my japanese occupation (part 2)

This was a 'pseudo' statue of liberty, situated at the waterfront of the Odaiba city, where it boasts many futuristic buildings with impressive architectural designs, or so we heard. Actually, we realised that Odaiba wasn't really what we expected it to be. We were expecting to see a glimpse of what the world would be like in 2050, but we were treated to something more current. Falling short of our expectations was also the fact that there was nothing much we can do there except to take pictures and wait for the shopping malls to open at 11am.

I'm not very sure, but this could be one of the major junctions of another busy shopping district in Tokyo called Shibuya, a place which we were supposed to go the evening before but decided not to. Ironic thing is, the time I took this picture was the first time during my trip that I realised there're actually many people in Tokyo. Duh, you may think. But the impression we got from the first two days was that Tokyo was a very sparse city, and I'm glad we're soon proven to be wrong. :)

FC TOKYO! Adventurous as we were, we decided to include a Japanese League soccer game in our itinerary. It was a home game for FC Tokyo, at Ajinomoto Stadium, against Kawasaki Frontale. You could imagine them like Everton vs Aston Villa of the J-League.

This is the main facade of Ajinomoto Stadium. From this picture, it doesn't really reflect the majesty of the stadium, but once you see the inside, you'll definitely be wowed! Anyway, the tickets cost around S$27, which I thought was well worth the money and experience.

Ardent supporters of FC Tokyo!

That guy on the left, with the dark blue shirt over grey long sleeves, reminded me of Mr Chow Siew Foong from VJ, the ever enthusiastic teacher who turns up at every VJ soccer games and cheers his heart out.

From far, it looks like a Barcelona crowd. And indeed, we spotted a flag of Barcelona emblem rather than FC Tokyo but who cares! The atmosphere prior to kick-off all the way to the full-time whistle was electric. These people could cheer all the way and there was also this row of supporters who never stop jumping up and down through the game. Where can you find this in Singapore? Not even at Tiger Cup finals!

FC Tokyo vs Kawasaki Frontale

19 April 2008

Final Score: 4 - 2

Den was initially reluctant and in his words, 'not looking forward' to watching this game, but I guess he changed his mind after the game. (I hope!)

Anyway, this was to be one of the highlights of the entire Tokyo experience, and one to be really unprecedented, unless I mysteriously get a golden opportunity to an live EPL match or something. Haha. For now, this will remain as one of the best games I've watched, justified by the dyanamics of the crowd and beauty of the goals.