Don’t fancy yours much.
Yikes!
Zico’s zenith?
The once mercurial Brazilian also went on to say that he had no interest in managing a J-League team or (wait for it) the Brazilian national team after he steps down as Japan coach.
Now there is no way I’m going to criticize Zico the player. Nor can I fail to mention the interest he generated in the J-league when he came out of retirement to play here. But as national team coach his record is dismal (despite a good win last week against the Czech Republic), and the improving and confident Japanese team of the last World Cup is now a shambling, directionless wreck.
These recent comments by the once legendary player show a disturbing degree of arrogance and self denial. The fact that he expects to be offered any managerial position after his stint as the national team coach ends is laughable, but to even mention the position of Brazil manager is nothing short of ludicrous!
I guess this arrogance was apparent when Zico accepted the job in the first place. With next to no managerial experience, he was hardly the ideal candidate. Although I have to admit that the JFA deserves as much blame for offering him the job in the first place. What was going on there (with both parties) is anybodies guess, but results have shown the error of their ways.
For football to maintain a strong following in Japan, I feel it’s important for the national team to do well. Sadly with Zico at the helm, I just can’t see this happening. And with a relatively easy qualifying route to Germany 2006 now looking like a real challenge, the heat is on.
He may prove me wrong. And for the sake of Japanese football I sincerely hope he does. But there are going to have to be some changes. Major ones.
The picture above was surreptitiously taken at a secret training session. Hence the rather poor quality. Now I could make a comment about the team, players, and fans getting royally shafted, but I’ll refrain from such base humour.
Puritan pretender
Not only do they sit on the floor and lie on the seats, but they are often noisy, eat and drink on the train, and generally enjoy making a nuisance of themselves. But this is still preferable to a lot of adult behaviour found on and around public transport. Such as groping, peeking up skirts, exposing genitalia, and public trouser removal
Give me bad school kids any day!
What goes up…
This massive kite, weighing in at a hefty 1 ton and measuring 12.9 metres in height and 13.3 metres in width, rose 30 metres in the air on Tuesday.
But despite being controlled by about 50 people, after a brief flight the extremely windy conditions took their toll, causing the bamboo frame to break. Leaving the briefly majestic looking kite in this sorry state.
To make matters worse it came down on an unlucky group of spectators, injuring 8 of them. Although as far as I’m aware, none of them seriously.
So that’s alright then.
Destination Disney
Over the Golden Week holidays, it’s estimated that around 600,000 people will go and pay homage to their cartoon gods at Tokyo Disneyland.
Now I’ll admit that I’m no Disney fan, but going there during the holiday season is sheer madness. Unless of course you revel in standing in line for hours on end for a rather tame ride that will be over in seconds. Or alternatively have an uncontrollable obsession with grown adults dressed as vermin.
Yet somewhat surprisingly it was at Tokyo Disneyland that I experienced my only real case of extreme culture shock. Yes, I admit to going once, but it was purely for research ok? And perhaps more importantly I was given a free ticket. But anyway, at the end of my day at Disney, I foolishly entered a souvenir shop. A decision I regret to this day, as I found myself in the middle of what can only be described as a gift-buying orgy. Honestly, I have never seen anything like it (and hopefully never will again). People were running around literally grabbing any souvenirs they could lay their hands on. And needless to say any sense of etiquette or decorum was non-existent, as customers shoved and elbowed their way towards another potential purchase.
To say it totally freaked me out is no exaggeration, and I just had to leave the shop as quickly as I could. It was simply unbelievable. I kind of wish I’d had a camera with me, but at the same time I’m relieved I didn’t. The memory is still disturbingly clear, and hard photographic evidence is really not necessary.
With the huge numbers that are expected there this week, the mere thought of going anywhere near the place makes me shudder!
