Very hot and humid today (so what else is new...?). Checked email in Kinko's then took the subway to the station. I was heading for Fukuoka, a city of 1.3 million people in the north of the large, southern island of Kyushu. I was a bit confused because the train timetables mentioned Hakata. I discovered that Fukuoka is sometimes known as "Hakata"—the name of the 2000 year old merchant city that was amalgamated with the 400 year old castle town of Fukuoka in 1967 to form the modern city. Hakata Station is the city's main transport hub and is the southern terminus of the shinkansen. My plan was to take the hydrofoil from Fukuoka/Hataka to Busan (only three hours on the hydrofoil, but more expensive than the ferry). It's 70 miles to Busan. I reserved my shinkansen ticket.

The prime minister's family

On the train I was reading about the strange (for us Westerners, that is) case of the Japanese Prime Minister's family. Junichiro Koizumi's 18-year-old son, Yoshinaga Miyamoto, has never personally met his politician father. The closest he has come was at a rally a few months ago, when he managed to get within about a dozen yards.

Miyamoto's mother, Kayoko, wants to visit the two elder sons she hasn't seen since they were 1 and 4. She was six months pregnant with Miyamoto when she and Koizumi divorced, apparently because of a wide gap in age and interests, and she moved out of the extended Koizumi household. Although the older boys grew up with Koizumi's family less than a 15-minute drive away, she has been barred from any personal contact with them. Strange, or what?

The newspapers and TV are focusing on Japan's Group H match with Tunisia today. The burden of expectation rests heavily on the players' shoulders.

A Slowboat to Korea—the Land of Morning Calm

Arriving in Fukuoka around 4:30, I spoke to an Irish supporter I met in the station, Seamus from New Ross, who informed me that the overnight ferry to Busan was leaving shortly. This was good news, because it was cheaper than the hydrofoil and would save a night's stay in a hotel (and it ran only every second day, so I was bang on time!).

The ferry departed at 7:00 PM. Futons and blankets were laid out for us in partitioned-off areas of the lower deck. We could have gotten a berth, of course, but that would have added to the cost, and it didn't make sense as we only wanted to sleep.

Later that evening we tried to watch the Group D Portugal-South Korea game, but the picture was very shaky and every time the boat changed course slightly it disappeared altogether. About ten middle-aged women were also gathered around the TV screen, getting very excited. Joao Pinto was sent off, then Beto. Amazingly, South Korea won 1-0, and Portugal is going home!

Other matches today were:

In Group H Japan against Tunisia and Belgium against Russia. Co-host Japan stormed to a 2-0 win over Tunisia on the strength of second half goals by Hiroaki Morishima and Japanese superstar Hidetoshi Nakata to top Group H and move on to the second round, where they'll face Turkey. Second spot in the group goes to Belgium, thanks to an action-packed 3-2 win over Russia on late second half goals by Wesley Sonck (78th minute) and Marc Wilmots (82nd minute).

The other game in Group D was Poland against the USA. Poland won 3-1, but the USA progress along with South Korea.

Sayonara-Mata-Aimasyo!

Goodbye, see you again, Japan!