Climaxing

While the baseball playoffs are well underway back in the States, this weekend brings the beginning of the Japan baseball league playoffs. Better known here as the "Climax Series."

There are a total of twelve professional baseball teams here in Japan, and much like the US's Major League Baseball there is an American League and a National League. Only they are called the Pacific League and the Central League (six teams in each). Each year, these teams battle to reach their climax. Sorry, to reach the Climax Series.

The top three teams in each league's standings by year's end move on. In the first round of the Climax Series, the 2nd and 3rd place teams fight in a three-game series for the right to move on to round two where the 1st place team is waiting. Round two is a six-game series, which seems odd because usually you need an odd even of games to determine a series winner. But not in Japan. For winning your league during the regular season, not only do you get an automatic pass to round two, but you start with an automatic one game lead in the six-game series. The winner is the first to four wins. Confusing, but fun nonetheless, especially with all the climaxing.

Finally, the winner of the Pacific League Climax Series moves on to face the winner of the Central League Climax Series in the Japan Series best of seven. The winner is the champion of Japan.

This weekend we'll be rooting for our hometown boys, the Nagoya Dragons. They finished second to the Tokyo Giants (aka. Yankees of Japan), which means they will face the third place Yakult Swallows in the first round of the Central League Climax Series. Go Dragons!

I'm hoping a Japan Series playoff run by our adopted Japan team will make up for the void left by our precious Detroit Tiger's late-season collapse back in the States. But enough moping, it's time to Climax!!!

Tourist in Your Own Town

Don't let this economy get the best of you. Every night it seems the news is bad, at work it seems water cooler convos are blue, and during the day skies seem a little more gray than they should be. We're all tightening our belts, which is probably a good thing, but don't tighten so much that you squeeze out human nature's natural thirst to expand its outer limits and tickle its senses.

I'm not here to preach, but I am here to offer what's on the wall of my in-laws bathroom. Hanging amidst a sea of beautiful pastel leaf wallpaper sits a lonely frame with a few simple reminders for the day, "A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

With that in mind, I'd like to offer this suggestion, be a tourist in your own town! My wife and I had big plans about how we would spend our time and money here in Japan with a new exotic world to tour. The economy has forced us to scale back a bit, but it hasn't stopped us from seeing as much as we can with what we have.

I'm constantly amazed at my co-workers reactions here in Japan when I explain places we went to over the weekend - a museum, castle, shopping district, restaurant, park, historical site, etc. I'm amazed because usually these co-workers say they have never been, or last went when they were in grade school. I shouldn't be amazed because I think we all fall into the same category with our own hometowns.

But, we shouldn't. There are treasures in every hometown. I think about my hometown in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I bet I could make an entire weekend getaway out of our nearby metropolis, Detroit. Go ahead and laugh, but then reconsider. With the DIA, Fox Theatre, Henry Ford Museum, restaurants from every corner of the world, Detroit has plenty to offer. But the point isn't to promote Detroit, the point is to remind you that there's plenty in your backyard. In this economy maybe you can't afford to fly somewhere exotic, but it shouldn't mean you scale back completely. Be a tourist in your own town.