Take me out to the ball game.

There was a small group of us that took the train to Nagoya to catch a professional baseball game:

We were pretty high up in the bleachers but still had a good view of the field:
And we could always see a replay on the big screen. It was also fun cheering along with the fans who had chants for each player on the home team:
Since the home team is called the Chunichi Dragons, they had a cute pink dragon as a mascot (although the official mascot is a koala bear...not sure why). They also had cheerleaders who came out 4 times during the game:
Although the home team had good chances to win the game, they only scored runs in one inning and thus lost the game 4-3. For us though, we were mainly there for the atmosphere and to watch some good baseball, so we weren't dissappointed:

Relaxing on Atago River

On Sunday, we went up to Atago River with Sumiko's family and some teachers that Ayako invited from work. We met up in the town of Tenryu where Rio and Neo enjoyed playing on an old train for awhile:

At the river, we had lunch and enjoyed playing games in the river like skipping stones:
and playing frisbee:
as well as just relaxing by the river:


I'm glad that the super hot weather has finished and so hopefully the weather will stay pleasant like it was on this day.

Soccer game in Toyota City

On Sunday, I joined some other teachers from Aichi U. (Simon, Angus, Mark & Chrsitine) and went to Toyota City (north-east of Nagoya) to watch a professional soccer game. The local team, Nagoya Grampus (genus of Orca dolphins) was playing the Urawa Reds from Saitama. Here's me next to Angus and Mark outside the stadium (which was used in the World Cup 2002):
There were long line-ups for food and beverages but we were able to stop a friendly beer and snack vendor:
We arrived an hour and a half early, but since we were in the cheap seats, it was already almost full and so our seats were pretty high up:
Here's some shots of the action:
Nagoya was outplayed in the first half and Urawa Reds scored near half time:
Here's some more action:
Here's Angus getting a close up view of the gamea and Simon cheering:
And here's Christine and Mark studying the game intently:
At half time, we were able to spot the mascot for our side, which was a cute Orca with a bow:
Fans were divided into home and away sides. Both teams had red as their main colour. Nagoya fans seemed very friendly in their light red jerseys:
They were also very supportive, although quiet as their team wasn't playing so well:
The Urawa Reds had a much darker colour of red on and they seemed more intimidating. We think that their mascot is Che:
Here's a short video of the crazy Urawa Reds fans in action:

Even thier signs and banners seemed scary:
Although some banners were a bit amusing to me:

While both teams' fans would have special cheers that they would do, they seemed like they would take turns in cheering - very considerate they were. Here's a shot of two guys with drums who were starting off the cheers for our side:
The second half of the game was fairly calm, except for the end when some players got a bit excited after a player was injured:
In the end, the Reds were too strong for our side (they actually won the Asian Champions League in 2007) but it was still a fun experience for me. Hopefully I'll see some more games in the future.

Wrong place/ Wrong time

So today I was lucky enough to have the morning off since my Friday morning class finished their contract last week. I decided to go for a bicycle ride to the beach since it was a nice day. On the way back though, I was stopped by the police. My main guess for why they stopped me was that I was a foreigner on a bicycle around noon time. They were curious as to why I wasn't at work and was this really my bicycle. Everything was fine, although 10 minutes later, I was stopped again. This time by an undercover cop on a bicycle. I told him that I had just been stopped and so he let me leave without further questions. It's funny that I've never been stopped before but then got stopped twice in one day.

For some reason, this has been the fourth time I've been stopped and questioned by police since the year 2000. Each time was a wrong place/wrong time situation. Once was in Korea and twice in Canada. Anyways, since I wasn't in a rush today, I enjoyed getting to practice my Japanese skills with people who couldn't speak English. I was proud that I could notice my Japanese improving.

I've also noticed twice now that older policemen here are much better to deal with than younger ones. Older policemen are more patient and they use simple Japanese so that I can understand them. The younger ones try to seem tougher, but since they don't use simpler Japanese, they just confuse me rather than intimidating me. Although it was good practising my Japanese with them, I'll try not to make it a regular habit in the future.

Wall Climbing

On Sunday, Ayako & I joined Dave & Caren and some of their friends to go wall climbing:
I tried wall climbing once (about 5 years ago) and this was Ayako's first time. It was a bit hard for both of us. I could get to to the top, but only on the easy levels. Still, it was nice to try it again. Here are some pictures from our day:

Night kayaking

We returned this weekend to where we went kayaking last weekend. This time is was in the evening to go kayaking for 2 hours at night. By going close to the shore which was blocked from city lights, you could see plankton in the water that was phosphorescent and would glow a little. By moving your hand around in the water, it would 'activate' the plankton more and would light up even more. We could even 'light up' the plankton deep in the water by moving our paddles around deep in the water. It was a very cool experience that unfortunately was too dark to take photos of...sorry.

Kayaking

On Monday, there was a holiday in Japan, and so Ayako and I met up with a Canadian friend, Dave and his girlfriend Karen and went kayaking on Lake Hamana in my city. It was just for an hour but it was fun enough that we want to do it again next weekend. Here's some pictures:

Bowling

On Wednesday night, a number of teachers went out bowling (which may become a regular event? - we'll wait and see). Here are some pictures from that night starting off with my nice form^^:

Train ride

On Sunday, Ayako and I decided to take a train ride that does a big 117 km loop around my city area. Here you can see the path on our ticket:
It was an overcast day and a bit cool, but still nice to see some new areas.
Half way through our trip, we transferred to an older train with no windows. This took us for about an hour. We bought bento boxes before to have on the trip: