Tuesday morning was a vocational day.  Breakfast consisted of cold cuts, lettuce slaw with mayonnaise, a large piece of toast, yogurt, orange slices, hot corn chowder in a mug, juice and coffee.  My guides that day were Julie (aka Akiko, translator) and Gojo-san (dentist).  Within the first 5 minutes it came to light that Gojo-san is a personal friend of Tadao Ando.  He said he would  have been happy to set up a meeting, but Ando is currently out of the country.   

Our schedule was to include a morning visit to Osaka Castle, followed by a trip to Tennoji Shrine.  Gojo-san suggested that we might be able to go see some of Ando’s architecture, except that the shrine was on our schedule.  I told him we have already seen many shrines, and asked if we could go to Kobe instead.  This normally is the kind of impromptu request that would fluster a Japanese host with schedule in hand, but Gojo-san and Julie thought it sounded like fun and quickly agreed.  We met Kasey at Osaka Castle (she concurred with the deviation from our itinerary) and took a quick tour.  

I tried a samurai helmet on for fun.  Beware the duckmouth shogun...

We walked back through the park to the car, passing numerous groups enjoying hanami .   

Our next destination was a kushi katsu restaurant—we ordered two big plates of tonkatsu (fried breaded pork), and two servings of shabu shabu (thin sliced beef cooked at the table).  Several beers later, we were ready to proceed to Kobe.

Our first stop was at a residential project designed by Ando.  It is now an antique shop, and though it was closed we were able to finagle a tour (it helped that Gojo-san bought an antique to take home).  It was an interesting juxtaposition, seeing Ando’s stark architecture filled with quite traditional furniture.

Next we went to the Hyogo Prefecture Museum.  It was designed by Ando after the Kobe earthquake to help revitalize the area (Ando worked pro bono).  The museum’s exterior is clad in panels that at first glance look like concrete, but are actually galvanized steel.

On our way back into Osaka, Gojo-san dropped me off at Koshien Stadium to meet Shoji-san, who had invited me to the Hanshin Tigers opening home game.  He produced a yellow Tigers jersey and hat for me to wear, and we entered the stadium.  I sat next to Shoji-san senior, who has season tickets.   

Shoji-san junior bought me some tako yaki and yakitori (grilled octopus and chicken), while Shoji-san senior ordered beers from a mini-keg toting pink-clad Asahi beer girl, and we toasted the start of the season.  At first I thought the beer girls were kind of cute, but they walked in front of me every 5 minutes, which increased to literally every minute during the last two innings.  

It was a great game, and a very interesting cultural experience.  The fans in the bleachers are incredibly loud, and don’t stop yelling/cheering in unison the entire game.  The Japanese version of the seventh inning stretch involves letting fly with tens of thousands of screaming balloons—quite a sight (and sound).  I actually took a video of the game-winning home run on my Japanese rental phone.  The video quality is pretty lousy, but it gives a good idea of the atmosphere (can't figure out how to post it though).  

An excellent day all-around…

Haiku #8   

seventh inning stretch

balloons stream into the night 

baseball in japan