Match day – and afterwards!

You see, hindsight is a marvelous thing but I will try and capture the excitement we had as we travelled 225km to Ecopa Stadium in Shizuoka armed with tickets for the Japan v Ireland pool game.

In case you are wondering why we didn’t come out earlier for the Scottish match let me explain. To get tickets we had to register with Rugby World Cup and enter a bidding system. We bid for all four pool games but in the first round only got tickets for the Russia and Samoa games – that’s why we don’t do the lottery! So the team took the tactical decision to pull out if the Scotland bid (sure we see that combination every Six Nations) and up what we were willing to pay for the Japan game – good move, but it didn’t work! Then there was one free for all last ditch attempt and we took a two prong approach with both Trevor and Tomoko sitting at computers waiting their turn – started at 4500 and 34000 respectively! The tension mounted as the WhatsApp messages flew in…. Then RESULT! Trevor secured the tickets… four in one part of the stadium, two in another.

Getting to the stadium involved trains only this time it was the Shinkansen, known by the English as the bullet train, a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, in order to aid economic growth and development. It was a lovely way to travel – comfortable and fast, travelling at 175mph

The Ecopa stadium, which can seat 50,000, is situated in the Ogasayama Nature and Sports Park which was built for the theme of “ Health, Sports and Nature”. The park takes up 269 Hectares between two cities, Fukuroi City and Kakegawa City of Shizuoka Prefecture. Our match day attendance was 47,813!

The stadium was like a cauldron both the intensity of the heat and the support of the crowd. If you thought Ireland didn’t get a look in on the field let me assure you it was the same on the stands. The chanting of ‘Nip-pon’ by the Japanese and every other supporter other than the Irish was overwhelming – “Low lie the fields of Athenry” didn’t get a look in and when it did briefly get started the officials put the possession figures on the big screen and the crowd went mad!! We had great seats, except for the Welsh in front of us who shouted the loudest for Japan, and were treated to a wonderful sunset as the game went down in history for all the wrong reasons if your Irish.

Due to the lateness of our booking we could only get accommodation outside of Shizuoka and stayed overnight at Hotel OLE in Fujieda. Highly recommend it! The colours reminded us of Premier Inns back home but the experience, albeit only bed and breakfast, was several classes above.

Sunday we returned to Shizuoka to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was the Shizuoka Sengen Shrine. This is the collective name for a group of three shrines: Kanbe, Asama, and Otoshimioya. Standing in the vast precincts are magnificent shrine buildings such as the bright vermilion Romon Gate, the Ohaiden Hall, and the main shrines of Kanbe and Asama Shrines. “Chigomai”, is dedicated during Hatsukaesai, the annual festival in April.

We then moved on to the Sunpu Castle park where the Fanzone is located.

Construction of Sunpu Castle began in 1607 (Keicho 12) by orders of the daimyo (feudal lord), with three concentric moats protected by stone walls (from inside to outside: Honmaru, Ninomaru, Sannomaru). On the north-west side of Honmaru, a seven-story donjon with a five-level roof was constructed. In its golden age, Sunpu outshone Edo (Tokyo) politically, economically, and culturally. After the death of Ieyasu, the donjon was almost completely destroyed in a fire in 1635 (Kanei 12). While the turret and gate were rebuilt, the tower was not. Sunpu Castle in the Edo era gradually declined in scale after that. Sunpo is now known as Shizuoka. The park is also famous for its cherry blossom in May.