Can you really tell how bad acting is when you can't even understand what's being said?
I only thought of this because I have this project for Japanese class where we find something in Japanese culture that we don't fully understand and write about it. I totally knew what I would write about right away. Softbank has these commercials with the White Plan family. It's a typical Japanese family, but the father is a dog and the older brother is actually black.
You can find all the commercials here:http://www.youtube.com/user/otousansoftbank
and some translated here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Tsuresu#p/c/7F7A7163B0342110/0/eBkufs9zLWI
I love these commercials.
I might have lied about the weather before. I'm not actually sure if it rained Saturday or not. I only got out of the apartment to go party and it wasn't raining then. I do know that there was a baseball game canceled that day, but that might have just been a precaution. So instead of Saturday, Game 1 of the Soukeisen was playing on Sunday instead. 33,000 people went to watch the bi-annual meeting of Waseda vs. Keio in Jingu Stadium.
The series is called 早慶戦 - Soukeisen. The name takes the first characters from the names of both schools; it's basically translated Waseda Keio Battle. The games have been played since 1905 and have even been the topic of movies. By and large, Waseda usually wins the contest and it seemed especially likely this year. The current pitching staff is one of the most talented in history with three of their pitchers becoming 1st round draft picks in the Japanese pro league.
The draft for the NPB works in an interesting way. All of the teams get to select who they want as their number one draft pick. This year six of the 12 teams selected Ohishi, Waseda's closer, and four selected Saito, the ace starter. The next step is that those six and four teams respectively draw lots to determine who gets the rights to sign the player.
The outcome of this televised lottery drawing was that Ohishi will sign with the Seibu Lions and Saito with the Nippon Ham Fighters. After this step, the remaining teams who did not get their first choice select again, and if there are additional conflicts, there are additional lotteries. At the end of the first round, Waseda's Fukui ended up with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Ohishi and Saito are pretty much superstars. I think baseball fans have more respect for Ohishi and his ridiculous closing ability. Supposedly, every time he's started a game though, it has been miserable. Saito is a bit of a heart-throb and is called ハンカチ王子 - Handkerchief Prince by the press. Apparently he got this nickname in high school because he would always wipe himself with a handkerchief on the mound.
Saito started game 1 on the Soukeisen and managed 2 runs in 7 innings. Ohishi pitched two shutout innings and Waseda lost the game with no run support at all. Keio 2 - Waseda 0. I had intended to go to the second game so that after Waseda won the series, I could join the parade that goes all the way back to campus...Game 2 was today and Fukui was the starter. He gave up four runs in three innings before Ohishi had to take over for him. Ohishi gave up another two runs before the stretch. Final score: Keio 7 - Waseda 1.
So, I am kicking myself for waiting for Game 3. I missed a once in a life opportunity to watch a legendary Japanese sports event in an attempt to time the parade drinking party afterward.
By some crazy set of circumstances, the plot gets thicker. Keio came into this series 6-4, and Waseda was 8-2. After the Souseiken, the teams are tied at the top of the league at 8-4. Hosei is also 8-4, but I suppose there are some tie-breakers that dictate that they are actually in third place. As a result, Waseda and Keio will start playing each other on Wednesday for the league championship.
It's like I was granted a second chance. I won't be missing those games, and I'll take real pictures instead of stealing them from the internet. Let's get some runs!
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