06/20 - Roll With It

With a heavy heart,

say "you'll never walk alone"

in the early hours

This morning I got up bright and early to head to Ikebukuro to watch the Japan-Greece World Cup game. I went with my friend Tim to The Hub for the 7 AM kickoff. The Hub is a British-themed chain of pubs that are everywhere here. There's three around Ikebukuro Station alone. We had to pay 3000 yen to get in, about 30 Canadian dollars, but that included 2000 yen worth of 500 yen tickets for food or drink that we can use at any time. Hilariously, everything offered on their World Cup menu was 500 yen. They only open so early for the games, yet the World Cup menu had the following breakfast options: fish and chips, chicken and chips, edamame and corn dog and chips. All drinks were 500 yen, so you could get a meal or a beer or a cocktail or a juice or a ginger ale all for the same price. I ended up eating fish and chips for breakfast, something I hope to never again do for as long as I live.

The place was packed full of Japanese fans eating the odd breakfast choices and drinking beer even though it was 7 AM. Smoking is allowed inside pubs here too, so the whole place was filled with smoke, which was absolutely disgusting. Despite all this, the atmosphere was pretty cool, as everyone was really into the game. Almost every person was wearing a Japan jersey and had some other Japan Soccer fan items on or with them. Even the staff were wearing Japan soccer jerseys. They were all wearing the away jerseys so you could distinguish them from the patrons. They all had different names on the jerseys and I thought it was funny that the manager was wearing the jersey of Japan's captain, Makoto Hasebe's, complete with the Captain's armband to denote that he was in charge.

When we came in we were also given a Hub-branded Japan Soccer towel scarf. I thought it was cool and made me a bit happier to have paid the entry fee. That is until I looked around at everyone wearing them and saw what was written on them. Across the scarf "You'll Never Walk Alone" was written. This is the slogan of Liverpool FC, a team, as a Manchester United fan, that I hate. Tim told me that the slogan is used all the time in Japan, at club games and international games. It's like the tagline of Japanese soccer. I'm pretty sure only the Liverpool supporters that live here would know anything about the slogan's connection to the Hillsborough disaster, one of the worst disasters in football history that led to the death of 96 people. I'm going to keep the scarf for my mom's husband Geof, since he's a big Liverpool supporter and it actually is a pretty cool memento or souvenir. Just not for me.

Sadly, Japan only managed to draw the game against Greece, giving them just a small chance to qualify for the next round. All of the fans around us, including the one who tried to chat with us about the World Cup in incredibly limited English, looked quite sad. We discussed the permutations that could lead to Japan making it through their group, then headed off for work. I changed out of my Japan jersey and into my work shirt, both of which reeked of cigarette smoke. I had a headache for most of the day, although the variables were not controlled enough for me to know what should garner more blame, the cigarette smoke or the fish and chip breakfast.

Today's title is a reference to the Oasis song "Roll With It", thanks to their album being in one of the weirdest displays I've ever seen in such cookie-cutter pub.. The title works since I had to roll with the scarf and the smoking, as well as continuing to hold out hope for Japan's qualification. The display had an Oasis album, not "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" or "Definitely Maybe" either, a skull, a clock and weirdest of all an apple which someone had written pint prices on in permanent marker.

After work I went for "omerice", which is an omelette full of rice with my coworkers from my campus, one of the teachers from our university's other campus and the two administrators from our company that deal with us and our school. The omerice was not terribly exciting, tasting pretty much exactly like you'd expect an omelette full of rice would. The place was pretty interesting though. It was sort of Alice in Wonderland, with a lot of nods to what is someone's skewed vision British culture around the restaurant and on the menu. You could buy an omelette stuffed with rice with a burger on top of it that was named in honour of London's double-decker busses. The food was pretty good, with the omerice, the reason we came, being the blandest of everything I ate. The conversation was very good too, but I was certainly a bit tired and ready to go home after leaving home before 6 in the morning.