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| I had no idea football was played in Japan Koiki Koen - Hiroshima, Japan (2005) |
Hiroshima - It all started with an informal invite by a co-worker. "My son is the captain of the football team" et cetera. I was unaware that football was played in Japan. Trying to be polite I accepted; then I promptly forgot about it.
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A month or so later I received a call. The caller was hesitant and spoke in halting English. At first I thought someone was playing a joke; then I realized the caller was my co-worker's son. He'd been "instructed" to invite me to his game personally. Not an easy task in English challenged Japan. That took guts. I guess that's why he was the captain.
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Fast forward a couple of weeks and I'm sitting in a stadium. There are two football teams that appear to be doing what combatants typically do on the gridiron. I was more amused than enthused. The fans present seemed somewhat removed from the action.
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At the conclusion of the contest my co-worker insisted that I go out on the field to meet her son. I remember feeling I had no choice in the matter as the woman was insistent. As we neared the base of the grandstands my co-worker committed the ultimate violation of mother-son protocol, she yelled her son's name at the top of her lungs in front of both teams and the fans. ..
I felt a tear well as I watched her son, mortified and pretending to be deaf, try vainly to become invisible among-st his teammates. Most men would rather face the gallows than be subject to the publicly bellowing mother. Even the vanquished opponents seemed to sympathize.
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Amazingly, as if it were possible for anyone in the stadium not to hear the first time, she bellowed again. Demoralized and defeated, the young man acknowledged mother foghorn as she strutted onto the sacred gridiron clutching her umbrella. After some awkward interaction between the players and myself, an invitation was extended for me to visit a practice. Thus had begun another episode.