First Time in 25 years!!

No one in Hiroshima missed the historic game last night.


Carps, the baseball team from Hiroshima finally won the championship of the Central League by beating the Giants 6-4 in Tokyo Dome!

We'd been waiting for this for 25 YEARS!!

I can't believe it took such a long time to be the first place. When they last won the title was back in 1991, the same year I was born!

I was born and raised in Hiroshima, and it was only natural for me to watch baseball games rooting for the Carps in the stadium or on TV when I was little.

But it seems kinda strange for people from other cities to see Hiroshima citizens being so enthusiastic about Carps. I've been asked many times by my university friends "why are you so into Carps?" when I lived in Yokohama (where people are not that interested in baseball even though they have their own team to support in the city LOL)

Well.. there is a good reason for our enthusiasm!

Ever since the Carps was established in 1950, few years after the war ended, the team had struggled with LACK OF MONEY.
Then the citizens made donations of four million yen to save the team. When the Mazda Stadium was built in 2009, we also donated for more than a hundred million yen for the construction. We call the donations "Barrel fundraising," and we're very proud of what we've done!

That's why we have this kind of feelings that "We raised the team" and  love the Carps a lot!

A lot of parties are now going on in bars and restaurants in the city. It's the BEST time even for tourists to buy things a lot cheaper as big sales (like up to 25 % off) are happening in department stores and appliance stores!

I'm really excited to see Carps win the Japan series and literally be the champion of Japan! Go Carps!!