SATURDAY - TOKYO 
XEROX SUPER CUP, BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

Inside the Ryōgoku Kokugikan, a sumo wrestling arena, is a sumo museum. Trouble is that it was closed for a week. Oh well.
On the outside are some paintings of big fat wrestlers.
What else would big fat wrestlers wear than big giant diapers?
Unlike the model of the old Japanese bookstore in the museum, this is a real one. And it looks pretty old too, though not quite Edo period.
I wanted to take in some sporting event on the trip. Baseball season didn't start for a while and I missed the start of the J.League soccer season by one week. However, the week before the season kicks off, they hold the Xerox Super Cup. It is held between the previous season's league champion and Emperor's Cup winner. Last year the Kashima Antlers won the double (both trophies were on display at the stadium) , so they would play in the Super Cup against the Emperor's Cup runners-up, Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
I didn't really know where I was supposed to sit because the ticket was all in Japanese and I wasn't familiar with the layout of the stadium. I ended up walking all the way around before I got to my section.
From the concourse of the stadium, I could see one of those Japanese driving ranges where golfers are on different levels of a structure firing balls into a giant net.
I had bought a ticket in the Antlers end of the stadium because they were the favorites. I bought a Kashima scarf for my collection at home.
The Kashima end was full of supporters clad in red. Kashima is located in Ibaraki prefecture which is not too far away from Tokyo.

Click here for video of the Kashima supporters singing and clapping.
There weren't quite as many Sanfrecce supporters on the other side of the stadium, but it is a longer trip for them from Hiroshima to Tokyo. On top of that, the club was relegated from the first division at the end of the prior season and will play second division soccer in 2008.
Before kickoff, the Kashima fans unfurled giant banners over the stands. Here we are underneath one of them.
The National Stadium was the home of the 1964 Summer Olympic Games.


The end zones were fairly crowded, but the seats along the sidelines were not as full.
There were no goals scored in the first half. In fact, this was one of the strangest games I've seen in my 30+ years of watching soccer. There were two ejections in the first half. The second half started with two quick Kashima goals. There were two other Kashima goals in the game that were disallowed due to offside calls. Then Hiroshima was awarded a penalty kick which they converted. However, the referee ordered it retaken as the Antlers goalkeeper came off his line early. Hiroshima scored on the retry. Then a late Sanfrecce goal tied the game and regulation finished 2-2. The match was decided on penalties.
That guy with the megaphone directed the Kashima supporters in their songs and chants. Also a pretty good demonstration of the zoom on my new camera.
Okay, as if the match itself wasn't interesting enough, the penalty shootout was the icing on the crazy cake. Kashima took the first kick and after the first round the score was even 1-1. Kashima scored their second try and Hiroshima's second attempt was saved. But wait! The official on the line flagged the keeper again for coming off his line before the spot kick was taken. The Sanfrecce re-kick was made and the score was tied again at 2-2. Kashima missed their next two kicks badly and Hiroshima scored one of their next two, so going into the final round Hiroshima led 3-2. Kashima scored a needed penalty on their fifth try and had to have a save in the bottom of the fifth to force extra kicks. Amazingly enough the Antlers keeper saved that fifth kick. This is the photo of that save.
But I said this was the strangest game I'd ever seen. What do you think happened on that last save? Yep, the keeper came off his line. You can see how far in that last photo. Believe it or not, for the third time a Sanfrecce penalty kick was retaken. This is a photo of the resulting winning goal. Sanfrecce Hiroshima scored the upset over favored Kashima Antlers in penalties 3-2.
The Hiroshima side was jubilant in the win. I imagine it took a little of the edge off the coming season to be spent in the Japanese second division.
But the Kashima supporters were not happy with the result. About a couple dozen of them overran the barricades and stormed toward the field. Security prevented anything bad from happening.
And there is the victorious team with the cup.
The late finish of the soccer match meant I got to the Tokyo Dome a little later than I wanted.
Next to Gate 21 is the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Since I don't really know much about Japanese baseball, I sort of gravitated to the things I was familiar with. This is the uniform of home run champion Sadaharu Oh.
He hit 868 home runs over his long career. This plaque was created when he broke Henry Aaron's career record.
An old promotional poster from one of the tours of Japan by the American major leaguers.
You can't read the signatures on the photo, but some of the famous ball players are Jimmy Foxx, Babe Ruth, Charlie Gehringer and manager Connie Mack.
Here are the plaques of all the people inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Again, the only name I knew was this guy.
These four are the Hall of Famers inducted in the new century category, whatever that means. The second and forth guys are Americans Horace Wilson and Frank O'Doul.
The Chicago White Sox must have visited Japan sometime between 1976 and 1981. That is when they wore these wonderfully horrible old uniforms.
He's not in the Hall of Fame yet, but he will be someday. This is the Orix BlueWave uniform of...
...current Seattle Mariner star Ichiro Suzuki.


There are two major leagues in Japanese baseball, but there are only six teams in each league. The team of the Central League are:
Yokohama BayStars, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Chunichi Dragons, Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Hanshin Tigers


The teams of the Pacific League are:
Chiba Lotte Marines, Seibu Lions, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, Orix Buffaloes
There are amusement park rides in the area called Tokyo Dome City.
Weird looking young Japanese people were hanging around the area.
I didn't really eat a lot of Japanese food. Not because I didn't want to (although some of it looked a bit odd), but because it was just a little difficult. I went to this English Pub for dinner.
Fish and chips and a half pint of Guinness. How Asian can you get?
Another thing I like to photograph is foreign grocery stores. Here is a wide variety of Japanese fruit and vegetable juices.

TO HAKONE