YO-KO-HAMA! Part 2

The evening in Yokohama was taken up at the football. Spiffing.

Yokohama FC, not even the biggest team in Yokohama, entertained Vegalta Sendai in front of a crowd of around eight thousand.

To even find the station I had to enlist the help of some Sendai fans. I said Hull City to them a lot in the hope that they watched some Premier league. They seemed to get it in the end. I tried to sit with them but had to go in the Yokohama end. Fortunately this was a blessing. They put me in the cheap seats with all the uber fans. Not that there was that many. Sendai brought as many as Yokohama to be honest, which, when you consider Yokohama are bottom of the bottom league in Japan isn't that surprising. There fall from grace was apparently spectacular. They where really high in J League 1 at one point but such is life.

I got my free fan, bananas and some high quality dried squid for 200yen (About 1 pound 20) and settled in this a big fat guy and his quiet proletariat mate. I tried the Hull City routine with more luck this time. They fed me nuts and a chocolate panda and in broken Japanese I assured them that I would indeed be cheering for Yokohama.

The fan culture is very similar to that of the Med. A few guys stand facing the crowd with megaphones chanting for what must be about 70minutes solid. I joined in as best as I could. This usually just involved shouting YO-KO-HAMA! very very loudly and endlessly.

When Yokohama scored with a diving header from a free kick I hugged the big guy and high fived his reserved mate. That was about three minutes in. The rest of the game involved Yokohama receiving the pasting of there lives. They had to foul so often to deny Sendai that they had a lad sent off for two yellows. In the end however Yokohama won out with a tight 1-0 win. I cheered, the guys cheered, the megaphone guys collapsed with shear exhaustion. It was all good.

I tried to give back the Yokohama towel/scarf thingy that the guys had lent me but they insisted that I keep it. I was kind of hoping that this would happen.

At full time I met up with an English kid called Max who i had spied at half time and introduced myself to. He commentates on J-League for online betting channels. If you ever bet on obscure sport then Max is your man. We had a good chat about England, Japan and Germany on the way back. Max is half German (he had to be with a name like that) and went to an international school in Frankfurt.

I'm probably gonna meet up with him again in Tokyo later on this trip.