SBC Park

I don't know how many Baseball fans are out there, but I had the opportunity to watch my 1st SF Giants game at SBC Park. I never knew such a beautiful ballpark can be made. It's like if there was a ballpark for god, SBC would be it. Even though it's not a domed stadium, whenever you feel like buying yourself hotdogs or drinks, it's like you are inside a shopping center.

I took many pictures of the SBC Park, and began to realize how much I miss SF Giants baseball. I've been a Giants fan for almost 25 years, but never experiened watching a Giants game in SBC. Back then, I used to go watch Giants game at Candlestick Park or whatever they call it now. Back when I was in Jr. High School, I partcipated in throwing beer bottles at the LA Dodgers. Not the fans, but the players. In the 80's it was very common for pitchers to intentionally pluck hitters and go back and forth. Then players gets pissed and started to charge at the mound it's like a giant dog pile. The game gets delayed for another 30 minutes and it wasn't easy to break up the fight. A Giant pitcher plucked a Dodger hitter, and went back and forth. Giant fans wanted to protect their Giants so we all began to throw beer bottles at the Dodgers. Some Dodger players were very upset at us. The game delayed for more than an hour, those were the good old day. After that game, MLB established a new rule for bottled drinks.

Back in 93 (the 1st year with Barry Bonds), the Giants had a free baseball giveaway for the 1st 30,000 fans to enter in Candlestick. I think it was the Atlanta Braves game. One day, the umpire made a very bad call against the Giants. The fans weren't happy, and began to throw their free baseball at the umpire. The game was delayed for an hour, I guess they stop giving out free baseballs after that incident. The field was covered with baseballs. It was really fun to be there and watch.

Now when you watch a baseball game at SBC, things have been a lot more mellow. You don't see players throwing things on the field. Just fans waiting to see Barry Bonds hit one out in the Bay. The way that ballpark was built, it was built for Barry Bonds. You see people chasing after every homers he hit. Unfortunately when I was at the game, Barry Bonds was injured. My father said he saw Barry hit 2 HRs in the Bay, that would have been cool to watch.

I forgot to mention, back when I was a student at USC, I had some time to go down to Dodger Stadium and wear my SF Giants hat at the game. It was fun being hated by Dodger fans. For the 1st time, I was at a stadium where I was watching a Giants game from the visitors side. It felt wonderful being hated.

Buying a TV in Japan

This morning my grandmother's TV set just died. OK, it is currently half dead. I can see the bottom half, but can't see the top half.

So I had no choice, but to buy a TV set. I wanted to buy a TV set off this one friend, but he had no idea whether or not he will leave Japan. I thought my grandmother's TV will last for another year, but I was wrong.

The bad sign became when the TV went yellow, then a couple months later I can only see half a screen. I couldn't see the top screen, but I was able to see the bottom. I call it a tease and it was. I realize it was time to buy a new TV set. I wanted to wait, because the flat pannel TVs are currently expensive and I wanted to wait until it gets more affordable. Currently, the cheapest flat screen TV cost around Y200,000 or $2000US and that was for a 20 inch screen.

I wanted at least 25-30 inch and I wanted to spend less than $500US. So I decided to go shopping at Akihabara or any electronic store. Why wasn't I surprised? In Japan, it will be a miracle if you find the old tube screen TV. 95% of the TVs sold in Japan are either LCD, Plasma, Liquid Crystal TVs.

There was no way I plan to spend Y200,000 or $2000US for a 20 inch. So I went shopping all over Akihabara and eventually found a 30 inch TV for less than $500US. My grandmother is happy because she was worried that she might had to spend over $1000US for a new TV set. The tube screen TVs are slowly disappearing like dinosaurs so I was extremely lucky to find a tube screen TV set.

Before I left San Francisco, my sister and her boyfriend bought a 70 inch plasma TV. Can you imagine watching Star Wars on that TV set. I asked my sister to be patient, but I guess she and her boyfriend desperately wanted a giant TV set so they bought it for over $10,000US. I watched USC football game on that TV and it was awesome. I also watched Star Wars and Downfall on that TV screen. In Japan, it's impossible to buy such a big TV set because of the limited space. I guess that's another thing I miss about America.

The TV shows in Japan just sucks. They have the most pathetic ESPN. It's hard to watch anything good in Japan. If you want to watch MLB, you will mostly see a NY Yankees (Hideki Matsui) or Seattle Mariners (Ichiro Suzuki) game. I am a SF Giants fan and it's tough for me to watch any Giants game. I once took the MLB package, but quit afterwards, because 3 of the channels have either the Mariners or Yankees game on 3 different channels. There was no point buying the MLB package. You can forget about watching college football. In Japan, all you see is Sumo wrestling, K1, WWW, Japanese baseball or Yankee/Mariners game.

Not much to choose from...