Reuters wrote:
BONN, Germany, May 24 - The music of Ludwig van Beethoven will set the scene for Japan's soccer team when they arrive for the World Cup on Friday.
The Asian champions unexpectedly picked Bonn, where Beethoven was born, as their base in Germany for the World Cup even though the small town on the Rhine River was not on the list of 110 host venues recommended by world governing body FIFA.
... "We're going to do everything to make sure they feel at home in the city of Beethoven no matter if they are players or tourists," said Bonn mayor Baerbel Dieckmann. "The city is absolutely delighted to host the Japanese team."
The city of 312,295, which was the seat of the German government until it moved back to Berlin in 1999, has gone all out for its Asian guests since the Japanese federation decided to make the leafy Rhine-side destination their base.
It has put up Japanese blue banners all over town. A "German Japanese Media Partners Supporters" centre for the 300 journalists following Japan has been set up in a local museum, now swathed in the team's colours, and the team will take up an entire 252-room Hilton Hotel near the Rhine's banks . . . more
