Japan 2008 - Hiroshima - Day 5
Hiroshima was on tap for today. We arrived from Kyoto via Shinkansen (Bullet train). Our first stop was the Peace Memorial. As many times as I’ve been, there’s always something very moving about it. As they periodically update their displays, there were some new exhibits for me to see as well. Suffice it to say that if you manage to get to Japan anywhere near Hiroshima, this is a place you should make time to see.
On a lighter note we also went to see a Japanese Baseball game. On the schedule was the Hiroshima Carp versus the Tokyo Giants. The Carp are unfortunately a perennial also-ran in the Japan Leagues. They are a small market team that has a rabid following, but only rarely manage to make it the whole way.
If you’re a baseball fan, Japanese baseball is an amazing experience. Obviously the core rules of the game itself are basically the same as the US, but the crowd experience is unbelievable. Now, I’m not a rabid fan. I enjoy watching the game, and I always root for my home team (Padres) despite their ups and (mainly) downs, and I do track their progress throughout the year. I may go to the park a few times a year, I’ve been to their playoff games, and I wish I could have gone to their World Series trips, but, I’ve never experienced anything like this.
First off is the instruments: In a couple of spots along the bleachers, there are trumpeters. Throughout the game, they break out and fire up the crowd (as if they needed it). To aid them, are drummers, pounding out the beat on some large drums and tone sticks, and some flag wavers, and some of them use police whistles.
Next up is the megaphones: You can actually purchase what amount to plastic megaphones in different sizes to suit your volume needs. Then, there’s the bang sticks: Those plastic tubes that you bang together to make more noise than you could with your hands. Then add in the partisan and very knowledgeable crowd, and you have quite the raucous cacophony.
Then there’s this gentleman: Periodically he would don this head and lead the section in some cheers.
Should the Carp get a hit, he would leap up on a box and synchronize the crowd cheers again.
Should the Carp score (unfortunately all too infrequently this game) again he would leap up on the box and lead the crowd in cheers.
The noise factor is pretty amazing. Granted the playoffs I went to have to be the loudest thing I’ve ever been to, but synchronizing the entire crowd is pretty amazing. Only rarely in the States have I heard the crowds get synchronized in their cheers the way the Japanese crowd did repeatedly all throughout the game. In Japan, the entire crowd will start chanting the name of the batter or pitcher, in synchrony, at key at-bats, or pitches during the game. “The wave” has got nothing on this.
Some of the other highlights were: beer service at your seat, including the roving draft lady with the pony keg on her back, who would refill your beer for you at your seat, being able to have a bowl of noodles at your seat, and the people who would come by to take your trash away for you. We were at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium, which I understand will be torn down at the end of this year and replaced with a new stadium to be built near the train station. It was an older stadium, and was fairly small in terms of available seating, perhaps feeling a bit like a minor league stadium stateside.
Long about the 6th inning, we were handed some balloons. Now, these balloons were interesting, the opening had a small ring on it, designed to whistle when air passed through it. What happened was at the top of the 6th inning, a song was played to which a few in the crowd sang along to, then at the end of the song, they released their balloons, which proceeded to float up in the air like humongous, slow, bottle rockets, whistling along. Those were apparently from the few brave Giant’s fans in attendance.
About the 7th inning, the Carp fans got their turn. So all throughout the inning, you heard the “wheee, wheee, wheee” as the balloons were blown up, with the occasional “pop” of the failed or overinflated balloons. But by the end of the 7th inning, there was a veritable sea of these balloons all waiting for launch.
(Now, those of you laughing or giggling maniacally at the phallic nature of the balloons, please try to calm down and catch your breath at some point…) So, at the end of the song, everyone releases the balloons, and there’s this amazing sea of pink balloons shooting up into the air whistling up into the night. Needless to say there were far more balloons released for the Carp than for the Giants.
Unfortunately, the Carp would not win on the night, despite their best efforts. The Giants started strong with 3 runs in the first inning, and held on with a few more solo home runs throughout the game, more than enough to hold off the Carp who managed to shoot themselves in the foot a few times in the game. Hrm…kind of felt like the Padres of late…no wonder I felt at home watching the game.
All in all, it was quite an amazing experience. While the spectacle on the field was more or less the same, complete with a mascot that looked an awful lot like the Philly Phanatic, and the usual weirdness that accompanies most mascots, the game in the stands was far different, and it was a very enjoyable difference.