When Rob Fitts is in Japan during baseball season, he makes it a point to carve out time for a trip to Hiroshima to watch the Hiroshima Carp play.
One day, while watching a contest at Mazda Stadium alongside the Carp¡¯s legion of passionate red-clad fans, Fitts was struck by a spark of curiosity.
As the game played out on the field, he found himself wondering about the uriko ¡ª the (almost always) female beer vendors who traverse the stands with small kegs strapped to their backs and are a ubiquitous presence at NPB games. What was the job like? What did it entail? How did they fit into the larger Japanese baseball experience?
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