On The Road Again... Away Days in Japan

Originally published on Afshin Ghotbi's official website, November 1st, 2012.

Watch any football fan when the upcoming season’s fixtures are published and you’ll witness the same ritual. The long, barren closed season is forgotten as he scours the list, pen in hand,circling the major dates. The match closest to his birthday. The derby. The tastiest looking away days.  Between 1988 and 2003 it was for the Football League’s fixtures I would count down the days for, but since 2004 that excitement has been directed to the J. League’s equivalent.

After checking off derby day and which result my birthday is to be sweetened or soured by, the group emailing begins. For what away trips should preparations begin? Football supporters’ routines remain largely steady wherever you go, but the details are subject to the vagaries of local cultures. This is no more evident than between England and Japan’s take on away games. Getting on the road with your brethren and taking over rival stadiums may be cultural constants, but whereas the game’s birthplace has evolved over a history spanning three centuries, how does it compare to that in a league barely into its third decade?

While England is a mere 400 miles top to bottom, the distance between Sapporo and Fukuoka covers three times that.Whereas most match ups in England are possible as a car day trip, few would consider driving from Tokyo to Hiroshima and back in the same day. Even taking advantage of the bullet train,(if you’ve not had the pleasure, think a plane minus the wings),travelling beyond the central Kanto and Kansai areas and you’re looking at a seven or eight hour round trip. Well if you’re going all that way, why not make a weekend out of it?

Since following Shimizu S-Pulse I’ve made more overnight stays than in fifteen years with Brighton where, as anyone will tell you, a 600 mile day trip is par for the course. Get there, watch the match and get back. Stopping over is a once or twice a season extravagance reserved for a big night out after the game.It’s the exception to the rule, but local tourism in Japan is deeply entwined with the football market.

Domestic travel is a huge industry, with each town promoting its unique food and beauty spots. I couldn’t tell you what Coventry was known for, nor could I for Luton, Sunderland or Birmingham, but Nagoya? Miso. Sendai? Cow tongue. Osaka? Takoyaki. The commencement in 1993 of thousands of people moving around the country each weekend was seized on by the tourism industry. Almost as much as the football, ticking off the local cuisine and seeing the sights is a must. Not forgetting of course to purchase souvenir cookies to distribute at the next home game. Who has ever gone to Newcastle or Birmingham with a list of must-eat items, or made anything other than a most perfunctory of sightseeing excursions? Sampling the local brew is about as far as that practice extends.

Which brings us to the famous British boozer.Any match home or away is centred around it, but often takes on greater importance on the road.Rampaging hooligans may be confined to the history books, but their shadow still casts long over British football, and nobody wants to spend too much time wandering around outside in the wrong colours. When behind enemy lines,the designated away supporters’ boozer is a stronghold to convene and rally the troops ahead of kick off.Japan has a distinctly different drinking culture, and pubs, in the UK sense, don’t exist. What does this mean for the travelling football fan?

A laid back attitude to alcohol coupled with an absence of violent fan history, and no pubs pose small obstacle in creating that mobile base. Rather than heading for a watering hole, supporters merely aim straight for the stadium.They set down tarps outside the away end and break out the six packs. Many arrive hours before the turnstiles open and pass the time drinking and socialising.When the gates are finally unlocked the party is relocated to the stand concourse. Unthinkable in most western football cultures, many stadiums permit store bought alcohol, allowing supporters to craft their own pub-like environment. The unity engendered in a trek over the miles is fostered not in a pub, but with beers and food in and outside the stadium.

After only the lowest profile games in England do I not recall being shepherded en masse to a station or held in while the home fans cleared.You also learn early that this is where colours are best hidden.Concealing shirts and scarves after the game was a habit I naturally carried to Japan, and my scepticism was surely apparent when encouraged to remain in colours. It was sound advice. Post match drinking in a far flung corner of the country clad in S-Pulse orange has resulted in nothing save for friendly conversations and free beers. Nursing a pint in Niigata after a 4-1 mauling,three home supporters offered consolation and rice crackers for the journey home. Be it Shizuoka, Saitama or Sendai, at the final whistle home and away fans flood the streets in unison. Save for a handful of incidents over two largely spotless decades, the mixture of supporters, male and female, young and old, intermingle without incident.

These two very different supporting lifestyles, products of their respective backgrounds, continue to evolve. Though bound by respective histories and cultures,England and Japan’s away day experience are different sides of the same coin. The former could be argued to be rougher, tougher and more authentic, but recent decades have witnessed an obvious, if gradual, shift towards the more serene eastern scene. Enjoying a pint with home fans, especially post match,is more possible now than at any time since the 1970s.

Fierce British rivalries,cultivated over decades,ensure merely entering another team’s ground is considered an act of aggression, and this is unlikely to change too much in our lifetime. However, as the years tick by, if we continue to edge closer to that laidback utopia in the Far East, who would argue against it? For anyone used to the away day as foray into enemy territory, a J. League game on the road,where visiting fans are treated less as invaders and more as welcome guests, is one for the bucket list.