Yamanote Train Party/ Baseball

So the weekend before Halloween there is a tradition in Tokyo that all the Gaijin (Foreigners) get together and ride the Yamanote train that circles Tokyo. So this past Saturday that’s exactly what happened. Apparently this is tolerated by the Japanese train operators, but basically it’s maybe a hundred Gaijin or so, in full costume, drinking and partying. I met up with everyone a little late, but I eventually found the train—it was pretty funny.

As the train pulls up to the station, all the Japanese people are waiting to board like it’s any other train. But then all these drunk white guys, stuck their heads out the windows of the train (I don’t know how the lowered the windows, maybe the just removed them) and started yelling “GAIJIN RULE! GAIJIN RULE” which startled a few Japanese people and gave them another reason to hate foreigners. As the doors opened, a few dozen costumed Gaijin ran from car to car to “switch it up” and I happened to see my friends so I jumped in with them. Once inside it was the sweatiest, Smelliest cramped train car ever. That’s one thing I forgot—gaijin smell bad. At least in the super-cramped trains on the way to work, none of the Japanese business men smell like “Axe” and B.O.

Anyway, everyone was holding a drink and some guy yelled for everyone to take out the light bulbs, and make it a “Night Train” so everyone did. Now the inside is completely dark and we pull up to the next stop and everyone repeats the yelling and car-switching. All in all it was pretty funny; it was also a little embarrassing but I guess people do this every year. I could only stand about 20 minutes of it, so after that I went home. It was about midnight anyway, so I felt it was time.

The huge baseball series was this weekend between Waseda and Keio. I’ve been trying to figure out an apt comparison in American college sports—maybe like Harvard/Yale football, but with both schools actually being top ranked sports programs and not just academic. Maybe like Cal/Stanford, but again, with a little better sports programs. I guess it is kind of like Florida vs. Florida St. but instead the two school are two top ranked academic institutions in addition to being good at sports. Anyway, you get the idea—good teams and good schools. The game was televised, so I watched it from my dorm. I don’t know why I didn’t actually go, that probably would have been better.

So the reason all the students like these games in addition to the school pride, competition, ect, is because there’s a potential to miss school. The first game was Saturday, so all classes after 1^st period were canceled. I still went to class because I had skipped Thursday’s class and didn’t want to miss two in a row, but with only one period of class, spend three hours traveling to and from school for an hour and a half of class time. Stupid commute. Anyway, they played game two on Sunday, (Keio won Saturday, and Waseda hit a homer in the bottom of the 9^th to tie, and another homer in the bottom of the 12^th to win). As my friend from Language School who is studying at Waseda sent me jeering emails, I replied now we all get Monday off, so it’s really a win-win.

So I was all set to skip Monday classes because the series was tied, and I was very relieved because I had a presentation for a Monday class. But someone reminded me that if it rains, theycouldn't play the game, so we would have to go to school. There’s even a hotline you call to see if the game is postponed or not. I got word this morning that school was canceled and have happily spent the day not commuting. And because I didn’t go to class last Thursday, I have been to one period of class between Thursday and Tuesday. This is giving me a nice little break from class, and with my trip to Kyoto at the end of the week, by the time I get back into the routine, I think I’ll be mentally recharged, and ready to attack the remainder of the semester.