“The Peace” in Algeria.

Assalomu alaykum! This is Atsushi.

(Assalomu alaykum is hello in Arabic, which is the official language of Algeria..)

Many French breads make the old man BIG SMILE.

Of course, I love beautiful landscape pictures. But I also value these everyday sights.

Algerian eats French bread because of the colonial background of France.

In any restaurants, you are always served French bread at first. Sounds like Algerian live on French Bread as Japanese live on rice : )

The street stalls had a lot of faked soccer Jersey at sale.

Soccer is the most popular sport in Algeria. It is no exaggeration to say that soccer is the greatest sports ever in this country.

A dandysh old man was selling vegetable in Casbah Market

The day passes peacefully. So, I almost forget that there has been many terrorisms happening in Algeria.

But once you step in backstreet, you will see the impact.

A lot of paints everywhere on the wall 

which has Algerian national flag.

Look at that picture. There is the sun coming out behind the heart. I love this radical design !

At the square near Casbah with young Algerians.

We saw a lot of people wearing soccer jersey.

The kid was playing soccer on the street.

He is so charming.

Since we visited Algeria, we have been thinking about what the truth is.

That is, mass media always tells us that Algeria is a dangerous country for terrorisms. However, you never know this peaceful aspect of Algeria unless you step into the place for real.

It is no use in discussing it is truth or not.

What we need to do is knowing that the both aspects are true.

But, I guess if a terrorism happens in front of me, it will change my world all of sudden.

Anyway, I hope my first impression of Algeria is the truth.

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Completed round-the-world journey in Argeria!!

Bonjour! This is Ken. Finally, I made it!
I completed the 32th stop of the round-the-world journey!!

View Larger Map

It was long way. 

We left Japan last June, and I went to Asia ⇒ Europe ⇒ Africa ⇒ Oceania  ⇒ South America⇒ north Central America. 

Then, we went back to Europe again, and came to Algeria. 
For a moment I thought it was great when I completed the 32th stop,  but.....I didn't feel it... Umm...Why.....? 

Then, I realized that I went to 32 countries to enjoy the World Cup in terms of 32 different perspectives. 

I won't feel involved in this unless the World Cup starts. 

The World Cup in South Africa will start in 56 days and it will end in 87 days! 

That's why this round-the-world journey continues still more! 
Today, I'm goint to briefly report about Algeria. 

Please look at the national flag in the first picture. 
A Vietnamese national flag is next to the Algerian national flag.  
It is a red one. 

Well, I heard that a VIP of Vietnam, which is the same socialist country as Algeria, is staying in Algeria.

It might be that a direct flight has been started or something like that, according to the picture of the paper.

The military and policemen were standing every 100m to the guardrail side of freeway.

The scenery went several kms.

They seem bored.

This heavy security might be due to the VIP's visiting.
But I have never seen this scenery.

This is socialism, isn't it?

Also, I noticed there are a lot of parabola antenna.

I have never seen anything like this.

I think they have more than one parabola antenna per one household....

I've got contact with a Japanese who live in Algeria, so I'm going to meet them in a few days and ask about the heavy security and a lot of parabolic antenna.

Well, speaking of a Japanese, when I was looking for an ATM in the airport, a guy called Hagiwara talked to us, "Are you Japanese?" in Japanese.

He is a mix of Japanese and Algerian, and he haslived in Algeria since he was 4 years old.

He asked me out for dinner suddenly.
I wondered if I can trust him or not.

Mr. Hagiwara guided me to the taxi stand.

I negotiated the taxi fare, but the driver offered us much more expensive one than usual.

I believe in the ethical doctrine that human nature is fundamentally good, so I feel uncertain.... See you soon.

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Observation of traffic conditions in Slovenia

Dober dan !　Here I am, it’s Ken.

Well, the series of “traffic conditions around the world” is almost coming to the end.

Today, we observed and measured it in the middle of Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia.
Slovenia is a small country with population just two million.

Do you remember? Yes, that’s right. The question Atsushi asked in the last blog “traffic conditions series” from Denmark was;

“Which is the country with the smallest population among the 32 countries in the world cup 2010?” 

The answer is

Slovenia, with 2 millions. 

It is a mystery to me how such a small country could possibly beat Russia to gain a ticket to the world cup.

※Please note that Slovenia was a part of former Yugoslavia and closest to the Western Europe. They were the richest country among the former Yugoslavia with thrived economy from trading with Italy and Austria.  They joined EU in 2004 and shifted their currency to euro 3 years after that.

Here are some more,

Which is the country with the largest populations?

Which is the country with the biggest GDP (gross domestic production?)

Which is the country with the biggest land area ?

The answers are…

Well, we published a book called “Traveling Around the World to 32 Coutrlies in the World Cup”, which is available at Amazon.

Since we are going to make the rankings and comparison in different factors among those 32 countries in the book, so

Nation like Slovenia, "Wow, they are strong in football but such small population."

Or

"I didn’t think this country (Slovenia) had any economic scope, but look at that. Its GDP per capita is more than Japan. No wonder they make a nice life and a strong football team as well.”

We hope you enjoy the book in such point of view as well.

OK, back to the story. 

1. Subway’s basic fare

Ljubljana, the capital city, has small population of approx 270,000.

Naturally there is no such thing as subway.

People’s feet are buses and taxis.

Rich country it is. The buses are nice!

2. The taxi’s basic fare

According to Libero’s official travel book "chikyu no aruki kata (Japanese version of Lonely Planet) the " base rate is 1.4 euros (about 180 yen), and you do not need to worry about being ripped off. 

But we were charged 8 euros by the driver for only 2km from Ljubljana Central Station to the hotel just after we arrived to the country.  

 The base rate was 1.4 euros alright as per our travel book, but it went up incredibly fast after that…

I had to ask at the hotel reception about it.

"Oh Well, they don’t have a fixed pricing structure I guess…”

So she said.

By the way, I saw train carriages with its body wrapped in McDonald's ads all around.

Cute.

  

This reminds me that we haven’t had our “World McDonald’s series” in the blog recently. 

It’s surprisingly popular among our friends in Japan so we will do it again sometimes.  And of course we will include the series in our “Football Units the World” book.

3. The percentage of car manufacturers on the high street.

The day we measured was Sunday there was not much traffic in the city centre. But we waited patiently and managed to count 100 cars.

※For the green nation Slovenia, the city people heads to country side on the weekend to enjoy the nature, the population in Ljubljana become sparse.  I think this is why the stadium is unable to fill its capacity

OK, here is the result.

Order	Unit	Manufacturer
1st	20	Renault
2nd	10	Volkswagen
3rd	8	Mercedes
4th	7	Honda
4th	7	Citroen
6th	6	Toyota
7th	5	BMW
8th	4	Peugeot
9th	3	Mazda
9th	3	Hyundai
9th	3	AUDI
9th	3	Opel
9th	3	FIAT
9th	3	Ford
15th	2	Nissan
15th	2	Bass
15th	2	KIA
15th	2	Daewoo
15th	2	VOLVO
20th	1	Mitsubishi
20th	1	Chevrolet
20th	1	SEAT
20th	1	Skoda
20th	1	SAAB

Hey! First place is the French Renault, smashing down 2nd and blow, with 20 cars!

It is a mystery to me why the French car manufacture could possibly smash everyone else and be the number 1 here in Slovenia.

 It could convince me easily if Fiat were No1, because of their economy relationship and physical proximate to Italy. But Fiat was counted only 3 cars…

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Just you wait, Danish dynamite !!

God Morgen, this is Atsushi !

God Morgen is "good morning" in Danish.

I left Serbia and came to the capital city of Denmark, Copenhagen.

Copenhagen means the port of merchant in Danish. 

There are many canals there.

Very nostalgic city hall.

Ken has visited here last autumn.

But, at that time, the drawing wasn't held yet. 

So he didn't look for any stories here.

Now that, Japan is scheduled to play against Danish . So I just came back to find a story.

I am going to stay here for 4 days from 1st April to 4th.

During the time, I will visit Danish Football Association without noticing them and watch some local soccer games. That might be enough to satisfy me. 

Also, I have got the address of the association and the schedule of the games.

Then, I found out there is five-day weekend during my stay! 

One of the day is off because it's on Easter Day.

It's said that Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ not only in Denmark but also in everywhere in Europe.

That means, the association must be closed, too.

 I though what about the local soccer league?

I checked up the internet to find there are only two games in Copenhagen. They fall on 1st April and 5th. 

1st is the day for my departure and I'll be in another place on 5th.

Oh, man. Unlucky.

I didn't know about Easter when I was planning my itinerary. 

But I am an optimist.

Bad luck never stops me !

Where there is a will, there is a way!

"will" could be interpreted as "interesting story".

Then, I came up with an idea that I give some question about soccer to Danish.

1, Do you know any Japanese soccer player?

2, Who is the best player in Danish national squad?

3, Who do you think win the game, Japan or Danish?

I feel uncomfortable speaking to people on the street.

So I went to Parken Stadium which is the home of Copenhagen FC.

It's 34,000 capacity and also the home stadium of Denmark national team.

FC Copenhagen's logo.

I was gonna ask some people joining stadium tour or staffs in official shop.

But all shops are closed and no stadium tour.

Thanks Easter.

I can' t go home without some stories!!

I found a turf ground!

Finally, there seems to be some soccer fans, I guess. 

Oh, it's a long way to get here.

There was a women soccer game. They seemed college teams.

The referee was a boy.

They played lightly.

At last, I did give my questions to spectators watching the game.

They were children, seniors, boyfriends of the players up to 20 people there.

1, Do you know any Japanese soccer player?

Guess what?

The most people gave the name of,

Park Ji Sung.

He is not a Japanese but a Korean !

Maybe Danish can't tell Japanese from Korean.

By the way, the people were even struggling with recalling the name "Park Ji Sung."

They goes like, "Well, who was that Asian playing for Manchester United... Oh god, Yes !Park something, right?"

Then, the second most vote winner is Nakamura. Yes, he is a JAPANESE.

The third one is Inamoto. Honestly, I didn't expect him on the third.

I wonder if his career in France made a big impact on them.

The rest of them answered, "No, I don't know anybody. Sorry."

I asked them, "Do you know Nakata or Kawaguchi?"

Still no response.

Nakata is very well known in the world, but not in Denmark.

Kawaguchi used to play for Assurance FC, but nobody remembers him.

Oh, I was so disappointed. I'm a big fan of him anyway.

So the bottom line is that Denmark could pay little attention to us.

Just you wait !!

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Slovenia’s cool, but very hot football situation

Dober dan, it’s Ken.
※Dober dan which is “Hi” in Slovenian.

I came to Slovenia today.

Wow, this is the 31^st country we have visited out of 32 in the 2010 world cup nations in this "round-the-world-journey" series!

It’s “check” to concur all the 32 countries!

Our last country to visit is Algeria, but first we have to go back to Japan and applying for a visa at the Algerian Embassy there.  Still long way to go…

I wonder if you might think…
Oh? Didn’t we visit Slovenia last time?

Nope!

Last time was Slovakia.
This time is Slovenia.

Well, it’s almost same if I round up, isn’t it.

I emailed to a friend in Japan saying “I’m going to Slovenia”, he replied, “Oh, you mean Slovakia! Take care and enjoy!”

That’s kind of explaining everything about how well we Japanese know about Slovenia.

Speaking of this, it reminded me that a Slovenian once asked me “where about Japan in China?” with a straight face. 

They wouldn’t know any difference between Korea, China and Japan. We are same.

Anyway, the day before I was going to Slovenia, I was trying really hard to think how am I able to spot the football galore in this country, searching on the internet. (Yap, this is a revenge to what happened at Slovakia which was completely screwed)

And I found that there is a match clashing two teams based in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia on the same day I arrive!

So I changed my plan, got up at 5:00 am for 6am departure from Graz, took trains and buses all the way and managed to enter Slovenia in the morning.

It was raining when I hit the border, but the weather changed very quickly and I now have a clear, blue sky thanks to this mountain weather.

Weather is on my side for Derby day!!!

I checked in at a hotel but no time to waste. 

I decided to walk to the stadium which is a bit away from downtown.

I arrived at the stadium one and half hours before kick-off.

It’s already an hour and half to go. I had a bad feeling if the tickets were sold out…

My fear was quickly gone.

Nobody around the stadium!  Oops!

The box office was not even in the business yet.  orz

I had to kill the time after all. The box office opened its door finally just under one hour before kickoff.

I went on to the office and asked the price of the ticket…

Whopping 2.5 euros ! !ヽ(° ◇ °)

About 300 yen.

You can’t even go and watch a high school football game with this price these days. Amazing.
Still waiting, I was finally able to get into the stadium just 40 minutes before the match begins.

I couldn’t believe it. The derby match was proudly held in Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia.

OK, guess how many people had come before me???

The answer is…

ONE ! !

I was the second! 

They didn’t even bother to open back of central stand

Well, it’s a typical overseas scene that people rushing and filling up a stadium just before game begins. Slovenian seemed to be no exception and "fairly" good crowd has finally gathered.

About 100 people were here in main stand.

It looks like full but it contains only in this section w

The game kicked off meanwhile.

The atmosphere is sadly mediocre JFL (Japanese Football Leagues) is far more entertaining. 

And to my surprise, the home team, called inter-block, has no particular groups of supporters.

Individual fans were seemed to be here and there but really missing action packed crowd cheering and shouting altogether.  Later I heard that the team is still quite new. No wonder.

I don’t believe there are any teams in Japan without any groups of supporters, even in the minor leagues.

I mean, I can’t compare it to Japan, can I?  I mean, is this an A leagues team in the country which gone through and qualified within Europe??

But opponent Veteran Olympia from also Ljubljana, with its long club history, had a small group of supporter.  The corner of back stand, away zone was flooded with its supporters.

Excited Olympia supporters went on the fire

Nevertheless, the degree of dangerous and excitement weren’t really a big deal here compare to the recent Greek national Derby or the match of Serbian Red Star.

Well, while the crowd was rather cool and quiet,

what happened on the ground was very hot and exciting.

I mean, odd 4 Red cards were surrendered in this game alone.

For Yellow cards, forget it, I lost track of it.

GK jumped out, gave a drop kick and gone with the Red card.

And hits with the elbow, the second player was gone also.

With sliding back charge, 3^rd is gone.

Thanks to sliding back charge, both teams in fisticuffs

Even the coach ending up with red card result of vicious protest 

I have never ever seen the game that 4 players and a coach were sent to sin bin.

Dare to say, but it would make more interesting if 10 were gone.

※However, according to the rules, the game should be forfeited if three people are gone from one team, as far as I remember. I have never ever come across that sort of game though.

Well, we had two Slovenian teams entertained us with a world-class martial arts. I now wonder that they have been fighting through European qualifiers with such fantastic martial arts under their belt.

I believed that a team becomes stronger, the more popular they become. And so does nation’s passion and supports grow. But it doesn’t seem to apply to Slovenian case.

I learned later on that Slovenian footballs have hard time to fill up the stadium, according to the documents which were showed to me by Slovak Football Association secretary-general.

※ I will explain why I was invited to see such documents in another occasion.

Be doubtful when they say 15,000 spectators in a game.

It also reasoned why people aren’t interested in football here, is because many players from national team are playing with international leagues, not domestic.

Well, after I watched such a dynamic domestic league, and was tired from travelling, I decided to be rich and eat at sushi restaurant right next to the hotel.

Here, the atmosphere is very good and they have Japanese sushi chef, serving authentic, real sushi.

The chefs said,

"Just day before yesterday we had Mr. Moriyama from Nagoya Grampus. "

Hmm, Libero’s power of attraction has rarely missed the catch. Pity.

In addition,

"Once, we had Mr. Hide Nakata who dropped in by himself, really casually. Oh, yes, he still ordered no vegetables.”

so he said.

The sushi chefs and I have our photo taken for this good occasion.

 From left, Chef Kaneko, myself and Owner-chef Mr Fujita.

By the way, they gave me a booklet which came in with today’s newspaper for trading cards of World Cup players you can collect.

This page is for Japanese team. There are pages for each teams and each blank space for each players.

The trading cards sold separately (※) and you can paste them to the individual space provided. 

※ Pieces 300 yen for 10 or something like that.  Cost of 10 cards equal to a bag of chips, or a ticket of the match I have just watched today if you like.

I was fascinated and thought it’s a good business idea of distributing such booklet for free. It makes attractive to soccer fans make them want to buy more cards.

Don’t ask me why, but in this booklet has only 17 card spaces for each team. And this is how 17 members consist in Japanese team according to the booklet, in case you wanna know.

World first, I announced the players of Japanese team for you.

And only 17 of them. Duh.

GK Kawashima , Narasaki
DF Nakazawa , Tulio , Uchida , Konno , Nagatomo , Abe
MF Hashimoto , Honda , Hasebe , Nakamura ( ken ), Matsui, Endo, Nakamura ( Shun )
FW Okazaki , Okubo

There are 7 half and 2 forward.  Very Japanese I’d say…

Anyway, my first day in Slovenia went on like that.

Oh, apparently the World Cup trophy is coming to this country tomorrow, so I’m gonna go and see it! 

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