2019 Japan Trip - Day 8 & 9 - Sick Day & Rain Day

Day 8 - Another Sick Day

The cold I’ve been carrying with me across this country is still with me.  As of Day 8, a pattern had already started to emerge.  The day after I did “something,” go to a ballgame, heavy sightseeing, I’d wake up the next morning so tired and wrung out that I would stay in and around the hotel while my travel partner, William, went off by himself.  The most I would do would be to walk around the neighbor, take a picture or two, to keep the numbers on my Fitbit up.  

Here is a photo of the Domino’s Pizza I tweeted about at the time.  You’ll notice the banner over the entrance saying,, “American Classic.  Carry Out Everyday.  M¥799.”  

This caught my attention because it’s a topic on which I’ve waxed poetic about with my fellow Japanophiles numerous times, which is what I see as the odd nature of Japanese pizza.  

I am going to stipulate up front that pizza is a very personal choice.  Everyone has their own idea of what a perfect pizza is.  My preference is for a thin crust, hand-tossed at most, skinny and crispy is my most requested.  Red tomato sauce and cheese, which means mozzarella and parmesan.  NO VEGGIES, with the sole exception of pineapple on what most people call a “Hawaiian Style,” with ham and pineapple, which I assert is a “dessert pizza,” one you eat after the main pizza.  My favorite topping, far and away, is pepperoni.  

So…  What’s my problem with Japanese pizzas?  Here’s an example from a restaurant window that I spotted a few days later: 

That is a hardboiled egg and shrimp pizza.  A HARDBOILED EGG and SHRIMP pizza.  No matter times I think about it or say it out loud, it doesn’t make sense to me.  There are other things I find unappealing about this pizza, there are numerous slices of yellow and red bell pepper, olives scattered all about, some circular toppings that look like calamari…  Maybe…  Along with some white chunks that look almost like daicon, a type of Japanese turnip.  

When I first came to Japan in 2007, I tried Japanese pizza.  It was an experiment in the same vein as going to seen a Japanese baseball game.  It was experiencing something I felt I knew from long years of experience, and by trying their version of something I enjoyed back home I would learn something about the people and culture. 

What I learned is that the Japanese people have a passion for baseball that exceeds what the average American fan of the sport has.  And, they just don’t get pizza.  

In addition to some of the toppings on the example above, seafood pizza is one of the favored types in this country, there other things that I see as mistakes (again, strictly from my point of view) is a tendency to go very, very light on the sauce, and to add a hatch-work pattern of garlic mayonnaise.  It’s the same type of mayonnaise that they’ll use on takoyaki, dough-balls stuffed with grilled octopus.  I love takoyaki.  And I enjoy the garlic mayonnaise on takoyaki.  I just don’t think it belongs on pizza.  

You’ll understand the thrill I felt when, intrigued enough to go in this Domino’s and order a medium American Classic, that it was constructed like a pizza back home.  AND that I could order it with pepperoni!  Back in 2007 I couldn’t find a pizzeria in Japan that even knew what pepperoni was.  Even on this trip, when I’ve asked, most places that sell pizza still don’t know the topping.  

I don’t know if the American Classic will take off.  Obviously, there is something different in the mindset between America and Japan as to what “good pizza” means.  I wish Domino’s all the best and hope that they convert enough of the population to have the American Classic available I next come back to the country.  

Election Season

In front of just about ever train station I walked through, I spotted them.  A group of people with a table and placards and signs.  One of them standing in front, talking through a bullhorn.  Others handing out leaflets at the periphery to whomever would take them.  Most of the people hurrying by, ignoring them as they they went to and from wherever it was they had to go. 

It’s election season in Japan.

My impression is that elections are not that big a deal here.  Certainly not as big a deal as they are back home.  The news back home is chuck full of political news.  With good reason, given the nature of the candidates and issues.  

Not so much here.  Flipping through the channels, I see very few news stories that I could categorize as political in nature.  It’s a subjective standard, based on my meager knowledge of the language and the images presented.  There has been only one time when I saw something that I was certain had a political context

“Faway’s mask will be removed.  The Strategy for Dealing with China and the Prime Minister.”  

Who is “Faway” or “Fawei,” I don’t know.  Nor can I figure out his connection to Prime Minister Abe and/or Steve Bannon.  But this stands out as the most strident media item I’ve seen in its presentation.  By the looks of it, I get the feeling it’s something like Japan’s version of the National Inquirer.  

Day 9 - Rained Out Game

This was the day I was going to move one stadium closer to my goal of seeing a baseball game in every Japanese professional baseball stadium.  I had tickets to see the Orix Buffaloes play the Chiba Lotte Marines at ZoZo Stadium in Chiba.  Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.  There were three games threatened by rain this day.  I Osaka, Hiroshima and Chiba.  Rain cleared up before the Osaka and Hiroshima games, but not in Chiba.  The rain started in the morning and was still going strong an hour before the game’s schedule start.  All I got was this picture of a wet ZoZo Stadium surrounded by its empty parking lot.

The Asia Championship series is one run between the national champions of the professional leagues of several Asian nations, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia.  The Lotte Marines won the NPB and Asia Championships in 2005.

There was a game tomorrow, but I had a flight to Sapporo to catch to see a baseball game there.  So all I could do was get a refund for my tickets, have dinner, and head on back to the hotel.  That, and try to figure out if there would be some way to make up the missing game before I left Japan.