I dug up this footage from my old camera from June 2002 – Wes shot the footage in downtown Osaka after Japan beat Tunisia to advance to the round of 16. The scenes were filmed near Dotonbori bridge, famous for the revelers who often jump off after Japan or an Osaka team wins a big game. Japan didn’t win the next game, so this was really the peak of things as far World Cup 2002 concerned Japan. Would have liked to seen how big the party would be if they went further like South Korea did.
I headed over to Nagai Stadium in downtown Osaka this afternoon where England was playing Nigeria in the World Cup. I hung around outside, amongst random Japanese wearing Beckham shirts, flirtatious and curious passerby. The Japanese media has rattled on and on about the British hooligans and the megaphone posses were there to shout out warnings incessantly – in Japanese, mind you. The game ended in a goalless draw. There’s these Mastercard ad campaigns with the ‘priceless’ slogan – well, for the England fans I saw leaving the stadium, who no doubt racked up their credit cards to get here, ‘listless’ would be a better motto. They had all the vigor filing out of the stadium as a throng of people commuting home to London suburbs after a long day of work.
I like Sylvia Plath’s game summary best with its references to ‘futures where nothing will occur’ and the ‘compelling hero’s dull career’ in crisis.
