Getting Oriented

Great sleep—didn't wake until 7:30. Bought milk and a take-away breakfast in Lawson's, one of a chain of minimarkets, just around the corner. Used the internet facilities at the station, but their machines didn't have a disk drive, and I had some stuff on a floppy that I needed to upload, so I went in search of an internet cafe somewhere in the Honcho area, on the other side of the river.

Lots of Irish appearing everywhere you look. Stopped to talk to several groups about places to go, plans for the game, etc. For lunch I went to an "Italian" restaurant to try a Japanese pizza (I had the Shrimp-Potato: shrimp, diced potato, mayonnaise, seaweed, sesame seeds—it'll never catch on in Naples!). A Dublin chap called Owen told me they had a ticket free, so I left a message for Martin at the hotel, then went off to look for a couple of bars that were close to the Honcho Arcade.

All The World's a Stage

The Furumachi Arcade at the other side of the Bandai bridge had been decorated with flags, banners and balloons. A stage had been set up and some very graceful middle-aged dancers (I'm showing my age!) were performing. A beer stall was selling cheap (for Japan!) beer for about 300 yen and various musical acts were waiting to perform—a real holiday atmosphere!

Met two students from Castleknock, who were camping in a town about an hour away—they were on a very tight budget, and camping was a lot cheaper than hotels. They had just returned from the beach, so we talked over a couple of beers. Some photographers passing by started taking photographs of Teddy and before long we were invaded by various radio and TV crews. Gave a long live radio interview for a local FM station, to an Australian presenter who had been in Japan for 10 years.

As we giving the interview, crews from the BBC and ITV, and newspaper photographers hovered about taking pictures (this later appeared on TV in Ireland).

Everyone Meets at the Internet Cafe

I then resumed my search for an internet cafe. Very few of the volunteer helpers who had stalls set up on the streets could speak English, and I wandered around for some time until I found one who understood what I was looking for. Redirected back to the other side of Bandai bridge, I came across a six-a-side tournament near the FIFA offices, Ireland V Japan. An Irish chap there who had been in Niigata for 10 months as part of the JET program teaching English pointed out the Media cafe. Checked email and the news from home. Despite the Roy Keane turmoil, all seems to be well at the Irish camp.

At the internet cafe I met Tom from Seattle and John from NY. Tom was an old hand at the World Cup game—this was his third, after '94 and '98. John was looking for a ticket and had heard there might be a possibility of picking one up at the Black Pig, an English pub back near the Furumachi Arcade, so I offered to take him there, during which we stopped to chat with various groups along the way. I left him there while I went in search of Cheers, a pub that was supposed to have a TV for tonight's game. When I finally found the place, a Scottish woman who was living here told me about Blockie's, just around the corner from the Black Pig, so I checked it out and found it had a huge screen set up and lots of space, so I just dashed around the corner to inform John and with Tom returned to Blockie's, where we spent the rest of the evening watching the France-Senegal game.

In the first game of the tournament, a surprise result, in Group A Senegal beat France 1-0. Right from the start, Senegal's lone man up front, El Hadji Diouf, had set his sights on the older, slower French defense, especially Frank Leboeuf, and it was Diouf's speed and skill that created the chance on a cross in front of the net that Pape Bouba Diop knocked home while on the ground.