Carp, Carp, Carp, Hiroshima!

 Last Friday Night, (we did not dance on table tops or get kicked out of the bars,) we went to a Japanese baseball game! And what a spectacle it was. The game itself was pretty fun, mostly because the crowd was so in to it, but also because it was interesting to see how another country puts on a professional sports game.

 We saw the Hiroshima Carp play against C.D. (don't know what that stands for or what city they were from) at Mazda Zoom-Zoom stadium in Hiroshima.

We noticed the first difference on the way to our seats: the food! Yes, there were a few places that sold hot dogs and french fries- but mostly everyone sold Japanese food! (Imagine that, huh?) It was so cool though! You could get ramen, udon noodles, and rice triangle/fish sushi-type things, among many other very typical Japanese foods that I can't even begin to describe. And they even had the wax food displays (pictured below with the floating forks) that you see outside of almost all the restaurants here. High class!

These were posted maps we found of all the different food options. As they say here, "Oishii!" (Delicious!) I loved (but didn't try) the item displayed in the 6 o'clock position, on the upper map- doughnuts in the shape of a 'C' for 'Carp!'

Another food vendor were Nick found his dinner. (I'm fairly certain that this reads "Herro Hero"- LOL!)

Nick the Daring got a philly cheese steak. I got me some Udon!

The field.

This was definitely a highlight and oh, so, Japanese. This here is a gym that butts right up to the stadium so you can workout on the treadmill or elliptical and watch the game!  Ha ha!!

The view from our seats. Not the greatest but still fun! Plus, there were a few fly balls that came out our direction.

That there is the Hiroshima Carp mascot, I believe- as a bouncy house! Sadly, for littl ekids only or I totally would have been there.

ou can't really see in the picture, but the stadium was right along the train tracks so you can watch the trains go by. (Which, really, is probably more for the people on the train than the people in the stadium because they would want the see the game and I am probably the only person who still finds trains so novel!)

Instead of having vendors walk up and down the stairs carrying tubs or Coors they have the Asahi girls who carry kegs on their backs and wear fluorescent hats and very short skirts.

There was also some girl selling these, which one of our friends bought. It's soda water with a popsicle in it. We couldn't decide if you were supposed to let the popsicle melt and then drink it or if the soda water was supposed to make the popsicle taste better...

This is a video of one of the cheers people would do. The best that we could make out that they were saying was "Imhotep, Imhotep!" (like the Egyptian Pharaoh)...

Near the end of the 7th inning everyone took out these balloons and inflated them...

And then when the inning was over, they sang the Hiroshima Team Song and released them! (This is worth a watch because about half way through, some very intoxicated Japanese guy noticed that I was filming and decided to jump in at 0:35- lol!)

They also had these seats out in center field- for total lounging!

This little boy fell asleep in the 8th inning and managed to sleep through the rest of the game- even though there was tons of commotion from....

A very intense final inning! The opponents had managed to come back in the 8th inning, making it a tie game going in to the bottom of the 9th. With the bases loaded, 1 out and 2 strikes... the Carp make a hit to get a run and win the game, 4-3!!!! By the way the crowd reacted, you'd think they'd just won the world series. Plus, I heard the Japanese rig the games this way so it's more entertaining.... Either way- it was definitely fun!

Nick had duty on Saturday so I just volunteered and worked around the house. Be sure to check back next week though because we have a trip planned to Tsuano!

Til then, keep it real.

Time warp...oops/Oshima Island

Whoa. Sorry for the blogging hiatus there, people! I am going to blame it on how boring Nick and I have been. Also, I had a brief jog back to the States for my sister's wedding and then as soon as I got back I started a new job (I got the school nurse position- woot, woot!) and man, that was a rough transition. I went from total and complete no-responsibility mode to having to actually use my brain again! The first 3 days I worked full time and I came home absolutely brain dead. When school started the following Monday, I went to half time but I was still getting used to actually having to care for others again.

Excuses, excuses right? But I'm back with tales of Labor Day weekend!

Last weekend was Labor day weekend and Nick and I went to Oshima Island, a smallish island like a 2 hour drive away. (It is the A on the map from Google.)

We rented a cabin at a resort there with 2 other couples (one of whom has a 7 year old kid) from Sunday-Monday. It was really fun! It was so interesting to stay at a Japanese style resort because you just expect it to have, like, American style cabins because that's what you're used to but nope! Japanese style! (Ours is the red roof farther up the hill.)

You can't really tell in the photo but it was teeny! It was 2 1/4 stories- (the top 1 1/4 being lofts). The first floor had a single open room about the size of a small living room, that had a kitchenette complete with a one-burner stove, sink, mini-fridge and some counter space; the TINIEST bathroom you have ever seen; a super small fireplace; and 2 couches and a coffee table (well what we think of as a coffee table but was really just a Japanese style dining room table). The bathroom was so ridiculously small that the toilet was at an angle so your legs would still fit between the wall and the toilet when you were sitting down, the shower faucet was just a hose that you hooked up to the bathroom sink, and the tub was only long enough to sit in with your knees bent up but still had enough of an edge so that you could probably fill it up passed your knees. They are very serious about their bathing I hear.

Half of the upstairs was just an 8-mat tatami loft and there was another loft about 2 feet over and 2 feet up to the side of that one with all the futon mattresses and bedding for 8 people. So it slept 8 people but if this was in America, they would probably only allow 4 people tops to sleep in it. (Fire codes? Pish- who needs those?) I wish I had taken more pictures to show you just how tiny and compact it all was. Very Japanese! But cozy and fun!

There was also a balcony/deck that was lovely to sit out at-until the giant bugs came out! (The view of the resort/beach from out balcony.)

Being an island resort, we spent the majority of the time swimming the Inland Sea and just hanging out on the beach. Since the Japanese obviously didn't have Labor Day Monday off the place was dead except one other cabin of about 6 japanese people. They went swimming too- but just in their clothes! Like jeans and everything haha! It was great weather and a beautiful sunset.

The next day we went to another beach and saw lots of jellyfish washing in! I guess August is when the current is just right so that jellyfish are always in the beaches. (Our friend with a mini jellyfish on a stick.)

(Nick with a giant jelly fish on a stick.)

 

Nick and I underwater- so blue!

And now Nick and I have the travel itch- we realized we really haven't done much since being here up until last weekend and how much time we have wasted! We are starting to plan lots more adventures so stay tuned!
(Although, we might have to wait quite a while to climb Mt. Fuji because I guess it's going to erupt again!! I read here that the pressure inside Fuji-san is rising and it's now 16 times more higher than the last time it erupted! It is so likely that it will erupt in the next 3 years that they are planning for evacuations in 2014!)

Also. there was an earthquake here today (4.6 on the richer scale) but Nick and I still didn't even notice! We really should have because we were talking to our (American) neighbor who lives just a few blocks away and he felt it but Nick and I missed for some reason making us 0/2 for feeling quakes here and making me 0/3 in my life.

What a place to live!

Time keeps on slippin'

Well hello again! Not to much new going on here. A large dose of the same old, same old. It's been hot and humid beyond belief- it almost feels like we're living in a jungle! Overall though, we had a pretty tame week and weekend.

 

We got a gift from our neighbors. "It is the corn sent form 2 parents home. Please eat, if good." (They have 2 little girls in preschool, so I assume 'parents' refers to other parents at the preschool.) They were indeed good!

This is a photo of the neighborhood were I have been teaching English. The driveways literally go over the creek, with no barriers. Hope you're good at backing up!

To give you an idea of how narrow these streets are. Well, this is actually a one-way but still, the Japanese drivers will just pullover whenever, turn on their hazards, and expect you to be able to get around them!

We rescued a kitten on Wednesday! Super kawaii!!!!!! She weighed 3 oz and hadn't even open her eyes yet, so she must have been less than 10 days old. We named her Momo :)

She fit in my hand! Unfortunately, she was a little too little. She aspirated the milk we were bottle feeding her and she didn't make it :'( At least she knew love in very short life.

We spent Friday night at YouMe town, hitting up the arcade there. Super fun! And then since YouMe town is so near the Gyoza house, Nick just HAD to go get some and I was oh so against the idea ;)

On Saturday we made a trip to Hiroshima (aka 'Hiro' around these parts) to see a fireworks show. They were supposedly going to launch 10,000 fireworks from the port there. It was obvious we weren't the only ones excited to see so many fireworks because when we got to Hiro it was crazy busy. The show was going to start at 8 but even by 6 when we got there, the trolleys were jam packed. 

We ended up walking most everywhere that night- which was more than a little uncomfortable since it was SO muggy.

We stopped at a 7/11 for some hydration and found this gem- a salty watermelon Pepsi! It was surprisingly tasty...but we were so hot anything probably would have tasted good.

 

We got tsukemen for dinner- so delicious! Tsukemen is a cold noodles and other assorted vegetables that you dip into this spicy soup-like sauce. Yummy!

 A silly cartoon at the tsukemen restaurant. No idea what this says, but we made up our own words. Hilarious!

We finished eating a little after 8 and caught a trolley to take us to the port. The fireworks had already started, we could hear, but there were going to be 10,000 so we figured it would last at least and hour and a half, if not 2. The trolley was moving ridiculously slow so we decided to get off early at this bridge that had a view of the fireworks. However, by the time we got off the trolley and walked back to the bridge, it was like 9:01 and the show was over. We couldn't believe it! We had come to see 10,000 fireworks and missed all but 5 that we had seen from the trolley. Hahaha just our luck. And then, since the show was over, everyone was leaving the port and so the traffic was even more insane and the trolleys were even more full, so we decided to just hoof it back to the train station.

On our walk back we found this vending machine- where you could buy a whole BOTTLE of whisky! This one did require an ID, unlike the beer vendi we saw at the chicken shack, but still- a whole glass bottle of alcohol from a vending machine!!

Keep it real, readers!

-Elle

Kitakyushu Kokura Taiko Drum Festival

On Saturday (7/21/12) Nick and I went to a Taiko Drum Festival in Kokura (which is a city near Fukuoka, on the Southern main island, Kyushu. Kokura is the old name for the city, now it is called Kitakyushu but they use the two names interchangeably as far as I could tell). The festival was from 3:30 to 7 and we took a bus from base down there and arrived at 2. They threatened to cancel the festival if it was raining and it had been raining on and off all afternoon. It was even raining at 3:29 but then, literally at 3:30 on the dot, they fired some shots to signify the start of the festival and the rain stopped. How cooperative! (We must be in Japan.) So lucky for us, the festival was not called off and here are some pictures of it!

Before it started raining when we first got there, we explored this park/shrine area.

The park was smack in the middle of this built up area so it was quite quintessentailly Japan: the old/traditional toriis in the shrine area and then this ultra-modern mall as the backdrop.

 The juxtaposition once again: the parked car in the foreground and the ancient castle in the background.

 From the park we could see the back of the vendor's tents.

As we explored, we found this cool photo op of the castle moat.

Some performers preparing their float. As we later found out, this was less of a festival and more of a parade of floats like this one that all had Taiko drums on them.

 Me, the moat, and the castle.

It started to rain then so we sought shelter in the mall. (There were these little kids playing in the fountain and it made me wish it was more socially acceptable to photograph strangers!) Looks just like a regular mall, though, yeah?

Wrong! It was 10 stories tall! With 3 adjoining buildings!

The view from the top.

The view of the castle from the 5th floor's rooftop garden area.

Also on the 5th floor, we found a wedding chapel!

 We couldn't quite figure out this sign which was out front of a store full of those photo booths that give you the instant strip of photos. Our best guess is that you must be in co-ed or girl groups. Guys can't go in the photo booths with just guys?

Nick won a cute cat thing from a store full of claw-games. He's so proud.

Another store full of photo booths

We got hungry so we ventured back out to the festival area to find some food from the vendors. Nick found a banana covered in chocolate covered in sprinkles. On a stick.

The festival was actually getting underway now so we stopped to watch for a bit. There were bleachers set up on both sides of this red carpet area but it was 2000 yen (so like $30) to sit on them. We chose to stand for free. It apparently was some sort of competition and I think this area was where the judging happened but since it was a parade that went on for 3.5 hours, we found lots of other areas to get great views from.

All the floats were pulled by groups of about 20 people, aged ~3 to ~75 from the looks of them. We couldn't figure out if they were schools or families or what. And they all dressed in matching outfits.

The red carpet/judging area from the other side.

The first float of the day.

This is a video we took of the parade. It captures the cacophony pretty well. Add in the noise of some really, REALLY loud cicadas and you've got the gist of it.

So we got a little bored and went to find some more food. Nick found his favorite: yakitori! Yakitori is the sauce they use to cover this meat (chicken) on a stick.

I found some steamed meat buns- yum! I also found some bacon wrapped rice which was tres delicious but did not photograph it.

Then the sun came out and since it had been raining all morning it was unbelievably muggy so we went in search of some A/C. On the way we found a neat volcano fountain. So I stood dorkily by it while Nick captured the photo. 

Back inside the mall we found, among many other things, a store selling Minntonka moccasins (MN represent!), a whole display of purses specifically being sold toward men (so m-urses, you might say), a movie theater, an art gallery, an art museum and this toy store. This peach man freaked us out.

This was written on a towel of some sort. I hope it was a face towel. For Miffy?

Sufficiently cooled off, we ventured back outside and found some more vendors and where all the performers were hanging out before their turn.

A haunted house. We did not go in.

This captures how the floats were pulled.

Miscellaneous images of the parade.

This was our favorite float.

This one was cool because the lanterns were lit up.

Cutest baby ever!

Found some candied strawberries.

Creepiest float.

After we got bored of watching the parade, we went up to the castle area and found some more vendors (these ones selling beer ;) ), tables, and a stage where there were actual taiko performances going on. SO we took a load off and spent the last hour of the trip sipping cold beverages and enjoying the show.

Video of part of a performance.

Li'l baby playin taiko! Super kawaii!! (Cute)

 

And then it was time to go. It was a 3 hour bus ride back to base and we realized maybe those adult beverages had been  mistake because about 45 minutes into the drive, we had to pee so bad our kidneys hurt! Luckily we made a pit stop halfway home or I probably would have exploded!

And I'll end on that. Ta for now!