Big in Japan: Red Sox season opener will take place in Japan

by Matthew Firestone on

Looking for another reason to visit to Japan?

Baseball may be as American as apple pie, but it’s also as Japanese as cod-roe spaghetti and green tea ice cream.

Although few Americans are aware of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), it has produced a number of major Major League Baseball (MLB) players including Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka among others.

Known as the Puro Yaky? (???????????) in Japanese, the NPB has a long history dating back to 1934 when it was originally founded as the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (?????????????????????, Dai-nippon T?ky? Yaky? Kurabu).

Of course, all of this may soon become common knowledge to Bostonians as this March, the Red Sox season opener will be a pair of exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers on March 22 (11:07 p.m. EST March 21) and the Yomiuri Giants on March 23 (6:07 a.m. EST).

Despite the lack of publicity that the Ricoh Japan Opening Series 2008 has received in the States, the event is being billed here in Japan as something akin to the real ‘World Series.’

Here’s the answer to your first question: who are the Hanshin Tigers?

The Hanshin Tigers (阪神タイガース, Hanshin Taigāsu) are a NPB based in Nishinomiya, which is a city in the Kansai region near Osaka.

Of course, since this is Japan, the team is owned and named after the Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc.

Interestingly enough, the Tigers are often portrayed by the media as being the Japanese Red Sox since they have historically been underachievers.

In fact, they even have their own ‘Curse of the Bambino!’

After winning the 1985 Japan series, Tigers fans dressed up like their favorite players, and jumped into the adjacent Dotonbori Canal.

However, because none of the fans resembled first baseman Randy Bass (he was bearded white guy from Oklahoma), fans threw a life-sized statue of the Kentucky Fried Chicken mascot Colonel Sanders into the river.

To this day, the statue has never been recovered, and legend holds that until the Colonel is rescued from the river, the Tigers will continue to have bad luck.

Here’s the answer to your second question: who are the Yomiuri Giants?

The Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ, Yomiuri Jaiantsu) are a NPB based in Bunkyo, which is a district in Tokyo.

Of course, since this is Japan, the team is owned and named after the Yomiuri Group, Ltd., a behemoth media conglomerate of television stations, newspapers and magazines.

Interestingly enough, the Giants are often portrayed by the media as being the Japanese Yankees since they have historically dominated the NPB (and they’re the richest franchise by a long-shot!).

Want to know more about Japanese baseball? Love the Boston Red Sox? Why not check out their season opener over here in the Land of the Rising Sun?

Here is all the info you need:

General tickets for all four Red Sox games in Tokyo go on sale Feb. 9. For more information, call 011-81-3-5777-8600 between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. EST.

In addition, Fenway Sports Group, through its Red Sox Destinations program, has put together a full travel package for the Japan Opening Series.

Standard Red Sox destination packages to Japan start at $4,999 and are available now. Upgraded packages, including business class seating on the charter flight, a hotel suite, and premium game tickets, are also available on a limited basis.

For more information, visit redsox.com/redsoxdestinations, call 617-226-6400, or e-mail travel@fenwaysportsgroup.com.

Mumbai “dabbawala” culture

by Abha Malpani on

I never thought I’d be sitting in Madrid, wishing that there was some “dabbawala” to bring me cheap, homemade, Indian food.

“Dabbawala” literally translates to “guy with box”; in this case the box is a tiffin full of food. In India, although fast food is popular, Indians always crave home cooked Indian food and often choose it over street food or McDonald’s. Hectic working schedules make this practically impossible if you don’t have someone cooking for you every morning. Even if you do, the food is cold by lunch time and it doesn’t taste the same when reheated.

The joy of getting hot, home cooked food delivered to you like you’ve specified, at exactly the time you want, is priceless. Mumbai’s dabbawalas make it happen for a fee as little as Rs.250 a month (just over US$6). The food is collected either from homes or from a catering service, then taken to a point where they are color-sorted (the guys are generally illiterate), grouped according to location, and then delivered by train.

More than 200,000 lunches are delivered by about 5000 dabbawalas everyday with an amazing accuracy of menu and time; a recent survey says that they only make one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries. There is no day off for the dabbawalas, they have never gone on strike and harsh weather conditions — especially monsoon season — have never stopped them from doing their job well.

What has been awed about the dabbawalas is how they function so accurately, without the use of any modern technology — only recently they have begun accepting orders via SMS. The success of their system has called much attention from business schools as well as tourists and now they have a “Day with the Dabbawalas” itinerary where you can spend a day in Mumbai helping them out — something Richard Branson did on one of his visits to India.

They have been in business for 125 years and it’s one of the systems that truly represents how efficient an Indian city can be, if it wants to.

Amazing Race winners: what to do with the money?

by Jamie Rhein on

This article contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the finale, please do not read this.

The answer to “Now what?” of TK Eriwn and Rachel Rosale’s Amazing Race million dollar win is travel first. Rachel is taking some time off and they are hitting the road with a hefty sum even though savings is part of their idea as well. I’ve done some imagining to see how the dollar amounts might work out. Each won $500,000. Let’s say taxes take $200,000–maybe less, but for these purposes, let’s work with $300,000 remaining. With $300,000 for each person what would you do? Both Rachel & TK did say they are going to travel. Since they are getting along so famously, they’re going to travel together. Rachel also said she is going to do some work on her house, buy a few new outfits and save the rest for later. TK already got a haircut.

Let’s say Rachel decided to save $100,000 in some sort of aggressive funds. She’s young so she can do that. Risk taking is on her side. In 8 years or so, she’ll have $200,000. In 16 years, $300,000. In 24 years, at age 46, she’ll have $600,000, and by the time she’s 52, if all goes well, she’ll have over $1,200.00. By 60, over two million. That’s if she doesn’t touch that $100,000. That strategy could give her a very sweet deal for later travel. But, that’s later; this is now.

Let’s talk about the remaining $200,000. Even if they each spent $50,000 on travel over the course of a few years, providing she rents out her house so someone else is paying the mortgage, what a great time they could have.

As a budget traveler, I’ve tended to stay in two-star hotels unless at a conference where the conference hotel has a terrific deal and my employer has helped pay. We did spring for the Westin in Taipei once. This is a honey of a hotel and well worth the money for a treat, but in general, we don’t stay in our rooms much when we’re traveling, so paying for elegance is wasted on us, but in some places elegance does come cheap. In India, even if one stays in a former Raj palace, such as a Grand Heritage Hotel, something I highly recommend, the chances of spending over $100 for a wonderful room is not going to happen. I should amend that this is funky, historical, artsy wonderful–not plush linen, a bed fit for a king, and fine china wonderful. I went to Neemrana twice.

Besides staying in a Raj style hotel, here are three other suggestions for Rachel and TK based on my most deluxe trips.

Pack mule trip to Ladakh: The most expensive trip I ever took was a pack mule trip to Ladakh where each grouping of people had their private guide who made sure stragglers didn’t wander off into the hills, or if blisters were too unbearable, he had the means for doing some doctoring. The mules carried our stuff and there were cooks along to prepare wonderful vegetarian meals three times a day. They also made tea and gave us snacks. I’d suggest a trip like this one to TK & Rachel. They could do a private trip with two mules and one guide and a cook. Don’t give up the cook and don’t give up the guide. What’s the point of all that money if you’re on a mountain in Ladakh trying to breath and cook dinner? Better let someone else whip up a delicious dahl and rice dish. The guide is a necessity because this is a place of trails that head off in every direction without destination makers pointing the way. (Here’s a detailed account of someone else’s trip published in The Seattle Times three years ago. I bet the prices are not that much more.)

Cycling in Western Australia: Another wonderful trip I took was an everything included cycling trip in Western Australia. That lasted for 9 days, but didn’t cost me a cent. I went along as a chaperone for high schoolers–mostly 9th grade boys. Let’s just say, I more than paid my way fair and square. If anything, I wouldn’t have minded if someone had slipped me a $20 for my efforts of staying cheerful and upbeat. For Rachel and TK, they’ll have the added bonus of being able to buy beer in one of the many pubs in Freemantle. Chaperones weren’t allowed to drink, so I only gazed into the pubs with small whimpers of I can’t believe I’m in Freemantle with all these great pubs and a slew of adolescent males. (Here’s a previous post. There are links to companies that do such trips.)

Antique Rice Barge Cruise in Thailand: If TK and Rachel have a feel for romance, they should take a rice barge cruise in Thailand. The one I took with my husband, dad and daughter (our theme was not romance) was one night complete with gourmet meals, tropical drinks and a full moon. The trip went from outside of Bangkok, including Ayuthaya and traveled along the river back into the city. Watching life awaken along the river as the sun came up was quite special. A warning though. The trip included a visit to a temple where we gave gifts to a monk who sprinkled water on us. It was part of a holy day. I got very unexpectedly pregnant right after. Perhaps there’s no correlation, I’m just saying. Okay, maybe there was some romance.

What advice do you have for TK and Rachel for how to use their travel money wisely, but with style?

Big in Japan: Sega plans to open mega-arcade in Dubai

by Matthew Firestone on

Here’s a quick question for you:

Name the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the city of Dubai.

a) Billions and billions of dollars worth of untapped oil reserves
b) Something akin to the Las Vegas of the Arabian Gulf
c) A desert oasis of shopping malls and astronomically expensive hotels
d) More ridiculous bling than the front row of a Ludicrous concert
e) An environmentally unsustainable nightmare built by slave labor

If you answered any or all of the above, by all means you are indeed correct!

However, it is only going to be a few more months before Dubai also boasts what will most likely be the world’s largest video arcade.

Seriously.

From Japan to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sega is about to launch its brand name on the Arab world.

Last week, a representative from the Japanese game company announced that it intends to build a mega-arcade in the Dubai Mall, which will be completed later this year.

Needless to say, Sega also announced that their first mega-arcade in the Middle East will be unlike anything the world has ever seen before.

So, what is the Dubai Mall you ask? Good question!

The Dubai Mall is scheduled to open in late 2008, and when completed, will be the largest mall in the world.

(In a city of gross excess, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise!)

According to Wikipedia, the Dubai Mall is rumored to cover an area of 12.1 million square feet, and will actually be comprised of a dozen smaller malls.

Again, as this is Dubai, keep in mind that ‘small’ is a relative concept.

In total, the Dubai mall will offer 9 million square feet of shopping retail space, and approximately 1200 stores.

In addition to housing the world’s most exclusive brand names, the Dubai Mall will also feature the following absurdities:

– The world’s largest gold souk
– The world’s largest aquarium
– The world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai

We’re not done…

The Dubai Mall will also feature an Olympic-sized ice skating rink and a towering waterfall – keep in mind people that all of this is in the middle of the desert!

And of course, what shopping mall would be complete without a video arcade!

In America, a generation of children grew up playing Sonic the Hedgehog and other titles, though Sega stopped releasing consoles following the relative failure of the Dreamcast in 2001.

However, in 2004 Sega merged with the Sammy Corporation, the world’s largest pachinko machine manufacturer, and has since then focused on arcade theme parks throughout Japan.

Of course, nothing in Japan will stand a chance of comparing with the mega-arcade in the works.

When completed, the new Sega spot will occupy 75,350 square feet spread out over two floors of the shopping mall.

All I can say is that if you’re planning a trip to Dubai in the near future, you had better start saving your quarters!

** Today’s post is dedicated to my wanderlust-ridden sister, who made her brother incredibly jealous of her exploits by partying it up with royalty in Dubai. **

The Universe in the centre of Dubai

by Abha Malpani on

As if building islands in the shape of the world weren’t enough, Dubai has just announced the construction of islands representing the Universe. The islands will take the shape of the sun, moon, planets and other elements of the solar system.

Most new projects in Dubai sound wow, and most of the times they are. But when they are not, they are totally not, like this Universe project for example. Look at the picture and tell me which part of the islands are supposed to be the Universe.

Clueless? Confused? So was I. It’s the section in the middle-right, between the two Palm Islands, surrounding the islands that form The World. From which angle does this look like the Universe?

I had to laugh when I read that Dubai has been dubbed “Donald Trump on Acid.” The problem with all this crazy construction in the city is that Dubai doesn’t know when to stop. Oh well.