164, tokyo

I woke up to glorious weather around 8:45 so threw away the robotics idea (too nice to be inside and from a bit of research it sounded like a business exhibition of which I have no interest in, plus behind the nerdy cool superficiality I still think robots are a bit naff.) Having toiled away yesterday for over an hour copying and pasting Japanese into google translate trying to figure out a way to purchase a rugby ticket first site I stumble upon is the English ticket website, though they stop online ticket sales 12midnight the day of the game. I photo’d the directions and set off 2 hours before first kick off. I found the stadium pretty easily, it’s part of a cool complex where it has a baseball stadium, an athletics stadium, the national stadium and loads of tennis courts and football courts in one central area. I got in the gate and directed to a portacabin and was bought a ticket for 1500 yen for two games! Unaware of the food restrictions I left and got a freshness burger which was great, then headed back in. They had a cage where both teams were warming up. The first game was ricoh black rams v Honda heat, the Rams had James Haskell, Ma’a Nonu and Tamati ellison playing for them. The Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium is the spiritual home of Japanese rugby (who are hosting the 2019 Rugby world cup) and is a 27,188 seater stadium. When I arrived it was almost empty, for the first game it was about a quarter full and for the second game about a third full. Before the game they were showing almost propaganda about rugby, montages of Japanese blokes scoring tries on what almost looked like park pitches with buzz words flashing up like “heart”, “power” “aggression” “speed” and “togetherness” very amateurly. It was probably one of the most authentic Japanese experiences I have had and I loved the whole spectacle. Where rugby is still developing the Japanese people aren’t 100% sure how to behave while watching the game, so they tried separating the fans into each team’s segments, with ‘cheerleaders’ in the loosest unconventional sense of the word encouraging them. I decided to sit with the Black rams fans as they had the most people. Our cheerleader was a jolly rotund fella who had a lovely happy face and a cheap plastic megaphone with chants written down which he went through before the game. For the whole 80 minutes whenever there was a slight break in play he would turn to face the crowd, hold up a sign and shout away imploring for joinment, though everyone was super timid and the most he got was a bit of muttering and light clapping, he still went at it though like a trooper. Also at half time he put on a Sulley from monster’s inc costume for no apparent reason but I loved him infinitely more for it. The Honda cheerleaders were four blokes with just one chant though I think that played in their favour as audience participation was increased. Just before the kick off the Honda heat cheerleaders (and their fans) chanted the rams chant which made the fat bloke blush, so of course he (and he alone) responded with a Honda Heat chant, then there was a good 2-3 minutes of bowing. By the way, this recollection is in not in strict chronological order as it was just too bizarre.. Before the team announcement on the tv screen there was the team video which was just hilarious, montages of big Japanese blokes running up mountains while  carrying tree trunks, looked like a budget worlds strongest man. Then the teams ran out to ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, ran toward the biggest section of crowd (the one I was in) and all of them chucked mini rugby balls into the crowd which they had signed. The game itself was a routing, the Honda heat were awful and got spanked 53-0. You could tell the overseas players were playing within themselves but they were vastly superior to the majority of the Japanese players (odd ones apart) and at times it was almost embarrassing though I didn’t think much of Haskell, even at that level he was leaking penalties and I just don’t see what he does. The Honda heat reminded me of the tauntons rugby team when I played it was that bad (though we did lose 65-0). As soon as the match finished the first thing both teams did were run to the stands, line up and bow, before shaking hands and doing the tunnel. It was then time for the Nec green rockets v the Toyota Verblitz which was a much better game, completely different standard and a lot more competitive, plus the atmosphere was a lot better, there were even people shouting. It finished 29-26 and was a cracking game. I forgot, at half time of each game were cheerleaders (in the conventional sense) but they were about 13 and they got a better reception then the rugby. It was a great way to spend a day in the basking sunshine. From there I thought I’d wander to Shibuya and have a look around.  About 10 mins out of the stadium I run into James Haskell, ma’a Nonu and the other bloke all in their matching suits, they are bloody huge, should have got a photo probs but was just happy seeing how big they were. Anyway Shibuya was just architecture porn, ridiculous buildings were everywhere. I stopped off at the junction which is bloody busy and features in Fast and furious Tokyo drift (where the cars drift while the swarm of people are crossing and they form just enough space for the cars to pass by) which was damn cool. By this time it were around 5 and was pretty peckish, so stopped off at a side street greasy spoon equivalent and had some gyoza, pork with vegetables, rice and soup and it was divine, seating was all situated around the cook and was fascinating to watch. Also in that area it was full of neon lights and advertisement screens which was good to see, then I realised it is just advertisements and is a shopping area and wanted to get out. On the way I stumbled upon an Adidas football tricks exhibition which was unbelievable, some things I had never seen before and was just ridiculous. Utilising my compass and with no plans for the evening and having sat down all day I decided to chuck my map down and see if I could find my way home. I’m finally beginning to understand Tokyo, at first I found it difficult to comprehend that there isn’t a definitive city centre area, though I walked home which took 3 and half hours oscillating from my path towards places of interest that caught my eye. On the walk I saw an actual blymph! One that flew around! I thought real ones were just a myth and it was awesome to see. Tomorrow I move hostel as this one has shit beds but it stayed at it’s pretty cheap price over the weekend then think I will explore the imperial palace area.