We are the champions

One of the things that impresses us about life here in Japan is the way that sport is encouraged from a young age.  Our boys are all into football.  There is a great set up here from the local teams right through to city-level training, prefecture-wide training and national-level training.  Since last year Calum has been involved in different levels of training and was chosen to become the captain of the team representing the whole of Sapporo in a tournament over the last few days.  Teams came from different parts of Japan, drawing in some of the best Under 12 players from their areas.  It all began as these things go with an official opening ceremony.  All the teams lined up and there were a few speeches along with everyone doing a fun warming up to music.  Near the beginning Calum came to the microphone.  He was the one chosen to give the opening greeting on behalf of the players and a vow that everyone would do their best.  He wrote it himself, memorised it and delivered it really well.  Then the action started and it was great to watch such a high level of play from 12 year old boys.  Calum's team did really well and clinched the trophy and winners' medals with a fine 2-0 win in the final. 

After that it was time for the closing ceremony and presentation of the trophy.  As captain, Calum came forward to receive a large flag for the winning team followed by presentations of various trophies and medals to each player in the winning team.  All of this was accompanied by the music of the hymn Thine be the Glory which is traditionally used here for victory in sporting tournaments.  Then it was the turn of the sponsors to give out their goodies - the boys received a boxload of things from cornflakes to cookies to bottles of juice and packets of Milo and cocoa powder!  Calum's team also got T shirts with the word Champions on the back.  It was a great few days and another fascinating insight into Japanese culture with all that goes into the different parts of the opening and closing ceremonies.  Of course at the start and end of each match too there is polite handshaking and bowing - at the end the players all run over to the opposing dug out and bow to the coaches and then do the same to their own coaches.  It is no surprise to us that football in Japan is on the up.  It is well organised, good fun and there is a great spirit among the children and the coaches.  Apparently one of the present Japan national team members once played in this very tournament.  Who knows - maybe we have seen over these past few days one of the future stars of Japanese (or Scottish?) football. 

Christmas with a difference

This year will be unusual for us. One of our boys will be gone for Christmas Day! David headed off early this morning to the airport with Calum so he could catch a flight to Tokyo with 15 other 10 year olds chosen to represent the whole of Sapporo in a football tournament in Yokohama. They will be there till the 27th. Calum did open one of his presents before leaving and the rest will await his return. He is so excited to be going and already there is a great rapport among the boys who form the team. The coaches are making it a fun trip too. There is even a grand 'curry rice making' evening - everyone had to take their own spoon! Calum is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with some of the other future Japanese stars from the top club teams. He's not one of the main starting players so is unlikely to feature much on the pitch but it will be a great experience. It was fun to watch them leaving this morning. Everything was of course highly organised - even down to each child receiving a mask to wear on the plane! Obviously someone is concerned that the children don't pick up any nasty bugs en route. Well, here's hoping for a great time and as they say in Japanese - 頑張れ!　(Do your best!)

Football - again

Today was a big football day in Japan. The national team played their first home match since the World Cup, ironically against Paraguay who knocked them out on penalties in South Africa. But revenge was sweet as Japan triumphed this time 1-0. It was amusing to see the match described on television as the first step towards the Brazil World Cup in 2014! But a more important match (for us anyway) took place earlier in the day somewhere on the outskirts of Sapporo. The last big tournament of the season (before everyone has to retreat indoors to play football) was taking place and Calum's team managed to be drawn against one of the toughest teams in Sapporo. A win seemed unlikely. Yet for weeks before extra practices were arranged to give the team as much chance as possible. Today they played really well in a hard contest and having ended 0-0, it went down to penalties. With the score at 3-3, Calum stepped up to take the deciding kick - and in it went! Now, many mothers attend football matches in Japan and it was worth being there just to see their reaction as they shrieked and danced and 'high-fived' - not your normal image of Japanese mothers! At the end the boys lined up as usual in front of the parents, gave their thanks and bowed deeply. Maybe some future national team stars among them - but which country would Calum choose?

Football camp

This morning Calum left for football camp with his local team. Daniel has also gone as he has been helping with coaching over the summer. As always, the organisation is impeccable, even for a three day camp. Each child received a booklet of around 20 pages. Everything is planned to the finest detail. The time away is a mixture of training, matches and study, with a little free time in there somewhere too. Wake up is 6am followed by the morning 'meeting' at 7am - there is a strict instruction not be late! The departure took place amidst due ceremony. Everyone turned up wearing the standard gear (club tracksuit) even though that had not been specified in the instructions given out beforehand - sometimes a kind of telepathy works here so that everyone knows exactly what to bring or wear, except us who often seem to get these things worng! The children all got on the bus (in year group order), then all came off again to stand before the coaches and parents who were there to say farewell. The head coach said something. The captain gave a brief reply and all the children bowed. Then they were off. And hopefully all the children were bearing in mind what was written on the first page of the booklet that the point of the camp is not just to go and have a fun time!

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.

Go Sumikawa!

The last three Saturdays have seen us at different primary schools in Sapporo as Calum's football team, Sumikawa JFC, advanced through the stages of the All Sapporo Under 10 Futsal Tournament. Today they had reached the semi-finals and an impressive 3-0 victory saw them line up in the final against Consadole, one of the boys' teams attached to the pro club from Sapporo. They could not cope with the speed and skill of their opponents but it was certainly a worthy achievement just to reach the final. Parents cheered the team on from the sidelines - the mothers get particularly excited, one or two even get quite hysterical! It's quite interesting watching some of the dynamics. The refereeing is very strict - the rules are applied absolutely to the book! Sometimes it's hard to follow what rule is actually being applied. The team which lost the other semi-final after a very long penalty shoot-out was quite distraught. Their goalkeeper even ended up in tears in the middle of the penalties after he missed one and he of course had to keep going in his teary-eyed state. There is often a deep sense of personal responsibility for letting down the team. As for Sumikawa, well they were happy just to get their silver medals. We're all looking forward to the next tournament in March.

Always learning

We are a football daft house. Everyone enjoys it, perhaps to excess at times. Even Lorna is getting on board to some extent - not much choice with five addicts in the family. Calum is very into playing for his local team and with the onset of winter, this has now moved inside. It's the futsal season. Today, being a public holiday here, we had the first tournament of the season. And despite being well up on even the most obscure details of normal football rules, we are finding that futsal is somewhat different. David thought he should do some homework when we got home and found a 72 page document on the FIFA homepage containing the rules! Today though it was a good way to chat to some of the other dads and figure out why some strange refereeing decisions seemed to be being made. Even when you think you are on familiar territory like football, there are always things to learn living in another culture. We did however enjoy watching Calum scoring eleven goals in four matches! We're now gearing up for the next tournament in January.

Where is your passion?

One thing all the men in the Ferguson household have a passion for is football. So it's great to live near the Sapporo Dome, the amazing stadium which hosts professional football and baseball matches. The local team is Consadole, currently in the J2 League. The atmosphere inside the stadium is superb, although the support is somewhat muted and polite. There is little jeering; it has even been known for applause to be given to the away team! One section of the ground has seats reserved for what they call 'passionate supporters' - you need to wear the red and black colours of the home team as well as have a good voice as the singing continues through the whole game, accompanied by drums and the occasional trumpet. Being a passionate supporter is no bad thing. But being passionate for Jesus and seeking to introduce people to his team is a much higher and more valuable goal.