Kicking the bucket...list: Days 26 and 27 - Swinging with two strikes

 

やった！

You don't have to be a baseball fan to understand the meaning behind "three strikes and you're out!", but in my case it was certainly relevant. I've been to many professional baseball games in Japan ranging from Sendai 仙台 to Hiroshima 広島 but the holy grail of Japanese ballparks, Kōshien Stadium 阪神甲子園球場 (home ground of the Hanshin Tigers 阪神タイガース, akin in aura to Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, and site of the spring and summer high school baseball tournaments), had proved to be elusive. My first crack at attending a game there was supposed to have been in the summer of 2020 but I think we all remember what happened at that time. Strike two occurred in the summer of 2023, when I had tickets for my daughter and me to see a game at Koshien, but the weather had other ideas (even though the anticipated heavy rain never progressed beyond a light drizzle). One more chance remained on the penultimate day of this particular Japan trip but first I would have to get to Nishinomiya 西宮 from Kinosaki Onsen 城崎温泉, where I had spent my next-to-last night in the country. 

Breakfast in my room at Sinonomesou しののめ荘:

As noted in my previous post there are seven public hot spring bathhouses in Kinosaki Onsen and dedicated onsen lovers will make an effort to have a soak in all of them during their stay. Not having the same level of otaku commitment I was content with relaxing in the bath at my inn. However, as my hotel gave each guest a pass to use at three of the 外湯, I concluded it would be a damn shame not to check out at least one of them, so following breakfast, clad in a yukata, I walked to Ichi-no-yu 一の湯, the closest of the seven to Sinonomesou, where I partook of the two main baths there, including an outdoor one created to resemble a cave.

After bathing I cooled down with a complimentary bottle of fresh milk, and reminded myself that life can indeed be quite good at times:

Outside the Ichi-no-yu Onsen, recharged and ready to face the day. If only I could do this every morning before heading to the office:

There wasn't much left to do in Kinosaki Onsen except to kill time by walking the streets again. It was another unseasonably hot morning during what was supposed to be the early stages of the rainy season, so at one point I tried to escape the heat with an iced caramel latte:

Eventually it was time to leave Kinosaki Onsen and return to Ōsaka 大阪, where my journey would end twenty-seven days after it had begun there. I had enjoyed my overnight in the hot springs town, but to be honest onsens are even more enjoybable when traveling with a partner, family or group of friends. That said, I still plan on visiting hot springs on future trips even if I'm traveling solo, and that shouldn't stop you, either:

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My lunch on the Kounotori こうのとり limited express train consisted of a Tajima beef yakiniku ekiben, plus a local craft beer...:

...plus some manjū 饅頭 for dessert, washed down with another 地ビール. And this, kids, is how one should travel in Japan:

The weather was hot but the sky was clear, auguring well for a game as I checked into the Hotel Hewitt Koshien ホテルヒューイット甲子園 (located just a few minutes on foot from Koshien Stadium) at around 15:00. But, facing two strikes, Fate threw a curveball. I had purchased my ticket from StubHub and arranged to have it delivered to the hotel in the days before my arrival (I even notified the hotel to expect the delivery). But the staff couldn't find it even though the tracking indicated it had arrived around the end of May. I called Stub Hub's English line and confirmed the ducat had been delivered back on May 30. Perhaps because of all the temples I had visited on my drive around Shikoku 四国 I told myself it was only a material item that would prove meaningless in the grander scheme, but eventually the ticket was found and brought to my room. Game on!: 

My seat at Koshien Stadium, with a Shōta Morishita 森下翔太 fan in front:

Pregame cheerleading:

This person added some personal touches to their Yūsuke Ōyama 大山悠輔 jersey:

The first pitch of the game:

The Tigers opponet for this game was the Chiba Lotte Marines 千葉ロッテマリーンズ. The Marines had a small but enthusiastic ōendan 応援団 cheering section present, soundking much like the fans attending a Premier League soccer game:

The Sun begins to set over Nishinomiya:

The Tigers oendan. It's these cheering sections, with their orchestrated chants, blaring horns and beating drums that more than anything else set the Japanese game of yakyū 野球 apart from its American counterpart: 

Too many ballparks in Japan are covered by domed roofs, lurking above artifical turf surfaces. Koshien stubbornly clings to natural grass played in the open air, the way the kami 神 intended the sport of ベースボール to be:

The only drawback for me was the lack of a chair back on my seat, which meant my oshiri お尻 was feeling pretty uncomfortable from around the sixth inning on:

One of the many beer girls patrolling the stands. I desperately wanted a photo of one of these women in action but at the same time didn't want to come off as a スケベ外人 while going about doing so. I suppose I could've just called one over to order another drink and then ask for consent, but I didn't want to have to get up and find a bathroom after downing yet another brew:

An end of game selfie:

The final score was Hanshin 2 - Chiba Lotte 0. Here is a strangely translated game report (with the wrong date) written from the perspective of a Lotte fan, plus a link to the box score: 

Leaving the ballpark after the contest:

So unlike Mighty Casey* I didn't strike out. Koshien doesn't have quite the retro charm of a Fenway or a Wrigley, but on the other hand there's an almost spiritual aura to the ballpark, thanks to a combinaton of the epic sagas of the high school championships played there, and the seemingly endless futile struggles of the hometown Tigers. Much like the Cubs and the Red Sox, Hanshin has been seemingly cursed for the most of its history, losing out time and time again to the hated Yomiuri Giants 読売ジャイアンツ (Japan's answer to the Evil Empire, aka the New York Yankees), with only a single Japan Series championship in 1985. But fate has been kind to the Tigers in recent years - they won their second championship in 2023 (beating their crosstown Osaka rivals the Orix Buffaloes オリックス・バファローズ in the proces), and lost in six games to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 福岡ソフトバンクホークス last year. And as I write this, the Hanshin Tigers have repeated as Central League セ・リーグ champions. Here's wishing them well in the upcoming playoffs.

On my final morning in country I had some time to kill before I needed to get to Kansai International Airport 関西国際空港 so I went for a walk around the neighborhood. Here's the local Lawson ローソン:

Gene Bacque, who in 1964 became the first foreign player to win the Eiji Sawamura Award 沢村栄治賞, Japan's version of the Cy Young Award: 

Randy Bass, hero of the Tigers' 1985 championship run, though his playing career with Hanshin ended prematurely amid some unpleasant circumstances: 

I was pleasantly surprised to come across the baseball-related Koshien Susano'o Jinja 甲子園素盞雄神社 just outside the stadium: 

A plaque honoring Tigers legend Tomoaki Kanemoto 金本知憲:

And a plaque commemorating another legend, Babe Ruth. The Babe created quite a stir in 1934 when he visited Japan as part of a touring team of Major League all-stars, a trip that did much to foster goodwill between the U.S. and Japan (at least temporarily), and helped to cement baseball's popularity in the latter:

All good things must come to an end, and so it was time to travel to the airport for the flight back to Beijing 北京:

And there you have it - 27 days spent exploring new areas in a land that has meant so much to me over a span going back to my college days in the mid-late 1980s. During that nearly month-long exursion, I visited two prefecutres (Tokushima-ken 徳島県 and Kōchi-ken 高知県) for the first time, placing me tantalizingly close to stepping foot in all 47 prefectures. But there was more to this trip than just checking off bucket-list destinations. I'm not a religious person, and I'm not going to declare myself to be "spiritual" either. But as I approach the mandatory retirement age, with a host of maladies that have unfortunately made their presences felt in recent years, there was more to the visits I made at a significant handful of the 88 temples along the Shikoku pilgrimage 四国八十八箇所 than just the standard photos and souvenir purchases. At each of the fourteen temples I visited I made time to repeat a simple mantra, one in which I asked for nothing from the kami, but instead expressed my gratitude for what I do have, along with a promise to try and better myself as a person. Traveling around Shikoku I felt better both mentally and physically in ways I haven't in quite some time, though unfortunately many of the same issues returned once back in China. 

Most of all this trip demonstrated I possessed the confidence needed to undertake a solo journey such as this. Japan occupies a unique place in my psyche - still foreign enough to remind me I am and will always be an outsider, but at the same time familiar enough that for virtually the entire time I was there I didn't feel I was "abroad". It's extremely unlikely that I will ever return to live in Japan, but there are still itineraries I plan on completing before I eventually go forth into the great void. After all, Ibaraki-ken 茨城県 still awaits!

Thank you for coming along on this series! 

ビールの売り子:

*If you need some brushing up on your Americana:

This year's summer Koshien high school baseball championship, won by Okinawa Shōgaku High School 沖縄尚学高等学校・附属中学校:

Kicking the bucket...list: Day 25 - Castles and Onsens. What could be more Japanese?

The White Heron Castle

I awoke in the morning of my twenty-fifth day in Japan to find myself back on the main island of Honshū 本州, after having spent the past three weeks exploring the island of Shikoku 四国 in what could be best described as the crossing off of an item on the travel bucket list. This day (well, technically, the late afternoon before) would also be a return to the second-largest city in Hyōgo Prefecture 兵庫県 following of absence of 35 years. A long, long time ago, in a Japan of a different era, I embarked on my first lengthy trip of the country. In the summer of 1990, with my girlfriend Rumi along for the ride, I made my way from Tōkyō 東京 to Saga Prefecture 佐賀県 and back, stopping in the Izu Peninsula 伊豆半島, Ise 伊勢, Kyōto 京都, Kotohira 琴平 and Hiroshima 広島 while en route. My reasoning at the time was the assumption I would eventually be leaving the country to get on with my life, and that this would be my one opportunity to see a large chunk of the country before that occurred. But life had other things in mind.

It was so long ago that I can't remember if it was going from Kyoto to Kotohira, or from Hakata Station 博多駅 to Kyoto, but either way somewhere along the way the two of us stopped long enough in Himeji 姫路 to visit its main claim to fame, Himeji-jō 姫路城, unarguably Japan's finest surviving castle. It was a time when foreigners like myself were relatively scarce outside of Tokyo and Kyoto. It was also a time when I may not have fully appreciated the architectural magnificence of the castle and the history behind it. A return visit, therefore, was long overdue, and this time I would have plenty of gaijin 外人 groupies to accompany me as I headed to the UNESCO World Heritage Site on a hot, muggy morning following breakfast at my hotel:

Approaching the  45 meter/148 foo -high main keep. Though a castle has stood on this site since 1333, what visitors see today is a reconstruction of a 1580 structure that was completed in 1609 (though there have been more modern renovations in the 1960s and between 2009 and 2015), making it one of only a dozen original castles still standing in Japan. Himeiji-jo's white-plaster facade is the reason the castle is nicknamed Shirasagi-jō 白鷺城 (White Egret Castle). A system of moats and defensive walls encircles the five-story main keep and three smaller keeps. What stands today survived the tumult of the end of the Sengoku period 戦国時代, not to mention the bombing of Himeji during World War II (one firebomb landed on the roof but failed to explode) and the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake 阪神・淡路大震災:

If the castle looks familiar it's probably because of its having been extensively featured in tourist literature and social media posts, not to mention appearances in a couple of Akira Kurosawa 黒澤明 films (Seven Samurai 七人の侍 in 1954 and Ran 乱 in 1985). It even served as the setting of a ninja 忍者  training school in 1967's James Bond outing, You Only Live Twice:

There are two main areas for visitors to explore. I began with the Hon-maru 本丸 (the inner citadel), which is dominated by the Daitenshū 大天守, the classic central donjon. On the way there my attention was briefly drawn to the Tile of the Cross 十字紋の鬼瓦, explained in the photo below:

Notable defensive features of the castle include its high stone walls, the nearly 1000 arrow and gun notches, and the zigzag approach to the main keep, which was designed to funnel attackers into narrow corridors where death would rain down from above:

There are seven levels within the central donjon, with special features indicated by bilingual signs:

Naturally there were great views of the city from the top level:

Shachihoko 鯱 on the castle roof:

Back outside in the heat, though seeing as the donjon's interior lacked any air conditioning, being indoors didn't provide much relief:

It can't be disputed that Himeji-jo is Japan's most photogenic castle, though Matsumoto-jō 松本城 (my personal favorite) comes in at a close second:

The other main area of the castle complex is the Nishi no Maru 西の丸 (western citadel), which served as the residence of the daimyō 大名 and his family (the central donjon was only used during times of war). The only remnants of the original palace are the West Bailey Long Gallery (240 meters/787 feet) and the Keshō-yagura 化粧櫓 (Ornamental Tower), where Princess Sen 千姫 (Tokugawa Ieyasu's 徳川家康 granddaughter) rested and relaxed:

A history lesson:

A Sama shooting hole:

While looking out one of the windows I noticed there were at least four cormorants sitting on the branches of this tree:

Hagoita 羽子板, wooden paddles used to hit shuttlecocks in a traditional New Year's game called hanetsuki 羽根突き:

A final look at the castle, resplendent in its architectural glory:

Next to the castle is Kōko-en 好古園, a modern recreation (finished in 1992) of an Edo period 江戸時代 samurai residence, with nine connected stroll gardens, a central koi-filled pond, teahouse and kaiseki 懐石 restaurant:

In desperate need of air conditioning, after visiting Himeji-jo I retreated to a cafe next to my hotel, where in addition to the pancake treat below I also had a soft cream cone:

And with all that sugar coursing through my veins, I left Himeji on the Hamakaze はまかぜ limited express train, heading to Kinosaki Onsen 城崎温泉:

I'd first intended on visiting Kinosaki Onsen two years ago, when I took my daughter on a similar extended excursion (also 27 days in length) in Japan, making our way from Tokyo to Ōsaka 大阪. However, our plan to stay in the hot spring resort had to be canceled when heavy rains left us stranded for a couple of days in Tottori 鳥取. So on this trip I stubbornly added one more day to the itinerary so I could make it to the onsen 温泉. Checking into the Kinosaki Onsen Sinonomesou 城崎温泉しののめ荘 I was assigned a tatami room large enough for half a dozen people:

After dropping off my things, it was time to explore. Located in the northern part of Hyogo-ken, Kinosaki Onsen is the most well-known hot springs resort town in the Kansai region 関西地方. According to legend the onsen was discovered 1400 years ago by an injured kō (oriental white stork), which healed its wounds in a natural hot spring there. Nowadays visitors come in part to relieve digestive diseases, skin conditions and muscle and joint pain in the calcium, chloride and sodium-rich waters. Or because it's romantic to don yukata 浴衣and geta 下駄, and stroll the streets between visiting the bathhouses: 

Kani カニ (crab) from the waters of the nearby Sea of Japan 日本海 is a popular dish in town:

The willow tree-lined canal looked especially charming as the daylight faded (see below):

Taking a break with a glass of Kinosaki Blend ice coffee:

This foot bath was one of several in the onsen:

Back at the hotel I enjoyed two of these local brews, one with dinner and the other after my evening bath (in-house):

Speaking of dinner. Not pictured below is the tofu soup, bowl of rice and fruit dessert which came after this photo had been taken:

When in Rome, so after dinner I took a stroll in a gaijin-sized yukata (traditional geta tend to painfully chafe around the big toes so I stuck with my trusty sandals). The presence of so many foreigners in addition to mysef in town begged the question of why there were so many of us here. I'd been aware of Kinosaki Onsen for ages, but in recent years guidebooks like Lonely Planet seemed to have amplified the hype:

The Ichi no Yu 一の湯 public bath. There are seven of these soto-yu 外湯 in Kinosaki Onsen, all clustered in an area of about one kilometer. The Sinonomesou provided me with a pass that could be used at three of them. However, I was content on the first night with just bathing at my hotel:

The next morning I would be more adventurous. Stay tuned as the next blog post finally wraps up this most recent visit to Japan. じゃまた!