It's funny that so many people laugh at the idea of the Japanese being competitive soccer players. I guess most people just haven't heard anything about soccer in Japan, and probably had never seen them play before their first appearance in the World Cup in France. This isn't surprising, considering the sport didn't take off until about the time of the US World Cup in 1994. That's not to say there weren't plenty of youth and school programs around the country churning out some pretty incredible players for the past 30 years of so, but these players, no matter how talented, had no professional outlet to display their skills. That all ended in the early '90s, when Japan introduced the J-League, a professional league comprised of teams from almost all of the major cities around the country. The league was an immediate success, attracting large crowds with deep pockets to root on their local team. I remember reading somewhere that they sold more soccer memorabilia in the first year of the J-League then they have for baseball since its introduction to Japan many decades ago. Since for the most part the coffers of these teams ran pretty deep, it would have been possible for the new teams to attract most of their talent from foreign leagues with an abundance of experienced professional players. However, for a number of reasons, including the desire to improve the level of Japan's own athletes, the league limited each team to carrying only 3 foriegn players on the roster. This has certainly paid off, as the Japanese qualified for their first World Cup appearance in 1998 and performed much better than their second-to-last-place finish suggested. An even bigger accomplishment for this young sport in Japan, however, will be the next World Cup, which will be held for the first time in Asia with Japan and Korea acting as co-hosts.

I was fortunate enough to live less than a mile from Fukuoka's beautiful soccer stadium. In fact, all that separated my homestay house from the stadium was a small hill, and on game nights the edge of the hill would be illuminated by the glow of the stadium lights. This was also very convenient for me because I knew how to get to the other side of the hill, which was located behind the goal on one end of the large, open stadium. From here, I got a decent view of the games and didn't have to pay the exorbitant prices they charged for tickets. Unfortunately, the Fukuoka team pretty much owned the bottom spot of the league, and the year I was in Japan they only won about 3 games. So I actually went to only 2 games, one of which I watched from the hill and the other I watched from pretty good seats in the middle of the stadium which my homestay brother got tickets for at work. At any rate, the crowd was still loud and energetic, certainly more into the sport than any American crowd I've ever seen (not that that's saying much). I figured that if the worst team in the league could attract decent crowds like this, which certainly supported their lousy home team, then the Japanese didn't have a big thing going here with their professional soccer program. I just wish the Fukuoka Avispa team hadn't sucked so bad, but maybe by the next time I go back to Japan, they will have worked their way to the top.

One of the big problems with soccer in Japan is that grass doesn't grow very well over there. So it is very expensive to keep up a good grass field, meaning that most places only have dirt fields on which to play. It's not that grass fields don't exist over there, it's just that they are usually only found in stadiums or restricted areas and reserved for professional or collegiate use only. This goes for any other sport requiring grass in Japan. So most schools in Japan have a big dirt yard where you would expect to find a big grass field. It's not that it's like playing out on a beach though, as the dirt is packed pretty well and the surface is regularly combed to keep it level and smooth. This is still hard on your cleats, your knees, and especially your skin, which doesn't cling to your body too well after getting tripped and sliding about five feet. However, it is very functional and easy to get used to after a short period of time.

Being not just an avid soccer fan but also a player (that sounds like one of those commercials for men with hair loss), I went to Japan with cleats and ball in tow, hoping to play with the soccer team at Kyushu University where I would be studying. Upon arriving and getting to know the rest of the people in the program, I found two other guys who were interested in playing also. Since they both spoke Japanese, I was relieved that I wouldn't have to depend on the guys on the team to try and struggle explaining things to me in broken English. However, when we went to watch the team's first game and subsequently talked to the coach, we were informed that we could only practice with them, as foreigners were not allowed to play in official games. I might not have been so upset about this, as practicing would at least keep my skills and exercise level up, as well as give me an opportunity to make some Japanese friends. However, they practiced every weekday at the campus on the other side of town, which would have been a hellish commute to make after classes everyday. It just really wasn't feasible, and certainly not worth it considering I wouldn't be able to play in the games with them anyway. I looked around the Kaikan, the international house where I lived for the first four months of my stay, for any other foreigners who wanted to play pickup or something. I found out that they already played every Sunday in the sand field next to the Kaikan, but after playing with them once, I realized I would be better off finding a bunch of 10-year old kids around the neighborhood to kick the soccer ball around with. The problem was that there were a large group of Koreans from the Kaikan who were always out there, and they never wanted to split up. So it was usually the Koreans vs. the rest of the foreign crowd, the latter being comprised of a bunch of guys who never wanted to pass the ball despite the fact that they really sucked. The worst part is that everyone could tell that everyone else around them sucked, and thinking this automatically qualified them as the best player out there, they never passed the ball or tried to play as a team. They also quite freely offered advice to their fellow teammates in a variety of languages, most of which sounded to me like advice on how to shove large objects in obscure places of the body rather than good wholesome soccer tips. At any rate, it just didn't do it for me, so despite my strong desire to play, I quit playing with those guys after a week or two.

I pretty much gave up on the soccer idea at that point, except for a rare Saturday here and there when I heard about pickup games up at the university that didn't involve a bunch of foreigners yelling at and spitting on each other. After I moved into my homestay, however, I noticed on my bike rides home from school that the dirt field at the nearby middle school was often lit up, and one day I ventured over to see what was going on. I found a small group of what appeared to me to be high schoolers playing pickup and having a pretty good time. I didn't ask to play, as I figured by the time I went home, grabbed my cleats, and then returned to the field they would pretty much be finished. I did sit and watch for awhile and they seemed to be rather skillful players. I stopped by on another night of the week when I noticed the lights were on, and this time I found a group of much older guys. Although they didn't seem as skillful or quick as the younger guys I watched a few nights earlier, they seemed much friendlier and I approached them and asked if they would let me jump in with them. They gladly allowed me to join, and after fetching my cleats, returning, and getting a quick stretch in, I took the field. I was actually quite surprised. Despite being in their 30s and 40s, and the fact that almost every last one of them prefered lighting up a cigarette to drinking water during our short breaks, they kept up quite well on the field and they were for the most part quite skillful players. Some of those guys must have started playing as children to be as good as they were, and that meant that soccer obviously must have been around for some time in Japan already.

That first night I played with them just happened to be during the hanami seaon, a time when people gather with friends and family under the blooming cherry blossoms for a celebration full of drinking, talking, and plenty of merry-making. They invited me to join them at the park across the street from the school where we played, and I gleefully accepted. We sat around and ate plenty of good food, and of course they all tried to squeeze as much beer in me as possible (for some reason a lot of Japanese get a real kick out of seeing foreigners drink large quantities of alcohol... I often wonder if it is simply due to their amazement, or possibly just an inner desire to see the foreigners make complete fools of themselves). I returned home with a full tummy and very excited about finally finding a group of guys to play soccer with. The only bad thing about them was that they only played once every two weeks. So naturally I waited anxiously for the first and third Tuesday of every month to roll around so I could go out and play some soccer with them. They all knew me by name before too long, and when it was time for me to return to the US, they were all sad to see me go. To give me something to remember them by, they gave me one of their expensive yellow jerseys with each players signature on it, a memento I will hold on to for a very long time.

Twice a month just wasn't enough for me, so finally I decided to join the younger guys I had watched the first time I went out to the field. They hesitantly let me join them, and despite being much better competition for me than the older guys, I didn't enjoy my time as much with them because they didn't talk to me very much. It turned out most of them were high schoolers or recent graduates, so I figured they had just never had any contact with foreigners, at least not white ones, and therefore they must have been a bit uncomfortable around me. Their best player was actually from China, but had lived in Fukuoka for many years, spoke fluent Japanese and the local dialect, and attended school with the other guys, so he was well accepted in the group. These guys did respect me as a soccer player, however, and I had no problems with them out on the field. Still, it was a bit lonely when nobody would talk to me during the breaks, instead sitting around smoking their cigarettes and telling dirty jokes amongst themselves. At any rate, their skill level was excellent, certainly matching the average high school player here in the States (again, this really isn't saying much), and these guys didn't even compete at a very high level.

In addition to these high schoolers, after awhile I found one other group of regulars out at the field whom I came to like very much not only because of their high skill level, but also because they were eager to interact with me. They were all young adults, most having recently graduated from college, and they all had excellent skills. We usually got about 10 guys out there, which required us to use the small goals, but at the same time allowed each person to touch the ball more. This was the best soccer I played in Japan, and it was unfortunate I never got to play in a real game with these guys. When I went back the next summer for a few weeks to visit my homestay family, I stopped by the field on the same night the these guys used to practice, and sure enough they were still playing there. I joined them that evening, and almost all of them recognized me immediately and asked what I had been up to for the past year.

There were only two times I actually got to play in a real game in Japan, and both times were on a dirt field. The first time was right before the end of my stay, when my homestay brother invited me to join his team for a recreational league game. The guys on his team weren't all that great, but I didn't look much better because by that point I had torn up my cleats playing on the dirt fields and the leather on the outside of my right shoe was almost completely separated from the base of the shoes. I tried taping them up during halftime, but to no avail; my foot just continued to slip out of the end of the cleat. Still, it was great to get to play in a real, full-length game, and had I stayed longer I would have gladly played in many more games with that team (but only after purchasing some new cleats). The second time I played in a real game was actually for a tournament, and this was actually on my return trip to Japan for a few weeks. I met a Canadian guy named Andy through the director of the program I had been in the previous year, and Andy invited me to play with some team he had recently found. They were all Japanese, except for their captain who was actually Chinese, but had lived and worked in Japan ever since his college days. Evidently he played at a young age in the Chinese professional league, and somehow managed to get a full ride playing soccer at Fukuoka University. He learned Japanese there, and ever since has lived in Fukuoka working for some trade company. He was an incredible soccer player, and he also spoke excellent Japanese. When he found out I was on my way to Taiwan to study Chinese, he even taught me a few phrases. Anyway, not having met any of the guys, I went to play with them the first weekend after arriving in Fukuoka. Only after arriving at the field did I find out we were playing in a tournament. They were a great team, and the Chinese guy was by far the best soccer player I had the opportunity to play with in Japan. After the games that day, all of which we won, we went out to eat and had some interesting conversations. They were disappointed I wouldn't be around long enough to play in their next game, but they did offer to have a party for me before I left. I figured they would forget, but sure enough, a few days before I left for Taiwan the Chinese guy called me and set up time for that Friday night for the team to get together at some bar downtown. We consumed large amounts of delicious food and the finest Japanese beer, then made our way over to the nearest karaoke bar and sang for two hours. My friend Gen, who had just returned to Japan after studying abroad a year here at Rice University, joined us for our night of revelry, and after the others went home we hung out all night in Tenjin. It was certainly a night I will never forget.

Well, those are about all the soccer stories I have, and as I didn't get too into the J-League while in Japan, I can't really tell you too much more about that either. If you want more information on the J-League, go to the J-League Official Information Net. Unfortunately the link to their English page doesn't work, so it is only in Japanese for now. If you have any questions about any other aspect of soccer in Japan, feel free to contact me at frijol@rice.edu, especially if you'd like to know where to find some good soccer in Fukuoka. Otherwise, click below on the picture link to see a few pictures of the guys I played soccer with in Japan.