After sleeping for about 12 hours, we awoke for our first full day in Japan. It took us a while to get going, so we did a little bit of laundry in the bathroom sink and tried to figure out what we wanted to do.

We were both still a little tired from all the plane travel, so we didn't want to do a ton of walking. We decided to try and figure out the subway so that we could go and see a Japanese professional baseball game between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the Hiroshima Carp at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo. It was only about a 40-minute trip (including the walk, the subway ride and a quick bite to eat a Tokyo McDonalds), but it took us a little bit longer as we got on the wrong subway line for one-stop and had to backtrack to get on the right train. Apparently I need to slow down a little and not rush ahead so much, or so my wife tells me.

Once we got the subway figured out and got on the right train, it was only a short ride to the stop near the stadium. The stadium is divided into two sides, one of the home supporters and one for the supporters of the visitors. We decided to sit on the home supporters side (Jingu Stadium is the Swallows field) and bought two tickets down the first baseline. Since we had a while to kill before the game, we decided to explore the surrounding area and came upon a group of ball diamonds where there was a baseball tournament going on. The players were all in full uniforms but were clearly recreational level players who were using a rubber baseball (most likely due to the fact that the diamonds all backed onto each other and the outfielders from one diamond were almost at the infields of the other diamonds, but with their backs to the play!).

On our way back to the stadium, I bought a nice Yakult Swallow's hat to wear to the game and we picked up a nice hot bowl of kaburi-don (shredded pork and rice) to have for lunch in our seats. The stadium was only about half full, but the two outfield sections were packed. One side was clearly where the fans cheering for the visiting Hiroshima team were, and the other side was the Swallow's hardcore fans. These fans never stopped cheering, singing, and playing musical instruments when their team was up to bat. It had the atmosphere of a European football match, as opposed to a North American baseball game. It made for a very interesting experience, even though it began to rain just as the game started. The rain didn't get heavy until about the 5th inning, but the game never stopped and the Swallows got out of a jam in the top of the 9th to hold on to a 3-2 win.

After an uneventful subway trip back to the hotel, we had just enough time to freshen up before meeting up with our tour group. Following some brief introductions, we headed out for our welcome dinner. On the way there, our tour guide pointed out some interesting sites, like Shimbashi, where the businessmen gather to drink and the large anime clock designed by the famous anime director Hayao Miyazaki.

We then made our way to a fantastic Japanese restaurant on the 42nd floor of an office tower on the Tokyo waterfront. It was a traditional Japanese meal of 9 separate courses including items like raw scallops and bonito, cooked octopus, vegetable soup, asparagus puree. It ended with some cherries on ice and green tea ice cream that Christine liked so much she ate mine as well.

A short walk back to the hotel brought our day to an end, but the tour starts in full tomorrow so we will be getting a good night's sleep tonight so we are ready.