Wanna see Atsushi's Waka Waka?

Hi! Ken here.

I’m finally feeling better now!

I heard that in Japan, since the Japanese national team was eliminated, it seems like the World Cup is already over, but here in South Africa, the World Cup is reaching its climax with the game for third place and the final remaining.

The excitement of the people here is also reaching its climax!

We made the trip from our “home” in Johannesburg to go to see both semi-finals in Durban and Cape Town.

At Green Stadium in Cape Town, we participated in the “Waka Waka” dance contest at the Sony booth.

By the way, do you guys know what “Waka Waka” is?

Here in South Africa, you hear the FIFA World Cup official song “Waka Waka” wherever you go, so anyone who came to South Africa surely knows the song by heart, but I heard that “Waka Waka” is not so well known in Japan.

When I first heard the song “Waka Waka” sung by Colombia’s pop princess Shakira, I didn’t know what to think of it. But when I saw the promotion video which was made for this World Cup, I instantly became a fan.

I mentioned above that I participated in the Sony 3D event. 
Take a look at the video below.

A “Waka Waka” dance contest was held at the stadium. Fans who came to see the semi-final could participate in this contest by dancing to the high tempo song “Waka Waka”.

By the way, when I was in South Africa for the Confederation’s Cup last year, I participated in an event held by South African mobile phone company, MTN, and won a prize. Check out the video here!

So this time, Atsushi represented Japan in the “Waka Waka” dance contest.

Check out this video to see Atsushi’s “Waka Waka” dance… and, the results!

The judges of this dance contest are the fans who stood around to watch.

The MC really liked Atsushi’s dance, and he won the contest!!

Here’s a picture of Atsushi with the MC of the event.

He won a Sony t-shirt and PSP software as the grand prize!!

Here is Atsushi with the South African 
who competed against him until the final round.

This Sony event booth is set up at all of the stadiums along with the other World Cup sponsors’ booths.

A lot of fans come to the booth to see the 3D video which is one of the highlighted products at this World Cup.

There’s a long line at the Sony booth at each game.

At the booth you can see Shakira’s “Waka Waka” promotion video in 3D!

Everyone has their eyes (covered with 3D glasses) glued to the screen.

No matter how many times you watch it, you never get tired of it.

By the way, the official World Cup album is on sale from Sony Music.

The album includes not only Shakira’s “Waka Waka”, but also the South African traditional song “Shosholoza”.

It’s too bad that because of the noisy vuvuzelas, “Shosholoza” wasn’t sung at the stadium. If you watch the movie “Invicutus” which is based on the true story of Nelson Mandela, you can hear the “Shosholoza”.

Did you know that Sony is the only Japanese company which is a FIFA official sponsor?

Many Japanese companies have sponsored the FIFA World Cup and other soccer events in the past.

Lots of foreign companies, including some from developing countries, are FIFA official sponsors. I hear that Sony will be an official sponsor at least until the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

Of course it’s a good thing to have companies from a variety of countries at the World Cup, but I hope that more Japanese companies will get involved.

Anyway, after warming up with the “Waka Waka”, we went into the stadium to watch Uruguay play the Netherlands in the semi-final.

As usual, I won’t get into the details of the game.

Enjoy “Miss World Cup”!!

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