Pro Soccer - Japanese Style

Last Saturday our friend Chisato's dad bought some of us pro soccer tickets. He's a big wig at the bank so we scored pretty well. We got the bank's VIP parking next to the stadium and seats in the crazy fans section. In Japan if you are not sitting in the crazy fans section you might as well take a nap. People look at you funny if you do so much as clap and disturb their peaceful viewing of the game. But if you get in the crazy fans section you're good to go. Chisato's dad also had a friend there who got to the game 6 hours early and saved us seats on the 6th row. We felt kinda lame walking in at game time. The best thing about the day wasn't really the game. The Kashima Antlers lost 0-4 (they're usually one of the better teams in Japan). The best thing about it was the wild and crazy fans' Japanese-ness. We stood up and yelled the whole time doing Hail-Hitler-type hand gesture cheers for 2 hours. The crowd started throwing toilet paper and confetti they had cut out of their comic books. It was amazing. They looked uninhibited and wild. I couldn't believe that the Japanese had actually thrown so much litter all over. But then the game ended. I looked around and all of a sudden everyone got out plastic garbage bags. We then as a huge group cleaned up our mess. No one left the crazy fans section until it was all finished. Making the game more of a surreal experience the players had to come and bow to the angry mob. They bowed their heads in utter shame toward us having been defeated so badly. Surprisingly the Japanese crowd booed them like we were in New York or something. Then people started throwing all the confetti they had just picked up back at them in disgust. The shamed players walked away as the fans once again picked up the confetti.