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29/11/2006 Bonenkai (忘年会) SeasonSunday, November 26 marked the first of many "bonenkai" or shall I say end of the year parties. I traveled to Kyoto to hook up with two of my friends from my days at Ohio University, Miki & Aiko. Miki is living in Osaka so we see each other from time to time; but Aiko is living in Shiga so in order to make it somewhat easy for her to meet us, we decided on meeting in between our residences in Kyoto. We wined on everything from mixed drinks to wine to soft drinks and dined on "sukiyaki" during our mini party of three.
For me the "bonenkai" season will not shift into high gear until the second week of December. Let the wining and dining begin! 23/11/2006 Japanese SoccerLast weekend I went and saw the Vissel Kobe soccer team battle the Yokohama FC team at the beautiful Wing Stadium in Kobe http://www.stadiumguide.com/kobe.htm. This was my second time seeing Vissel Kobe play as I saw them last year on a gorgeous spring day. This time around it was cold so the open air stadium made use of its retractable roof and became a dome for the day. Unfortunately for Vissel Kobe, it did not matter as the team lost 2-1. Maybe I should make a point to not go to the soccer games as the team that I am rooting for has not won a game yet. 11/11/2006 Major League BaseballThis past week a group of Major League Baseball All-Stars came to Japan to play a 5 game series against the Japanese Professional Baseball All-Stars in select cities across the country. Luckily for me, one game was staged at the Kyocera Dome Osaka allowing me to see the players battle each other.
Along with my predecessor at the ACCJ, Barry Louie, and two of his co-workers, we watch the MLB All-Stars defeat the NPB All-Stars 7-2 behind the clutch hitting of Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=6097. Actually when Ryan Howard hit his 4th HR of the series in the 8th inning to break the game wide open, Barry and I both called the shot right beforehand. For one thing, we were not getting favorable looks from the people sitting around us after Ryan Howard launched the ball into the right field stands making Barry and I get up and high five each other. We definitely felt like soldiers in enemy territory.
On an interesting note, the MLB All-Stars swept the 5 game series from the NPB All-Stars making it the first time in 70 years for the MLB All-Stars to achieve this feat. Granted that some of the great Japanese players were not playing, but at the same time the American team hung on with not having some of its best in uniform as well. I will be looking forward to seeing the teams battle each other again in two years when the series comes back to the "Land of the Rising Sun". 08/11/2006 "Culture Day" WeekendLast weekend was an enjoyable three day weekend. To start off on Friday, my organization, the ACCJ http://www.accj.or.jp/accj.or.jp/content/01_home, had an event at the Shushinkan Sake Brewery in Kobe http://www.shushinkan.co.jp/guide/english.html. After dining on what seemed like a 10 course lunch for 2 hours, we headed off on our tour of several sake breweries in the area to sample each one's home-grown sake. Then came Saturday...I was supposed to visit some friends in Kyoto as one of them had her university's school festival, however while I was on the train at 8:30am in the morning heading towards Kyoto, I received an email saying that one of my friends would be unable to make it. Since I had another appointment in Nara from 1:00pm, I decided to cancel my Kyoto appointment and changed trains to begin heading towards Nara to meet my 1 o'clock. Well, I happened to arrive in Nara well before our scheduled meeting time at 10:30am. To kill time, I went to the convenience store and picked up a real estate magazine, since I am planning on changing residences in the Spring, and began investigating various rental properties in the area. Finally by 2:00pm, my 1 o'clock arrived and we got in her car and jaunted off towards to the Arima Hot Springs in Hyogo Prefecture http://www.arima-onsen.com/eng/index.html, which is situated in the mountains behind Kobe for a relaxing evening. After spending about 90 minutes sampling the various hot springs and sauna, my girlfriend and I headed into town (Kobe that is) for some Vietnamese food at the restaurant called "Vietnam Frog". On Sunday, Yuka and I headed over to Nunobiki Herb Garden in the morning, which is about a 5 minute journey up the ropeway from Shin-Kobe station, to see the view of Kobe from atop the mountain while being encompassed by a myriad of flowers, plants, and herbs. As it was my first time to visit Nunobiki http://www.kcva.or.jp/e-convention/cont02/cont02d.htm, I had no idea what to expect but with the weather being very cooperative, the views were absolutely splendid and definitely this time will not be the last time for me to visit the garden. After buying a lunch to take with us, we got in the car and headed over to the Suma Rikyu Park in Kobe to relax amidst the bountiful foliage housed in the park. All in all, the weekend was very pleasant as I got to do some sightseeing of my own, which is very rare since I live here and normally don't venture out too far on the weekends. Hopefully I will experience some more "sites" in the upcoming weeks as the weather right now is just perfect for going out on day trips. |
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