Hello Ohtani.
Recently, I’ve been noticing a lot of guys around town sporting haircuts very similar to baseball’s living legend Shohei Ohtani. It makes perfect sense of course. I imagine any man would gladly put themselves in the shoes of Japan’s premier sports star, or possibly the shoes of his wife, depending on how that particular man rolls.
Our editor Go Hatori is no different and was even inspired by Ohtani’s famous discipline and respect for a good night’s sleep. Go himself tried to emulate that championship lifestyle and hit the hay earlier. It didn’t work at all, but it was still inspiring.
So, he figured if he couldn’t act like Ohtani, maybe he could look like him. That being said, Ohtani makes roughly 10.25 million yen (US$65,727) per hour, so copying his exact fashions would be difficult for our humble writer. However, Go had one thing the MLB All-Star did not: an extensive knowledge of 100-yen store merchandise. With this power, he set out to recreate Ohtani’s look with a budget of 5,000 yen (US$32).
First, he intended to check out leading 100-yen chain Daiso, but found there was also a branch of discount clothing retailer Shimamura in the same building. Since Daiso’s clothing options can be a little sketchy, he decided to check out Shimamura first.
And, he was certainly glad he did. Shimamura’s reasonably priced offerings were nearly enough to complete his entire Ohtani ensemble. He was able to get a Hello Kitty baseball cap for 1,419 yen, a button-up undershirt for 979 yen, a long-sleeved undershirt for 770 yen, and some leggings for 1,089 yen. That would complete the overall outfit for just 4,257 yen in total.
Daiso provided the finishing touches with a belt for 220 yen, hemming tape for 110 yen, a black magic marker for 110 yen, and two blue magic markers for 110 yen each. This would bring his grand total to 4,917 yen, just shy of his initial budget.
Since the World Baseball Classic was just around the corner, Go decided to model his Ohtani look after the player’s uniform for the Japan national team. The crucial element for this was the cap. At first, you might think a Hello Kitty hat was a bad choice for this, but our editor’s keen eyes could see how the “H” could look just like a “J” if you squint at it the right way.
▼ One could more easily mistake it for the sun kanji (日) used in “日本” (“Nihon” [“Japan”]), which wouldn’t be out of place on a Team Japan cap either.
Of course, from there, people’s eyes would naturally gravitate downward, so getting the top just right was also imperative. A suitable short-sleeved button-up shirt was outside of Go’s budget, so he got a three-quarter-length sleeve shirt and did a little tailoring with it.
After cutting off the excess sleeve and applying the hemming tape, it was as good as new!
After that, he applied the pinstripes, logo, name, and numbers using the magic markers. He used a picture of the official uniform for accuracy and was very careful not to use up the ink in the markers because his budget wouldn’t allow for any more.
The pants were even harder to apply straight stripes to.
And with that, a baseball star was born…
Go was initially nervous at first while putting everything on, but once he looked in the mirror, he was quite impressed with how it all came together.
The leggings were the surprise clutch player of this ensemble, and really lent some legitimacy to this possibly being a real baseball uniform.
As he modeled his new look with his colleague Yuichiro, who tried the same experiment but ended up looking like a little league coach, Go began to feel the spirit of the four-time MVP course through his veins.
Yes, just as Ohtani achieved his dream of being a World Series champ with surprising ease, Go too managed to tap into that winning essence of Shotime.
He even remembered that Ohtani bats left…
…but pitches right.
▼ “WBC Shohei Ohtani with 4,917 yen at Shimamura & Daiso”
He even started to think he might be able to go to sleep on time from now on. If he could do that, then it would just be a hop, skip, and a jump to pulling in ten mil an hour too!
Photos ©SoraNews24
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