Yakult Swallows walk-off victory
中村 悠平 with the hit
山田 哲人 scores the game winner

I must admit to having become totally uninterested in the 2013 MLB post season. Once my A’s lost there hasn’t been another team that has compelled me to watch a game. I don’t even know who is winning between the Tigers and Red Sox or Dodgers and Cardinals. Four top-ten payrolls battling it out for bragging rights means nothing to me. Too bad the A’s didn’t get past the Tigers. If the Pirates or Rays had made it another round I could have still cared.

Today’s photo is from a sayonara RBI in the bottom of the 9th inning by the Swallows‘ Nakamura back in August. Yamada scored the game winner. What a fun game it was.

Posted on October 17th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: baseball, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, sports photography, Tokyo, yakult swallows. Comments Off on Walk off hit (サヨナラ打)

Danjo Garan (壇場伽藍) on Koyasan

Kobo Daishi’s life was devoted, in part, to the construction of Danjo Garan on Koyasan. The grounds are lovely and probably crawling with tourists 99% of the time. If you ever visit Koyasan, do yourself a favor, and instead of making it a day trip or being the first one back on the bus/tram/train in the morning after breakfast, head over to Danjo Garan in the morning when you will likely have the place to yourself.

Posted on October 16th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: Danjo Garan 壇場伽藍, koyasan 高野山, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, panorama, photomerge. Comments Off on Danjo Garan panorama

居酒屋おたやん甲府中央酒場

Tucked down one of Kofu‘s many alleyways (Nishiki Dori was the name of the street) this place looked like a lot of fun. The food was good, but the patrons and employees weren’t nearly as entertaining as the place I had just come from (Ajimi or 味魅).

Ajimi was a random find. The just as random salaryman (サラリーマン) who sat down next to me came up with the name of my boss (Shibuya San) from 20+ years ago in San Francisco when I couldn’t think of it. Weird. It’s a small world.

Posted on October 13th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: food, kofu, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Yakiniku (焼き肉)

Smartly-dressed Japanese gentleman at bon odori

I loved the hat on the dancing man in the middle of today’s photo. I took this picture at the Nishikubo Hachiman Jinja Summer Festival (西久保八幡神社例大祭[夏祭り2013]) in Tokyo this past August.

Posted on October 11th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: bon odori, festivals, lanterns, matsuri, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, Tokyo, 西久保八幡神社例大祭 夏祭り2013. Comments Off on Oshare (おしゃれ)

Yasuhiro Ogawa
Yakult Swallows

The Yakult Swallows had the worst record of any team in Japanese Professional Baseball this year despite amazing seasons from two players. Yasuhiro Ogawa (小川 泰弘), pictured above, went 16-4 with a 2.93 ERA for a team that went 57-83 overall. On the offensive side, Wladimir Balentien batted .330, with 60 home runs (a new record for NPB), and had a ridiculous 1.278 OPS. By comparison, the best OPS in MLB this year was Miguel Cabrera at 1.078. I really don’t understand how the Swallows lost 83 games with performances like that from Ogawa and Balentien.

Posted on October 10th, 2013 under Japan. Tags: baseball, Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Telephoto Lens, Nikon D600, sports photography. Comments Off on 2013 NPB Season is over