You know where I'd rather be...
July 2023
Bob was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, excited and ready for his first soccer match. It appeared to be some sort of gala day and since my husband, Shujin was unable to take Bob, it fell to me. The day started with Bob waking up at, apparently, 4am but I think it was really 5am. He was so keen and got himself breakfast. Shujin very thoughtfully got up before 6am and made lunches for Bob and I. We left home at 6:40am and I was still bleary-eyed, despite the fact that I'd usually be up by then anyway!
We met the soccer team at our usual training grounds and then drove in convoy into the city where the games were being held. The leading car was going Australian speed and I thought we must be cutting it too fine for a 7:30am kick-off. Once we got into the city we turned off the minor road onto a major double lane road. The lead car was off! It kept getting further away but I was the third car so just stuck behind the second one. Eventually the first car was out of sight and I knew we were near the grounds but wasn't sure which exit to take so happily stayed behind the car in front. But then the car behind me, the forth one in our convoy, put the blinker on to take the exit and I was left in the middle of these two cars wondering what the heck I was meant to do! It all happened in a matter of seconds of course, but I was torn between following the car in front or following the car behind! In the end I just followed the car in front. We took the next exit and we made it to the grounds, but it would have been quicker to take that first exit! Anyhow, we made it in plenty of time. Being Sunday morning at such an unearthly hour the traffic was light the whole way and we made it in record time.
We easily found our club at the very end of the soccer grounds as the team colour is fluro yellow. They already had up two gazebos and were just fluffing around and setting themselves up. The few parents that I did know from the club weren't there, except one. No one spoke English. A lady was friendly to me but I couldn't talk Japanese back to her, and the smile and nod only goes so far.... I hadn't seen her before. She didn't really fit herself in with the other parents but hung with the kids more. She seemed typically Japanese in her mannerisms. Polite, quietly spoken. She briefly took her mask off to have a drink and she had the face of a little kid. I couldn't believe how young she looked! A chubby face with a small mouth. Maybe she was a kid… an older sibling. But she had driven the second car in our convoy! So no, she was certainly not a kid!
After awhile some clubs started warming up on the fields. 7:30am came and went and I wondered when the game would start. I thought maybe it would be 8am. So we just hung around, feeling the heat of the sun already despite it being so early. It got close to 8am and our team still wasn’t doing warm ups... And then I heard someone say "8:30am". Oh man. I think kick off is at 8:30am!! Why did we get here so ridiculously early??!! We most certainly could have stayed in bed another hour!!
The coach was no where to be seen but no one seemed concerned. The assistant coach was there. The kids all changed into their white shirts, I'm not sure if that is their home shirt or away shirt, but anyhow, they were in white! Eventually one of the dads took the team out to warn up. I sat down on my chair, kicked my shoes and socks off and enjoyed the cool grass under my feet. It was really nice to see grass actually. Despite having a yard at our house, it only grows weeds, not grass. Lawns are usually only seen at parks, not in people’s yard, if they even have one. But here, it looked just like you'd find in Australia. Thick, green and lush sporting field grass. I soaked it up.
The team returned from warning up and the mums concerned themselves with getting everyone's towel. Now, in Japan, they LOVE their towels. They are similar size to a hand towel, but long. They love wearing wet towels around their neck in the summer, or even on their heads. I tried it since Shujin says they do it to keep cool. But it didn't feel cooler to me at all, it felt hotter! I'd rather strip layers off to cool down rather than add them! Anyhow, so the towels had been sitting in a bucket of iced water and the mums rung them out and passed the towels out. The kids were so grateful and cooled themselves down, wiping their faces, draping them around their necks or cooling their heads. The kids were hot, poor things, it was a perfect summer's day for the beach! But we were on soccer fields instead!
After maybe 5 minutes, the kids finished with their towels and then the strangest thing happened. They threw them back into the iced water. All of them. Together. I was mortified! Like, that's GROSS!!!! All their sweat and germs mixing together... Eeewwww!!!
Suddenly there was movement and one of the gazebos was getting lifted up and we were moving to the sideline! Thankfully the field was just in front of us. So off we went. I was happy the game was FINALLY going to start! Our assistant coach put his referee shirt on and went to the sideline. That's odd. Surely he isn't going to ref his own club's game??!! Yes, he was! It was 8:30am and we finally had kick-off! It didn't take long for me to see that our club was stronger. The coach (I'm assuming) from the other team was quite vocal and yelling out orders regularly. Our coach still hadn't turned up and all the parents were fairly composed.Except one. The kid-parent with the chubby face who was so quiet and polite. She became a "soccer mum”! She was regularly yelling out, sometimes encouragement but I think sometimes orders too! And when we scored our first goal she was so elated she yelled and jumped and her mobile phone flew out of her back pocket, she didn't even notice though because she was so into the game!!!
At quarter time the kids came under the gazebo and the mums busied themselves with wringing out the towels and passing them around. Gross! Five minutes later the towels were thrown in the bucket and the kids were back out on the field. Half time came and the kids took refuge under the gazebo while the mums busied themselves with wringing out the towels and passing them around again. This was getting more gross. I thought how different it was to Australia. In Australia kids would be squeezing water bottles over their heads and eating oranges. Here, kids cooled themselves with germ-filled wet towels and drunk water. A phone rang and the mum put it on loud speaker. I heard the coach's voice as he talked to the team. One of the parents pointed to a pizza van about three soccer fields away, parked on the sidelines. I knew he owned a pizza van and the penny dropped. He was here, but running his business!!
Half time break was over and the kids were back on the field. I think we were winning by 3 nil. A few more parents had turned up one of them was wearing a hood, like little red riding hood, but it was a towel with winnie the pooh pictures on it. And it had like a scarf attached which hung down her front. The whole thing looked like it should be worn in winter, except it wasn't wool, it was made with towel material! It was so odd!! And then as I looked around the parents I realised, nearly all of them were wearing white shirts and dark pants. And it hit me, they were wearing the team colours! Boy was I quick today!! Mental note to self: wear a white shirt and your navy shorts next time!!
As the soccer game was played suddenly our team got a great break and started taking the ball up the feild. The kid was doing really well dribbling it up there with the opposition close on his tail but not fast enough. One or two others of our team were supporting the boy with the ball, running up with him. He took it from halfway and right up and shot a clear kick at goals and got it in. The whistle blew. It was such a good play and I was cheering, despite the fact we were winning it still felt really exciting. But then the weirdest thing happened. They didn't take the ball back to the centre line for kick off and no one else was cheering about the goal and then I found out it was off-side. What?! I was sooooo confused! I wanted someone to explain it to me because my understanding of offside didn't fit with what I saw! But alas, explaining offside in Japanese to an English-speaker would be impossible! So I left it and watched the game carefully to see if my theory about why it might have been offside worked in other situations. It never did so I was still left wondering why it was called!
Quarter time came again and the kids raced off the field and took their wet towels from the buckets of iced water. Gross! Back on again and our team won the game 5-1. Back off the field, grab their towels. Gross!
One game done, one more to go. I wasn't sure what time the next game would be but no one was moving anywhere quickly. Bob said it was meant to get to 37 degrees and it certainly felt like it would. I was grateful every time the breeze blew. Actually, the kid-parent-soccer-mum had passed me a fan at the start of the day. It was a lifesaver! It was so funny, everyone was dying in the hot weather, but nearly all the adults were wearing long pants and even long sleeve shirts. And not cool, cotton material, but synthetic or jeans. That's SO hot to wear! I don't know how they could cope!
Well, I think we had a half hour break, we did a toilet run, and then our second game started. Our assistant coach refereed this game too! So weird! And our coach turned up! So now that it was closer to lunch time he was able to leave the van?? Didn't make sense! Anyway, it didn't take long to realise this team was much stronger. Maybe that's why the coach turned up, because he was vocal and yelled orders from the sidelines!! Even just looking at the other team, they were all big kids. Our team had kids from grade two to grade six. This team was all grade six! They dominated and scored the first goal, and second, and third, and fourth... In the end they won 5 nil. It was a much tougher game and I'm sure not as enjoyable as the first game! But I told Bob that it’s good to play against teams that are better than you as it helps make you better.
So, all the towels had been in and out of the bucket of iced water during the breaks in that game too. I just couldn't believe Japanese would do this! You insist I wear a face mask but we can share germs if we're using wet towels?? No thanks, I'll use my own water and go mask free!!!
Now that our two games were over we carried the gazebo back to our original place. We all sat around under the shade. Bob was hungry and I was feeling peckish too. He asked what time it was.
“10:30am” I responded.
"What?! Is that all?!" he said in shock.
"Feels like 2pm does it?!" I laughed!
The kids all cooled themselves down with their wet towels again. Gross! Bob was hungry and I didn't know if anyone else was eating but I pulled out our food and we ate some fruit. About 5 or 10 minutes later a mum was getting all the kids to line up and wash their hands. And then afterwards the kids pulled out their sports drinks/jelly (it was in a pouch, I don't know how it came out!) and other food. I realised why no one had started eating earlier, they were all waiting to wash their hands first. Oops! Bob and I used chopsticks to eat so I didn't feel grossed out, but I'll remember for next time to just wait for the hand washing first!
It was getting really hot and I was glad the two games were over and we could go soon. Shujin had made lunch for us but I figured I'd be eating at home so I just had some snacks. Everyone sat around and chatted and socialised. I sat there almost totally isolated. I couldn't chat with anyone. I was mentally fighting the intensity of the heat and starting to feel gross. One hour passed.
No one was leaving. I wondered if there was another game?? The kids had changed back into their fluoro yellow shirt so I thought perhaps there was another game. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Another hour went passed. What was going on??!! I just want to GO HOME! It had surely hit the 37 degrees, I was hot, my eyes were going a little funny and I just wanted this all to be OVER!
Finally there was some movement and the team was called. No gazebo was getting moved so I guessed it wasn't another game, but hopefully the presentation? But there were still teams playing on the fields so I wasn't so sure. But yes, they were called for a rather informal presentation. Kinda weird how it worked. Like they did it just two teams at a time or something... The previous two teams came away with a large box each. I could see "Amazon" stamped on the side. I was curious to know what was inside! I watched from the shelter of the gazebo and noticed that our team wasn't given any box.
But once the presentation was finished they all rushed over to the pizza van! I wanted to rush down there and make sure Bob didn't have ANYTHING that he wasn't allowed to have but I held myself back. We have told the club his allergies and food intolerances. And I know he'd hate me for denying him whatever it was they were going to get... And to my horror, it was shaved iced laced with a brightly coloured and flavoured syrup. Argh! Bob had chosen lemon and maybe I should be grateful it wasn't red food colouring, or blue. But it was yellow and maybe that's just as bad. I was not impressed. But I think he'd eaten half of it before he even got to me since some kids had cups piled very high but Bob’s wasn't! The assistant coach got one too. He carried his back to the gazebo, plonked into his chair and took his first mouthful and almost choked! Between coughs and laughs he commenting to the person beside him and I was imagining he was complaining about how strong the red raspberry flavour was! I understood the word “child” so I imagined he thought it was definitely something that kids enjoyed more!
I waited around some more as Bob finished his shaved ice and then we helped pack up. YAY! Bob had put his stuff in the car but had his towel around him. He asked me to hold it. GROSS! I did not want to touch that thing. I told him to put it in the car himself! I saw the water in the towel bucket before a mum tipped it out and it was tainted brown. GROSS! Just GROSS!!! When I thought it was now OK to leave we said thank you and goodbye and I was so glad to be FINALLY going home. It was 1pm. I turned the car on and the thermometer on the dash board said 42 degrees. FORTY TWO DEGREES!!! No way! Or, yes way, actually! No wonder I was dying!! I was so hot, hungry (I didn't eat the lunch because I kept thinking we'd be going soon. And the heat makes me lose my appetite, even though I'm hungry. It's weird!) and I was feeling so put out that I had to stick around for and extra TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!
And yes, we suffered from Bob’s consumption of the shaved ice. He was sooo emotional, had crazy, loud outbursts, making loud noises for no reason, he was angry and aggressive and he was extremely tired. Argh! And this was just the start of the soccer season!! Tomorrow was a public holiday, Ocean Day actually. The day to officially open the beaches in Japan. And tomorrow there was another soccer gala day. You know where I would rather be…!