Past couple of days

So I have been lazy and apologize for not having updated this in a couple of days.

Anyway, my first couple of classes were ok, not really much work, just going over the syllabus so it was a pretty big waste of my time. But the classes appear to be promising so we'll see how it goes.

The weather here is pretty funny. You can look out the window and it will be cloudy, drizzling, and look crappy. So you put your shoes on and grab a rain jacket, go down stairs, and go outside, and the sun will have come out and its become hot. And no matter which direction I jog in, the wind will always blow against me. Today I ran to the gym, and the wind blew against me the whole time. On the way back, the sun was out and there were several clouds, but halfway home it started raining from apparently a microscopic cloud above me and the wind changed direction against me again.

Also on the way home from the gym today, I was 30 yards away from a stop light and it had just turned red. I began to hear strange yelling and had no idea where it was coming from. Suddenly a minivan passed me on the right with 2 tiny heads sticking out of the windows yelling "hooww aarre uuuu...howw areee uuuuuuuu...." and then one started singing the ABC's. It was pretty funny, and I thought about yelling back that I was German and didn't understand English but decided against it. It was still pretty funny and cute.

Today I also had the privilege of going to a Sapporo Ham Fighters baseball game. Like the true bird brain that I am I forgot to take my camera so unfortunately I have no pictures. Sorry.

But the game was held in the Sapporo dome, which was the center piece of the '72 winter Olympics here in Sapporo, and is still a very important landmark to the people. The dome itself is enormous. Emerging from the subway station (which was packed shoulder to shoulder) and laying eyes on this metal behemoth was quite breathtaking. Once again sorry for not having a picture.

The inside of the dome is equally amazing. The shape is more ovular, so it doesn't quite fit a baseball field very well, but the seats we had were still pretty good. It has one giant screen that has all the player information and such on it, and plenty of stands and drink stalls to satisfy any need. Once we sat down, the real fun started (duh).

The away team fans were 2 sections away from us, and were quite rowdy whereas the home team fans were rather subdued for the moment. The away team fans had brought flags, trumpets, drums, megaphones, and anything else you could think of to wave in the air. It was quite a spectacle. They cheered endlessly while their team was at bat, but the ham fighters were pretty good, so they didn't get a single hit in the first inning.

However, as soon as the fighters got the 3rd out, all of the ham fighters fans stood up and began to sing, dance, and wave around their flags. And they continued to do this until they got 3 outs and it went to the top of the second, but not before the fighters got 3 runs in.

Then it was the away fan's turn again to cheer and chant all of their player specific songs and things, it was pretty funny. But they didn't get any runs and were struck out quickly.

Bottom of the second, the fighters scored 5 runs, so it was then 8-0. Pretty good game eh?

The marines managed to get a run in the top of the third, but that was the last point they scored. the final scored ended up being 11-1, and the Ham fighters clinched their division. Not bad for a 20 dollar ticket i think.