Day 1

Its 12:30 a.m. here at the hotel in Tokyo after the game. We just saw Big Papi and Jonathan Papelbon in the lobby in our way back to our room! The Red Sox beat the Yomiuri Giants 9-2. J.D. Drew hit a grand slam, and Jed Lowrie had a homer, too. Its great that they won, but they could have lost and it would have been just as fun. Its so cool to be here in Tokyo watching baseball!
We were cheering for the Giants, too. They have good pitching. One pitcher, Utsumi, struck out 5 Red Sox players in a row. Rui bought us "megaphones", which are baseball-shaped, hollowed plastic with orange Giants logos all over them. You bang them together and make some noise!!! We were trying to bang them to the tunes of the Giant's cheering section's tunes. The cheering section was in right field. They were wearing orange and playing music and cheering loud for their team. They have a unique tune for each player.
Hideki Okajima made his return to the Tokyo Dome, where he played with the Giants before coming to the Red Sox. The fans went WILD! Cameras were flashing with every pitch. We met up with Bob Breidenbach, the Providence Journal photographer, and got our picture taken with him.



There were Japanese Red Sox fans and American Giants fans. I even met a Red Sox fan from Newport, of all places in the WORLD!
As far as ballpark food goes, there was a variety available, American and Japanese. Greg had a burger and some weird-looking french fries (more like potato balls), and I ate a salad that I bought at a grocery store outside of the park. They actually let you bring food in!
Greg thought the guys at home would appreciate the beer girls. Girls were literally walking around with kegs strapped on their backs.
Rui took us to a Noodle place for lunch. Between the noodles on the plane ride yesterday and the vat-o-noodles I had for lunch, I've had my fill.
Earlier in the day, we went to Yoyogi Park, where all the cool kids hang out. We saw 50's greaser-type guys with big hair just hanging out, looking like a cool blast from the past. And we saw a bunch of bands all set up around the park, playing their rock music through equipment powered by generators. It was a crazy scene. Very fun!