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| I had no idea football was played in Japan Koiki Koen - Hiroshima, Japan (2005) |
Hiroshima - Some elementary school students were looking through one of my photo albums during class. A co-worker noticed an old photograph of me wearing a football uniform; this inevitably led to "My son is the captain of his high school football team." I didn't know football was played in Japan. In short order, an informal invite to a game was extended. Trying to be polite, I accepted; then I, promptly, forgot about it.
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About a month later I got a call on my cell phone. When I answered the caller spoke halting English and was hesitant. At first I thought someone was trying to play a joke on me; then I realized the caller was my co-worker's son. His mother had "instructed" him to invite me to his football game; in English challenged Japan that's no easy feat. I guess that's why he was team captain; he had guts.
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Fast forward a couple weeks and I'm sitting in a mostly empty stadium. There were two football teams on the field that appeared to be doing what combatants typically do but I was more amused than interested. I noted the few fans present were quiet and seemed removed from the action.
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At the conclusion of the contest my co-worker insisted I go out on the field with her to meet her son; I had no choice because the woman was quite insistent. Then, as we approached the bottom of the grandstands my co-worker committed the ultimate violation of mother-son protocol; she hollered her son's name at the top of her lungs in front of both football teams and all of the fans in attendance. "Yoshi!!!..
I felt tears welling as I watched my co-worker's son, mortified and pretending to be deaf, try to become invisible while standing among his teammates. Most boys would rather face the gallows than be subject to a publicly bellowing mother. Even the vanquished Sotoku players seemed to sympathize with the poor Johoku captain.
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Then, as if it were possible for anyone in that stadium not to hear her shouts the first time, momma foghorn hollered again. "Yoshi!!!"
Demoralized, and defeated, the thoroughly embarrassed captain acknowledged his mother as she strutted out onto the gridiron clutching a lace trimmed umbrella with me in tow. After some awkward interaction with the Johoku players, an informal invitation was extended for me to visit a practice. Thus, began another episode.