Monday, June 10, 2002World Cup Diary Part IIII find that I now bow at everyone. I've never said please and thank you so much in my life and the very thought of not clearing up after myself is abhorrent. Heavens, I don't think I'll fit back in in London at all… All right, this has to rank among the most amazing, surreal and culturally extraordinary three days of my life. Diary:  Day 8 - As anticipated, Sapporo digs are miles from nowhere an hour south east of the city where the internet is only heard of in myth and rumour. Huge plus is that it's right in the country. Jokanzei Springs (for tis where we are) is built on a hot springs and is an ugly 60s prefab architectured town surrounded by beautiful tree-clad hills and more hot spring baths than you can shake a stick at. A river runs through the middle and all is traditional Japan. Our room is typical Ryokan style. Smallish, centred by a table which is removed so that beds can be unrolled for the night time. Dinner is served in the room.We eat at 7pm, decked out in our trad Yukata gowns.Here you can seem me me hard at work boiling up my crab legs soup before tucking into the sashimi and assorted bits and bobs. I'd love to tell you it was all lovely but some of it is too much for the untutored western palette. Seaweed is just slime, raw scallops are not to be trusted and some of it literally defied description. But, a great experience and one to be repeated on another trip.  Here's where it started becoming surreal. Here we are, middle of nowhere, and by now gathered around a table in the lobby lounge watching the French fail to beat Uruguay (snigger) along with a few other English lads. This is not five star living, though tis a cultural treat. A movement catches my eye as two men stroll in through the front door. One classic double take later and what I thought at first turns out to be true. George Burley and David Sheepshanks are staying at my hotel. (My disbelieving mind is still in evidence in the 'Nice smiles lads' shot and for those not in the know, these are, left and right, the Chairman and Manager of God's own Ipswich Town Football Club). The pair stay for the remainder of the first half and Sheepshanks returns for the second half. It is every Ipswich Town fan's dream and I end up talking to my chairman for half an hour as we watch the footie and drink beer. He really is as open and honest as he appears in the media and after our chat, the future for ITFC is bright, his son will read all my books and I'm going to write some features for the club website.Not a bad night's work. Day 9 - The Big Game  It all comes down to this. England v Argentina, Sapporo Dome, 8.30am. Woke up feeling vaguely gutty but that could have been the shrimp sashimi. Discovered that the pillow was filled with rice husks so skull is thoroughly massaged. Pete and I decided to chill out all day. Eventually left Jozankei at about 4pm and arrived at the ground in very good time to drink in the building atmosphere and eat a few ham and egg sandwiches. Our view is terrific, the stadium magnificent and the crowd are up for noise from very early on.This was the most tense I can remember being at a football match, the last twenty minutes, I swear my watch started going backwards. But it's a night I'll never forget. The Sapporo Dome is an extraordinary structure both from the outside (Boys at Sapporo pic) and the inside. And where Saitama had been muted, this night, the English let rip. The sound echoed off the roof, cascaded around the inside of the stadium and TV could not possibly have done justice to the sheer noise. It was wonderful to see. Twenty thousand odd English (with our Japanese friends of course) in an arc from behind the goal across under the scoreboard and beyond, clapping and singing in unison. Sent shivers up and down the old spine, I can tell you. Again, I don't have to tell you about the match. England were infinitely better than against Sweden. No player had an off game and the Hargreaves injury was as good for us as it was bad for the lad himself. The cacophony when Beckham scored was beyond belief (I ended up hugging the Japanese couple next to me as well as everyone else I could find) and during that sublime period in the second half when we should have buried them, the sense of righteousness oozed from every England fan. This was payback and did we celebrate come the final whistle?  Not so as you'd notice. I think the Police finally broke up the Odori Park party at 3am. Day 10 - Hungover, well yes. But who cares? You know that feeling of intense well being you get when something really good has happened? Course you do. Every England fan we met wore a vaguely disbelieving smile. We knew it hadn't been a dream but still… Another lazy day was spent gloating and ambling. A long forest and river walk was followed by a couple of cold beers in the afternoon. I hit the Japanese baths at around 5pm. No pics, I'm afraid, they wouldn't have appreciated it since no one in that 35,000 square foot space of ten baths (from cool to very bloody hot) was wearing any clothes. Felt so relaxed after lounging in the healing springs I could hardly get going again. Still, found enough energy to win the night's pool tournament… Day 11 - Travel to Osaka. Talk about a change of culture. From the gentle peace of Jozankei, we flew into the packed buildings and crowded skyline of Japan's third largest city. From the airport, we drove around and across a massive dock area, home to heavy industry from steel, to petrochemicals, oil and cars. Fishing boats vied for space alongside the cargo ships and cranes and the road system intertwined it all. Twenty minutes of pipework and warehouses until we were in the city itself and travelling on a raised ring road looking down on cramped streets and cars. Cars everywhere. Initial impressions not good but our hotel is unbelievable. The room is so big it has it's own doorbell. We're so high up that you can sit in the bath with a beer and watch planes land at Itami airport. And we're surrounded by Yakitori bars and a few stops from the heart of the city. Great location. The party has started in Japan now, by the way. The win over Russia has been greeted with such delight and fervour. They buy into the World Cup more each day which is great to see. But still the only words most seem to know in English are, and rearrange them yourself. 'David', 'England' ('Engrand', actually), 'Owen-san' and 'Beckham'. That's two fewer words than I know in Japanese. Wednesday, June 05, 2002World Cup Diary Part IIIt's Wednesday and this is our last day in Tokyo. Trouble is, the place is absolutely staggeringly expensive. With beer at £6 a pint in any bar, you go through the cash at an alarming rate the moment you step outside your hotel room. On the other hand, we've come here to participate in what is now a growing World Cup atmosphere and staying in your room drinking off licence beer is not an option. Diary:  Day 6 – Robinson and Barclay go cultural and historical, and latterly, hysterical. This was a really fabulous day. We set off for Asakusa after breakfast. Asakusa has buildings and temples dating back to 942 AD and the 3rd Shogun period. Plenty of war damage unfortunately but reconstruction has been done faithfully – I doubt our pictures do it justice but here's one just in case. The buildings are remarkable and the Japanese use the place to pray and make offerings of candles, coins and also they write notes to Buddha and tie them to strings by statues. After we'd wandered about here for a good long time, experiencing our first rain drops of the holiday (it has been 25C and the rest for most of the time) we went to an incense burning cauldron and wafted the smoke over joints and face as instructed by local old Japanese ladies.I then managed to do an impromptu photo shoot – a photographer from Esquire was doing some cross-cultural shots for an article and needed England branded shirts etc. I'd say he chose me because of my model looks but I fear my shirt was the deciding factor. Asakusa was really buzzing – not just tourists but with local Japanese. Plenty of stalls were selling sweets, biscuits and craft goods (all at sky high prices!!) and outside the temple park, a lattice of streets offered food of any description, beautiful printed cloths, books and other assorted bric a brac. Later on in the afternoon, we headed back to Roppongi and to the big screen football bar. The atmosphere in advance of the Japan-Belgium game was growing by the minute and the place was filling with Japanese who couldn't get tickets. By the time the game kicked off, the bar was packed and the excitement extreme among the locals. They cheered every tackle and clearance, squealed at every Japanese attack and shouted relief when a Belgian shot went wide or was saved. And in the second minute, it got even louder... The Irish, English and Swedish in the bar were all shouting for Japan too and as the goals went in during the second half I've never felt a pub football atmosphere like it. To say the roof came off when Japan equalised would be wrong compared to the barrage of sound when they went ahead. All in all an unforgettable experience. Outside afterwards, Japanese fans gathered on the steps of a local hall and sang songs – hard to believe it had been a draw (though we all know there was nothing wrong with their third goal).  Leaving the screaming hordes for a moment, Pete and I found a recommended Japanese restaurant and proceeded to have a quite stupendous meal. All in traditional surroundings, shoes left outside the eating area, waitresses in kimonos, mats for chairs and foot bays under the table if you didn't want to kneel. We kicked off with some sashimi – tuna, halibut, swordfish and Japanese bluefish – all very good but I'm not sure Peter was convinced. Then it was on to two courses of boiled fish (Flounder and Swordfish) both excellent, followed by steak cooked at our table – apparently, it was cooked medium rare but we couldn't persuade Yoko (our waitress) to do any more than show each piece the grill before giving it to us to eat – so much so that most pieces were cold in the middle. Tasted great though. Picture for you as well.We left there quite late after a taste of Sake and swapping business cards which was the way they all introduced themselves in there. The Japanese fans were where we'd left them only there were many more plus confused looking policemen. We had photos taken with the police and local Japanese lads kept on coming up, shaking our hands and shouting ‘England, David Beckham!' at us before wandering off. Hotel late and knackered, slept many hours again…  Day 7 – The budgetary hole is massive after yesterday. Have gone very cheap, swimming in hotel pool and walking around Tokyo Bay which was uninteresting. Had time to take pics of the bizarre transport around here. Doesn't quite fit with the image of the English fan on tour does it?Gawd bless Niall Quinn and the knock on. Lovely to see the Germans trooping off looking depressed. Hopefully the Cameroon can put one over on them shortly. It would serve them right, what with Zeige's ridiculous hair and all. Monday, June 03, 2002World Cup Diary Part IWell, it's been a hell of a weekend and today, with Giles and Alan away back to Blighty, Pete and I are resting our livers and trying to repair some of the damage caused to our budget plans... We're staying in a Tokyo Disney resort hotel that's located in the Tokyo version of docklands. Barring the hordes of kids it's very quiet – hardly an Englishman about, and the World Cup is passing this part of the city by. Only Planet Hollywood (where we are now regulars and the Manager knows us by name) shows the games and the place is almost deserted. Could be a different story when the Japs kick off tomorrow though. Two things strike you about Tokyo immediately. It's incredibly clean – no litter on the streets, the underground, anywhere. They have great respect for the city – shame it ain't the same in London. Second, the people are so friendly and helpful it's almost embarrassing until you get used to it. They are absolutely terrific and it has to be said that the girls are beautiful - and according to the ex-President of Tokyo FC who we bumped into the other day, they are even lovelier in Sapporo. What a shame. Diary:  Day 1 – Arrival. Knackered. A typical Japanese meal of pasta and beer is followed by crashing out. Cannot make email connection.Day 2 – Plans for sightseeing somewhat spoiled by us sleeping until 3pm. 17 hours kip. A record. We slept through a fire drill and constant attempts to get in and clean the room. Finally met Giles and Alan in the lobby bar at 4pmish. Breakfast is half a lager. Rest of day spent at local shopping mall and in Planet Hollywood. France lose 1-0. There is much celebration from our table. No one else seems to notice… Cannot make email connection. Half the staff have now been to the room at some stage or another – discover this is not necessarily a bad thing...  Day 3 – Out and about early. Check out Ginza (Tokyo's 5th Avenue) and a beautiful local park before heading to Roppongi (Tokyo's Soho) where we watch the football with many other English and Irish fans. Great atmosphere for Cameroon v Ireland. Much beer is drunk. Head to local eatery which turns out to be a Korean cook it yourself place. The food is excellent – marinated beef, liver, spiced vegetables and noodles. Return to the magic kingdom, drop into Planet Hollywood (now called Steve's because of the head waiter) in time to see the Germans taking the Saudis to the cleaners. Several more beers and more food later, we end up in Windows, the Hotel's 11th floor bar. Tragically, we carry on the drinking, deciding Margaritas, Brandy, Grappa and finally triple whiskies from Alan's duty free stash back in his room are a good preparation for the Big Day tomorrow. Suss out internet when completely smashed so justifying earlier binge. Day 4 – The Big Day. Hangover from hell and can't understand why. Leave hotel at midday to eat large burgers and drink coke. Recovery begins. Head to Saitama. It is dull so we head for the only place even duller where we at least find a diner to eat and drink in while the KO hour approaches. A few other English drift in and out. Atmosphere at the ground is subdued but very friendly. Fans mixing freely. The stadium is beautiful – a stunning piece of architecture. Japanese are everywhere with St. George's makeup and England shirts. Bizarre.Shan't bore you with the game, you all saw it anyway I expect. Best thing was the respect for the two anthems - no booing whatever. Don't think it'll be the same on Friday for the Argies. Apres match, the atmos was still good. Talked to some Swedes on the way home and they were delighted with the point. They think they'll be going out but wouldn't be drawn on our chances. Took us 3 hours to get back and Steve's was about to shut. However, they kept it open for us to have a couple of reflective beers and even reopened the kitchens so we could have a steak as well. Plus they replayed the Kylie video for us on request… The service is incredible in Japan – and genuine. Unlike the yanks, they don't expect tips and they believe in what they are doing. No superficiality, no falseness. Giles didn't conger into Windows and kiss everyone as he'd promised the night before since we didn't win. The relief was palpable. Day 5 – Chill out. Lie in. Amble in the sun, write emails, download pictures, plan sightseeing for next two days. So much to see. Heading to Steve's at 6pm to watch the Brazilians. |
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