Tokyo, Japan May 8th, 2009

Many people come to Japan for sushi. Many come to see the cherry blossoms. Many come to see Mt. Fuji. Many come to ride the bullet train. Many come to see beautiful people and countryside. We would too. The cherry blossoms bloomed early, darn. The bullet train was not going in our direction. Beautiful people and countryside is abundant. Sushi...Sushi...Sushi...you get it on your plate like grits in Alabama whether you want it or not! What some people don't know is that Japanese people are crazy about BASEBALL!!! We went to see the local team, The Giants play The Dragons. The Dragons are the best team in Japan right now but the local team WON! The crowd was crazy excited!! They do a different yell/song/cheer for every player!! They have organized fans raising and lowering players numbers and shoot towels and t-shirts out to the crowd all during the game! They have "vendors" going up and down the aisles that are all female. They are all about 22 years old. They are all adorable. They are all in cute brightly colored uniforms and they never holler! They just hold up 4 fingers for some reason and let people know they have ice cream, Beer (which they have on their backs in pony kegs) and pour it up at your seat if you want, miniature bottles of liquor...no hot dogs or peanuts! You have to go to concessions for that! The fans are well dressed. Many are in suits straight from work, still carrying their briefcases. There was never any hollering or booing from fans. Just crazy cheering for the home team! We quickly all became Giants fans and cheered right along with them! Thank goodness their color is Orange!! Worked out well for some of us! Had a fun night with Sondra, Hank and Sean. Getting a taxi afterwards was a little tough. No English speaking drivers. We finally got it worked out and we were on our way back to the ship. Fun night!
Nicky made friends with a kid that was sitting near us that is in an International school in Tokyo.
Tom Hanks and Ron Howard were at the game! They put the "fan cam" on them and they were up on the super jumbotron and waved at the crowd! Everyone went nuts!! They are there promoting their new film. Angels and Demons? Something like that.