"Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June." --Al Bernstein

The Gathering of the Clans

Went first thing to the station to check email and change money. The morning was hot and humid and in no time the sweat was only pouring off me—I was wondering what it would be like in the afternoon! Huge crowds of Irish everywhere, and a constant flow arriving from all directions, so the area in front of the station was awash in green, white and orange and a great carnival atmosphere prevailed. There was a welter of accents minglish with accents from all around Ireland: American, Australian, English, Scottish, Cockney, you name it.

No problem getting a machine at the waiting room in the station—word obviously hasn't gotten around that there's free internet access here! The sports section of the Irish Times website contained very weak reports that continued to harp on the Keane incident, very much out of touch with the great atmosphere here in Niigata. The BBC site is much better for news of the Irish team.

Money Matters

I don't like carrying lots of cash on me, so I was by now running short of yen. According to the tourist information office, there were no banks or money changers open anywhere at the weekend, so the only option was to withdraw money from one of the few ATMs that accepted foreign- issued credit cards. It comes as a surprise that although there are ATM machines on every street corner, they will honour only credit or debit cards issued by Japanese banks. I had learned from the Internet that Citibank accepts foreign-issued cards, but the tourist office couldn't confirm whether there was a Citibank in the city, but they did assure me that the ATM at the post office would accept my card.

The problem then was to find the place and get some money before the game started. I just made it...

The Beautiful Game—Ireland v Cameroon

Then stocked up with food and water for the day at Lawson's, a minimarket just around the corner from the hotel. Collected the camcorder and flag from my room and joined the crowds assembling for the buses to take them to the stadium.

The organization here has been just great, nothing to complain about. Behind the station a fleet of shuttle buses waited to ferry the fans to the Big Swan stadium. As I arrived there were thousands already there, filing to the buses, about 40% Irish supporters and 60% Japanese. Only a handful of Cameroon supporters in evidence.

The trip to the stadium took half an hour, passing crowds of walking supporters on the way. The stadium looked great as we alighted from the bus. Television cameras everywhere focusing in on the more outrageously dressed of the Irish fans—leprechauns, mascots of all kinds, wigs of every shape and colour, green kilts, massive flags, dancers, you name it.

It was a bit of a walk and climb to the seat, so I was glad to finally relax and quench my thirst before the game started. According to an announcement made, there were 33,600 in the stadium, and I would estimate that a quarter to a third of them were Irish supporters (a small number of Japanese sported Irish colours, but there were large numbers of Irish supporters from Britain, US and other countries who weren't wearing any colours).

We were seated diagonally across from the Irish goal. The first half was dismal, from an Irish point of view, especially after Cameroon scored. The Irish were just not gelling, and I'm sure that the thought racing through many fans' minds was: have I come all this way to watch Ireland being beaten? Roy Keane's presence in midfield was sorely lacking. But on the other hand the Cameroons were not as fearsome as they had been predicted to be, and towards the end of the half the Irish began to pick themselves up.

But boy, was this a game of two halves! I ran out of water so during half-time went looking for a drink, and was still in the queue (like the man in the Heineken ad) when Mattie Holland scored for Ireland. That really got the crowd going and the fans were jublilant from then on, and we were unlucky not to win, when Robbie Keane bounced one off the post in the 83rd minute.

On the bus after the game sat next to Frank, from Clare, who was big into photography.

The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars

Back in the city I went straight to Blockie's, where I'd arranged to meet a few people. Frank Kerins, a musician who gigged around England for the last six months to pay for this trip, along with his son Shane, his uncle from Sligo, who had spent 40 years in South Africa, and other members of his family. The fans trickled in all evening (there are not many public bars in Niigata!) until the place was jammed.

We watched our fellow Group E members Germany thrash Saudi Arabia 8-0. Not a great result from our point of view, but the feeling is that after Ireland's great second-half display today, they would put up a good fight against the Germans. And one point against Cameroon is better than three against Saudi Arabia!

Back at the hotel there was still a crowd up watching the replays, topping up from the hotel vending machine next door (the vending machine in our hotel was long out of beer). The process of "topping up" was that one or two of us would go to the larger hotel next door and get up to a dozen cans from the hotel vending machine, obtaining change from the reception desk. This continued, with the seemingly smiling assent from the receptions of both hotels, until every vending machine in the hotel next door was emptied. Then, after a brief discussion on whether the hunt for gargle should go further afield, it was unanimously decided that we had had a good day and we should leave it at that, and it was beddy-byes for all.

The other result of the day was in Group A Denmark beat Uruguay 2-1.