wednesday morning. I had watched the women's snowboard cross qualifications and was looking forward to...

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Goodbye Northwest

For those of you who might have missed it, the Delta/Northwest merger has been completed and the airline is flying under a single operating certificate now. The NWA website no longer exists (it redirects to delta.com) and it's getting harder to spot Northwest planes as more and more are repainted in Delta colours.On my return flight from Atlanta last week, I was fortunate to fly on N671US, the last 747 in Northwest's scheme. According to Airliners.net,...

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Trip to Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagoya planned

While I am still based in Japan, I want to see as many sports venues as possible. With the J League schedule finally being released on February 3rd, I've put together a short 1-week trip to Osaka, Hiroshima, and Nagoya at the end of March. Each city is home to at least one pro baseball team and one J League team, so there's a good range of games to choose from. Here's the schedule:Mar 26 Yokohama at Hanshin (Central League season opener)Mar 27 Urawa Reds at Cerezo Osaka (J League)Mar 28 Vegalta Sendai at Gamba Osaka (J League)Mar 30 Adelaide United...

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Back to Work - for a day

In what appeared to be a shocking development, I tentatively accepted a 1-month contract at my previous firm. The project looked to be a lot of work, so I expected to be taking it easy on the sports watching and blogging for the next month. But as it turns out, the project didn't really require my services, so it turns out that I won't be working there after all. So I'll still be here to bore you all with my sporting updates.There's not much going on in February other than the Winter Olympics and the completely meaningless East Asian soccer championship,...

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2010 January Trip Summary

I'm back in Japan and suffering from sports withdrawal. So it's time to look back on the two and a half weeks that comprised my first extended sports journey in some time.Toronto's Trying TravelsThe purpose of the trip was so see the Leafs in 4 road games, which I did. I expected 3 points out of 8, which is what I got. In fact, back in October I had told a friend that I have a goal of seeing the Leafs lose in every NHL city and I expect to add 3 or 4 on this trip. Well, I got 3, and that brings the total to 11 (Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia,...

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