Batting cage and Dr. Pepper

There were a couple other articles that I wanted to do before this one, but I cannot do them yet because of summer vacation. I've been meaning to do one about the 'interesting' names of some of the Japanese beverages (but I have not taken enough pictures yet) also I wanted to one about the difference in the drinking culture of the U.S. and Japan (did you know that Nagoya University has it's own brand of beer that it sells on campus at the cafe?). But, I will have to do them later.

About the basketball tournament...Well, we lost the first game. The reason is because everyone wanted to run down the court and shoot a 3 pointer instead of trying to drive to the basket. I know of a play that could have torn that team apart (it would have been so easy). The team wasn't really that good, but I was also really tired before the game began (for reasons that I don't understand). There were pictures taken at the game, but they haven't been posted yet (I'll post them later if I remeber).

Anyways, the sputtering machine (which I need to do experiments with) was down yesterday and I had nothing to do, so some friends and I went to the batting cages (I had to force them). We went to a batting cage that I had never been to. There is a better batting cage in Aratamabashi. It's newer and more convenient than the batting cage in Ueda (the one that I use to go to). I was batting pretty well that day. I batted at the fastest speed, of course, which in Japan happens to be 135Km/hr. I think that is some where around 80miles/hour. It was pretty fun. I hit the home run sign several times (although I don't think that the balls would have actually of been home runs). I posted a video of my last two swings in the cage (one of which happend to be one of the balls that I hit that hit the home run sign...although that's not in the video). I have never posted a video before, so I don't know if it will work.

Two of my friends (Fausto and Celso-both from Brazil) went to the cage with me. Celso has played a little baseball before and he has gone to the cages with me a couple times, but it was Faustos first time to ever do this. He chose the slowest speed after he couldn't hit in the 120km/hr cage. It was funny because after he stepped into the cage (that was throwing really slow) there was a little child that stepped in line behind him (and the little child had to wait for hime to finish)...I was telling Fausto before that that was a childs speed (I posted a picture of it below). That being said, I think for his first time he improved a lot. He corrected his stance to where it looked normal and then at the end was at least hitting most of the balls (even if they were slow).

I remeber complaining before that I couldn't find Dr. Pepper anywhere in Nagoya (but I eventually found it at Village Vanguard...which is very inconvenient to go to). Then I reported that I found Dr. Pepper in Tokyo at the vending machines everywhere. Well, I guess somebody heard my complain and sent Dr. Pepper this way because recently I have been able to find it all over Nagoya. I went to the Family Mart (a convenience store) nere my friends apartment in Sakurayama and there was Dr. Pepper! Then, the other day when we went to the batting cages, we stopped at a 99yen store (a dolar store) to get a drink before we go to the cages and there was Dr. Pepper! I have been walking into random stores and finding Dr. Pepper (so that is good). One thing to note is that Dr. Pepper in Japan is bottled by Coca Cola (which is strange, because it's recipe is suppose to be a closely guarded secret) and also that the mascot on the bottle is different than in the U.S. (Peggy Pepper in the U.S.). I posted a picture so that you can see.

I went to the Coop (the store on campus that has various purposes) and looked at the places to travel in Japan (for my up coming trip...I still haven't decided where to go yet), when a sign caught my eye (the picture of the sign is posted below). If you can't read it, I will translate the part that pertains to what I'm talking about.

Look at the top yellow part where it say 70,000 yen. It's advertising a round trip ticket to the United States (America refurs only to the United States in Japan). Below in small katakana (one of the character writing systems in Japan) is says "New York, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Toronto. Last time I checked, Toronto still belongs to Canada. But, later I noticed another sign that said that Egypt was in Europe (I didn't take a picture), so I assume that mistakes like these are common. It made me smile a little.

Not much else going on right now. The sputtering system is still down, so I have not done anything in a while. I am going over my old undergraduate textbooks to keep my memory fresh. My internship starts on the 10th, but I have not started to prepare or anything. One of my friends, Paul from Equador, returned to Japan from from Equador today (I'm expecting Omiage-a gift from his home country that he is suppose to give everyone when he takes a trip). My friend Celso (Brazil) leaves for New York on the 4th. And my friend from Hungary has a birthday party on the 2nd of September (we are having a BBQ on that day). I have not decided where to go yet (but people have been giving me ideas, so I will consider them later).

That's all for now. Now quotes today. Thanks for reading. See you around.