teamEggers

Baseu-Baru

After Motomachi, Elizabeth, Jon and I met Sayo, Toshi, Jill, Stephen, Phil, and Ken (whew) at the baseball stadium for the big Baystars vs. Giants game.  The Giants are the best in the Japan league.  Unfortunately, the Baystars are near the bottom of the list. So… it wasn’t the most *exciting* of baseball games.

The experience was crazy. When you go to a game (of any sports-variety) in America, you cheer, right? You just stand up and cheer as the spirit moves you. Clap if you feel like it, to whatever rhythm you want. This is obvious to my Western-mind.

But oh, not in japan you don’t. In each section there are drill – captains to lead the stadium cheering. There are special songs that they *sing* (not chant. not yell, but sing.), special chants for each player and lots of different clapping styles. It’s SO crazy.

On the way home, yokohama was lit up and very lovely.

I love that there’s a pirate ship in our neighborhood.

There’s not a lot of public art here, but the stuff that they do have is pretty cool. This is outside of the landmark tower and it’s like… two stories tall.

Wednesday w/ E.

Boy, this week flew by. I’m having one of those climactic-Fridays at work where instead of being grateful for the approaching weekend, I’m panicking at how I didn’t get enough done. Deadlines! Corporate Crises! Angry Doctors! (you know, the usual.)

What I *should* be focusing on is Elizabeth being here! I’m glad she came towards the end of our trip, so I have some wisdom to lend. While I can’t quite say that I’ve found all the zen there is to find, I am a bit less high-strung that I was when we got here. Deep, calming breathes. I am the Eggman.

On Wednesday, we headed down to Motomachi. I just love this neighborhood’s vibe. After lunch…

…We went to the donut shop that I found last time I was here. Upstairs there’s a little cafe, and it’s all very stark white and french-countryside. Very lovely. It was great to sit down and just chat for a while.

While our adventures and travels have been great to us, I think jon and I often lament the fact that we’re not closer to all of you. Well, that all of you aren’t closer to all of you. Our friends and family are very scattered around the country. It’s great to see friends that you just… know. And you don’t have to spend time “catching up” because the essence of your relationship is such that, even though you don’t know the details, you already have a pretty good sense of what’s going on in their lives.

After coffee, I met a rooster!

And stopped in to the shrine…

…where it was just incredible. It was “snowing” cherry blossom leaves. Sakura season is drawing to a close, but it’s beautiful all the way to the end.