Memories of Korea/Japan #2

FootyNotes will be at the greatest show on earth in 2010, live and unleashed. We will take you through the lighter side of life at the World Cup. In our countdown, relive our adventures at previous World Cups. Check part one out here.


HOW TO BE FAMOUS IN KOREA

The World Cup is capturing the imagination and the hosts are doing well. On television, weirdly, there are more slow-motion replays of manager, the Dutchman Guus Hiddink, than there are of the games.

Every hand movement and jump of emotion is fascinating the producers. Meanwhile on the streets, games can be watched anywhere. TVs dangles on fast-food chain window sills on gurgle on the desks of railway ticket sellers.

Some foreigners in Seoul wore South Korea T-Shirts on the night the hosts qualified for the World Cup second round.

Feverish Koreans demanded to take pictures with them all as if they were Hollywood megastars. What will happen if they win the whole thing?

THE JAPANESE PREFER BASEBALL

It is not quite as feverish in Japan where the games are not even being transmitted on free-to-air television. Nonetheless, a small element of Tokyo youths have taken Japan’s qualification a little too far by getting drunk en masse on a roundabout.

The police are in attendance but surely it beats our Saturday night rituals of looting and pillaging? Tokyo doesn’t seem overly bothered by the World Cup and I wonder if this is what USA 94 was like.

However, I do enjoy a lovely game of unisex football where every one of my kicks is politely clapped, even those aimed unnecessarily and quite brutishly at opposing players. A Middle-Eastern guy manages to score about 40 goals in the brief game but there are pleasantly few recriminations aimed at me during the post match beer where I witness Japanese youngsters with painted St Georges flags on their faces.

 I do double-take at the sight of Japanese kids standing for the British national anthem but to them this is all panto. And, Beckham, being the world’s coolest footballer, has helped England garner a fair bit of local support, which is a refreshing change.

PASSENGERS PLEASE NOTE, BRAZILIANS ON THE TRAIN

In Kobe, rebuilt after a devastating earthquake, my trip begins to draw to a close. Japan have left the tournament and, as the business end of the competition begins, so the magic of Asia’s first competition starts to die.

Many of the great European powers have been sent packing and the US team are revelling in the unusual role of underdog. Brazil are still here. I travelled with them on the same train from Tokyo. Yes, that’s right, train. You can’t help imagining the world’s best footballers trying to squeeze on to the 0821 to Clapham Junction but this is Japan and the punctuality of trains seems to be of almost celestial importance.

I have even heard a report that one fan’s foolishness – which caused a train to be three minutes late – landed him in jail. For more than three minutes, I understand.

This has been a strange World Cup. The vast armies of European football fans have been somewhat absent. The pubs are prohibitively expensive unless you happen to be in a bar when the landlord says free drinks if Ireland triumph in a penalty shoot-out.

Well, as it happened, they lost anyway. That said, this World Cup has been enjoyably weird. The stadia look like alien ships parked up in towns across the Far East for a couple of weeks. The hustle and bustle has rather disturbed the iron efficiency of the Tiger Economies. Europe’s grand battle (plus Brazil and Argentina) is playing second fiddle to baseball but maybe the great soccer juggernaut needed a dose of humility.