Yesterday morning on my way to work I decided to stop at this Tonkotsu Ramen place I always wanted to try. I walk in, and being the only foreigner to possibly ever set foot in the place everyone looks up at me in shock, mind you the were mostly older salarymen. So I sit down and oreder a beer and a ramen and I look up to see what everyone is watching on tv. It was the
US vs Japan softball game at the Olympics.
So I figured, ahh what the hell, root for the girls from back home. It was a good game. It was 0-0 all the way to the end with the Japanese girl, Takayama, throwing a no-hitter; and the American girl, Osterman, throwing a one hitter through all 7 innings of regulation. I start chatting in Japanese with a few of the salarymen who are telling me how good the pitcher from Japan is and how America has no chance.
Then the 8th inning (first extra inning) started. In softball the rule is during extra innings a runner is put on 2nd base. So with the girl standing on second base and obviously no hits or walks got her there all of my fellow salarymen softball fans and myself are confused. I only learned this was the rule after listeneing to the Japanese announcers explaining the rule. So then there is a bunt and the girl is on third. I cheer wildly and the salarymen get a look of worry on their faces.
Then came up this girl Jung for the US. She fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch. Also, the first 3 balls she took looked to be strikes, they missed by a hair or less. Now all of us are on the edge of our seats. With every pitch she fouls off we each get a bit more nervous. No more can you hear the sound of people slurping up their ramen, no lighters clicking, no talking, no ramen being made, nothing but groan after groan as pitch after pitch is fouled off. Then she fouled a pitch right next to the third baseman. As she ranged over you could tell she was fighting off the sun, right as the ball got to her she snapped at it too early and missed it entirely. She dropped it!! Hooray!! The at bat continued. I let out a sigh of relief and all the salarymen shook their heads at the misfortune that would most certainly bring to the team.
Then the next pitch came, foul ball again! She continued to torture us by fouling off every next pitch she saw until she finally took one pitch. I was sure she struck out, but no! She walked!! Again I cheer, all the salarymen shake their heads. One yells out at the shitty play of the third baseman haha. That at bat sucked me into the game. Then it happened, as things often do in Japan.
The studio announcers came on and annnounced they were going to switch to te beginning of a volleyball game between Japan and Italy. The entire ramen shop went into mutiny. We all screamed at the TV in our discontent. How could they possibly do this?? It is almost as bad as when CBS shut off the end of the Superbowl to show the ovie Heidi!!! Who does that?? WHY!?!?!
Then they showed the volley ball for a while, everyone went back to slurping their ramen and we all chatted about the game and how mad we were we could not see the finish. Then a miracle happened.
The game came back on. We all went back to our previous state of silent torture. The next batter came up and promptly hit a fly ball to centerfield. That girl who started the inning on 2nd base ran home like her life depended on it. YES!!! A run!! US 1 - Japan 0. We had our first run before we had our first hit. It was actually quite amusing. Then the whole store got really focused. Meaning, they focused all their attention on the celebrating gaijin and gave me looks of disdain. As the US tacked on two more runs I slurped my ramen and choked my beer down as fast as I could. Bowed to my fellow softball fans, paid for my food, and ran.
Watching the Olympics abroad is a great experience. My Nigerian boss was rooting for the Nigerian Women's BB team to beat Japan. The game went all the way down to the wire with some ape looking girl from Japan hitting a shot from way out to win it. I cheered for Japan all the way. He just gave me the finger and laughed haha.
As the US one two gold medals in swimming last night and I cheered louder someone reminded me that they lost to Puerto Rico in basketball. I looked at them and said "America owns Puerto Rico, we won that game either way." He sat down and drank his beer hahaha. It's great though. During the synchronized high dive (or whatever you call it) everyone in the bar was watching. How often do you see Americans, Nigerians, Polish, Russians, Japanese, a guy from Senegal, two Koreans, Chinese, etc watching that and critiquing who was better? It was a scene I'll probably never see again. That is what tje olympics truely are about. Bringing different cultures together without bias for just a little bit of time in the tradition of sport. It should be like this all of the time.
USA USA USA!!!!!!!
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