An American Sunday: Baseball, Beers + BBQ

We love a good American afternoon!

We started our afternoon at the Yokohama Stadium ...

cheering on our Japanese home team ... the DENA Baystars 

and having a beer!

And we finished our evening with delicious BBQ and locally brewed beer at Bashamichi Taproom.

Japanese Baseball - Game 2

During J.'s "summer break" we found ourselves on a train headed to Yokohama to cheer on the DeNA Baystars once again!  

It was a night game, so we stopped by Bashamichi Taproom on our way to the game.  And, once again, it did not disappoint!

I like Belgian beers so I opted to try their seasonal Belgian

We also feasted on BBQ Pizza, Brisket sandwiches, Pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and potato wedges.  I've been to the Taproom three times now and have never been disappointed!  If you have a large group, you might want to make a reservation.  The staff is English speaking so reservations are not hard to make!

And then we were off to the game!

Better seats this time

Fans

More fans

They had a bubble half-time show ... this was the best shot I could get with my iPhone

We bought "first come, first serve" tickets so we changed seats mid-way through the game

We think it was one of the last regular season games ... it was "Star Night."

Everyone received a blue glow stick on the way into the game ... after the game, everyone broke theirs and was waving them around (even though the DeNA Baystars lost).  Sometimes, the language barrier can be frustrating ... I would have liked to know what they were doing!

The crowd with their glow sticks

Take 2

I think the regular season is over now, we will have to find out if the DeNA Baystars made it to the play-offs!  If not, I guess we are done with baseball until the spring!

Japanese Baseball - Game 1

Or J. Ball as we like to call it. 

J. Ball is modeled after American Baseball - there are only a few small differences:

(1)  Tie games are allowed in Japan. 

(2)  There is a limit on the number of extra innings that can be played.

(3)  There are also small differences between the size of the baseballs used and the size of the baseball diamonds.  

There is also a major difference in the fans!  The Japanese are very serious baseball fans.  And polite.  Much more polite than American baseball fans.  They only cheer when their team is up to bat, they have cheers and chants that they use and the entire stadium joins, and they do not boo or taunt the opposing team when they are up to bat.

We went to our first game before J. left on deployment.  Our "home team" is the Yokohama DeNA Baystars.  We decided on the Baystars because Yokohama is the closest major city to us.  So, Baystar fans it was!

Yokohama Stadium

We had a small language barrier issue ... we bought standing room only seats thinking that those were the only tickets available.  Not actually the case.  They sell different types of tickets at each ticket window, so we made a note of that for our next J-Ball adventure!

I love this pitching sequence:

 #1

#2

#3

Fans

Chu-Hi Girl!

All of the beer and Chu-Hi girls wore these neon outfits ... makes them very easy to find!  They also had several girls assigned to each section so they came around fairly often.

Most of the fan had these bats that they hit together during the chants

Mr. B. + Asahi Girl

Mr. B. + J. + Asahi/Chu-Hi Girl

Me + J.

Me + the snacks Mr. B. brought back for me ... slivered almonds and dried fish.  YUM!

The chant leader ... he led the fans in all of their chants/cheers

I had to take a video of the chants/cheers that the fans do while their team is up to bat.  I just can't get over how coordinated they are - it's impressive!

After the ball game, we went to Bashamichi Taproom - a local brewery and American BBQ joint.  It was delicious and I highly recommend it to anyone in Yokohama who needs some American comfort food!

Weekend Recap!

Happy Monday Friends!

I hope that you all had a great weekend.  J. was in Iwo Jima last weekend and is getting ready to head off on another deployment (yes, again) so we tried to pack as much as we could into the end of last week and this past weekend!

Wednesday night we tried a French restaurant in Zama that had good reviews - La Brasserie chez-Ichisugi.  It was expensive, but definitely lived up to the hype.  J. and I shared a tomato and avocado salad, the pizza of the day and the gorgonzola pasta.  It was amazing and I can't wait to go back.

Afterwards, we had our first Mr. Donut experience.

Chocolate bear and chocolate donut.

So cute.

And then J.'s friends introduced us to a whiskey bar around the corner.  I don't drink whiskey, so I had a sparking wine:

I loved the atmosphere of this little bar.

And then we introduced them to Kamikaze's, home of the best white russian ever:

Thursday night we had a big group dinner at one of our favorite sushi restaurants, Takezushi.  Our neighbors introduced us to this hidden gem and we love it.  The owner & sushi chef lived in America for a few years when he was younger, so he speaks pretty good English and is easy to communicate with.  His wife does not speak much English, but she likes to hang around and listen to the English conversations.  They are both so nice and we love going over there!  

Our group eating yummy sushi!

Friday, J. did a lot of packing, organizing and buying last minute items for the deployment.  Friday night, we tried Mike's Tex Mex.  It is run by a retired Navy CPO, but we didn't see him there.  They had really good margaritas, so we tried a few flavors and indulged in some fried Mexican goodness.  We finished out the night at the O Club.

Saturday, J. finished packing and we headed down to Yokosuka to load his stuff onto the boat.  J. will be flying a jet on instead of walking onto the boat - meaning I get a few extra days with him :).  There isn't much room in the jet to bring stuff with you, so we had to take his stuff down and load it ourselves.  I was actually REALLY excited to go to Yokosuka, because it's a bigger base, it has a better Navy Exchange and there is a Chili's on the base.  We spent a few hours on the boat (I took lots of pictures but that's going to be a post of its own!) and then headed over to the Exchange.  I am SO jealous of the people who live in Yokosuka!  They have so many more American food options on their base (like Sbarro and a REAL STARBUCKS!), their Exchange was SO nice and they have the Chili's.  Not to mention that the entire base has a water view.  It was gorgeous.

The Exchange was having a 20% customer appreciation sale, so J. and I stocked up while we were down there.  That is the most shopping I've done since I arrived here and it felt good!  Haha.  I got some new running shoes, workout tops, Rainbow flip flops and Smashbox make-up.  I'd also like to point out that the Yokosuka Exchange had a Victoria's Secret in it, carried designer jeans, had an entire room devoted to shoes and a separate building with sporting goods equipment and workout apparel.  I foresee frequent trips to Yokosuka in my future :)

We had dinner at Chili's (of course) before heading back to Atsugi.

I finally got my cheeseburger :)

Sunday, I got up early so I could break in my new running shoes :) That afternoon, we headed over to Yokohama to catch the Yokohama Dena Baystars v. Chiba Lotte Marines baseball game!  This also is deserving of its own post, but I'll leave you with a picture:

I hope you enjoyed your weekends!