Today is 「ホワイト・デー」 (White Day).
(Click here to read my F.A.Q. about 「ホワイト・デー」 (White Day)).
「ホワイト・デー」 (White Day) is the day the men give gifts to the women who gave them chocolate on 「バレンタイン・デー」 (Valentine’s Day)…so I gave chocolate to my wife and daughters today.
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Yesterday was Friday The 13th. Just last month, the 13th was on the Friday too…and I wrote a post about it. (Click here to read it.)
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In Osaka, fans of the Japanese baseball team The Hanshin Tigers are quite zealous.
When their team wins, many fans jump into a nearby river. It’s a Hanshin Tigers tradition.
In 1985, the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Baseball Championship for the first time.
Many fans, of course, jumped into the river…and one fan took the Colonel Sanders statue* from the front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and threw it into the river.
(*In Japan, KFC restaurants have lifesize statues of Colonel Sanders out front.)
The Hanshin Tigers have never won the Japan Baseball Championship pendant again.
An urban legend developed that the Tigers‘ bad luck since 1985 was due to the 「カーネルサンダースの呪い」 (“Curse Of Colonel Sanders“)!
And the curse wouldn’t be lifted, and the Hanshin Tigers bad luck end, until the statue was retrieved from the river.
(I wrote a comment on another post about this “curse”. Click here to read it).
Well…last Tuesday, the statue of Colonel Sanders was found by divers in the river.
As you might expect, the statue’s not in the best condition after sitting on the riverbed for 24 years…but I guess the 「カーネルサンダースの呪い」 (“Curse Of Colonel Sanders“) has ended.
So, the Hanshin Tigers have no excuse if the continue to lose!
Tokyo Five 
Great story the Colonel Sanders curse. I heard this on the radio at work in USA last week when they found it. You were just telling me about the river-jumping thing, too!
There was a pitcher, Ryan Vogelsong, who is from local Kutztown University (Kutztown, PA)who pitches in Japan now. He played for Hanshin Tigers last two years. This year he moved to Orix Buffaloes.
Vogelsong used to pitch in Major Leagues for Pittsburgh Pirates.
I wrote an article a while ago about what he has made from playing in Japan (more than he did playing in Major Leagues!)
“Orix The Fix For Ex-Golden Bear?”
lvironpigs.wordpress.com
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Did they mention the “Curse Of The Colonel” on the radio in America?
I’m surprised.
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“PoFolks“? Is that a restaurant in America?
I’ve never heard of it.
And, as for me, I love chicken!
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Thank God there is still one PoFolks around or else I wouldn’t eat chicken at all!
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They’ll never have White Day in the States eventhough they are a minority now?????
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Whose “they”?
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Mainichi has a story about this Colonel Sanders statue getting a new pair of eye glasses 🙂 … see http://tinyurl.com/awcxg4
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Yeah, I heard that after they fix up the statue, KFC Japan may donate him to the Hanshin Tigers to be kept in the stadium.
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