Community Connections - July 2017

Community Connections is a column written by a Hiroshima City C.I.R., in which ways of making connections with people or local communities are introduced.

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What is a C.I.R. (Coordinator for International Relations)?

A Coordinator for International Relations, or C.I.R. for short, is a participant on the JET Programme who assists local government offices in international exchange at the local level.

Baseball in Hiroshima

By BENJAMIN SWALLOW

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Baseball in Japan is without a doubt one of the most popular sports in Japan, and nowhere more so than in Hiroshima with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp team, known locally simply as the “Carps”. Fans of the Carps are definitely some of the most enthusiastic supporters in Japanese baseball and after last year’s historic Central League victory, the first in 25 years, many hope that they can repeat the trick this year, maybe even winning the coveted Japan Series championship, denied them last year by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

The Hiroshima Toyo Carps were originally founded as the Hiroshima Carps in 1949 to serve as a symbol of reconstruction in the aftermath of the Pacific War and the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima. The team was sponsored by the company Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda) in 1968 and hence they became the Hiroshima Toyo Carps. The team won their first league championship in 1975, beginning a golden age from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s.

The Carps played in the Hiroshima Municipal Stadium from 1957 to 2008 until they moved to their present ground, the Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima.

There are many different types of tickets to Carp games, with lots of different places to sit, but the main ones are tickets you can buy on the day and designated seats bought in advance. If you have confidence in your Japanese then you can register and buy online on the site but, if not, you can easily buy tickets both at the stadium, and at convenience stores. Unfortunately, this season’s tickets are all sold out, but you can still enjoy it on TV at home or at Izakayas!