I can also now say that I have been further north in Japan than Tokyo (my previous furthest point) - having spent part of a day in Niigata watching a football match. The city itself didn't seem particularly interesting, although it did have a huge hundred yen shop, and is probably a nice place to live. The bar we met the Five Live crew in was a bit grotty on the outside but ok on the inside (what we could see of it - it was completely packed out with England fans watching the Germany game!) Our seats for this game were right on a level with the penalty spot - at the end where England scored all three goals!!! The atmosphere was great. During the 2nd half, to create a bit more action, a group of fans got up and started doing the conga around the stadium - and soon everyone was out of their seats and dancing around - the stewards didn't know what to do! There was also an interesting character a few rows in front of us - a balloon artist who was making weird and wonderful balloon hats for everyone around him!
Shizuoka-ken was nicer. We got the Shinkansen to Hamamatsu, which seemed like a nice enough city, and then got a local train about 5 stops to the stadium which was virtually in open countryside. The view from the stadium hill was amazing - lots of paddy fields, layers of mountains, and quite a few trees. Every so often the white of a Shinkansen would whizz by, cutting through the fields - but it only enhanced the view. Hamamatsu has 12,000 Brazilian residents, so this was the first match we had been to where the England team and their opponents had equal support - instead of following England like sheep and getting Beckham-style mohican cuts, the Japanese fans were equally divided between the two teams. Some of the England fans had gone all out for this one, surpassing most of the costumes we had seen so far - afro wigs, kimono, samurai wigs, Beckham wigs, etc (although we never saw the Beefeaters we saw at the England-Nigeria match again!) However the Brazilian fans also had amazing costumes - especially the man with a big steel drum, and the two bikini and plastic fruit-clad feather dancing girls! Briefly met up with the Five Live people again, but they were a bit busy! It was a scorching hot day, and they were broadcasting from the back of a minivan. On any other day I would have loved such weather, but I can't imagine that the oppressive conditions can in any way have gone in our team's favour. The heat out here isn't just hot - it's close and suffocating and all you want to do is lie down or collapse - not run around a sports pitch! During the game we were sitting under the scoreboard - directly behind the goal where Owen scored - the crowd went mad!!! Unfortunately the mood didn't last long. When the game ended we just sat there dumbstruck for ages, until the stadium had virtually cleared and the litter-pickers told us it was time to move on. The most annoying thing was all the Japanese fans who didn't really care who won and kept looking round to gauge our reactions to everything,. One man had England face paint on, but was cheering Brazil by the end. And he must have taken about 50 photos of his girlfriend in different poses around the stadium! After the match there were huge queues for the little train station to take us back to Hamamatsu, so we thought to ourselves, how far can it be to walk to the next little train station? Unfortunately it was a lot further than we had anticipated so we ended up with very sore feet! Eventually made it back, and were very tired upon arrival in Osaka!
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