Golden Week Vacation: Go Yakult Swallows!

There's a series of national holidays in Japan that are cumulatively referred to as Golden Week.  It amounts to a Spring Break for the whole country. (Come on America, you are behind Japan in test scores and national holidays...shameful.)   We started off our Golden Week by watching our first baseball game of the season. In case your were wondering, our favorite team is the Yakult Swallows.  

We arrived at the game late, and so there were no seats.  It would be impossible for us to wrangle our kids in the standing room section of the stadium with the hundreds of other people crowded around.  I was about to take Lyla home, but Jonathan didn't give up hope so easily.  As is typical of our hero husband/dad, he found three seats in a row with a perfect view of the field that no one wanted because a giant (gargantuan) bird had apparently relieved itself across them.  But hey, we have two little kids, do you think that a little bird poop would bother us?  I mean, Sawyer threw up in Jonathan's mouth once, for goodness sakes.  I pulled out my oversized Kirkland brand wipes package and Jonathan scrubbed away at the dried on excrement.  Minutes later, we were happily watching the game while sitting in some of the best seats in the house.

Highlights from the game included Sawyer begging stadium food from people who sat nearby.   I will forever remember a women about to eat a french fry and then slowly offer it to Sawyer instead, because he was just staring as she ate.  This would normally be extremely unacceptable, but because Sawyer has curly, blond hair, blue-eyes and attempts to speak in Japanese, he is admired by all and can do no wrong.  Lyla, a master imitator and a lover of crowds, sat alone in the row in front of us between two Japanese women and clapped in time with the cheers and chants of the audience.  Lyla was a full participant. A true fan. She cheered.  She booed.  She sang.  She was adorable.  Lyla was particularly taken by some bat noisemakers that someone let her borrow.  We eventually bought her some of her own since we couldn't convince her to give them back otherwise.