Month: June 2002

It has been a slow week here (on this blog, not my life). I started working this week, which as all work does occupied a nice chunk of my time. However, it really was mindshare that was getting used up in abundance, and so this week I haven’t felt very effusive.

Truth be told as well, I’ve been trying to assess exactly what I want out of this blog. I haven’t been entirely happy with how it has started out, and frankly I don’t have (especially now with employment) the energy to keep it going as some sort of political or news analysis blog. On the other hand, I haven’t been very comfortable with the idea of making it more personal, more like a diary. Lord knows there are plenty of those types of blogs out there, and most that I read bore me to tears when they’re not making me cringe out of embarrassment for the author. (To be fair of course, there are also plenty of politically minded web-rags out there that either bore me or make me cringe). I suppose we’ll just have to see where it goes….

Speaking of work, I went out for beers after my first day of non-on-the-job-training last Friday night, and ended up in a sports bar watching the second half of the England-Argentina game. I’ll admit I got more than a bit tipsy, and at 11:45pm found myself at a crowded Omiya station with a lot of other tipsy members of Japanese society waiting for the last train home. As I stood there on the platform in my salaryman suit and tie trying to stay balanced with my cellphone in hand and my thumb typing out an email to my wife letting her know that I indeed was on my way home, I had an epiphany: I had arrived in Japan. In some small very tiny way, I felt I belonged, that I had passed that grey demarcation line between tourist and resident.

The sports bar itself had been energizing. all these young Japanese inexplicably rooting passionately for England, many of them sporting painted red and white flags on their cheeks. I could have cared less about the outcome, but I found myself by the end rooting for the British side as well. After Beckham and co. came out victorious, I had my British by association hand shaken by a half-dozen or so Japanese who congratulated me on my victory.

I suppose it’s inevitable, as there seems to be a blog for all tastes (and then some) these days, but I’m quite a happy blog surfer to find this great World Cup blog (via The Blog of Chloe and Pete).

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be in Japan at this moment of World Cup 2002, and while my wife and I haven’t been able to scrounge up (or afford!) any tickets (yet! apparently FIFA is now doing some same-day Internet sales), what a thrill just to be here, walk around Tokyo and feel the excitement in the air, and watch the games LIVE on tv at normal viewing times (which reminds me, I need to finish this up as Argentina vs. Nigeria will be coming on the telly in less than an hour’s time).

Being an American, naturally I have not been much of a fan of soccer (or football as most of the world calls it, though here in Japan it’s known as “soccer”). Actually, I think it’s more accurate to write that I was never really allowed to become a fan of soccer. But having the World Cup in one’s own (albeit brand new) backyard does wonders for fandom, not to mention the nerve-wracking excitement of watching Senegal hold off France for 60 minutes after going up 1-0 in the opening match. Of course, being able to watch uninterrupted 45 minute halves with no annoying ad banners helps too, as does utilizing the SAP button on the tv remote and being able to listen to English-speaking Premiership commentators who are unmatched in their pithy brilliance (although I do have to admit to missing Andres Cantor — his patented “Goooooooal” must have gotten a workout during Germany’s 8-0 rout of Saudi Arabia last night).

Japanese TV is all agog with World Cup coverage as can be imagined, most of it centered on the national team, which will be lucky to make it past the first round, although we’ll be rooting for them. However, as I can still barely understand the language, I’ve been starved for alternative sources and for stories that don’t feature the term “hooligan” (the hooligan angle has been played up in just about every World Cup story on Japanese tv for the last two months, the Japanese are obsessed with the idea of unruly foreigners disrupting their hallowed “wa” or harmony). The World Cup blog perfectly fills the need. Where else can one find links to stories like this one from a Johannesburg newspaper about the South African team being allowed to have sex during the World Cup if they want to?