After a private invite and discovering upon arriving that I'm the only foreigner to be playing at these special events I felt pretty lucky to make my way from Tokyo out to a far end of Chiba (about 75km away from my place). The group of about 15 players (on the game organizers private bus) met with me in the heart of Shinjuku early yesterday (September the 11th, 2010) early at about 7:30am and quicky boarded the bus.
It was an hour and a half trip on the highway out of Tokyo, heading North-East along the coastal highway, passing by sites such as Love Hotel Alley (with nearly 150 love hotels in a ten square block radius), Tokyo Disney Land and Disney Sea and other shopping venues popular these days (Ikea, MAX Shopping, JAV Factory).
Once we arrived, I was quickly whisked away to one corner of the staging area and upon passing through most others, it was as if someone farted loudly in the middle of a family member's wake. Conversations stopped. People quit loading their magazines and I felt nearly 100 pairs of eyes staring. Upon turning around and saying loudly that 'it was a pleasure to meet everyone, let's do our best and play hard, I am Chris from Canada, not American!', everyone's eyes lit up with smiles and I was warmly welcomed.
On the bus with a few of the players, on our way to the game.
Almost there!
.... umm... is this the field?
Just another 3/4 of a km!
