Wednesday, June 21, 2006

サッカーワルドカップ - Soccer World Cup!

Today's honorable random mention goes to... The FIFA Soccer World Cup. As you may have noticed the soccer world cup slogan is something like "uniting people as friends" - I don't know if that is actually working out in Germany, but in Matsudo, Chiba-ken, Japan it has been a huge success: in my dorm there are a lot of soccer fans, from all over the world. From the landlord, who gladly puts up multiple projectors when Japan is playing, to the folks from Burma who have taught me that soccer in fact used to be quite popular there until the military junta decided to redirect all funds towards guns, to the Indian guy cheering for Iran due to the ethnic ties between India and the Middle East... It's a riot. Every night the soccer fans congregate in front of our shared big screen TV to watch the days highlights and games, with people dropping out as the night drags on (the last game of the day is on at 4AM Japan time...) in the hallways the Konbanwas have been replaced by "Which game are you watching tonight?" and "have you heard that Team X beat Team Y?", alliances change quickly and sympathies are with which ever resident's team is playing tonight.
Japan, much too everyone's dismay, has struggled so far, loosing to AU and playing a 0-0 tie with Croatia. Friday 4AM will be the deciding match for everyone's darling: Japan will be meeting Brazil in Dortmund and half of J&F House will be getting up very early to cheer them on. The odds are not looking too favorable, but even the Brazilian residents have agree that Japan should- and deserves to win this one: it will be much more fun for all of us if they stay in the game...

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