Uniqlo Comes to Seattle

Uniqlo, the Japanese clothing company, opened it's first store in the Northwest (U.S.) earlier this month.  The store is located in Bellevue at the Bellevue Square Mall across Lake Washington from Seattle.
We went down there the first weekend it opened to check it out.  There was actually a line to get into the store, but it moved quickly as did the long line to the register.  We didn't try the line to the fitting room, that one didn't appear to be moving much at all.  Other than that it seemed pretty similar to the locations I've been to in Japan.
Certainly, the store made a ton of money that first weekend and I'm sure it will do well in Seattle, with the area's large Asian population and Seattle's style in general.
Their Heattech shirts do make good baseball undershirts.

Katsu Burger Still on Top of Their Game

Glad to say that Katsu Burger is as delicious as ever.  Back in 2012 I did a post about a new restaurant in Seattle serving Japanese-style burgers and sides.  The original store closed last summer for a couple months, but returned in the fall under new ownership.  Local restaurant owner and Katsu Burger fanatic Stephanie Kang purchased the Seattle store and has since opened another one in Bellevue.  I've visited the Bellevue store twice and it's still one of my favorite restraunts in Seattle.  Certainly stop by if you are in the area and you think you'd enjoy a delicious katsu burger.  Try the Godzilla Attack with pork. 

Tokyo Tower

Happy New Year!

I attended a gokitou ceremony for the first time today at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Granite Falls, WA. We have visited the shrine on New Year's Day several times before, but this is the first time I've attended a ceremony here in Washington or in Japan. I enjoyed it, the setting and tone of the ceremony was very relaxing and a great opportunity to reflect on the past year and focus on goals for the new year.

I would recommend visiting the shrine to anyone from Japan or in the U.S. and interested in Japan. It's about as close as you can come to experiencing Japan while still being in the U.S. I believe it is one of only two Shinto shrines currently operating in the lower 48 States and it's located in a very scenic wooded area near the Pilchuck River. If you are going on New Year's Day I would suggest going early because parking is limited. Also dress warm because when its a cold day it's even colder in the shade down by the water.

Happy New Year everyone, have a great 2015!

Ebbets Field Flannels

I stopped by the Ebbets Field Flannels retail store in Seattle last week.  I've known about them for several years, but never knew they were a Seattle company until recently.  A few months ago I was alerted to the fact that they were making NPB uniforms and shirts by a post on the Japanese Baseball Cards blog.  Then, soon after I happened to drive by their store location, not knowing that they had a store, much less one 20 minutes from my house.  It was closed at that time, but I was pretty stunned and happily surprised.

The store is only open on weekdays so I had to wait a while for the chance to go there.  Fortunately last week I had to drop off some things at the Seattle Building Dept. and was able stop in on my lunch break.  The store looked like it had nearly everything that can be bought on their website.  Lots of Uniforms, t-shirts, hockey sweaters, jackets, and a ton of caps.  As for NPB gear, they have some stuff for Hanshin, Hiroshima,Yomiuri and the Taiyo Whales (now the BayStars) and Sankei Atoms (Yakult Swallows).  It can all be viewed and purchased on their website.  The guy at the store also mentioned that they are now making Taiyo Whales uniforms, though they are not up on the website yet.  I of course suggested that they make some Chunichi gear.  He said that it was something that they had already discussed, but it didn't sound like there was anything in the works yet.  Right now the Dragons are the only Central League team that they don't have something for, plus Chunichi has had some good looks, so hopefully they will choose to make up some gear.

Here is a signed uniform they had on display.  It's a replica of the fictitious New York Knights from the Natural and is signed by Wilford Brimley.  Brimley was the manager of the Knights in that movie.  He is also known for his work in The Thing, Cocoon and Quaker Oats commercials. 

Definitely check out their website.  It's like a virtual museum.  Some of my favorites are the Taiyo and Hiroshima gear, the Mudville 9 cap, Portland Beavers gear and Seattle Totems sweater.

Katsu Burger

For those that are fans of Tonkatsu (like myself) or those that enjoy a tasty burger (also like myself); Seattle now has a restaurant that provides a combination of both.  Katsu Burger is located at 6538 4th Ave South, only about 3.5 miles south of Safeco Field.
 
It's a small place with only a few tables, but with a very unique and delicious menu.  The food is pretty much what you would find at an American drive-in, but just about everthing has a Japanese twist.  All of their burgers/sandwiches are served "katsu style," deep-fried with panko coating.  They have ground beef, pork cutlet, and chicken.  For fries you have the choice of curry or nori seasoning, with traditional salted also available.  They also had some Asian inspired flavors for their milkshakes. 

Prices aren't cheap, but are pretty standard for burger joints around here.  Most of the burgers were in the $5-8 range and all of the servings were big.  So accounting for the taste and the size, the price was well worth it.

Definitely check this place out before heading over to a M's game or if you happen to be spending some time in Seattle.



The Spread



Wasabi Burger



Round 1 and Japanese Batting Centers

One of my new favorite places is Round 1.  The first time I saw one was in 2010, but I wasn't able to go until a couple weeks ago.  There are a lot of them in Japan and according to their website there is one in City of Industry, CA near L.A.  The one we went to had four floors:  the first floor looked like it had slot machines and pachinko, the second floor had an arcade and karaoke, the third floor had a full-sized bowling alley, and the fourth floor was dedicated to spo-cha (sports challenge).  We paid for 3 hours that gave us access to a portion of the arcade, karaoke and spo-cha.  The price was also very reasonable before 4 P.M. for families.  I spent a majority of my time in the spo-cha area, which was half inside and half open air.  They had five batting cages, a pitching challenge machine, mini-golf, basketball courts, tennis courts, ping-pong, volleyball and a bunch of other things too.  I was somewhat concerned about how good the batting cages would be, because it wasn't a baseball specific place, but I was pleasantly surprised.  All of the machines had a LED screen of the pitcher winding-up and throwing and then release the ball as if it had been thrown by the on-screen pitcher.  They were also pretty roomy, with enough space to not hit the side of the cage with my bat on the follow through.  The max speed of any of the machines was 130km and had a setting to change speeds between 130, 110, and 90km.  So there was definitely enough there to keep me challenged and interested for awhile and no limit to how many rounds I could play.

Spo-Cha



The cage



My nephew punishing the 90km

In general Japanese batting centers are superior to any cages I have ever been to in the U.S.  On my first visit to Japan I went to two batting centers in the Tokyo area, the best one being near Jingu Stadium.  Those had full video screens where you could bat against your favorite NPB pitcher, I remember hitting against Daisuke Matsuzaka and Koji Uehara.  I don't remember how fast the machines were throwing, but I remember some had a setting that allowed them to throw a variety of breaking balls, which were impossible for me to hit.

I have also been to another local batting center in Toyohashi several times.  They have about eight machines, but only one is a LED machine.  One thing they do have is a 150km machine.  It has something similar to an ice cream scoop that holds the ball and whips it at you at 150, and if it's not 150 it's damn close.  You definitely want to wear a helmet for that one.