Last week we had our first Japanese baseball game experience! Our local team is the Hiroshima Carp and it is about a 50 minute train ride from Iwakuni and a 10 minute walk down to the Mazda Zoom Zoom stadium, which has a capacity to hold 32,000 fans. This was the last home game of the season as the Carp were slated to play the first place Chunichi Dragons (Fun fact about the Dragons: Also known as the team Tom Selleck played for in the film Mr. Baseball, the Chunichi Dragons at first glance resemble the Los Angeles Dodgers since both clubs wear similar uniforms). The Carp started their ace pitcher, who is rumored to be leaving Japan for an American team next season. He dominated most of the game striking out over 10 batters! The Carp ended up winning the game in the bottom of the 9th (we left early because some people had to work the next day :) !
We ended up sitting in the Dragons cheering section because Kirk's co-worker John is a Dragons fan. He thinks they have better cheers than the other teams. The Dragons had three "cheer leaders" that took turns each inning leading the cheers while the Dragons were up to bat. One of the other cheer leaders would beat a drum and the other would play the trumpet to the beat of the cheer. What was really neat is that most of the cheers involve English words, such as "Hit, Hit, Solid Hit". Many of the other ones had the players name in it asking him to get a sold hit. Oh, I can't forget to mention the team member waving the team flag!
Hot dogs and beer at a baseball game...yes, even in Japan. Most of the standard stadium food was available: hot dogs, nachos, french fries. As we walked around we also saw for sale were ramen noodles, chicken-on-a-stick, chicken nuggets and fried rice. We also walked by a Budweiser stand - funny thing - the girls manning the station started waving us over. I don't know why but I guess we look like we should want to drink Budweiser :) ! Bottles are not allowed inside the stadium, so all drinks are poured into large paper cups. The beer guys at the stadium actually have small kegs strapped to their backs to give you draft beer right at your seat! And yes, it's really expensive - 700 yen a cup (@ $9).
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| I didn't take this picture - but you get the idea. |
The seventh inning stretch is much, much different. Everyone blows up a balloon and lets them fly up in the air and whistle down to the ground. The poor grounds crew has to go around and pick them up before the inning can start!
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| I didn't take this picture either - but imagine 32,000 of these flying through the air! |
Here are some more pictures of our trip to leave you with...
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| Kirk still thinks that the "hang loose" sign is cool - it's not, even in Japan! |
