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.
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.
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