Rooting for the "C" team

What are 2 lovely single ladies going to do on a beautiful summer evening in Hiroshima?!

Go to a baseball game, of course :)

The Hiroshima Carp play in one of the few open-air stadiums in Japan.  This was excellent weather for a night game!  I'm so glad it wasn't in a dome!

The Hiroshima Carp play in the "Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium" built in 2009. 

The name makes me giggle, and it's refreshing to hear something being sponsored by someone other than Toyota!!

Another reason I like the Hiroshima Carp? 

Well, they fashioned their uniforms and iconic "C" from the Cincinnati Reds!!  (Out of all of the US teams they could have picked... LOL)

I felt right at home looking at all of the gear on the souvenir stands!

So refreshing to be at an outdoor game.  I almost forgot what it was like! 

The Hiroshima Carp fans are known as the rowdiest throughout Japan.  In fact, they were the first team to start selling the noisy clappers and plastic bats you bang together during chants!

I even saw my company's name "Mitsui" roll across the scoreboard.  I know it's been over 8 months since I've arrived, but I was so proud of myself for recognizing it in Japanese Kanji characters!!  (Followed by the Mitsui logo, so I knew I was right!!)

Being from Hawaii, this is Tarynn's first baseball game ever.  It was a little strange to have to explain everything on the scoreboard, including Balls, Strikes, Outs, etc.

Kerri and Tarynn enjoy the game.

Why doesn't Cincinnati have a food stand called "C-Men" that serves ramen soup (among other things)?!

  Maybe I should suggest it...

And which team were the Hiroshima Carp playing against tonight? 

None other than my hometown team, the Chunichi Dragons!!  I was so torn on who to root for... the cool uniforms that remind me of Cincy or my Nagoya boys.

The goofy baseball team mascots. You may remember Doala, the clumsy blue koala (who has nothing to do with dragons).  The Carps do not have a fish either, instead they have Slyly, an unknown animal imitating the Philly Phanatic.  (Does this team not have a single original thought?)

We discovered another goofy Japanese tradition... 

What is that man doing to that balloon?

At the bottom of the 7th inning, everyone blows up these odd-shaped "jet balloons". 

Waves the balloons around while singing the team song.

And then lets them go!!

It was wild stuff, and of course, can only be done in outdoor stadiums.  The only reason I got a few pictures of it was because a small group of Dragons fans did the same thing at the top of the 7th inning after singing their team song.  So when I saw Carp fans getting their balloons ready, I knew what was going to happen.

I checked the internet to find out the meaning behind the balloons, and it's all in good fun.  No particular reason, but it's wildly popular in Japan.  Interestingly, the tradition was banned last season due to the H1N1 flu virus.  No one could have human breath-powered balloons because an infected person could breathe their germs into the balloon and then let it go, spewing airborne germs all over the stadium (or so the theory goes...).

The end of the game, and the Dragons finally pull out a win!!  6-0, with 3 home runs.  The Zoom-Zoom stadium is smaller that most domes, so home runs are much easier to achieve!! 

When I was back at work, my co-workers were very jealous to hear that I went to another baseball game, especially a night game in an outdoor stadium!  And it's unbelievable to them that every game I go to happens to be the Dragons!  (But there are only 12 teams, so how unbelievable is it, really?!)  Anyway, in my department I now officially hold the record for most Dragons games attended so far this season.

I guess it just proves that Americans really do love their baseball ;)