What or who the hell is Slyly???

Tuesday October 11

Saijo and Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium: Cloudy, partly sunny and 20 degrees

The day we had all been waiting for had arrived: Our trip to the baseball. Travis had discussed the idea with me at our very first meeting at the Pre-Tour Briefing and between the two of us we organised the purchase of tickets. Unfortunately for Trav, he has come down with a weird ear infection-y thing and was unable to go.

The day’s lessons just didn’t go fast enough and then it was time to head off. A 40 minute train ride to Hiroshima and then a 10 minute walk to the Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium. No, I’m not making up the name!!!

On the way to the stadium, which was easy to find as you just followed the red-painted road, there were a multitude of different things to buy. At the station you could buy all manner of merchandise and Ken quickly got himself kitted out.

There was also an array of bento boxes that could be purchased: fried chicken to sushi to noodles and more. I planned on eating crap baseball food…..and did…..

There was also a lot of signage along the way….and of course stupid photos HAD to be taken!!!

And there was even a Hiroshima Carp kitted out Lawsons (convenience store) along the way. On the return trip we all stopped off and bought some Carp souvenirs.

Some of the stores that were inside the ground were hilarious….

There was an amazing array of different food stuffs to be bought. Most with dubious nutritional value!!

To Travis’ great dismay when we filled him in later on our exploits, we had AWESOME seats!! We were located 7 rows from the front. It was the second last game of the season for Hiroshima Carp and the Yokohama Bay Stars, so there were not many people there. But still, the atmosphere was amazing!!! The crowd really got into the game….as did we!!!

Of course one of the main attractions at the baseball are the beer girls who wander up and down selling beer from a keg strapped to their backs…..

It would have been un-Japanese, nay un-Australian, not to have imbibed!! So we did….on many occasions!!!

Some had bought bentos from the stalls on the way to the game…..

Some, however, were more in tune with the idea of crap food at the baseball way of things and bought a nutritious dinner of Philly Cheese Steak hot dogs….

...castellas (like a sponge cake kinda thing) …

…and some piping hot, just cooked, caramel popcorn…

There was also hot choccies and coffee available….but beer and kari kari chu hi were the drinks of the night. Kari kari means crunchy and chu hi is shochu mixed with lemon and soda. This is what we got:

Yep, an icy pole in a cup and then filled with alcohol. I heart Japan!!!!

Another weird one was the Carp mascot: Slyly…what the hell he is supposed to be even the nice Japanese guys sitting in front of us couldn’t explain!!!!

At the top of the seventh innings, we had another weird moment. I had noticed on the way into the ground that vendors seemed to be selling some kind of rubber glove. Turns out they were packs of five balloons with Hiroshima Carp on them.

Everyone started blowing them up and the nice guys in front of us gave Sue and I one each. So, when given a balloon, you blow…

Then everyone sang (the team song we assume) and waved their balloons about…

…and then they let them go…

I have a fab-o video of it and the balloons all look like fish swimming…probably the motivation behind it all. Can you imagine them doing something similar at an AFL game??? NEVER!!

To be honest, it wasn’t a great game as Yokohama were thrashed. The final scoreline was Hiroshima Carp 7, Yokohama Bay Stars 0. However, despite all this we had a great time and went home just a wee bit sloshed!

And the mascot was obviously also sloshed based on the way it was carrying on at the end of the game!!!

A trip to Maccas on the way back to the station and a very impolite eating of a Big Mac, fries and a coke on the train on the way home and a fab-o day was done and dusted. It was such a shame that Trav couldn’t come with us, but we certainly had enough fun for him!!!

Go Carp!

Medieval madness....

Monday October 10

Kita-Hiroshima: Sunny and about 26 degrees

Breakfast was massive!! Egg, bacon, salad, soup, pickles, fish and so much more that I can’t remember what was served up. Eating a fried egg with chopsticks is not much fun, but it was the best breaky we have had on the trip!!

After breaky, I took some photos of the area in which we were staying. As I’ve said before, it really is a beautiful place!! Being a national holiday, the Taniide’s had the Japanese flag proudly displayed out the front of their house.

Mel grabbed her Shrine Book and then it was off to the local temple to get in signed. On a crisp, clear and sunny morning, it certainly looked great. I do love a temple!!

The head monk, whose name escapes me, very kindly wrote in Mel’s book and we were then asked to write in HIS book. There were mostly Japanese entries, but there were a couple in other languages. This man was just such a sweetheart and wanted photos with us. Which is just as well as we wanted photos with him!! But who has those photos???

A member of the community had found a puppy that was abandoned and presented him to the head monk. This dog, a shiba ken, which is a Japanese breed, was gorgeous. And so obviously loved his master!

The temple grounds had some beautiful flowers and trees, including the lotus plant (at least that’s what I think it was). As it was explained to be, it grows in filthy water to produce beautiful flowers.

Diana, Mel, Kristy and Robyn....

Yoko then drove us up to the Oishii or big rock that is up on one of the nearby mountains. At certain times of the year they have festivals around and on the rock. From the top of the rock there are awesome views of the surrounding town.

The hostees....

The hosters....

After our trip up the mountain, it was time to head back to our chalet and get our stuff as our short homestay visit had come to an end. Before we left, I took some photos of the back garden at the Taniide’s place. They have a stunning rock pool garden with many (can’t remember how many but it was a LOT) koi. Koi are bloody expensive and from the number in the garden, I think it gave us an indication of how well the Taniide’s are doing!!

After protracted goodbyes from our host families (who has these photos???), we got back in the bus to go to the medieval warlord festival. I was excited about this event, but as the day progressed, my interest waned. We were there for far too long, there was only one restaurant that kept running out of soba noodles and we had to wait for over an hour to eat, it was hot and we were tired. But we MUST stay on schedule. Sigh.

It was a great sight to see and we saw some great performances. But I was tired, hungry and grumpy. Not a good combo at the best of times!!

Some pictorial highlights:

Part of the gang in front of a model of what the old castle and surrounds looked like….

Dressed up like a dork….again….

The outer wall of the castle grounds…..

Making soba noodles….famous in this area, bloody delicious, but it took aaaages for us to have lunch….

The procession in through the main gates….

Cute kid standing in front of the decoys used to enter the castle. The soldiers would dress up as women dancers and then bluff their way in through the defences….

Preparing to fire their guns…..

Firing (literally!!) of the guns….

Me and the boys…..

It was a very interesting day, but we were just so tired, hungry and hot and that kind of took the fun out of everything. And then it was back to HIC for some slop for tea….sigh….