Ferris wheel

This Sunday, as our belated wedding anniversary, my wife and I went, of all the romantic places to go, to Tokyo Dome to watch the final game of Asia Series baseball. The game was fought between Seibu Lions representing Japan and United Lions, Taiwan. I was not willing to go because Seibu is the team that defeated my favorite team, Yomiuri. So I firmly decided not to cheer Seibu. But as we watched the game from the Taiwanese side of the stadium, I found myself cheering Seibu. I am Japanese after all. The game was rather eventless except for 10 sweet strike-outs by a young ace of Seibu, Wakui, and scoreless until at the bottom of the ninth inning, when Ishii made the game-ending hit and Japan won. That was just that.
Baseball is a good sport to watch in a stadium where we can chat, eat, drink, sometimes excited, mostly relaxed. If it is a football game, you have to always be alert, because any moment you look aside, a player might get a goal, which is likely to be one of the rare highlight scenes. On the other hand, in baseball games, you can always follow what's happening in the game even when you are chatting. You know exactly when to get excited, no worry about missing out on exciting scenes.
When the awarding ceremony of the champion began, we moved to vacant seats in the front row so that we could take a closer look at each players' faces. "So many good-looking players these days!" My wife sighed her exclamation. We watched the ceremony to the end and left the stadium.
We found a Ferris wheel in front of the stadium gate. We got in the gondola that lifted us up to the night sky. There were red, white, blue town lights spread under us.... 27 years have passed.