World Cup fever

We'll take a break from commenting on the religious atmosphere around here and move on instead to football. It is after all World Cup time. Actually some people would see football as a kind of religion anyway. Football (or soccer as they refer to it here) is not traditionally a Japanese sport. They excel more in baseball, sumo and the martial arts. Yet Japan has once again qualified for the World Cup finals and had their first outing last night. The result - a 1-0 victory over the mighty Cameroon. And that's been enough to send the Japanese media into a frenzy. Star striker Keisuke Honda poked the ball over the line and the commentators were marvelling over such a 'brilliant goal'. It was replayed constantly during the half-time interval. This is Japan's fourth appearance in the World Cup finals and they are aiming for the semi-finals. The manager says that has nothing to do with the fact that rivals Korea reached that stage eight years ago when the finals were held in Japan/Korea. There is little hope of that but the victory last night is getting the fans going. It's a talking point. A church near us is even holding an outreach event on the night of the next match showing the game live on a big screen in the church. For us, we are more and more getting to know Calum's football friends and their parents as we gather regularly to cheer on the team. That gives us natural opportunities to chat and befriend people and we hope in time will lead on to deeper conversations. Meanwhile we will join the millions here in rooting for the Blue Samurai in their next match.