Yukata & Baseball

Last Wednesday in my lunch break, I ran out and bought a yukata (summer kimono) to wear to the Summer Seaside Festival next weekend. I practiced tying the obi on myself, then made Martina be my model while I practiced some more. Doesn't she look cute?



As for the baseball, well, I was really hoping to get to a live Sumo match, but was unable to, so thought I'd check out a baseball game instead. (VERY popular here.) Wanted to go down to the Fukuoka Dome. But after church today, Toshi was asking around to see who was interested in checking out a baseball game at the university oval. Said he got some tickets from a friend (but not whether he paid his friend?), so wouldn't take money for them. So 5 of us went down and watched the Softbank Hawks vs the Tigers. Yay! So much fun! We were cheering for the Hawks, the most popular team in this area, but they weren't doing very well.

It wasn't enough for Toshi to just give us tickets to the game. The perfect Japanese host, he disappeared part way through the game, and walked in the sweltering heat to the supermarket to buy us all icecreams and chips!

Since it was unplanned, I didn't have my sunnies, parasol (I'm a little pink!), or, sad to say, my camera, so I can't share any pics. The atmosphere was good, with the usual noise maker thingies, lots of chants and songs, etc. After the 6th inning, a bunch of people let these balloons go flying up into the air... very pretty! I've heard in Fukuoka, its even more spectacular! The Tigers even had a small brass band sitting in their stand, belting out an upbeat song after each good inning! So much fun!