Arrival 01-26-2026

Hello! This post is coming out of Hirakata City in Osaka, where I will be studying, exploring, eating, and conducting business. I landed in Tokyo at about 6 AM Monday after a calm half day in the air. Because I entirely skipped Sunday, it meant that I missed the ******** making the Super Bowl and therefore it does not exist. Poof. Vamoose.

When ranking places to be for 7 hours, Tokyo's Haneda Airport is at the top of the list among powerhouses such as Camden Yards and Syracuse University's iSchool quiet study room. There are hundreds of shops, thousands of vending machines, and 1 large photo of Shohei Ohtani. As we near the World Baseball Classic (WBC) (in which Japan is hosting exhibitions and a league-stage round) I am very curious to see, and interact, with the public's exhuberance for the tournament. I vividly remember watching the final game of the previous tournament on my phone. The ending, Ohtani striking out teammate Mike Trout on a full count with a 1-run lead, would be laughed for it's absurdity if a movie. Yet that wasn't the cool thing. MLB's initial post with the video of Team Japan winning surpassed 100k views in under a minute, less than 2 days later it was at 10 million with almost 200k likes. Significant in the pre-bots era of the once great app. Previously, the most likes the MLB had received on a tweet was 30,000. If my math is correct, this moment was effectively 6.667 times more valueable in terms of engagement than anything else that has happened in the MLB.

While maybe simply a product of ignorance, I had absolutely no idea baseball was like that in Japan. Since, that moment has in a way guided my ambition for both fun, and in thinking about a career. Not just in a "wow there's so much more baseball to watch" way, but in a "wow the world is reeeeeeeally big and there are a lot of people who like the same things as I do" way. The best part of ushering for the Orioles, other than obviously getting paid to watch the Orioles, is talking to the fans. Every seat that I wiped down was sat in by someone different the previous night, and in my 4 years ushering I have worked at least 1 game for every opposing team. And being on the visitors side meant a majority of these out-of-town fans passed by which was not too much fun after losing to the Yankees, albeit a rarity. Sports are cool like that because at the end of the day, every single person there was there to watch the game, or at the very least be at the ballpark; unless it's concert night with DJ Diesel (Shaquille O'Neal hosted a DJ set after the Orioles lost 8-1 to the Twins in 2023).

I arrived to my residence hall around 5 PM yesterday, unpacked, and went to Lawson, a convenience store that is everywhere. They have real actual food and anything else you could possibly want. Unless you want an outlet extender, pillows, deodorant, q tips, or a fan. Finding somewhere that does have said items is today's task in addition to registering my residency at City Hall which is 0.7 miles away. Across from my room is an elementary school. It's 10:16 right now and there have been kids outside playing since 7. Not sure how/when they're getting any work done but it's a beautiful sunny day so I guess that's fine.

I appreciate all engagements and feedback I have gotten, I am very very excited about the coming months, and want to document as much as I can, as often as I can. Thank you for reading.

Oliver