On March 7, we went to the “Nishinomiya City 100th Anniversary Finale Event” held at Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens.
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First, cheers with sake!
So many cups of sake.
The sake was Nihonsakari’s “Junmai Daiginjo”, a special Nishinomiya City 100th anniversary version.
And then everyone raised a toast! Mayor Ishii and the director of Nishinomiya Gardens were there too.
Akutagawa Prize winners Idogawa and Matsunaga K. Sanzo appeared
At the morning talk show, Akutagawa Prize-winning authors living in Nishinomiya, Matsunaga K. Sanzo and Idogawa Iko, took the stage.
Hugging Miyatan. This is actually not for sale.
The two are senior and junior alumni of Kwansei Gakuin University. They seemed really close.
Yutaka Fukumoto and Ryota Imanari also appeared
In the afternoon, Yutaka Fukumoto, formerly of the Hankyu Braves, and Ryota Imanari, formerly of the Hanshin Tigers, appeared.
Fukumoto showed up wearing a Snoopy tie. Apparently he comes to Nishinomiya Gardens four times a week.Especially the department store.
Ryota Imanari’s father is a scout for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and he apparently also scouted Shohei Ohtani, who has played in the WBC!
And finally, an event that got the crowd wildly excited
The venue was packed with teenage boys and girls. I couldn’t see the front.
And what everyone was pointing their phones at was…
the cast of ABEMA’s romance reality show “Today, I Fell in Love.” The cheering was incredible.
The talk show also included a Nishinomiya true-or-false quiz. For question 2, “Nishikita Park is a setting in the anime ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.’”, everyone got it right!
And the question everyone got wrong was question 5: “Miyatan can see up to 1 km away.” The correct answer was ✖.
みやたんは何キロ先まで見ることができるでしょう？
There was also fan service at the venue, and the crowd was really fired up.
Everyone was glued to the performers’ special one-day-only video messages.
Finally
The excitement for the final “Today, I Fell in Love.” segment was honestly amazing, and as someone who didn’t know the ABEMA show, I felt pretty out of place. I think it was a fun finale for both Nishinomiya residents and visitors from outside the city.
Next up is 2035. I wonder what the 110th anniversary will be like.
