Sakkaa

Tonight was the Japan-Holland game for the FIFA World Cup, as well as the night that I and my coworkers went out to karaoke with each other and a bunch of students. We were originally going to go to Mexigan (a "Mexican" food place), but it was packed and not letting people in, due to soccer overload. So we chilled in a karaoke room and sang a lot of Japanese pop and classic rock songs. I tried pickled eggplant... it was slightly overwhelming.

International soccer ranks up there with national baseball in popularity with the Japanese. Our karaoke night ended at the same time as the soccer game, and thus we joined the throngs of people in blue jerseys out on the swampy streets after leaving the karaoke bar. Though Japan lost, most people were cheerful, and nobody was getting violent; a nice change from some fans of the European persuasion. Perhaps it's because Japan was ranked 31/32 when the FIFA games started, or perhaps it's just because Japanese people are of a more rational and courteous nature, I don't know, but it was rather nice.

Despite the lack of loudness and brutality, soccer in Japan still manages to bring people together. There was a man in a KNVB* shirt in front of me in the line for the subway**; he caught my eye and I queried a tentative "Hup Holland?" We ended up talking until he got off at his subway stop: his name's Kevin, he's a Dutch-Canadian expat from Vancouver, and he teaches English at a university in Nagoya. He had been in Japan for a year and a half - previous to the university job, he'd taught with a private language school for a while. His advice to me was to learn to leave Canada behind: his sister had come over to teach for 6 months and had never been able to do it, and so had gone back home.

I had been pondering just this morning the fact that I feel painfully uprooted; my own willing divorce from Canada has left a gap in my identity that I don't think can be traced to mere homesickness. Now that I've recognized this, I think I can start to deal with it: it's time for me not to attempt to put down roots, but to learn how to self-sustain, to be myself without national identity. I am not sure it's completely possible, but I can try, and I think it will make things here a lot easier.

A lot of soccer fans had the Japanese flag painted in a neat little square on their cheeks. I am told that generally one does not fly the Japanese flag unless one is a jingoist conservative, as too much patriotism is associated with the extremism that fuelled Japan in WW2, and is therefore taboo. Thus patriotism remains small; a flag on the cheek; a royal blue soccer jersey. One young guy had a flag on his cheek where, instead of the red dot of the rising sun, a heart was placed instead.



*Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. Royal Dutch Football Association.
**They line up for the subway here; very efficient, saves time, is logical, and things progress smoothly. Sheesh, they should do that in Canada.