A note about the Rugby World Cup

Last year I went to watch quite a bit of rugby here in Japan. I got tickets for New Zealand Australia which was played in Yokohama and then for some of the Top League double header matches which were held every weekend in Tokyo. Watching rugby in Japan was another example of the quirkiness addressed elsewhere. You could bring in your own food and drink, on the way in they gave you a little bag for your rubbish, the food stands were different each week (the array of foods available outside the NZ AUs game was akin to a street market in the UK, and cheap too) and the fans only chanted when instructed to do so by the cheer leaders. (These were men leading the cheers wit megaphones, not a troupe of dancers.) It was a unique experience. Many ex-internationals play for the Japanese teams so I got a chance to see players like Izzy Dagg and Matt Giteau in the flesh. This year the rugby world cup has rolled into town. Now, I’ve not got tickets for the games, so instead I headed to the fanzone. I was hoping to see the same kind of things, vans selling yakisoba, Katsu curry and Asahi Dry etc. How naïve I was. Of course, this is the Rugby World Cup and whether it is held in Auckland, Cape Town, London or Tokyo is all has to look the same. So, in the fan zone was Heineken beer, at £4.50 for a small can, an Argentinian hotdog and fish and chips. The Japan-ness had been whitewashed out in favour of corporate sterility. If this was in Cardiff, you could skip the fanzone and head to any pub and be guaranteed a chance to watch the game with a nice pint of Brains and a good atmosphere. But here there is less interest, will Izakaya’s and small restaurants be showing the matches? The Hubs will be, but the Hubs are worse than the fan zones. (Hubs are immigrant bars, where Brits and Aussies and Americans sit and drink over-priced beer and wish they were back home.) It seems to me, Japan are hosting this World Cup in the way a Hippo hosts that little bird that lives on its back eating the fleas.  Shame on you RWC organisers. Why not allow a local flavour to the tournament? 

BTW, the best thing about the fanzones is the staff line up at the end of the games and high five all the spectators on the way out, a tiny bit of Japanese flavour.