Talk Show MC T-Ray?

Saturday, December 2. Just a three-minute walk south of Hanshin Amagasaki Station is a building that was once Kaimei Elementary School. On the first floor at the end of the hall (literally the same hallway they used when it was a school) is Nanairo Cafe – a fairly basic place where people can sit and enjoy a good beverage and/or a light meal. On this particular evening, though, a special event was held for the first time since the cafe opened in 2020. The owner of the cafe, Fujiwara-san, is a self-professed Orix Buffaloes fan… but he knows that Amagasaki is Tigers Town. As such, he invited popular former player Tsutomu Kameyama (1988-97) to talk with the patrons about the 2023 season.

And whom did he ask to MC the talk? None other than T-Ray from H-TEN. Why? I’m still not sure. How? Well, Mr. Fujiwara hails from Tsuyama, Okayama, and was a junior high classmate of my mate, journalist Yamamoto-san, who wrote about me for Daily Sports exactly 6 years ago (English version here). When this event was announced, Yamamoto-san, who also has ties with Kameyama-san, suggested that I host the event. After we talked a bit, it was agreed upon.

And so, after doing a bit more research about Kameyama-san, I sent him a list of topics I wanted to discuss at the event. I got there around 5 pm, met Kameyama-san (for the second time, actually), and he said, “I think people mostly want to hear my thoughts on the 2023 team, so let’s not worry so much about my playing career.” And so, after people ate a delicious meal of roast beef, deep-fried fish, rice, soup, and salad, people lined up to take pictures with and get autographs from Kameyama-san. Then, the talk show began.

I introduced myself, and got to talking about the 2023 season with Kame-san. He is quite eloquent and also ebullient, which made my job quite easy. I could ask the simplest of questions and receive a nice, long, humorous answer. People were smiling and nodding the entire time. We went over why the team succeeded so well under Akinobu Okada, compared with how they did under Akihiro Yano. Here’s part of his answer: “The Tigers and Buffaloes should have both won the past three pennants. Somehow, only the Buffaloes did it. I think that Okada made it easy for the players, and maybe a little hard for the coaches, because they had to answer to him. Under Yano, because so many young and unproven players got chances, the guys who should have been playing every day might have struggled with playing consistently. The younger guys loved it because they got opportunities. The experienced guys, though, probably didn’t care for it so much.”

We bantered back and forth, and it really just felt like I was having a conversation with him on my podcast or something. We were mostly locked in on each other, and because his answers were so deep and interesting to listen to, I really did not have to worry about speaking too much or thinking about follow-up questions. His comments always opened the door to more elaboration or new topics.

At one point, though, I was asked my opinion and was able to elaborate and sound somewhat intelligent. You see, before the whole talk show went down, I was “backstage” talking with Kameyama-san, Yamamoto-san, and a couple of others. We talked about how I got to where I was, including the column that I write for Daily Sports. I chimed into that conversation saying that my latest column was due out soon, and that I had to completely change up my topic because the one I had originally written about (MVP and Best Nine voting) got sniped by a different writer at Daily. In other words, I had been beaten to the punch. So I told them about my column idea and my opinion.

Then during the Q & A portion of the show, someone in the audience asked about Kameyama-san’s thoughts on the voting process for the awards. Instead of giving his answer, he deflected the question my way, saying that I had a solid answer. So I shared my thoughts and then he backed me up with a bit more depth. It was quite something to get the verbal backing from a former player about my thoughts.

The entire evening ended with more photo and autograph time, and to my surprise, some of the people in attendance came to me and said they enjoy my writing and/or my YouTube content, and wanted to take pictures with me. ME? Who’d have thought this day would ever come?

On the whole, it was a really fun and successful night. After all the customers had left, I stuck around and talked with Kameyama-san and Fujiwara-san, and we all agreed that we need to do this again, possibly next spring before the season starts. So that’s the plan. Sometime in early March, we will meet at the same place and talk more about the upcoming 2024 Hanshin Tigers. If you are interested, you should definitely call Fujiwara-san at Nanairo Cafe and save your spot!