Match Report: Japan vs. Denmark –Japan advances to the knockout round!

Congratulations to Japan! This is Atsushi.

Japan beat Denmark 3-1, and advanced to the knockout round for the first time on foreign soil!

I was there at the stadium when Japan made history!
I’m so proud that I was there to see history being made.

I’ll send some video from the match later, but first of all I’ll upload some pictures from this memorable day!

We arrived in Rustenburg while it was still light out, and were interviewed by Fuji TV, a Japanese major TV network.

Second from the right is Mr. Omura of Fuji TV

We were interviewed by the same reporter 4 years ago at the World Cup in Germany.

Here’s a photo of us with some Denmark supporters near the stadium.

I borrowed a Viking hat for this pic.

When we got to the stadium, we bumped into Japan national team’s defender Nagatomo’s sister again.

Nagatomo’s brother was also there, so we all took a photo together.

Nagatomo’s brother is in the middle, his sister is 2^nd from the left.

I told Nagatomo’s sister that we got several hundred thousand hits on our blog. She was really surprised.

The pictures after the game are much better, so let’s fast-forward to the end of the game.

The man of the match, Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow) came over alone to salute the crowd.

After letting out a triumphant yell, us supporters took a picture together.

We took a photo with the “bowling pin” supporters, 

who are popular with the locals.

I twitted that the “bowling pins” had gone home, but it seems that just the people inside went home, and they passed on their costumes to their friends.

A picture of all of us.regular supporters

It’s hard to believe this is South Africa! We’re here with our fellow supporters who we see all the time in Japan. We all came in different ways under different circumstances, but still, we are all here!

A photo with my buddy Ken. Libero is celebrating Japan’s advance to the knockout round.

Our supporter friend Ebi-san who we only see at away games, always has a great flag. This once says “First we get through to the knockout round .We’re not going home to Japan yet!”

Here’s a photo with a supporter of Endo. 

He scored a great goal this game!

A photo explaining this game’s result.

Royal Bafokeng Stadium was so quiet after the game

The game ended at 10:30 local time. We headed off for our home 130km away, and finally arrived at 3am.

Since we’re going to see Spain vs. Chile tomorrow, I thought I should sleep, but I realized that the supporters in Japan pulled an all-nighter to see the game, so I stayed up as well to write my blog entry.

Now it’s 6am in South Africa, so I’m going to go to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll post the videos, and Ken will post the “Miss World Cup” blog.

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Japan vs the Netherlands – what a close game!

Hi! Atsushi here! 

As you all already know, Japan lost to the Netherlands by a narrow margin of 0-1.

Japan put up a great fight, and the game was so close!

After the final whistle was blown, all of us Japan supporters in the stadium were so frustrated, we didn’t know what to do.

After that match, I totally didn’t feel like writing my blog. I was so wiped out and drowned my disappointment with some drinks.

On the bright side of things, the final score of the other Group E game was Denmark 2, Cameroon 1, which means that even if Japan only manages to tie Denmark in the final game of the group stage (June 24), they will make it through to the final 16. So, overall, the close result was important to Japan.

With the chance to make it to the final 16, all of us Japan supporters are gonna leave our disappointment of our loss behind, and think positively about our next game against Denmark.

Anyway, sorry for the delay….hope you understand.

Take a look at all or our pictures from the Japan vs. Holland game.

The game was played in Durban, a resort area of South Africa. Durban is only an hour plane ride from our “home” in Johannesburg. In just one hour, we travelled from the freezing cold of Johannesburg to a sunny 25 degrees, which seemed like paradise to us.

It’s bright and sunny like California!

Today I’m going to the stadium with my supporter

 friends Sho-kun (center) and Ji-tsu(right).

Here I am with the Dutch supporters. 

I’m so excited about the game coming up!

The event space outside of the stadium was full or people dressed in orange!

Durban Stadium, probably the most beautiful 

of all 10 stadiums in the World Cup.

Everyone is hyper excited!

…and even more excited inside the stadium!!!

I’ve heard that you can bungee jump from the top of the stadium, 

which also has an observation area.

The Dutch supporters are known throughout the world as the one of the most unique dressed.

This guy could be in the “Orangeman”show;

Here’s a guy growing Dutch tulips from his helmet.

Japan’s supporters are just as uniquely dressed as the Dutch. 

Look at this Japanese guy with “Licca-chan” dolls on his helmet!

We know this frequent flyer as he travelled with us to Indonesia in 2009 for the Asian Cup. We call this trip “The Miracle of Palembang”. At our stop in Singapore during our travels to the 32 countries competing in the World Cup, we even went to a “maid café” together.

Some local beauties also cheered for Japan. 

See “Miss World Cup” for more!

By the way, did you know that there are a lot of Indian immigrants who live in Durban?

We bumped into a Japanese comedian, Hirabata-san of “Dondokodon”, whom usually we see in the J-league post-game show in Japan

This Japan fan outdid our handmade samurai costumes with his unique outfit!

After finishing our “supporter-watching”, we went up to our seats.

It was almost hot enough to wear bathing suits to the stadium. 

Check out “Miss World Cup” to see the hot girls!

We were so excited and up-beat before the game.

I did my hair in a samurai-like ponytail. 

(Remind you of the Turkish national Ilhan?)

Let’s eat up the Oranges!

A picture for our album with Tsun-san, head of the samurai group.

There must have been about 5000 Japanese supporters, definitely more than those at the Japan vs. Cameroon game.

However there must have been about 20,000 Dutch supporters.

Even a lot of the locals at the stadium were dressed in orange.

Here I am with my “Let’s Travel around the world watching football” flag.

Supporters passed up a huge Japan flag (Hinomaru)

 through the back stands before the game 

As usual, I won’t go into detail about the game.
Now I’m going to focus on Japan’s next game against Denmark.



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Match report: Argentina VS Korea

Hi, this is Ken!

It’s been just one week since the World Cup started.

I’m having so much fun here. I do feel time flies.

The other day, we had a chance to have dinner with Toshiya Miura, the coach of J-League club Vissel Kobe. 

He was so generous as to let us take a picture together and give us a permission to upload the picture on this website. 

We are so happy about it!

Taking with him, I could feel his intelligence. I think such a coach will lead Japanese football in the future.

He came to South America as a NHK commentator on World Cup.

And he will commentate on the game of Korea against Argentina.

It is not exaggeration to say that Korea is the number one team in Asia.

We went to Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, where the opening game was held.

It was the afternoon game, which started at 13:30 local time.

For a few days, it’s been unusually cold in Johannesburg and its vicinity.

 But we took seats in the sun, so we could watch the game in T-shirts, taking off long-sleeved clothes as well as down jackets. 

On the contrary, it was very cold in the main stand which was in the shade.

 A guy who watched the game there told me he needed his gloves. 

So, in going to see the game here, we need to consider these temperature differences and prepare clothes for both hot and cold weather.

On taking a seat, I was very surprised to find that a man sitting next to me was the one who had also sat next to me in the game of Brazil against North Korea!!

He talked to me, “I know you. You were sitting next to me the day before yesterday, weren’t you?”

Sure I was. It was the game at Ellis Park Stadium. I clearly remembered him because he was cheering for North Korea loudly. And we had a chat a little bit at that time.

What a coincidence!! 

We bought a ticket individually, and there were as many as 80,000 people in the stadium!!

After a while, I found that he also works as a freelance consultant. We were getting to know each other well, and he treated me to a coke!!

He is cheering for Korea today. Why on earth is he doing this?

He asked me, “Which team are you cheering for?”

I answered, “Well, I’ll go Korea as the same Asian.

He said, “You must be kidding! The English never cheer for Scotland!!”

But actually, I wouldn’t be really happy if Korea should win the game. This is because beating Argentina means Japan’s eternal rival would make a breakthrough to surprise the whole world.     

I had an ambivalent feeling: don’t lose, but don’t win… Maybe, a draw sounded fair enough.

By the way, Atsushi cheered for Korea, as he had many Korean friends.

In the stadium, there were many Korean supporters who wore striking “red devils”. Korean supporters showed their presence, though they were outnumbered by Argentina supporters. 

A huge Korean national flag.

I don’t know why, but they were cheering for Korea.

I saw many Korean beautiful women. Take a look at “Miss World Cup －Korea－” here.

During the game, Argentina supporters were being really excited. The final result was 4-1. After the game, they looked calm and composed in such an overwhelming victory.   

Even though I didn’t feel like cheering for Korea from the bottom of my heart, I did feel disappointed at their loss as the same Asian. It’s complicated.

By the way, as you can see a picture above, we got limited-version T-shirts from “Tokyo Airlines” Project, which I agree with their ideas.

They work under the concept of “Travel more!!” and “Travel cool!!”.

They’ve made “cool Japan T-shirts” for South Africa World Cup.

Back side of the T-shirt.

They put their hope into this T-shirt that supporters who have no choice but to give up coming to South Africa as well as those who can make it to see the game in South Africa could enjoy the World Cup.

In the front side, they put the letters of “Tokyo” and “Hinomaru Japan”; in the back side, a puma with the same color as the national flag in South Africa. Wearing this T-shirt, let’s get along with South Africans.

Personally, this is not a product with classical image of “Samurai” or “Geisya”, but a cool and fashionable Japanese product.

Please check out the website below. You can buy this T-shirt on this website.

（http://www.tokyoairlines.jp/）

Front

Back: A puma is the one of the five biggest animals in South Africa. (Big5)

Argentina’s striker Higuaín, who hadn’t played well in the previous game, scored a hat trick today. Maradona’s tactics might have worked very well.

Well, I am relaxing in Johannesburg today, and tomorrow I will move to Durban, where the game of Samurai Japan against Netherlands is to be held.

Match report: Brazil VS North Korea

Hi! This is Atsushi.

Before writing my report about the Brazil vs. North Korea game, I will upload the video footage of the Japan vs. Cameroon game. (sorry for the delay).


I captured on film the Japanese fans triumphing over their victory after the whistle was blown to end the game. 


My shouts of joy were also captured on the video…..so please make sure to turn the volume down before playing it.

 

I want to film the same reactions of joy after the Japan vs. Holland game!

Let’s go back to June 15th.

The day after celebrating Japan’s victory in Bloemfontein with some drinks, we headed off for Johannesburg by car.  

During our trip, I was moved by the blue sky and distance of the horizon.

The sky was so beautiful that we couldn’t resist stopping the car to get out and take a few pictures.

It seemed like the sky was blue like Japan’s uniform color, 
to celebrate the victory of “Samurai Blue” with us.

We made the 500km journey in 5 hours driving on the highway. 
We didn’t stop at our “home”, and just continued on to Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg to watch the Brazil vs. North Korean game.

The kickoff was at 8:30pm local time, long after sunset. 
According to the official weather records, it was only 3 degrees…it was freezing cold!!!

We entered the stadium about 1 hour before the kickoff. Thirty minutes before the kickoff, we noticed some trouble at the entrance gates.  


When we went over to check, we realized something unheard of was happening.

Look at the long line of supporters waiting at the entrance gates!

How unbelievable!

 It seemed that there was a power blackout in part of the stadium, and the ticket bar-code scanners were not working. 

Because of this, many supporters with tickets couldn’t get into the stadium!!!

An angry supporter tried to climb over the gate.

The power blackout problem was fixed in about 10 minutes, so the worst-case scenario was prevented. 

Was this incident reported on the news in your country??

The large screens on one side of the stadium were kept off, 
perhaps to avoid another power blackout.

Now I’d like to show you some interesting supporters we found in the crowd.

This is a very original flag. Should it be called “Braz-Korea”?

The overall top scorer in the World Cup, Ronaldo, also came to see the game.

I found a North Korean supporter!!

… I thought he was North Korean, but when I talked to him in English, I found out that he was a Vietnamese living in South Africa.

Our seats were in the back stand, from which we could see some people dressed in the North Korean red colors next to the press seats in the main stand.

During halftime, we made my way over to the main stand to try to find some beautiful girls to photograph for our column “Beautiful Girls of the World Cup”  

After managing our way past the usual ticket check, we got through to the main stand, and what we saw were…

                                            

A group of elder men only…  ＿|￣|○

I thought, it’s too bad I didn’t find any beautiful girls, but it would be a valuable experience to take a photo with the North Korean supporters anyway. 


So I asked them one by one “Can I take a picture with you?” in English.
Unfortunately, I was turned down. (-∀-;)

Everyone said “No! No!” and shooed me away. What great defensive skills by the North Koreans!


However I didn’t give up trying, and finally I found someone who was happy to take a picture with me. 


When I asked him “Can I take a picture together?” he answered:

”OK, of course! Are you Japanese?” (in fluent Japanese!!)


I was so surprised that he answered me in fluent Japanese. After talking with him for a while, I found out that he was a North Korean resident of Japan!

He was very friendly. He said that he came to South African to cheer for Jong Tae Se (a North Korean resident of Japan who plays for a team in the Japanese professional soccer league). 

We were very happy to get a chance to meet both Brazilian and North Korean supporters;

Like always, I won’t go into details about the game. 


Jong Tae Se (nicknamed “Asian Rooney” shed tears during the playing of the national anthem before the game. 

He almost made me cry too.

He’s one of the top players in the Japanese league, and plays so hard for his team, so I hope that he can score a goal in the World Cup.


Tomorrow (June 17 ^th) I’m going to see Argentina vs. North Korea!!