So it must have been well over a decade since I’ve been to a baseball game in Toronto. I honesty can’t remember the last time I willingly sat through nine innings to watch any team play. For the Jays at least, their glory years were back in the early 90′s when they won a back-to-back World Series championships. Since then I haven’t followed MLB at all.

With that being said, it seemed like a completely new experience for me when I visited the Rogers Centre to watch the Jays vs. Rangers game. I didn’t expect to see so many fans decked out in Blue Jays gear. I showed some team spirit too, since I bought a homemade uchiwa to the game. The only thing is, I was cheering for the opposite team. LOL.

Actually, my main reason for going to the game was to see Darvish Yu pitch against the Jays. Since the Jays didn’t manage to acquire him from the trade, the next best thing was to catch him while the Rangers visited Toronto. So last week I bought three tickets so my sister, my friend K and I could go to the game together. HOWEVER, I found out the day after I had purchased tickets that the Rangers decided to switch their pitching rotation. This meant Darvish would end up pitching a day earlier. (T___T)

After a slight panic, we ended up buying an extra set of tickets for Monday’s game. It was a bit of a bummer since I couldn’t get refunds for Tuesday’s tickets, but at least we wouldn’t miss seeing him in action.

So Monday afternoon, I rushed out of work and headed downtown. Because it was raining, traffic was pretty much at a standstill the entire way to Toronto. Luckily I made it to Union just before 7pm, then K and I made a quick dash towards the Rogers Centre. The only mistake I made was not going to the washroom before taking our seats, because we ended up sitting smack in the centre of the row. Hehe.

The Rangers were up to bat first as many late arrivers continued to trickle in. Once the first half was over, Darvish finally stepped onto the mount. I was waving my uchiwa madly as he did a couple of practice throws, but most of the fans around us were completely disinterested. Darvish started off pitching really well against the Jays. Everytime he struck out a player, K and I would cheer. Everyone else in our section was completely silent. We seriously thought we would get beat up by all the guys sitting around us! Haha. The Rangers scored early on, but the Jays looked like they were starting to catch up. At one point in time a fly ball headed towards our section. Because I’m such a scaredy-cat I quickly ducked underneath my uchiwa as a natural reflex. K had a good laugh at my expense. Hehe.

It wasn’t until 7th inning that the game began to stall. By then the Jays had pulled out their starting pitcher. The new pitcher promptly gave up two home runs, which meant he was pulled out too. Rangers ended up leading 4 to 1. A few fans started leaving afterwards. It was actually better for us, since the row in front of us cleared out. Darvish stopped pitching after the seventh inning, so a reliever was there to finish the game.

After the bottom of the 8th, a few Blue Jays cheerleaders came to our section and started tossing out free baseball caps to the fans. Everyone was jumping up and down trying to catch a hat. Since I was waving my uchiwa around, one of the girls spotted me and tossed a hat in my direction. The hat ended up bouncing off my head and got snatched by the guy sitting a few seats down. I was so mad!!

Anyway, after a couple more strikeouts in the 9th inning, the game was officially over. Rangers had won 4 to 1. Everyone started to clear out afterwards. We decided to walk over to the visitor’s dugout to see if we could catch a fleeting glimpse of Darvish up close. There were quite a few Japanese fans who gathered by the dugout. However, it seemed like Darvish was long gone. So after taking a photo together, we ended up leaving too.

The game itself was actually a lot of fun. We had a great view from 1st base. Since Darvish pitches right, the view was certainly worth it. *Cough cough* The Rangers play again in Toronto in August. If Darvish pitches again, hopefully I’ll be able to go. =)

With the petals starting to fall at High Park this week, I was lucky to have made it down last week to see the cherry trees while they were in full bloom. The cherry blossoms came a few weeks earlier this year after a much milder winter. Last week was my first time visiting High Park after many years of living in Canada. I still remember going to Kariya Park last year with my mom to see the cherry blossoms in the garden. However, the trees at High Park almost puts the ones at Kariya Park to shame.

I’m not sure what the tradition is in Toronto for hanami, but when I went most people were taking walks along the path admiring the blossoms. In Japan, surely all the good picnic spots would have been taken and people would be having full fledge parties in the park. Unfortunately for us, it’s illegal to drink in public places in Toronto. =P

It was also Toshi’s first visit to the park. It was a bit of a long ride in the car for him, but I think he really enjoyed taking an early evening stroll amidst the sakura trees. Even though the bloom is short lived, it still has the power to bring people together.

The holidays went by so fast this year! I was off all of last week from my full time job. So with a few sporadic shifts at the library, I pretty much had the entire week free. Aside from eating too much turkey on Christmas Day, I did make time to meet up with friends over the break.

Last Tuesday I took Eri-chan out to watch Disney On Ice. That was the only thing I could think of that would keep me indoors on chilly afternoon in Toronto. LOL. Actually the show was a lot better than I thought. Eri and I had to walk from Union Station towards the Rogers Centre. Of course, with only one box office gate open, it meant we had to walk halfway around the perimeter of the Rogers Centre before we could collect our tickets. Once we made it inside, we had some time to browse through the overpriced concession stands with all the Disney memorabilia. The price of my ticket was equivalent to one bag of popcorn, a shaved ice drink in a commemorative cup, and a bag of cotton candy with a souvenir Mickey crown. (>.<;)

However, the show itself was worth what I paid for. We had pretty decent seats facing the centre of the ice rink and it was really entertaining throughout. They started off with songs from Aladdin and by the time it ended there were at least 20 genies on the ice. I also really liked the Disney Princesses as well as the 'It's a Small World' segment. They also covered Mulan, which I had watched a million times as a kid. The only segment I hated was Nemo. There's something really creepy about fish sprouting legs.

After the performance we walked back towards Union Station. It was raining outside, so Eri and I ducked inside a restaurant to grab a late lunch. I introduced her to funnel cake for the first time. =)

For the second of my day trips to Toronto, I took Tomomi and her friend Hiromi out to Casa Loma. Thursday was by far the coldest day of the year and it was snowing steadily throughout the day. For both of them it was their first winter in Canada, so I felt bad that we had to do so much walking outside. I was wearing four layers already, with tights underneath my jeans. I’m not sure how they managed to get by in the cold!

After meeting both of them at the station, we took a short walk towards Casa Loma, which used to be the estate of a very wealthy Canadian named Sir Henry Pellatt. The castle was built in the Gothic style, complete with secret passageways, a billiards room, a conservatory and a great hall. (Sounds like the boardgame Clue!) Casa Loma used to be one of the largest personal residences in Canada until Sir Henry had to vacate it after WWI when he was left practically penniless. The castle was later turned into a museum and made open to the public.

It was my first time being back at Casa Loma since my elementary school days. I honestly couldn’t remember anything about the castle. Once we paid the admission at the front, we headed downstairs to the basement where we got fitted with headphones. Then we were off to explore the many floors of the house. We first went to the stables and the plotting shed, which was connected by an underground passage. Later we toured the ground floor, then went up to the bedrooms and the tower. The spiral staircase got me really dizzy, but it certainly made it feel like a castle!

After touring for a little over two hours, it was nearing closing time. We dropped off our headsets, then made our way back to Dupont Station. We took the subway over to College as we’d be having dinner at an izakaya nearby.

At first when we got to Guu around 5:30pm, I thought we had already beat the dinner rush. Unfortunately, looks were quite deceiving as we were informed that the waiting time would be around an hour. However, it meant that we had time to visit the new Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens, which was a block away. Loblaws is a huge supermarket chain in Canada and it recently opened a new store at the venue where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play. They renovated the entire arena and it is by far one of the most gorgeous supermarkets in Toronto. (Almost like the entire floor of a depachika.) There’s an entire wall that is completely devoted to cheese, a market-style food court and a mural made of the seats taken from the original arena. It’s one of the nicest supermarket I have been to in Canada. =)

Hiromi and I ended up getting a soup from the self serve counters. Poor Hiromi was probably freezing from being outdoors for so long! She needed something to warm herself up. After browsing for about 45 minutes, it was time to head back to the restaurant. We ended up waiting for another 15 minutes by the heated patio before we got to our table. It was great eating at an izakaya with Japanese friends because they always introduce me to new food that I won’t order on my own. After filling our tummies, we had to brace the cold again as we walked towards Yonge Street. We were meeting Andrea and her friends for karaoke!

(Food shots don’t look as appetizing when you take them with a camera phone. Sorry!)

Karaoke is so much fun when people know how to sing the same songs as you. Actually, Tomomi was a little embarrassed that we knew to sing more songs than she did. LOL. Andrea introduced me to her friends Ken, Elaine and Hiro. It was fun sharing the mic with everyone. Someone drank a little too much, while other people just had too low tolerance for alcohol. Hehe. I had tons of fun during the holidays. Time to focus on 2012. Akeome! =)