Japan Day Five : Yokohama and Japan Vs Aus World Cup Qualifier...

Alright, so Day five was to be the day in Yokohama, culminating in the Australia Vs Japan soccer world cup qualifier.

It was very nearly a disaster of biblical proportions.

We slept in til about ten, as we didn't really have anywhere to be and took our time getting up and ready to go to Yokohama. I took pictures on Woo's new camera of all the Yokohmama maps and info in the lonely planet, and then we headed out.

The tickets said the game was at Yokohama stadium. The lonely planet put Yokohama stadium next door to Kannai station. It all seemed very easy.

We decided to get off the train at Yokohama station, which is two stops before Kannai, and walk down through Yokohama to the stadium. There seems to have been loads of development over the past 10-15 years as there are lots of very new buildings and construction going on.

We walked past a little amusement park, kinda like Luna park I guess. But as it was the middle of winter, the rollercoaster was not in use. However there were people getting in the log water rapids rides. It was about 9'C and there was people wearing long overcoats and high heels etc getting in a water ride. Crazy Japanese!!

We continued down to the stadium. It looked like it was mostly used for Baseball, which was a bit concerning, but there was a soccer pitch set up in the middle so we were not too concerned. It was definitely Yokohama stadium.

Next to the stadium is Chinatown. This is a real Chinatown. Its probably about as big as all of northbridge and there were people everywhere. Day five (Feb 11) was "Emperor's day" which is Japans equivalent of Australia Day.

In the city areas of Tokyo, expecially in the seedy or trendy areas, you will often see young men, dressed all in black with crazy manga style hair, standing on street corners and talking to pretty girls as they wait to cross the street. These guys are trying to convince the girls to go into the bar that these guys get paid by. Apparently a wealthy businessman will pay 10000yen a drink if he gets to talk to a pretty girl while he's there. Anyway, you see it happening all over. Most of the girls just ignore them. Others chat a little then walk off. Either way, it seems like everyone just accepts it.

Anyway, so we're walking into Chinatown and Woo see's these three Japanese dudes all dressed in black and assumes that they are trolling for girls. Then one of them beckons to him. More than a little surprised Woo stops to talk to him, and then notices his Japan scarf around his neck. Woo was wearing his Socceroos beanie all day yesterday. So we have photo's of two japanese dudes and two Aussie dudes, all screaming and showing their colours, at the entrance to Chinatown.

We walked through Chinatown for an hour or so, taking photo's, eating a steamed pork bun (yummy) and then we decided we wanted to stop for a drink. We knew most of the aussie fans we meeting at a place called "Cafe Bar Funky" which as supposed to be walking distance to the stadium, but we had no idea where it was. The address said "liberty building, shinyokohama".

It was getting fucking cold by this stage, so Woo and I went to find a shopping area to buy some gloves. After that, we found a nice bar and stopped in for a drink. There, Woo struck up a conversation with another customer who spoke decent English, and we found out that Shinyokohama was another suburb, probably 20 minutes away from where we were.

What to do? We knew where the stadium was. Why would they meet at a place so freaking far away from the ground? Although, we still had three hours before kick-off, also we were supposed to be meeting Michael and Dennis at the bar. Hence we decided to make the trip.

We waited at the train station for about ten minutes, but never got a green line train, hence we decided to try something different and use the Subway. We walked down the road and around the corner to the subway station and jumped on a train.

It was eight stops to Shin-Yokohama station. We got off the train and went up the the concourse and there were people everywhere. Japanese wearing blue and Aussies in their green and gold as far as you can see. At this point, Woo and I are still thinking "those poor bastards, they dont realise they've got to go another 20 minutes to get to the stadium" So much so that when a group of Aussies asked us where the stadium was, we told them to go back downstairs, get on the subway, go eight stops till you get to Kannai, then the stadium is right there. They kinda looked at us blankly (and more than a little irritated) and said "No, I think we'll just follow the crowd". No worries fellas, we said was he ran off to try to find this bar. We saw a map on the next street corner which showed "Nissan International Stadium". A designated specific soccer pitch.

Crap. We had been at the wrong stadium the whole time. he lonely planet map didn't even have the suburb of Shinyokohama in is. And as there was a Yokohama stadium on the map, we had never even entertained the thought that it was anywhere else.

So, we stopped an Aussie and found out where cafe bar funky was. When we got there they had run out of beer, and the were about 500 aussies on the street corner out front. Drinking the alcohol they had bought from the convenience store over the road. Wo couldn't find Dennis and Michael anywhere, so we grabbed the last four Kirin Strongs (it hits you in the mind) and headed off to the stadium, following the massive aussie crowd.

Halfway to the stadium, Dennis tapped me on the shoulder. They had found us. Woo then went into another convenience store and bought another bag full of Kirin Strongs. We continued to the stadium, along the way Woo bought a Japan scarf and started hanging shit on a Manchester scarf that the vendor was selling. The (probably drunk) Japanese man next to him agreed. When Woo stated he went for Liverpool, this man screamed his agreeance, and it now became clear that Woo had found his long lost Japanese brother as they sang, danced, hugged and screamed together all the way to the stadium. The Japanese dude had two friends that walked behind with us, laughing their asses off at his craziness, the same way we were laughing at Woo.

By the time we got to the stadium we were all very drunk. There were Japanese dudes on megaphones telling people where to go in Japanese. We tried to get one to say "Aussie Aussie Aussie" through the megaphone. But he wouldn't. It was business use only apparently. So we went to the next one. He said it, we yelled "Oi Oi Oi", laughed our asses off, then tried to shake his hand, but he didn't want a bar of it. He looked very unhappy with us and wanted to continue his work. We then went up to another dude, probably the youngest of the lot. He happily screamed "Aussie Aussie Aussie" into the magaphone and we belted out our "Oi Oi Oi". Then we had high fives and handshakes all round, and headed into the stadium on quite a high.

The game was excellent. I was disappointed that there were no goals scored, but an away draw pretty much seals Australias berth into the 2010 world cup finals.

Woo was mega drunk for our trip home and decided that this was his opportunity to talk to anyone wearing a Japan scarf about the game, about Japanese players, about how much he loved their country and how hot their women were.

All in all a fucken hilarious trip home, and a marvelous day. One that could have ended with us wondering where the fuck everybody was as we sat outside an empty Yokohama stadium.