Decided to stay for an extra two days here in Niigata. It's a nice laid-back town, I know my way around it, so why not?

Intended to go to the beach this morning but as usual met a load of Irish (and others) and hung around to chat, so that by 12:00 noon I was still in the Media Internet Cafe waiting to get onto the Internet. An English chap there who was putting on a few bets told me about the Milan sports bar, and said it would be open at 2:00 for the first game. I told several groups of Irish about this bar, and after lunch headed off to look for it.

Men Make the Laws, Women Make the Tea

In the arcades there were several cultural events taking place, one of them involving making tea in an open seated space outside a tea shop. Dressed in traditional costume, the assistants prepared the tea and then handed it out to the public, along with a sweet. The tea ceremony itself (chaji) is a highly ritualized affair, of which the actual drinking of the tea from small cups takes up only a small part. Nearby were several shops selling the requisite accountrements for the tea ceremony. Traditional Japanese teacups are usually sold in pairs of different sizes (called meoto-jawan), the larger being meant for a man and the other, smaller one, being meant for a woman.

I read somewhere that Ireland is currently the largest per capita consumer of tea.

The Intricacies of the Traditional Female Dress

For anyone interested, here is a simplified description from the diary of Richard Gordon Smith (I don't think the traditional outfit has changed in the last hundred years, but I'm open to correction!). First comes the coat, assima koto. Next, the haori, a sort of outside kimono kept together by a silk tassel called haori no himo, then the real kimono. There are different kinds of kimono for different occasions. Around the kimono is the obi, the broad sash that is the most important part of the outfit, with the otaiko, the bow, behind. Under the kimono there's a somewhat similar garment, along with a chemise. The white stockings with the big toe in a separate section are called tabi, and the wooden shoes are geta. The whole outfit is rounded off with a parasol (or nowadays with mobile phone!).

The Milan Sports Bar

Had a bit of difficulty finding the Milan bar, which is situated on the second floor of the Lion Tower (pronounced "Rion Tower" by the Japanese) block, in what appears to be the "entertainment" district. The restaurants and bars in this corner all have Italian names. The other floors in this block housed dozens of hostess bars, behind anonymous closed doors. Stressed-looking sararimen would enter these establishments from around four o'clock on, to stagger out a few hours later, beaming, face flushed, tie awry, and as often as not helped into the lift by a female or two.

Also looking for Milan was Michael O'Brien, recently retired after 40 years in Hong Kong, now resident in Laois. In the bar we met Paul and his friend Kevin from Dublin, recently arrived via Thailand, and Ann from Mayo and her friend Rhonnda from Australia. We watched all three of today's games here, while the word had gotten around the Irish fans and lots of them arrived during the afternoon.

A large draught beer here cost 600 yen. The bar girls and owner were run off their feet by the demand. After an hour they ran out of draught beer. They served bottles and cans for about an hour but then they ran out of them too. In the meantime they had obtained a keg from another bar, but that too was soon finished, so there was a wait while a number of kegs were obtained from various quarters. They probably sold more drinks in that afternoon than they normally do in a month or two!

The Beautiful Game

The results of the day were:

In Group F, in a hard physical encounter, Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 while England, who played well in the first half but seemed to go to sleep in the second, drew with Sweden, 1-1. Sol Campbell gave them the lead, heading in a Beckham corner. Then they played a lame second half, allowing Sweden to draw even when Danny Mills screwed up. Just when they needed him most, Beckham was tired and had to come off.

In Group B South Africa were lucky to get a last-minute penalty to draw 2-2 with Paraguay while, in the same group, Spain beat Slovenia 2-1.

Taxis...

Took a taxi back to the hotel. Taxi drivers open and close passenger doors without leaving their seats or turning around. They have a hand lever next to the steering wheel. In Niigata you have to pay ¥610 just to have the door open (though the meter does remain at this figure for some time). The fare back to the hotel was just over ¥1000 (10 Euros).