Weekend Games Split in Hiroshima

More on Mazda Stadium

The weekend games were both 3pm starts and it was hot! I found that standing on the concourse in the shade behind home plate was not bad as a breeze would blow through and keep you relatively cool. It's also a good place to stand to watch the game itself, but if you want to keep your spot, you'd be there for a good 6 hours, so not highly recommended.

Although the gates open 4 hours before game time on the weekend, the reserved seating areas down below are closed off until 2 hours before. That is a long time to spend walking around in this weather, so most fans sit in the shade and wait patiently for the aisles to be opened. When they do, it creates a funny scene as hundreds of fans make their way down the aisles at the same time.

The unreserved seats in the second deck are open at the same time as the gates since fans want to get there early to save their favourite spot. At this time, you must have a ticket to go upstairs but once the rest of the seating area is open, you can go up to take pictures.

During batting practice there are guards reminding the fans that batting practice is going on and to watch out for foul balls. A bit unnecessary I thought until a Hanshin coach, trying to hit some pop flies to his catcher, fouled two balls straight back into the stands, nearly beaning one poor fan.

After the 5th inning, fans sing a song while doing a silly dance, led by their mascot Slyly. What I found interesting is that all the beer vendors have to do the dance too. Each one goes to the bottom of the aisle, removes his keg, and then dances and sings. We all know that selling beer is the noblest profession and these fine individuals shouldn't be forced to perform such humiliating antics. The picture below doesn't do justice but in the bottom right you can see a beer guy enthusiastically dancing while Slyly leads some children on the field below.

Here's a view of the seats completely filled:

Still some empty seats near the back of most sections as it wasn't a sellout. The capacity is around 33,000 and attendance on the weekend was around 31,000 both times, so a few seats were still available.

Saturday's Game - Carp 8, Tigers 3 - Huber's Homer Hurts Hanshin Hopes

For this game I chose the unreserved 2nd deck seat, sitting above first base among the Carp faithful. The view was quite nice as you can see below.

Minor league journeyman Giancarlo Alvarado (below, known as Gio here in Japan) got the start for the Carp and promptly hit Matt Murton with the first pitch. Coincidentally, Murton led off the previous game by being dinged as well. Alvarado must hate the Tigers because he then hit Keiichi Hirano on the foot, causing Hirano to writhe in pain before being removed from the game. Not good news for the Tigers there, as Hirano's, leading the league at .354, was replaced was Katsuhiko Saka, a lifetime .123 hitter.

Things just got worse as Alvarado walked Takashi Toritani and Takahiro Arai followed with a 2-run single (below). Four batters and already two runs and I thought it was going to be another marathon. But Craig Brazell grounded into a double play and although Alvarado walked Tomoaki Kanemoto and hit Kenji Johjima to load the bases, Shunsuke Fujikawa was caught looking to end the threat. Thirty-two pitches, 3 hit batsmen (tying an NPB record), two walks but only two runs; Gio was some kind of magician to get out of that mess.

In the bottom half, the Carp manufactured a run off Hanshin starter Naoto Tsuru. Eishin Soyogi was sacrificed to third after doubling and scored on a sac fly from Soichiro Amaya.

In the second, Alvarado was hit on the hand by a Murton comebacker, but recovered in time to throw him out. It looked like he might not be able to continue, but he shrugged it off, then served up a solo homer to Saka to give Hanshin a 3-1 lead.

I thought Gio was in trouble and might be pinch hit for in the bottom of the 2nd, but he came up with two runners on and crushed the first pitch just foul. Tsuru didn't make the necessary adjustment though and Gio sent the next offering deep into the left field gap to tie the game at 3, sending the fans around me into a frenzy. It's always good when your pitcher gets a hit, but a 2-run double is really a most unexpected gift.

Tsuru was removed after just two frames and replaced by Masashi Sajikihara, who immediately gave up a walk to Amaya and a run-scoring double to Kenta Kurihara as the Carp took the lead 4-3. It was the second consecutive day that the Tigers had blown an early advantage.

From then on, Gio proceeded to shut Hanshin down for 3.2 more innings, yielding a couple of hits and walks, but keeping them off the scoreboard. He finished with 133 pitches but only 77 strikes, but nonetheless gets credit for a quality start. Given that he hit the first two batters, I'd take issue with the "quality start" terminology in this case though.

Anyway, the game was still close, but Hiroshima added another manufactured run in the 7th in exactly the same manner as their first. This time it was Takuro Ishii who doubled, Soyogi who sacrificed, and pinch hitter Tomonori Maeda who hit the sac fly to make it 5-3.

In the 8th, Kurihara walked and Jun Hirose doubled to bring pinch hitter Justin Huber to the plate. Huber has tons of minor league experience but was never able to stick in the majors. He's also played in both WBC's for Australia. He's a big guy and he showed his power, driving Keiji Uezono's second pitch just over the left field fence (below) to clinch the game.

Closer Ryuji Yokoyama came in to pitch a perfect 9th although Huber's homer eliminated the save chance. The final was 8-3 Carp and suddenly Hanshin is looking vulnerable as the playoffs approach. Their pitching in these last two games has been less than stellar so we'll see if they can turn it around.

Hiroshima scored 8 runs on only 7 hits, but 6 of them were for extra bases: 5 doubles and the homer.

Although this game started terribly slowly, with the first two innings taking nearly an hour, Gio and company sped things up and we were done in 3:18. An interesting game and the highlight of the trip so far.

Game 3 - Tigers 11, Carp 5 - Tigers' Twenty Take Third Tilt

As I left Saturday's game, I again passed by a kinken shop and they had a single for Sunday's game in the Visitor Performance area at a reduced price. I decided to take it as it would allow me a chance to sit with the Hanshin fans for a couple of innings before I moved down to a standing spot to meet up with my friend Meg. She is touring all 12 Japan ballparks as part of the JapanBall experience and this would be her 3rd game in 3 days. I was interested in hearing about her experiences in Sendai and Yokohama as well as her initial impressions of Japan.

On to the game. I watched the first inning (scoreless) standing behind the plate before moving up to my seat. I only spent an inning there it was directly in the sun and I was surrounded by Tigers fans who are not among my favourites. But the seats here are great, a separate section with a nice view as you can see below.

Unless a flag is blocking it.

The band resting while Hiroshima bats...

...then the fans get on their feet when the Tigers come to the plate

The second inning was also scoreless and so I moved back down to the concourse and watched as the Tigers exploded for 5 runs in the third, including a 2-run triple by Toritani (below) and a 2-run homer by Brazell. Thankfully I had left the cheering section as I'd not have enjoyed watching the Hanshin fans celebrate the outburst.

The Tigers added two more runs in the fourth when Fujikawa (below) and Toritani both had RBI singles.

This made it 7-0 and Meg joined me for a quick tour around the stadium, not paying much attention to the game. That was OK as we took about two innings to tour around and neither team did anything of consequence. I left Meg back at her seat and returned to standing behind the plate, just in time for Hiroshima to make it exciting. Amaya and Kurihara (below in a shot from the cheering section) led off the 7th with singles off Tigers' starter Akiyama. After a Shigenobu Shima fly out, Hirose followed with a 3-run homer chasing Akiyama. Reliever Kubota came in and was victimized by some bad fielding when Arai let a weak grounder get through his legs. After Huber struck out, Tsubasa Aizawa hit his first NPB dinger, a 2-run shot to suddenly make it 7-5. Could the Carp complete another comeback?

The answer was no. Hanshin added one in the 8th off Vinnie Chulk and three more in the ninth to complete the route and salvage the final game of the series 11-5 win. The Tigers left town with a half-game lead on surging Chunichi, who swept the Giants over the weekend.

Not a great game to end the series, but not surprising to see Hanshin's offense finally get going. The Tigers pumped out 20 hits on the afternoon with Murton grabbing 3 of them to stay on pace for the all-time hits record, which is 210, set by Ichiro back in 1994. Murton needs 36 hits in 25 games to get to 211, just below his current pace of 1.47 hits/game. He did set a new record as his 175 hits are the most by a first-year foreign player.

With that, I headed back to the station to catch a bus to the airport. The trip was over, and the overwhelming memories will be of heat and long, long games. The average game time for the 4 I saw was 3:42, but that was mostly due to the marathon minor league game on Thursday.

Notes

Japanese baseball teams each have a slogan that changes from year to year. Sometimes, this is something nonsensical English such as "Smart and Spirit 2010 Eagle Fire!" that Rakuten is using this season, other times it is a more meaningful Japanese phrase, and even a combination of the two is seen. Hiroshima has gone for a more direct English phrase this year: "We're Gonna Win". An admirable goal that's better than "We're Gonna Finish 5th" but I found it rather amusing given how poorly they've done this year. The shot below is from the People's Plaza, an underground area near Hiroshima station, where the poles are all decorated with posters of the players along with the slogan. Interestingly the Japanese translation underneath is not quite the same, it says "We're are going to cheer you on", probably referring to this being located where fans are walking by. The slogan on the website is properly translated.

Hirano's injury from Saturday kept him out of Sunday's game but it's reported to be just a bruise and nothing serious.

Next Up

I'm going to check out the Industrial League championship game tomorrow night and then join Meg for one or two of her local games too. As well, the Shonan Searex will cease to exist so I'll try to catch their final road game next Thursday at Giants Stadium. Check back as usual for posts on those as well as a post on Hiroshima.

Best,

Sean

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Hanshin Tigers 4 at Hiroshima Carp 5 - September 3, 2010

Hiroshima is the first team in my time in Japan to build an entirely new stadium to replace an existing one. Normally I would be pretty excited about going, but it took me nearly 2 years to find time and some other events to make it a real sports road trip. Shameful really, Hiroshima is one of Japan's best cities and now they have the best baseball stadium too.

Mazda Stadium

The official name is Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium Hiroshima but this is usually abbreviated to just Mazda Stadium, thankfully. It was opened last season to rave reviews and has been called an "American-style" ballpark. Which is true to a point.

It's a 10-minute walk from Hiroshima Station and well-signed. Or you can just follow everybody else, there's plenty of red-clad fans making the trek even two hours before game time. Just beside the station is a small street selling food items, including draft beer that you can bring into the stadium. It's half the price you'll pay inside, so worth it if you plan to imbibe.

As you draw near, you'll walk up a bridge (above) that leads to the main entrance. However, you'll need a ticket if you choose this approach, otherwise stay to the right of the bridge and walk over to the ticket window. When you enter the stadium, you must give up all cans and plastic bottles, so don't be carrying those with you.

There are 17 different seating options, which I won't list here. Some of them are very interesting though; the Coca-Cola Terrace seats (above) are sold in sets of 5 for 20,000 yen and allow you a table to enjoy your food while the Nesoberia Seats are large cushions in the outfield that are sold in pairs only for 7,000 yen. The Carp are a big draw here and most sections are sold out on game day, so if you want to sit in a certain section, make sure to buy tickets well in advance. Otherwise the best bet is the infield unreserved seats at 1,600 yen. These are in the second deck but if you get there early you can pick your spot and sit in the shade for the whole game, and it's not that far from the field.

The cheering groups each have their own special section called Carp Performance (above) and Visitor Performance, which sit as entirely separate areas from the other sections. Brilliant idea that opens the outfield seats to fans who prefer to sit there without the music blaring and also allows for a wider variety of seating options in general.

The infield concourse is not that wide, particularly when the crowds are meandering around before the game. There are other minor annoyances as well. To get to your seat, you have to enter the exact aisle that is printed on your ticket. But they don't have ticket checkers at every aisle, so they've added some fencing and created one entrance for every 3 aisles. This pushes the standing areas back quite a bit and reduces the amount of available space for standing as the pillars now block the view in many spots. As well, once you are in the main bowl, you can't move from section to section as there is no walkway. So taking pictures in a variety of areas can be difficult once fans are in their seats. Oh, and don't bother trying to get into a section for which you have no ticket, even well before the game. This is Japan and rules are rules.

The food options here are exceptionally varied and well worth trying. I considered the Philly Cheese Steak below until I saw the cheese they were using, which was the melted processed variety and not that appealing. I sampled a number of light options over the three days and enjoyed the Carp Udon for 500 yen. There are tables nearby the concession stand as it is difficult to eat noodles while holding the bowl; one poor lady dropped hers all over the floor and to add insult to injury, had her cell phone fall into the pile of noodles as she bent down to pick it up.

In the outfield concourse there are a couple of statues of Soichiro Amaya making great catches, complete with fence. I don't think these are related to Masato Akamatsu's wall-climbing catch or Amaya's similar play just a couple of weeks later but just an interesting coincidence. They've set it up so that you can pose on this side of the fence and act surprised. There's even a popcorn tub spilling its load or a soda pop with the contents in the air to complete the illusion. Very cool although I didn't see anyone taking advantage of it.

Below are just some more pictures from various spots on the main concourse.

There is no upper concourse to speak of, there's just a small walkway for getting between the sections. Again you need to know which aisle to use as you can't walk between sections. Since these are unreserved seats, make a note of your seat number and aisle and leave something on top of it should you wish to go touring. You get a nice view of the surrounding hills and can see the trains going by beyond the left field fence.

Overall though, this is a great place to watch a game. A beautiful setting, close to transit, excellent views that aren't ruined by protective netting, plenty of good eats, and a good choice for seats. Yeah, it'd be better if you had more freedom to explore before the game, but what can you do. Mazda Stadium definitely makes Hiroshima a key sports destination in Japan; now if they can only get a bj League team they'd be set.

The Teams

The Hanshin Tigers are the best team in Japan, sporting a .570 winning percentage and enjoying a 2-game lead atop the Central League. They are an offensive powerhouse with 5 players hitting above .300, led by Matt Murton who is on pace to break the all-time record for most hits in a season. Second baseman Keiichi Hirano leads the league with a .354 average while first baseman Craig Brazell has 40 homers and 100 RBIs to top the team in those categories.

The Hiroshima Toyo Carp, on the other hand, are a bit of a mess. Lying 5th, hovering around .400, and possessing the worst pitching staff and offense in the league, the Carp are only saved by some decent defense. Of course there are those famous catches, but in general, the Carp seem to be relatively good fielders from what I've seen.

The Ticket

As I was walking back to my hotel before the game, I chanced upon a kinken shop. These are stores that offer a variety of tickets that involve discounts on items such as shinkansen trips, movies, or drinks. They also have sports tickets on occasion so I decided to see if anything was available. Surprisingly, they had one seat in a section called the Royal Box for 5,000 yen. These tickets are usually not available to the general public, so I was intrigued, but the saleslady wouldn't show me the ticket itself, which I found peculiar. She pointed out the approximate location on a stadium map, and it seemed to be behind home plate in the first few rows, so I chanced it and forked over the money.

A fortunate decision as the ticket was the 3rd row almost directly behind the plate, which looks like this:

The only problem is that the first two rows are those that are shown on TV, so most of the evening I was surrounded by idiots who would come down, get on their cell phone, and then wave as the pitch was tossed. Then, having been spotted by their friend on the other end of the call, they'd leave satisfied with their fleeting fame. Morons.

The Game

Hanshin grabbed an early 3-0 lead on a Shunsuke Fujikawa 2-run single and Takashi Toritani homer, sending Ren Nakata to the showers after just three innings. Hiroshima got a run back in the 3rd when Shogo Kimura tripled home Eishin Soyogi who had doubled.

Carp reliever Keisuke Imai shut the Tigers down for the next three frames and his teammates finally tied the game when pinch hitter Takuro Ishii singled with the bases loaded (above) in the bottom of the 6th.

The carp brought in ex-Blue Jay Vinnie Chulk (below), recently signed and making only his 11th appearance. With one out he walked Hirano and then Takashi Toritani. In both cases, the umpire was squeezing him, missing what were obvious strikes. Sitting right behind the plate it was clear that the strike zone was not what Chulk was used to. Generally, the strike zone in Japan is smaller, and perhaps foreign pitchers need time to get used to it. But the umpire definitely missed a couple of calls. Chulk was visibly annoyed but struck out Takahiro Arai before giving up a run-scoring single to Brazell (grounding out in an earlier at-bat below).

Trailing 4-3, it looked like curtains for the Carp, but in the 7th, Tigers' reliever Ken Nishimura gave up singles to Amaya and Kenta Kurihara to bring a swift end to his evening. Tomoyuki Kubota was brought in and struck out Shigenobu Shima for the second out. Jun Hirose came to the plate and smacked a double down the left field line that got both runners home! The Carp fans went nuts - suddenly it was 5-4 Hiroshima and Chulk was in line for the win. And he got it thanks to some brilliant bullpen work. Hideki Kishimoto pitched a strong eighth while Ryuji Yokoyama picked up his 8th save with a 10-pitch ninth. The Carp hold on for a comeback win, 5-4.

This would have been a great game had it taken a normal 2:50. Instead it dragged on and on, partially because the umpire had a tiny strike zone, and partially because pitchers here just throw less often. So it's just a good game: the PPM was 1.46, yet again far too slow a pace. It's not the Japan Series guys, throw the freaking ball.

Notes

There were several excellent defensive plays in this game. The best was when Kurihara grounded hard up the middle. Hanshin starter Yasutomo Kubo got a piece of it, slowing it down enough so that Hirano could get to it behind second. He turned and made a leaping throw that forced Brazell to jump high. It looked like Kurihara would be safe but Brazell made a nice tag on his way down to get the out. Really a nice play to watch from close up.

One of the features I like here is that the scoreboard highlights the baserunners in green so you know who is on what base. Just a little thing but something I've not seen elsewhere.

I was planning to have one post for the entire weekend but will split it in two for readability. So look for another post on the two weekend games shortly.

Best,

Sean

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Hiroshima Carp 14 at Chunichi Dragons 11 - Western League - September 2, 2010

The Western League is the minor league based in Western (duh) Japan. With just 5 teams spread over a relatively large area, it's not a roadtrip-friendly circuit, so this was my first WL game. Although it was in Yuu Stadium in Yamaguchi prefecture, home of the Hiroshima Carp, Chunichi was the home team for this game to make up for a rainout earlier in the season in Nagoya.

Yuu Stadium

Yuu City is just over an hour west of Hiroshima on the Sanyo Line. It's 950 yen from Hiroshima and there are 2 or 3 trains an hour, although you might need to switch at Iwakuni. It's a nice train ride, especially near the end as you are right along the coast and the view of the islands is quite impressive.

One you are in Yuu, you have two choices to get to the stadium. If you are lucky, there will be a bus waiting. The right side of the schedule is for getting to the stadium, stop 21 in pink is Yuu station, the10:54 bus will get you there in time for a 12:00 game and cost 450 yen. The 9:27 train from Hiroshima fits nicely with this bus. If you arrive at another time, you are likely taking the second option, which is a taxi. There are cabs right outside the station and it is a 1,500 yen flat rate to the stadium. Most people drive though, out of the attendance of 160 there were only 5 fans on the bus.

It's a nice ride through the hills and at the end, you will be dropped off outside the entrance to the grounds from where you will have to walk up a hill (above), through the parking lot, and then up a steep staircase before you arrive at the field. It's certainly a difficult place to get to, but well worth it. Nestled in the hills, the stadium is certainly the most scenic of any in Japan, but that is its best feature. There are no seats here and much of the good areas are blocked off to fans. Most people bring a portable chair or ground sheet and sit on the grassy hillside down the baselines, but some fans venture beyond the outfield fence, where you can sit in the shade provided by the forest.

You can walk around the whole stadium, though there's not much to see other than the great views of the surrounding hills. Beyond the left field fence is a practice field but it was not being used when I walked by.

There are a few small vans selling rice balls, tacos, and curry, as well as shaved ice. It seems like they started from this year, as previous reports suggested that no food was available. If you want a full meal though, buy something in advance. There is no convenience store at Yuu station either, so if you are coming from Hiroshima, you may want to buy something there.

The scoreboard is manually operated and the player names are displayed on boards. Most players named are professionally printed but if a player is acquired mid-season, his name might be painted on.

As you can see in the picture below, the players spend time outside of the dugout warming up and horsing around during the game. Would be nice if they opened that area up for fans instead. You can also see that the foul area is quite large.

To get back to Yuu Station, you have to hope that the game ends by 3:30 or so. The left side of the bus schedule above is for returning to Yuu and the #1 stop is the ballpark. As you can see if you miss the 3:52 bus, you've got a 2.5 hour wait. Or you'll be calling a cab. By the way, there is a 4:20 train out of Yuu so it dovetails nicely with the bus.

Yuu Stadium is a lot of fun to get to and a great place to watch a game, particularly if you live nearby and can bring along the chair, sunbrella, home cooked meal, a few beers, etc. For us road trippers though, it's a literal pain in the ass after sitting on the ground for a few hours. Regardless, a worthwhile place to visit for any baseball fan.

The Game

Given that I was planning to catch the 3:52 bus, I was hoping for a reasonably long game. But as they say, "Be careful what you wish for". I was rewarded with perhaps the worst baseball game I have ever seen.

The first inning was the only one in which no runs were scored. Chunichi batted around in the 2nd to take a 4-0 lead and added another in the 3rd. But Hiroshima replied with 3 in the fourth and then sent 13 men to the plate in the 5th, scoring 7 of them for a 10-5 lead. The highlight was a 3-run homer from Shota Dobayashi (below), who pitched his high school to the national championship last summer but is playing third base in the pros.

Chunichi had blown a 5-run lead and now it was Hiroshima's turn. The Dragons added 3 in the bottom half of the fifth and two more in the 6th to tie it at 10. These first 6 innings took over 3 hours, helped along by a 10-minute break to clean the field after 5 frames.

At this point I knew that catching the bus was not possible so I talked to a fellow bus rider who was also visiting from Tokyo and we agreed to split a cab and stay for the whole game. Which was good because there were more runs to come.

The Carp got a singleton in the 7th when rookie Hayato Shoji tripled and then 3 unearned runs in the 8th, highlighted by a 2-run shot from Yoshihiro Maru. That's the homer below.

Trailing by 4 in the bottom of the ninth, the Dragons got 4 straight singles, including one by Masaaki Koike (below) to score a run and had the winning run at the plate but Hiroki Nakagawa grounded into a double play to finally, finally, end things.

The game took 4:19 in the searing heat. Except for Chunichi starter Junki Itoh (shown warming up below), the pitching was abysmal. Both teams used 7 hurlers, there were 15 walks and 3 hit batsmen, 103 batters went to the plate and there were 363 pitches thrown (likely inaccurate as I was often distracted and might have missed a few pitches). This translates to a ridiculously slow rate of 1.4 pitches per minute.

Hiroshima used 24 players in the game, moving players from position to position and making a mess of my scorecard. There was also the typical overuse of the sacrifice bunt; that's Tomohiro Abe doing the job with the score at 11-10. With such horrible pitching, why not keep hitting?

Overall, this was an exasperating and tiring afternoon. Fortunately in Japan you can drink beer in public so after getting a cab back to the station (we had to get a driver waiting for some players to request another cab for us) I bought a can and my newfound friend and I enjoyed the ride back to Hiroshima with a frosty brew.

Notes

The Carp are the most futile team in Japan, having missed the post-season for 19 consecutive seasons. I found the sign below which shows their 1992 slogan "Value of Victory" to be rather depressing as their last Central League championship was in 1991.

Jeff Fiorentino (below) started in right field for the Carp but only played 3 innings before being replaced. He then had to endure the rest of the game from the dugout, but at least it was shaded.

My fellow Tokyo traveler is also a sports road tripper, but one on a very tight budget. He used the Seishun 18 ticket which allows unlimited travel on local trains for 5 days. What this means is that it took him 16 hours or so to get to Yuu from Tokyo. He was in amazingly good spirits though, as you can see below.

Although the game sucked, the experience was certainly memorable and I'm glad I went. Having such a beautiful ballpark combined with such a terrible tilt will ensure that this trip remains with me for a long time to come.

Best,

Sean

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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 at Sanfrecce Hiroshima (AFC Champions League)
Mar 31 Hanshin at Hiroshima (Central League)
Apr  1 Hanshin at Hiroshima (Central League)
Apr  2 Hanshin at Chunichi (Central League)
Apr  3 Vissel Kobe at Nagoya Grampus (J League)
Apr  4 Consodale Sapporo at F.C. Gifu (J2)

It's just a coincidence that all the baseball games involve the Hanshin Tigers. The main point of this trip is to see games at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima; it was opened last year but I didn't get down there, which is unacceptable for a sports road tripper. It's also interesting that I'll get a rematch of the Emperor's Cup semi-final between Vegalta Sendai and Gamba Osaka. Two of the games are being played in venues that are not the teams usual home: the first game is at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka rather than Koshien, and the Nagoya Grampus game is in nearby Toyota city.

This trip won't involve a car; it will be done entirely on public transit. It should be a fun week, so check back for posts on each game.

Update (March 22nd): Due to unforeseen circumstances (namely the girlfriend getting a new job) I'll be taking a trip to Singapore and Malaysia during this time so this trip has been cancelled, but should be replaced with a short jaunt to Hiroshima sometime in the summer.

Best,

Sean

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