My second Japanese baseball game of the 2009 season was my first in central Tokyo. The place was Meiji Jingu Stadium (明治神宮野球場) which is almost walking distance from my apartment. My daughter and I took the train instead of making the 40 minute or so walk.

The sunset was beautiful, even with countless beer girls jumping in front of the camera. The number of beer girls at Jingu was staggering. I have been to many, many baseball games in more than a dozen parks in three countries and have never seen anything like it. The ratio of fans to beer vendors was probably about 10:1.

Like our experience in Chiba, we were on the big screen within minutes of our arrival. Unlike the games I’ve been to in Tokorozawa and Chiba, there were lots of foreigners at the Swallows’ game. At those other games it seemed we were the only foreigners among tens of thousands of Japanese. At the Swallows’ game, perhaps as much as 1% of the crowd was not Japanese.

Posted on October 8th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: baseball, beer, clouds, meiji jingu stadium, people, skywatch, sunset. Comments Off on Yakult Swallows – Part 1

I visited Enoshima (江ノ島) for the first time during my second trip to Kamakura. I arrived at about 4 p.m. to see the sights and take in the sunset. Strangely, as the weather was perfect and the skies were clear, nearly everyone was leaving the island. After walking up hundreds of stairs I reached the top and began my descent to the back side of the island. Although there was space (and restaurants with stunning views) for thousands of tourists only a few of us were there; half were fishing.

How a place (稚児ヶ淵, chigogabuchi) with such an incredible sunset could be so deserted on a warm, Friday evening in September with a population of 15+ million living less than an hour away baffled me. I didn’t complain though. The experience, like many sunsets, seemed surreal. Many of the restaurants mentioned above sat completely empty or were closed. Either this place is something of a secret or the numbers change dramatically on the weekend.

The giant hawks at this place (photos coming here soon) were a welcome change from the typical sea gulls at places like this around the world.

Posted on October 3rd, 2009 under Japan. Tags: enoshima, mt. fuji, sunset. Comments: 2