First stop was the Peace Memorial Park. It was a weird experience. The atmosphere of depressing hope that they managed to create is tough to decide how to react to. They preserved a building in the state it was right after the bomb and dedicated it as a peace memorial. All I could do was think about how people must have been walking though the park just like me that day. It's a tough place to go.
All around the park they have thousands of paper cranes, and giant fiberglass paper cranes. They're sent from all over the world in memory of a little girl who died from leukemia after the war. The look cheerful, but then you think about why they're there, and it brought me back down.
Anyway, I decided to leave after a little while and head to the ballpark after checking into the hotel. It looked like they were setting up for some sort of festival. When I went back to the hotel, there was yet another hip hop dance group on a stage just outside.I walked the ballpark and looked for the hat and shirt shop, but they didn't have as many as the other parks. I had to wade into the only one they had and somehow figure out if I needed a size O or F or 150 or what. I got suited up and went in.
It's another old park, built in 1957. Narrow hallways and really tightly packed-in concession stands. They're building a new stadium that will open next year, but from the people I talked to, nobody knows exactly where it is.With the benefit of coming alone, I got about the best seats I've ever had at a ballgame. Right by 3rd base in the 2nd row. So there wasn't anyone sitting in front of my to take this picture. By the way, there's no smoking. There was, however, more sun, but I had sunscreen now.
It was a good game. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp (who are mostly owned by Mazda and look just like the Reds) were losing to the Yokohama BayStars 2-5 in the 7th inning. They don't know "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" here. Instead of a 7th inning stretch, they call it "Lucky 7", sing a song, and blow up balloons. These are no ordinary balloons, they're "Rocket Balloons". They have a plastic valve on the end that both limits the flow and and weights down the balloon. What do you do with these? You let them go, and let the grounds crew clean it up.
To be fair, they do this at all the stadiums, I just didn't mention it sooner. I got some balloons to take with me. They say "The Balloon of the Victory".Anyway, the Carp (which in Japanese is Car-pu) were down 6-2 before they came back and scored 6 in the bottom of the 8th to win 8-6. There was the traditional hero interview, and then, to celebrate the win, more balloons.
After the game I took a short break and then headed out to look for the food that Hiroshima is famous for, okonomiyaki. It literally means "cooked as you like it" or something like that. It happens to be my favorite Japanese food. The guidebook promised me a building filled with 30 or so okonomiyaki joints, if only I could find it. It took a while, because it was more nondescript than I expected, but I found it. I couldn't read most of the menu, but I could make out the word "Deluxe", so that's what I went for. Turns out that means with shrimp and cuttlefish, which is OK by me.
Okonomiyaki is sort of like a pancake, at least that's what they say, but it's not sweet. It's got a sort of pancake on the bottom, but after that they add some fish, cabbage, an egg, and who knows what else. They make it all on the big hot griddle in front of you, cooking 10 or so of these at a time for all the people there. It's a show in itself. I don't know how they keep it straight.
Afterwards, I decided I was out of Japanese for the day and went to an Irish bar for a beer before bed. Next day was another long one.
2 comments:
What beer did you have at the Irish Bar? Guinness?
I've got to see your jersey collection when you get back. What a great idea!
Post a Comment