Almost Back to School

Flying back to the 'Herst in a couple of days so I'm pretty excited. I've pretty much decided to start saving up for a Hanshin Tigers cap for once I go back to Japan in the spring. I'm also hoping that post graduation will bring a move to San Francisco or somewhere else in The Bay, which in turn will mean I'll just have to pick up a Giants cap (what can you do eh?).

Spent a large part of the day lazing around and looking through various uniforms from the Korean and Taiwanese baseball leagues and came across the fact that New Era is now producing fitteds for the Korean Baseball Organization. Very Cool. Sadly, none of the hats are particularly...how should I say this...endearing?

*Note: Korean teams, as their counterparts in Japan and Taiwan, tend to be named for their sponsor company rather than the city they represent.

LG Twins

(This is probably my favorite out of all of the KBO caps and it's starting to grow on me a little. I'm actually thinking about seeing if I can find one somewhere... [They're based in Seoul]).

KIA Tigers

Doosan Bears

Lotte Giants

Samsung Lions

Hanwha Eagles
SK Wyverns

Woori Heroes

(I remember the last time I was in Korea, someone was nice enough to take me to a baseball game (If I remember correctly it was a match between the LG Twins and the Hyundai Unicorns [Now the Woori Heroes] and I just remember being tickled to death that anyone would name their team the "Unicorns". I was consequently dissapointed at the lack of utterly hilarious merchandise and now I guess the opportunity has since passed as they've changed their name.)

Goodbye Unicorns :[

Also found this picture of an old Samsung Lions uniform floating around the internet...I have to say that I'm quite fond of it.

All in all, the summer's been quite kind to me. Home, DC, Tokyo, San Francisco...I'd say I had a pretty satisfying run.

It all comes to an end...

Long time not substantial post.

Let's have a go at this now then...shall we?

There's a little over six days until I officially get on a plane back to school. Should be very exciting to see faces I haven't seen in what seems like ages and quite frankly (although this sentence may in the end prove to be a run on) my life here at home has been somewhat less than satisfactory although ultimately I am probably the main root of that complication (it doesn't help though that I've been relegated to living in the guest room).

Overall the summer's been pretty amazing. It's had its ups and downs, and I've done some things that I'm less than proud of, but the experience in general has been fantastic.

I'm quite happy with the state of things.

The Royal Tenembaums

huh?

Oh hello! :]

Returning for the cure

Went back to Tokyo for a week this summer...did some fun things.


Got to see this guy, a giant Gundam statue they erected up over at Odaiba...emits steam and moves its head and everything. Pretty cool.


I also visited a hat store...or course right? They had some interesting pieces that I guess you'd only find in Japan...likeee this funny little guy here.

Pretty much did the standard temple hopping too:

The great Buddha of Kamakura

Over at Hasedera, part of the temple was filled with these amazingly cute little statues...

Not quite sure what they were, but I'm assuming monks?

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu...apparently a fairly important Shinto shrine. We happened to stumble upon it in the middle of the Bonburi festival. They had all these nice paper lanterns up...there was also some sort of prayer or ceremony going on...I had no idea. Perhaps it was linked to the festival?

Here's a view of Yokohama from the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.

We also went to two AMAZING baseball games:

Chunichi Dragons vs. the Yokohama Baystars:

Yoimuri Giants vs. Yakult Swallows. (Both teams are Tokyo based)

It's a bit different in Asia as a lot of times teams will sport the names of their sponsors instead of or before the cities that the represent.

Some of the logos were pretty similar to what teams in the U.S. have...I guess you can only warp letters in so many ways huh?

Take for instance, the Chunichi Dragons' cap:

Is it just me or is this basically the Padres' cap with a C?



Haha, kind of amusing.

The Yomiuri Giants cap also looks like the NY Yankees and SF Giants logos had a love child.




My favorite cap definitely has to be that of the Hanshin Tigers...which also seems to have quite the interesting history...



Anyways, time to shirk off this jetlag. Farewell.

花盆 - 로브홀릭

멀리서 멀리서 멀리서
그대가 오네요
이 떨리는 마음을 어떻게 말해야 하나요

그댄 처음부터 나의 마음을 빼앗고
나을 수 없는 病을 내게 주었죠
花盆이 될래요나는 늘 祈禱 하죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 볼 수 있겠죠

멀리도 멀리도 멀리도
그대가 가네요.
떨어지는 눈물을 어떻게 달래야 하나요

그댄 처음부터 나의 마음을 가졌고
나을 수 없는 病을 앓게 한 거죠
花盆이 되고픈 나는 늘 祈禱하죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대의 얼굴
限없이 볼 수 있겠죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 바라 볼 테죠

난 그대 작은 窓가에
花盆이 될께요
아무 말 못해도 바랄 수 없어도

가끔 그대의 微笑와 손길을 받으며
잠든 그대 얼굴 限없이 바라 볼 테죠

東京

東京に帰りました!

I'm back in Tokyo pursuing my trivial (aka shallow) pursuits...which mostly means I'll be hopping from hospital to hospital hoping that some (preferably English speaking) doctor will prescribe me my medicine (which I can confidently say is starting to work in ways that I never expected it to...perhaps as the result of low expectations?...or perhaps as the result of my mother's zealous cycles through her rosary.)

On the side I hope to do terribly inconsequential things such as check out the giant Gundam statue they've just built up at Odaiba and maybe check out some of the fitted stores they have 'round here.

Let's see how much of this language I even remember.