Japanese Baseball Tour: Part 1

As you certainly know by now, I’m a big baseball fan.  As of this writing, I’ve been to 21 of the 30 current MLB ballparks (and 3 that have been torn down).  I wrote about my 2024 Midwest road trip here and here.  When I received my assignment to Japan, I was immediately excited to check out the baseball scene.  Japanese stars have been coming to the US for decades, and I’d love to say that I saw the next Shohei Ohtani or Ichiro Suzuki when they were tearing it up in Japan.

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First Impressions of Hanoi

Back in August, I made my first trip to Vietnam to visit Misha.  We spent a week together, and though the timing wasn’t great (there were tsunami warnings and a lot of rain), it was still enough time for me to form an initial impression of the city. 

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Osaka and the 2025 World Expo

Following our stop in Kyoto, we hopped on another bullet train for Osaka.  The trip made up over 55km in under 15 minutes, enough time to drink a beer but little else. The next day was all about the World Expo, an event that moves around the globe every five years.  Nations are invited to join and showcase different innovations and cultural aspects around a central theme.

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Bullet Train to Kyoto

Misha recently stopped in Japan to visit me while reporting for duty at Embassy Hanoi.  It was great seeing her after two months apart.  We had a little down time in Tokyo as she tried getting over the jet lag, though it takes about a week to truly adjust (or three weeks according to Misha).  On a day when the heat and humidity made the air as thick as pudding, we hopped aboard our first bullet train (shinkansen) to visit Kyoto and Osaka. 

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First Weeks in Tokyo

I planned my arrival in Tokyo for Memorial Day Weekend to give me an extra day off to get over my jet lag.  I also booked a 9am walking tour of the more popular attractions close to my neighborhood.  This way I could get my bearings on the area before diving headlong into work.  Some of the highlights included Shibuya Crossing, Tsujiki Fish Market, Hongan-ji Temple, and Senso-ji Temple. 

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First Impressions of Tokyo

I’m three weeks into my tour in Tokyo, over the jet lag, and am starting to settle into life here.  The flight over was the longest I’ve ever been on: 14 hours direct from Dulles in Virginia.  It wasn’t quite as bad as I expected, but the food service came three times (and with it the lights) making it hard to get any real sleep. 

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Dominic the Diplomat

If you follow the Beer and Diplomacy Instagram, you may have been a bit confused about some of my recent content.  Didn’t you say you were going to Vietnam next?  What’s this about Flag Day?  I have purposely delayed writing this blog for a variety of reasons, including the uncertainty surrounding my own employment and the typical delay for security reasons.  Some answers to the above questions can also be found in my OMS post, but the main thing to know is: I finally accepted the offer!

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Midwest Baseball Road Trip Part 2: The Cities

While this trip was primarily concerned with baseball (driving to and attending games did indeed take up most of our time), we were still able to see some of the cities we visited.  Since we’re both hungry beer nerds, we focused mainly on eating and drinking the best food and beer we could find.  With the help of recommendations by local friends, I think we did a pretty good job of that. 

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Midwest Baseball Road Trip Part 1: The Ballparks

I’ve been a big baseball fan my whole life, but as a kid that passion was generally spent during my little league games or on the hometown Red Sox. I became a true fan of the sport after graduating high school, when my father and I went on an 8-day, 7-stadium road trip. Ever since, I’ve wanted to visit all 30 stadiums.

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Last Days in Guatemala

Guatemala is now several months in the rearview mirror, which has given me plenty of time to reflect and reminisce.  Our tour ended up being shortened by over seven months of cancer treatment to start and an early departure of ten weeks to accommodate Vietnamese language training and home leave.  By the end, we spent only 14 of the 24 months we were originally assigned to the country physically in Guatemala.  That left us with plenty of missed tourism opportunities, but we feel like we saw enough of the country to say that we got a full Guatemalan experience. 

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