Ajinomoto Stadium

This year, 2009, I have had the luxury of attending two football games in Japan.  Last year, I wrote about my experiences to see football for the first time. This time, I had a different experience.  I was lucky enough to introduce a couple friends to FC Tokyo, and more recently, I was able to see a game as an Urawa Reds fan.  Generally, my first experience with FC Tokyo was how things were in 2009.  When attending a game, once you reach the stadium, you have to head into the stands where you’ll get your seat.  Then, just wait and enjoy the game.  FC Tokyo still runs “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and they still salute the crowd after every game, regardless of the results.  Since I was in the visitors side for a game this year, this post will reflect the feelings and emotions of the opposing time.

Half Time

On November 8th, I headed into Ajinomoto with a friend of mine.  We were meeting a couple of Japanese guys who are big Urawa Reds fans.  Since it was Urawa, the entire visitors section was full.  It was all red and black, the team colours.  There were the die hards sitting in the front row behind the goal and a bank of over 10 huge flags.  There were also various flags of other countries flying in the main section.  Essentially, if it was red and black, it was flown.  The flag of Yemen, or the old German flag, was also flown because of the colours.  The significance of the country itself wasn’t important.  Getting to the stadium early, as in any other game, is important if you want to get good seats.  Roughly an hour before the game starts, the cheering starts.  There are a few dozen different chants that the crowd does.  There is generally a leader in the main stands along with a drummer to keep the beat.  There may be more than one drummer.  There are a few basic cheers and everyone has to stand and do the cheer.  The Japanese guys I was with were a little sad as the cheering had been started a little early for their tastes.  You need a little energy for the game as well.

Fans Pre-game

During the singing of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” for FC Tokyo, the Urawa fans went crazy.  Lots of comments talking about how stupid it was to sing the song, and when they talked about FC Tokyo, they cheered and whistled as loud as they could.  It’s nice to see that they’ll do anything to support their own team.  Upon the kick-off, the cheering subsided so that the fans could watch the game.  The flags were down and only basic cheers could be heard.  Everyone was at the edge of their seats hoping a weak Urawa would be able to beat FC Tokyo.  To give a little insight into the game, both Urawa and FC Tokyo were in trouble.  Urawa is in a sort of rebuilding season, and FC Tokyo’s main ace was injured, and their top foreign player left to play in the Middle East, for more money.  However, FC Tokyo had recently won the Nabisco Cup, so they had the advantage of momentum.  The first half of the game was pretty boring.  FC Tokyo dominated the game with several shots on goal, but Urawa was limited and trapped in the mid-field.  For the second half, the game remained the same, but Urawa made one excellent play where a couple of strikers broke free of the defence and scored.  The crowd was ecstatic and the cheering was deafening; soon after, FC Tokyo also scored, but it was an off side goal.  By the end of the game, Urawa kept their 1-0 lead and won the game.  Obviously, the Urawa fans stuck around and saluted their players.

Autumn provides beautiful sunsets during the game.

In general, the FC Tokyo fans are never very loud.  They enjoy the games and they cheer on their players, but I think the visiting teams are always louder.  They tend to be more focused compared to FC Tokyo.  I’m sure the FC Tokyo fans are also louder when visiting other stadiums, but at home, it’s sad to see they aren’t close enough to shake the stadium.  I still highly recommend going to an FC Tokyo game.  It’s very close to Tokyo itself and the team is still pretty good.  If you have a free afternoon/evening, it’s only 20 minutes from Shinjuku Station.  You don’t need to buy tickets ahead of time, but do wear blue.  Avoid any other colours or you might have to buy your own jersey.

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Information:

Ajinomoto Stadium (Japanese Homepage):  http://www.ajinomotostadium.com/
Ajinomoto Stadium (Event Schedule – Japanese):  http://www.ajinomotostadium.com/schedule/index.html
Ajinomoto Stadium (Access – Japanese):  http://www.ajinomotostadium.com/access/index.html

FC Tokyo (English Homepage):  http://www.fctokyo.co.jp/english/index.phtml
FC Tokyo (Japanese Homepage):  http://www.fctokyo.co.jp/
FC Tokyo (Schedule):  http://www.fctokyo.co.jp/english/index.phtml?schedule=1
FC Tokyo (Wikipedia):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._Tokyo

Urawa Reds (English Homepage):  http://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/index_e.html
Urawa Reds (Japanese Homepage):  http://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/index2.html
Urawa Reds (Wikipedia):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urawa_Red_Diamonds

Well that may be a bit premature as I’m sure we will be needing them here and there for a bit yet but suddenly on Monday afternoon J2 decided that yes indeed, with adequate incentive (a wooden train threading set and some other things to be earned one by one) he would allow himself to use the potty!

Daylight savings time sucks… I always hate the weekend of the time change because I have a hell of a time adjusting to it every year.

Friday started off pretty bad when R called me and I had to go to J1’s school to pick her up as she was complaining of stomach pains. Not sure what it was, although part of me thinks she wanted a mental health day. Saturday R’s brother and family arrived and the kids had a good time playing a trick-or-treating.

Sunday after the cousins left I took J1 to a birthday party where I discovered that in the community that J1 attends school I am a very young father… Generally 15 years younger. It became very evident when I was jumping on the bouncy houses with J1 and the other dads looking at me like I was insane. What bunch of old farts.

Last night J2 was having a rough time because I forgot to turn on her humidifier… She repaid me by vomiting all over me and staying up till 1am. Good thing she is cute

Crap today was intense. Sort of. Well, rushing to the 2:00PM 2PM dance was intense. We were supposed to be at Oakridge at 1PM, and because we are so good at time management we left Tra’s house at 12:50, and she lives like half an hour bus away from Oakridge. Fail.

Only, the bus didn’t get to the bus stop on time (one of those times where you wait forever and then several buses come at the same time). Interestingly enough we saw our Socials 11 teacher on the bus. Tra started to hyperventilate and she called Toria first thing, ‘cuz we were all in the same Socials 11 class. He taught us during his last year before retirement, and I don’t think teaching our class was his ideal way to go, because we were kind of douchy to him, I think. Still, he’s one of the teachers I wouldn’t expect to ever see again, and one of the teachers that I don’t want to ever see again. Luckily we got off the bus soon after he boarded. He didn’t see us, phew.

It was 1:56 ish PM by the time we got to Oakridge. We practically jumped off the skytrain/subway (I think the Canada line is more of a subway …), and we sat down at the square to watch them do the dance. It was alright. There were quite a few people dancing. My friend recorded and I’m going to upload it ASAP. I think the main dancers could’ve been more enthusiastic about it. No lipsync, mainly staring at the ground in front of them. That kind of dancing. It might’ve been reasonable if there were pictures of Jae or 2PM stuck all over the ground. Speaker system was just Ipod speakers, and the music was quiet.

They danced two rounds, and people dispersed. There was this guy who was did a baby freeze at the end on both occasions and he looked like he was going to break his neck.

Over all it was kind of cool. Hah.

Then we went into Oakridge. I went to Sneakerbox and I saw the silver Adidas Wings, but there were no white. $220. I’ve been wanting since before I saw them on 2NE1, and seeing them on 2NE1 in their street vrsn of their Fire MV just made them so much more orgasmic.

After Oakridge we headed downtown to get icecream at Mondo Gelato. That was sex. I got mango peach sorbetto and Kinder Surprise. You know how when you have two flavors you always tend to like one better than the other, so you save that for last, except this wasn’t the case, because everything WAS SO FUCKING GOOD. I have this tendency to swear a lot when I eat something very good a.k.a. awesome a.k.a. legendary. I live to eat. Just ask my friends, we always go out to eat.

Oh right before we got icecream we got tricked into going to Sephora by my fobby friend and we spent so long in there listening to her talk about stuff about make up that normal people shouldn’t know. It was fun.

Tra told me about texts from last night and it looks pretty freaking interesting. I might quote from here too: “Texts from last night of the day” Lol, hopefully that’s not too confusing.

Kay that’s it for now.
I’m obsessed with Getting Down – Hwanhee

Love,
WG

I have been shopping today. My sister got her wedding gown and I have gotten my bridesmaid dress. (I spite thee feminists who say weddings are part of patriarchal doings. It is a hopeful dream for some girls, just like for some girls a career is what they pursue. Some guys want to get married much more than get a career, too.) I have gotten my winter wear as it will get cold. I usually don’t shop but after a year of saving like crazy to pay for my education and buying second hand/vintage, I decided with the extra money I earned from doing art to spend it on something nice.

I can’t help it: I love American Apparel. If I had to choose paying the same amount of money on something like Gap, Banana Republic or Lululemon, give me American Apparel instead. At least it looks interesting. Yes. You can buy lots of their clothes vintage (a la the huge Value Village in Richmond) which I’ve been doing the past year, but there are some pieces in there that are truly unique. Some of them are just redonkulous that they are $60+. Another store I love is the Bay. Pass me the bloody history of HBC, but I go in there for just different styles: Lady Dutch – nombre one, my fav is Lady Dutch, Nygard, Guess and DKNY. They’re always on sale and if you search hard enough, you get super unique, faboosh things.

The best place to get cheap, stylish clothing is in Tiangee in the Philippines, although you have to pay the plane ticket. Tiangee is almost like a black market minus the livers and pieces go for 50 cents – $10. The only thing I do not agree buying is the knock offs of Designers, because one, it’s probably exploiting some artist and two, I’m not sure if that money goes to gangs or not.

Here is what I think are the best places to go Vancouver-Richmond-Burnaby-wise, based on quality-equal-to-price:

Vintage / Second Hand

Richmond’s Value Village.

Front & Co on Main Street. (The next shop is a scream, it has awesome gifty things for people)

My Sister’s Closet on Commercial Drive. They sometimes have this stuff a bag with whatever’s in store for $20 days, and it all goes to the Battered Women’s Shelter.

Retro Rock both on Commercial & Davie.

Casual Wear

Shop Cocoon – its pricey, but it’s helping local designers.

H&M – really stereotypical, but seriously when you don’t want to spend a lot of money as a student, this is quite affordable if you look at their casual wear.

J2 & Jessica – These two are for both genders. Really super artsy like American Apparel, but they have sales more often than AA and it’s super cheap. I got some pretty sweet Jack Jones hoodies here.

Scout

Sears / the Bay – search the racks, go on the Bay Day, 40% everything…even the really nice stuff that costs more shoots down in price.

Aeropostale – the best deal on jeans! The quality is nice and the sizes aren’t insane, like when you go to Guess and realize you’re much fatter than you think. I scored a pair that fit like a charm for $20, though they’re usually priced around $30-60

American Apparel – in comparison to Gap, Hollister and Banana Re which charges some insane amount of money on khakis, I’d sell my soul to the hipster movement over the office drone look anyday.

Formal Wear

Laura’s Petites or Laura

BEBE’s sales rack: always 60% off. It’s always the clothes that were on display two weeks ago too. It’s coz no one actually buys shit regular priced here! It’s Marciano counterpart in Oakridge Mall also has a 40% rack much like this one.

BCBG – You always, always, always get good quality, even if it’s so expensive here.

Clubbing

Sirens or Mariposa or Dynamite – Super cheap, really flashy, and if you’re going out for a night a mayhem, why buy something so expensive? I know these clothes get fucked when you wash them a couple of times, but who wears the same thing twice at clubs?

There are many other favs of others like Urban Behaviour, Urban Outfitters, etc. But UB used to be really good, so when friends and I look at that store, we’re like “that’s for chiggers!!” UO is so very nice, but so very pricey. It’s like a store I’d have to go bank robbing to shop in. Don’t get me started on those lovely shops on West 4th – to Kits area. I’d review them but they are so ridiculously expensive!

But there are probably a million places to go in Vancouver to be fair. We have so much shopping and eating here, that’s the only two things you can do if you’re in the downtown & south Vancouver area.

Anyhoo, my last post was fudged to those with an RSS feed. I kept trying to write the feminist part and my compy kept shutting off and WordPress was having weirdness with my autosaves. But, now the evil space monkies have flown away and I hope some geeky programmer gets bad karma for eating my blog! Grawr!

And that’s Jensen Ackles singing (along with Jason Manns…but he doesn’t star in homerotic sci-fi tv and thus has no place on this site)

Check out Ashley’s page: http://www.youtube.com/user/doode25

I “aw! they are so cute” thru this entire thing

Check out Terrie’s page:  http://www.youtube.com/user/Keepmeclose84

Remember, it’s up to all of us to stay on top of our production deadlines, especially if we want to get a print issue out before the holidays!

Deadlines for this week:

Monday: Story meetings with Ms. C, Amber and Tyanna — you must meet with one of us today to discuss your story and determine angle and progress.  You should have a significant amount of reporting and interviewing done by now.

Tuesday: Your edit of your assigned object story draft — according to editing checklist — is due by the end of class today.

Friday: 1st draft of your story is due TODAY by midnight. Please share it in GoogleDocs.

Weekend homework: Final draft of object story is due Monday.

I will post links to relevant handouts as the week progresses, but here is the plan for now:

Monday: Story sheets — due Tuesday.

Wednesday: Read “Taking the Sting Out of Criticism” and answer critical reading questions — due Thursday.

Your almost final draft of your object story is due Friday. If you fail to turn in a draft, you will lose 25% for each day it is late, AND you will get a zero on the editing assignment.

Friday: Edit assigned object story — due Monday.

It’s time to begin reporting! One of the reasons that journalism has lasted for so long is that nearly every person and every thing has at least one good story behind it.

Your task for this assignment is to take the item you chose today in class and — through interviews and research — find a story behind it. This is not a fictional story. You must interview actual people and do actual research in order to find a real story behind your object. I will give you the primary source that you should interview for your object, but it’s up to you to come up with good questions and to keep digging until you find a good story. Your source will probably give you a wide range of information related to the object, it’s up to you to find the most compelling angle to focus on.

Your draft should be at least 300 words, and contain a headline, a lede, a nut graph, at least two sources, and at least five quotes.

Your draft is due Monday, September 14.

Read chapter 1 of The Radical Write (skip the “Showcase” article on pages 5-7) and answer the following questions with at least 3-4 complete, thoughtful sentences. This assignment is due Tuesday at the beginning of class.

1) What does Hawthorne (the author) mean when he says high school journalists should “be radical”? What does he say are some of the problems of many school publications? What does he suggest they do instead? How should they tell stories?

2) According to the chapter, what are some of the characteristics of good writing? What do good writers have in common?

3) Which of the “Compare & Contrast” stories on page 9 do you find more compelling? Why?

Watch this video and answer the following questions by posting a comment.

1) At the beginning of the video, Scott Simon says that in writing a news story, you should always give readers “telling, vivid details that they can recall when they tell the story to others.” What does he mean, and why is that important in journalism?

2) What does Simon say about beginnings? From the quote by Winston Churchill that he gives as an example of a good beginning, what can you infer or speculate about what makes a good beginning of a news story? Why is Churchill’s quote compelling?

Read the article distributed at the end of class and reflect on how it might apply to our reporting for The Student Voice, and how we cover the UACHS community this year. Make connections to the discussion about goals for this year that we had in class today. You can post your response in the comment box below (be sure to include your name or handle that I will recognize) or turn it on paper. Your response should be at least 6-8 complete, thoughtful sentences.

In case you misplaced the handout, here it is online:

Make your ‘local’ reporting matter.