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Inuyama Castle (犬山城) panorama
I have posted the view of Inuyama Castle from the other side of the river several times. However, today’s 20+ photo photomerge is of the reverse view a little earlier in the evening. I was standing on a corner of the castle so this panorama consists of more than 270 degrees of view. The boats in the river housed the fireworks that were set off an hour or so later.
BAR MiDiAN (Heavy Metal bar in Osaka, Japan)
@BAR_MiDiAN @MardukOfficial @sakura_jp_tw
You can’t really see the video in this photo, but I think Marduk was on. Marduk have a bigger following in Japan than in the USA. They are heading back to Japan again in January.
Bar Midian address in case you are ever in Osaka: 大阪市北区堂山町10-16 叶第一レジャービル2F
Lotus flower
I’m guessing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (広島平和記念公園) is usually a little less than peaceful, with the throngs of tourists and school groups it attracts. However, the rain was coming down so hard at this point in my visit that everyone else had taken shelter, and I had the grounds to myself.
Shirakawa-go (白川郷)
Wladimir Balentien of the Yakult Swallows (NPB 2013 home run record)
Figuring out kanji used for baseball in Japan is a fun challenge. If you have a basic understanding of kanji you can literally read what Balentien (バレンティン) did on this evening before coming to bat for the fourth time. (遊ゴ = fun go, 四球 = four balls, 死球 = death ball) So what do these things really mean? 遊 is the shortstop (the funnest position?). goro (ゴロ) is grounder so he grounded out to short his first time up. Four balls is easy enough. He walked in his second at bat. But “death ball”? What could that possibly mean? He was hit by the pitch in his most recent at bat.
阪神タイガース
The Tigers made it to the Japan Series in 2014, thanks to a strange advancement past Hiroshima in the first stage of the Climax Series (equivalent to the division playoffs in MLB). They won the series by tying the Carp. By virtue of their higher seed, that was all they needed to advance. Ultimately, they lost to Fukuoka in the Japan Series (equivalent to the World Series in MLB).
Today’s photo comes from a game I went to between the Tigers and the Dragons in 2013. I am not a fan of either team, but I wanted to sit with the crazy Tigers’ fans. However, the Tigers’ fan section was sold out (even though this was a game in Nagoya, not Osaka). So I bought a ticket in the upper deck, behind the crazy fans of the Tigers as did others who couldn’t get the “real” cheering section tickets. The seats were mostly empty, and the fans weren’t nearly as interesting as those below, but they still showed their support in more subdued ways.