The Weekend! - Baseball and Theatre

Saturday and Sunday - June 8 & 9, 2013

One of the really nice things about this program is that the coordinators have found a very nice balance between creating an exciting schedule and allowing people free time.  This weekend, many of the students are doing home-stays with students from Technos.  The remainder of the students and the faculty are free to do as they wish.

It's been fun to talk to other people about their own personal agendas on this trip.  Some people came to Japan with a rather long list of things they were going to try to see and do while in Tokyo.  Others have really dug into their guidebooks while they've been there and seem to be off on another book-inspired excursion every time there's some free time.  Truthfully, that's how I usually travel.  I usually am either traveling by myself or I am the  unofficial leader/guide of the couple/group/etc.  Now that I think about it, of the 21 countries I've been to, I was alone or the "leader" in 18 of those 21 countries.  I haven't been the non-leader since I was 23 years old.  So this time around I've allowed myself to be the follower.  It's been a nice change for once.  I came on this trip ready to experience anything and everything and I have had fun seeing where I end up. 

Before the trip, all students and faculty were asked to fill out a little questionnaire.  As part of the questionnaire, we were asked if there was anything specific we'd like to do.  I listed that I would like to see Kabuki and I'd like to see a Japanese baseball game.  About 10 days before the trip, we received an e-mail saying that there would be two optional excursions for the weekend.  On Saturday we'd have the chance to see a baseball game and on Sunday we could go to the National Theatre to see a Kabuki program.

WHAT??????????  Baseball and Kabuki for my weekend?????????????  YES PLEASE.

First was baseball.  Mercifully, Yuji had the day off today.  Two Technos students, Yusuke and Ryota, led the trip to the Tokyodome, where we'd see the home team, the Yomiuri Giants, take on the visiting Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

Ryota and Yusuke - Our baseball leaders!

Fist bumping with a statue of the manager outside of the stadium!  Check out this crew!

We had a group of eleven head off to the game and I have to say, if you have the opportunity to see Japanese baseball, do it!  I've maybe been to 75 or 100 major league games in the USA and this game was awesome.  It was strange being in a situation where I seemed to understand everything and nothing at the same time.

Baseball is baseball.  So, if you know the sport, it's easy enough to follow along with what's going on.  At the same time though, the atmosphere is much different.  It kind of has the feel of a college football game.  There are flags and banners and all sorts of songs that fans sing that we really don't find too much of in American baseball.  The energy in the stadium is very different too.  Imagine a scale of 1 - 10 that measures excitement.  At an American game, let's say the base level of excitement is at about a 4.  In Japan it's at about a 7.  Non-stop singing and cheering.  It's even organized.  For the most part, you only cheer when your team is up to bat.  When your team is pitching you quiet down so the other team's fans can cheer!  haha  Can you imagine Yankees fans quieting down so Red Sox fans can cheer?

Back to the excitement scale...  the crazy thing is that when something really exciting happens, a home run or an amazing defensive play, in the United States we'd go from that level 4 energy and jump up to a 10.  We'd be standing up and high-fiving and yelling like crazy, etc.  In Japan, even though they are already at a 7, they really don't get all that extra excited when something big happens.  Maybe they move up to an 8.  So, after the first home run, I jumped up and started cheering and yelling.  I looked around and most people around me were still sitting.  Hahaha

Speaking of which... we somehow, magically, were sitting in row seven.  Yup... row seven along the third base line.  We had amazing seats.

Another big difference was how beer was sold.  In the States often beer is sold by rather large men who can lug all those cans and bottles up and down stadium stairs.  Japan does it differently.  They have young women wearing backpacks full of beer.  They run down the stairs to a section, bow to the section and then start to make their way up the stairs.  If you buy a beer, she pours you one as if it's coming out of a small keg.

Good seats and a different take on how to serve stadium beer.

Definitely wasn't having any fun at all... not... at... all.

Some of us quickly realized we needed to buy some Giants gear so we could show our support for the home team!  We were off to buy some gear!

These two helped me find the perfect Giants shirt!

Oxford Mike went for the black jersey.  Once again... not having any fun at all.  

Teams have cheerleaders just like many American sports.

The Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame was housed in the Tokyodome.  This was extra fun for me because, 8 days earlier, I presented a paper at a conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

One final shot of the Tokyodome.

The game was great.  There was some real excitement in the 9th inning but the Giants were able to hold on for the win.  Also fun was the fact that the clean-up hitter for the Eagles was Andruw Jones.  Jones, at one point, was a major player on my favorite American team, the Atlanta Braves.  There are a couple of former MLB players that extend their careers in Japan.  It was fun seeing Andruw.

So baseball was a huge success.  I think everyone had a great time, even people who weren't necessarily huge baseball fans.  Once again, if you are in Japan, I highly recommend this.  It's very accessible yet, at the same time, you get to seem some wonderful cultural differences.  And truthfully, there's something fun about being with tens of thousands of people all cheering for the same thing.  You don't need to speak the same language to celebrate a home run... just don't stand up too long.  haha

Sunday was Kabuki... the other optional trip.  Kabuki started in the early 1600's as an all-female form of theatre.  It developed a rather scandalous reputation and within a few decades the form was taken over by men.  To this day it is still mostly men although occasionally a women performer will play a female role in the show.  Kabuki performances can be very long...  sometimes 5 hours or more.  The National Theatre of Japan does an abbreviated Kabuki program and we went to that today.

Before the show began, we had a chance to look at a few displays of puppets.   Japan has a very rich tradition of puppet theatre so this was a fun bonus.

This puppet is particularly remarkable.  It's a puppet of two guys underneath a dragon costume.  So, the puppet can be controlled as the dragon, or, the two men can be revealed and we can watch them interact.  Impressive!

Once in the main lobby, we encountered the mascot for the National Theatre.  Maybe this is what American theatre is missing... mascots!!!

Alex and I meet the National Theatre mascot!

Now, we were at a live theatre event so, as is often the case, I couldn't take pictures during the show.  The performance was in two parts.  First we watched a short and very funny introduction to the art of Kabuki and to the National Theatre.  This was my favorite part of the show actually because they really showed off what the theatre could do in terms of technical capacities.  Kabuki theatre was the first theatre form to utilize a revolving stage and the "revolve" at the National was unbelievably huge.  It even had lifts built into the revolve that could raise an actor 30 feet in the air while it was spinning!  That was awesome.

After our "lesson" was over, we had a break before the show started.  Now look, I am a theatre guy, I teach theatre, I do theatre... but I have to be honest...  Kabuki is SLOW.  I was kind of shocked at just how slow it was.  It's wonderfully beautiful and the movement is amazing but the pace is very slow.  It was kind of funny how many people were falling asleep.  It kind of has a lulling effect.  It's gorgeous... but it's slow.

At first I questioned whether I should go to this program with the group or to a full Kabuki performance by myself.  I am very glad I did this.  I feel like I got a nice sample of what Kabuki is, which, for a trip this length, seemed just about right.

In order to get to the theatre from the hotel, we had to switch trains at Shibuya.  Shibuya is another section of Tokyo.  This single section of Tokyo is home to over 200,000 people.  From what I can tell, Tokyo has two "Times Square" type places.  Shinjuku and Shibuya.  Apparently Shibuya can get packed with people.  We were there early Sunday so it wasn't too crazy.

Shibuya during the day.

Shibuya at night. (I wasn't there at night.  Might have to come back!)

When I got back to the hotel it was still fairly early in the day.  I used the time to explore Fuchu.  It's fun to see "major" attractions but I also really like to just walk around (or run around) smaller neighborhoods.  So I walked into clothing shops and toy stores and even a sake store which was interesting. It was a great weekend.  I feel rested and recharged for week two!