Day 5 saw us return to Tokyo by bus in the morning for sightseeing and a Japanese professional baseball game. This was the first day we really experienced the summer heat in Japan. It had to be in the high 90s and very humid. Akiko says...
Wed. 8:45 AM -- There was an article with pictures in this morning's paper about our game last Saturday. They passed around a hard copy on the bus this morning and I took these pictures...
This was supposed to be a baseball doubleheader day. Thanks to Typhoon Noru, we rescheduled the games to Friday. It rained hard overnight but by morning it was sunny. The fields, though, remained closed and the game times had already been changed. So while it...
An Open Letter to Typhoon Noru: Welcome to Saitama! Nice of you to pop in. But here's the thing: for this trip, I'm not a fan of the pop-in, and it's totally not cool that you're here. Our Sister City invited us here; you didn't even make...
Monday 1:25 PM -- Follow this link to see some Saitama news coverage of our games from Saturday night. The pictures are from the first game. I'm guessing they had a deadline to meet. We're at the train museum now, eating lunch. We toured the mint factory...
Sunday Funday. The schedule called for everyone -- chaperones and kids -- to be with your hosts and enjoy Saitama, Tokyo, or wherever. I spent the day in Tokyo with Akiko, Hunt & Annabelle Whitehead, and their host family. Avi went with his host family...
Today the agenda called for spending time with your host family until 5:00 when we would meet at the ballfield for dinner and two baseball games. I enjoyed hearing everyone's stories about how they spent their day, including really important stuff like where they went, what...
6:30 AM -- We made it! I have been hearing about Richmond's sister city for years and looking forward to this trip for months, and yesterday at about 4:00 Tokyo time, we landed and boarded the ~ 1-hr bus for Saitama. The host families greeted...
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11:45 AM CT -- Tom Petty sang that the waiting is the hardest part. Yeah right, not for these kids, who are fulfilling Steve Jobs' fantasy for Apple to rule the world: We are in line to board now, 13 hours on the plane and we'll...