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!
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