Runaway Cubicle: Take Me Out to the Ball Game Part 2

One of the things that I wanted to do with my friends was a baseball game. Bridget and I went to one in Tokyo and when I was in Korea (more to come on that later) I went to one and honestly I feel like they are a must do if you ever come here. I used to go Nats games but I never really watched the game, to be honest the last few times I went (a few seasons ago) I basically hung out at the bar that overlooked the field but here you have no choice but to get into it!

When Bridget and I were in Tokyo we were (extremly) lucky to have the concierge at Conrad get our tickets for us. When they offered us the choice of getting our own tickets or having them get them it was a no brainer, we were living it up and being lazy! O how I miss you Conrad concierge! On base I am very fortunate to have Hiroe, she is wonderful and is our Information and Referral specialist. Hiroe is also one of my coworkers so at one of our morning meetings, which are inappropriately called 10 minutes together since the average meeting is about an hour, I asked her how to get tickets. In order to buy tickets for baseball games you have to buy them at a convenience store: Family Mart, 7-11, Lawsons but my 6 words of Japanese are not sufficient for this task. Hiroe wrote it out for me in Japanese and I walked into 7-11 and just handed the paper over and the lovely 7-11 employee just did everything for me and even somehow translated name when I said it to him. There are two types of tickets: reserved tickets and unreserved; the difference is with unreserved tickets you don't actually have a seat but you have to stand in line (maybe for a few hours) and when the gates open you might be lucky enough to get a seat. I was very very fortunate to get reserved seats in the right outfield because I was told it was sold out.

The game was awesome though the Hiroshima Carps lost! However, just like Tokyo the fans are totally 150% into the game. The difference here is that we were BAKING in the sun but when the sun finally went down it was so nice out.

It was so hot out and the Japanese wear these sweat towels on their heads or around their necks. I bought one for Andrea because she was definitely not fairing well in the sun, ummmmmm aren't I the pale one?!?! So Happy Birthday Andrea!

At the 7th inning each team fills up these balloons, does a routine with them, and then lets them go into the air and then people clear them off the field. I was unsure of when to actually do this so I told Alison to do it but it was too early and she let hers go when the other team did. I figured it out (too late) that you do it at the 7th inning right before your team goes up to bat. The winning team also did it again at the end of the game. There was a little girl (maybe around 7) sitting in front of us with her mom and brothers and she kept looking at me like I had 4 heads so I decided to be nice and give her our extra one (they come in a 4 pack). At first she shook her head and looked at her mom and her mom smiled and gigled and told her she could take it so she did and she had the biggest smile on her face. At one point she had 2 and kept playing with them, I really enjoyed watching her with it!