Hiroshima Carps

The Hiroshima Carps are one of the professional baseball teams here in Japan. We went to a game with our friend Masa this past Saturday. It was a great game against the Tokyo Giants and we had an amazing time! We rode the train up there for the first time since we’ve been back in Japan, went to the game, went to a local restaurant (will come in a later post), then went back to Masa’s house to visit with his parents and of course eat some more!

Headed to the stadium.

The news later said there were close to 30,000 people there that day.

A view of the field.

Go Carps!!

The normal stadium food back in the states is hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, cotton candy. They had all types of food. People were carrying around ramen and bowls of soup. Sushi, of course. There were full meals of all different types. I was impressed. One of snacks came from this place. Shin-Bashi-Ya.

The sign said “Eat delicious food and you will be a Carp slugger”

The food was delicious but I still couldn’t hit a baseball if I tried…and I would not be able to hit it out of the ballpark like their sluggers! haha! Nice try though. I won’t sue.

Little Carp fans.

We were behind most of the game but the fans stayed faithful that they would pull it off! Cheering, chanting and rooting them on the whole way. And yes, the person in front of me is wearing a Jeter jersey. They were American.

At the end of the 7th inning the fans blow up balloons and let them go into the sky. Just another way to show support.

Getting our balloons ready!

Everyone waiting for the end of the 7th inning!

The Carps pulled it off. Winning 5-4! The very last play the batter got hit with the ball and won the game! It was awesome! Everyone went crazy!

30,000 people leaving the stadium. If you look closely you can see the Shinkansen (bullet train) in the background.

Awesome day! I got a little tan on top of it all to make it even better.