Did you see this one?

[cstaylor]

Biggest disappointment
Paul Wilson: Japanese cuisine. It is perfectly possible to eat very well in Japan - though it tends to cost - but natives tend to prefer greasy, fried stuff to sushi. Saveloy stalls in Southend smell sweeter, and walking the streets can be a queasy experience.

[cstaylor]

Was co-hosting a success
John Carlin: No. The Koreans and Japanese hate each other's guts. The sense you had was of two distinct tournaments taking place. Logistics between the two countries were revealingly poor.

[kamome]

Akiko Oyama, who works in the same hotel, said she had been "very moved by the football and all the foreign people."

But I have to say, I think the WC had a positive effect on the Japanese in their perception of gaijin. Here's a sweet story:

I met a girl at a party the other night and she told me she had just started to take English-language lessons--she had just attended day two of her course. I asked her why she decided that now was the time to start. Her response was that she wanted to communicate better with foreign visitors to Japan and to be more helpful in case she was approached for directions. Apparently, a few gaijin soccer fans had approached her on the street to ask her for directions in English. When she realized she couldn't answer them or comprehend their questions, she decided at that point to take English classes and improve her ability to communicate with non-Japanese. I think that's pretty sweet, and a nice example of how the Cup indirectly encouraged some Japanese not to shrink away from gaijin but to become more open to them.

[Steve Bildermann]

To quote the Great Man himself..

Great man

Oh F*** me Ultra, you *DEFINITELY* gotta raise your standards dude.

[cstaylor]

A win would have an influence on the negotiations over the Northern Territories. This is the way it usually happens in international politics" - Shintaro Ishihara, the Governor of Tokyo, on Japan's group clash with Russia. The countries are still technically at war as the Japanese refuse to sign a peace treaty until the Northern Territories Islands, taken over by Stalin at the end of the Second World War, are handed over.

What an idiot.