Red Sox in Japan

Evan and I were lucky enough to be able to go to Tokyo to see the two Red Sox games against the A's. It was great. It is not a short flight; about 6 hours. Basically, door to door it is an all day proposition. Monday and Thursday were travel days, so we had Tuesday and Wednesday in Tokyo. The games were each night and during the day we managed to get around a bit. Tokyo is quite a bit different than Singapore because English is not so widely spoken. Still, with the help of the hotel, we found our way around on the subway and also were able to eat at some good restaurants.

On Tuesday, we made our way over to the Wellington Tokyo office to pick up the tickets. The office is right next to the Imperial Palace and after getting the tickets we went over to the palace grounds. It was really nice with some amazing stone walls - the biggest I have seen - see the pictures. Also, the highlight was seeing Mike Timlin and his family. He was nice enough to pose for a picture with Evan.

After the Imperial Palace, we went over to the Tokyo Dome. We spent a few hours outside the dome where they have an amusement park, a mall and souvenir stores. The roller coaster had an amazingly steep drop and both Evan and I declined to try it. The game that night was really good. Red Sox fans were everywhere. Most of the Japanese favored the Red Sox because of Dice-K, so it felt like a home game! Manny had a big night including admiring a long double (barely) off the top of the wall for a full 2-3 seconds before beginning to run. The Sox won in extra innings.

There was a big pre-game show with traditional Japanese dancing. There was one point where Youk was doing his running and stretching in the middle of the ceremony. I got it on video and have tried to post it here, but could not. I also posted it on youtube. If you search under "Youk" or "jedpetty", you should be able to find it. Also, the beer girls were great. They carry mini kegs in a backpack and pour your beer right at your seat when you order it. There were multiple girls selling different brands of beer and they were all dressed in the appropriate uniform.

On Wednesday, we went to the Meiji Shrine, which is the most important shrine in Tokyo. It is part of a huge park with amazing grounds. At the shrine, we were lucky to see a wedding ceremony with some traditional dress. Check out the pictures. Later is was back to the dome for game two, which was underwhelming. It was a bit boring and the Sox lost. Still, the atmosphere was special.

As for food, we had some great sushi and tempura. I also bought this street food which I think was basically a seafood cake. It was quite tasty.

We will post a few sets of pictures to try to show you all we have explained here.