American baseball pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee once said that "You should enter a ballpark the way you enter a church.". But followers of the North American version of the sport may find that hard to do with the contrasting loud, boisterous atmosphere of Japanese stadiums. However, Mazda Stadium gives visitors a unique chance to do just that. Mazda "Zoom Zoom" Stadium is the home of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team of NPB's Central League. While viewing a game there should be high on the to-do list of the traveling baseball fan, a visit during the early afternoon yielded a special treat: visitors are able to walk through the main concourse of the beautiful stadium for free when a game is not taking place. It's rare to get an enormous ballpark to yourself, but it allows fans to follow Lee's advice and feel that special baseball stadium feeling.
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Todd Wojnowski @todd.wojnowski
I am an avid backpacker, writer, marathon runner, hiker, eater of spicy foods, watcher of B-movies, and user of the Harvard comma. I'm originally from Buffalo, New York, and arrived in Japan in 2008.