Ambling around the Gwanghwamun area this evening, I came across a large display of photos from the Korean War, at the top of the Changyechang stream. One of these photos really appealed to me- a shot of refugees crossing a frozen Han river, fleeing from the North Koreans. I managed to track it down on the net:
The caption: Refugees streaming across the frozen Han River on the ice as they flee southward before the advancing tide of Red Chinese and North Korea Communists. Shattered bridges are shown in the background.
How empty the banks look compared to todays Seoul- and how amazing it is that people could walk on the Han during winter! I’m sure today it doesn’t completely freeze over.
Anyway, if you’re in Seoul, the collection of photos is definitely worth checking out. My time in Seoul, and Korea, is drawing to a close- and it’ll be good to see a few more new things (as well as go to a few more baseball games) before returning to the UK, where this blog will probably continue.
Yahoo.co.jp’s Iphone service gives excellent summaries of all NPB games, and is a great way to practice (and learn more) Japanese. Having not seen the games, I got my reports from this site.
The first game, on friday had the following report:
“In a high-scoring game that had 31 hits in total, the All-Central team emerged victorious 10-8. Chasing 5 runs at the top of the 8th, Kyojin’s Ramirez and Yokohama’s Uchikawa hit timely two abse hits to help lift the score by 4 pounts. With the game drawing to a close and the All-Central team 1 point behind, Yakult’s Aoki got a two run hit to secure a turnaround success for the Central League Team”.
“The All-Pacific line up hit four home runs to beat the All-Central line up, meaning this All-Star series finished with both teams on 1 victory. 1 behind in the 5th, Lotte’s Saburo’s solo homer drew the scores, before Softbank’s Matsunaka hit his second consecutive 2 run homer in the 6th to secure the victory. In was because of these hits that Matsunaka secured the 2nd game’s MVP award.”
Daido Moriyama, or stevesayskanpai? I Moriyama-d up a few pictures I took at Tsukiji Market, Tokyo a while ago- let me know what you think. Incidentally, its amazing how many photos I have stored away that I’ve never properly finished up and put on the net- if they’re not in “Best” folders, I tend to leave them alone, but I took a hell of a lot of pictures in Japan. Here are some of them- “Moriyama-d” to the max…
Hanshin updates are becoming sparser and sparser on this blog, I know. There are many reasons for this, but don’t doubt that I still check the scores every day and watch as many games as I can. In fact, over the weekend I was fortunate enough to see one full game, and bits of another game in our series vs Kyojin on Korean TV.
Friday- Meltdown in the Ninth
I saw the last few innings of this game. With Kyojin leading 1-0 going into the ninth, up stepped this happy character, Ochi Daisuke, to close. While not the three home runs in a row I posted a few days ago, his meltdown wasn’t far off that! It started with Arai hitting to first. Then Toritani stepped up, and smacked the first pitch he faced into the raito sutando for a 2-run homer, and a 2-1 lead to the Tigers. Things only got better from here on in – Kanoh got a base hit, that turned into a two-baser after an error, and then Lin slammed another ball into the stands for a 4-1 lead. To top things off, even when Kyojin changed pitchers to Michael, we still had the last word- a great hit by that bubbly character Katsuragi to give Tigers an unassailable 5-1 lead. Fujikawa closed out.
Sunday – A Narrow Victory
I missed the run in the 10th- I only got to see the first 4 innings or so, but it was clear this one could go the distance, with Nohmi on top of his game, unfortunately not getting the win for himself due to Hanshin not making the most of their hits. It remained 0-0 into the enchou, until Kanoh was driven in by Aniki off a wobbling Kroon, with Fujikawa getting the best of the closer-battle.
I should add for completeness that we lost on the saturday, and that we lost on monday- to Yakult, while yesterday’s game was rained off. Tonight is our final game vs the Swallows, and then there will be a break until next tuesday, as the All Star Games take place on Friday and Saturday- sadly this year there are zero Hanshin players included, but I’ll probably blog something about it (the All Star Games are Central League vs Pacific League).
Dark days for Hanshin, so let’s take a trip back in time. This is from the 1985 season- three backscreen home runs- in a row! First up is legend Randy Bass, then Makihara (?), and finally a young Okada senshuu- with possibly the nicest hit of them all. Fantastic stuff!
***Don’t Read If You Don’t Want To Know Key Plot Points From The Wire***
I should start by saying that the Film Challenge will be delayed for a week or two, as I’m off to Jeju for the long weekend. Jeju is an island to the south of the Korean peninsula, and is a getaway for many a Seoulite during the summer months. Anyway- more of that another time.
Now that I’m finally on the cusp of finishing TV show The Wire, I wanted to blog a bit about it. …continue reading>>>
I saw the last few innings of this game. With Kyojin leading 1-0 going into the ninth, up stepped this happy character, Ochi Daisuke, to close. While not the three home runs in a row I posted a few days ago, his meltdown wasn’t far off that! It started with Arai hitting to first. Then Toritani stepped up, and smacked the first pitch he faced into the raito sutando for a 2-run homer, and a 2-1 lead to the Tigers. Things only got better from here on in – Kanoh got a base hit, that turned into a two-baser after an error, and then Lin slammed another ball into the stands for a 4-1 lead. To top things off, even when Kyojin changed pitchers to Michael, we still had the last word- a great hit by that bubbly character Katsuragi to give Tigers an unassailable 5-1 lead. Fujikawa closed out.
