Monday, June 19, 2006
Japan 0 - 0 Croatia
Brazil 2 - 0 Australia
France 1 - 1 South Korea
Me, Pooch and Kev watched the Japan game in what used to be The Moon Under Water on Charing Cross Road. It's a Lloyds bar now and for the World Cup it's been converted into some sort of Japanese-food-serving-cum-big-screen-for-football-watching venue.
Despite paying £12 for a "VIP" pass, the service was a bit rubbish. It didn't seem to be possible to get food, despite there being a menu on the table, and it was quite difficult to get drinks.
The atmosphere was pretty special though. Every time anything happened, exciting or not, the Japanese fans that were crammed into the venue went absolutely mental, jumping up and down and screeching at ever increasing pitches.
In the picture below I'm not even sure anything of any note had happened. The crowd was just celebrating anyway.
The other exciting thing, from my point of view, was receiving my glass of sake in a square wooden box.
This experience really brought home to me why traditional drinking vessels are of circular cross-section. I discovered that my best bet was to try to drink from the corner of the box but even that was fraught with difficulties.
By the end of the match I had mastered the task, but I still have a suspicion that the Japanese staff were laughing at the stupid Englishman who was actually drinking out of the comedy wooden box.
We're off to a Spanish bar in Hanway St (Fitzrovia) tonight probably, or somewhere near there. See you all there.
(watch out Japan!)
The square wooden cup is known as a "Masu" and is one of the traditional ways of serving sake.
I thought both teams were pretty poor and it seems right that Brazil and Australia go through (hopefully).
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