Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Strange Japanese Football Fans



Every time the World Cup starts, you will get some strange stories about it. In the last World Cup, it was Paul the Octopus. Although it’s still early days, this World Cup may be the time of the Japanese fans.

Even as the Ivory Coast came from behind to beat their team 2-1 in Japan’s opening match in Brazil, the Japanese fans still made time after the final whistle to clean up after themselves. As the match ended and most fans left the stadium, the fans of the Blue Samurais walked up and down the aisles filling trash bags. According to reports, this is the customary practice at Japanese sporting events and something Japanese fans have carried over to previous World Cups.

I’ve never heard of it before, and I think I know why. It's something so unusual and strange, people in other parts of the world probably have no idea what to make of it! Fans in the rest of the world not only don’t do this, I can say with some confidence that they never even consider doing it.

So here it is; the first strange story of the World Cup. The strange civic-minded Japanese football fans; take a bow! 

No comments: