A Funny Story From Yokohama And The World Club Championships

It was back in December, 2005 and imagine a whole slew of Liverpool fans waiting to go to the stadium to see the World Club Championship Final; Liverpool vs Sao Paolo at Yokohama Stadium in Japan.

We encountered a pub on our way that was full of LFC supporters and was also owned by a Japanese man who was Liverpool mad!

As we walked down the street, we noticed there were FIFA banners like the one in the pic on the left. One blue one then one yellow one, down each side of the street for about 2 blocks. A lot of banners that is for sure.

Anyway, we stood outside the pub drinking beer from the variety store, which is legal by the way in Japan. As we were standing there, we noticed someone fiddling with one of the banners and trying to dismantle it from the stand that is was on. We were just watching and having a good laugh.

Well, that was just the start! Next minute the whole side of the street was covered with people robbing these banners! It was priceless and so funny. One fella had 5 of them! His response to us as we were laughing was, "Hey, I am geting one each for my buddies back home!" I think he was Norwegian or something like that!

Some of them were having a hell of time getting the banners off. In stepped yours truly with his mechanical experience and showed them how to get them off in a jiffy.... haha.
Honestly, some of them were taking about 10 mins to get them off. I showed the bloke that had robbed 5, it took me less than a minute! That wouldn't be 'cos I am a robbing Scouse bastard would it?

Well, almost all of the banners were gone, but there was one still hanging there right in front of me. Presto, it jumped off its stand and right around my waist! It was quite magical and effortless.

So, the both sides of the street were bannerless after just about 15 minutes. It was a lot funnier to see, especially some people's faces as they were trying to steal something. I guess being there would have been more beneficial to have appreciated it, but still a funny story, nonetheless.

So, I have a wonderful momento of the World Club trip that I took. Even though I had a bum elbow and Liverpool lost in the final, it was a great time to remember and I got to see Tokyo really well. Sean had lived there before and was a great guide for us as well as being a mental Irishman!

Maybe it will be worth something on e-bay someday. You can forget it though, I wouldn't sell it for a million! Well, maybe for a million, then!!!!

Here are the 4 of us outside the pub on the bannerless street.

Left to right; Sean, Paul, myself and Stuart.

We went to the controversial shrine in Tokyo that Kuyzumi the Japanese Prime Minister visits and while were there we bought Kamikaze headbands for all of us to wear to the final. We also decided to rob the coats from the hotel we were staying in; more like nightgowns really and wear them over our clothes! Hence the photo above.

People wanted to take pictures of us everywhere we went, especially at the game. All the Japanese fans thought it was awesome!

I was in Tokyo 5 days and got to see a lot of the city life, went on the mad subway system, actually got kicked off the subway for singing LFC songs one night after the semi-final win. The train was stopped for about 10 mins.... usually they run less than a minute late per month..... we set a new standard!!!!!

There are a few more stories, some of which we care not to talk about!!!! Sean was the mad robber, robbing anything in sight and we thought we would get locked up sooner than later.... we didn't and lived to tell this story about it.

The nice thing about it was, Sean was Irish, a mad Liverpool fan who had never seen them play live before. The rest of us were all born in Liverpool and were teaching English in South Korea, too. We met 'cos we all played on teams in a Sunday foreigner's league in Pusan. We got to know each other through the football and went on this trip together.

The league is still running, but Stuart has left Korea, I am up in Seoul now and Sean and Paul are on different teams now. They are having some problems with booking fields still, but are plugging away trying to keep the teams going.

Anyone that is interested, check out the website for the league.

My team was the Wonshot Wanderers.

Each team has a link to their own website, which has pics, results and some good banter. http://www.pssl.bravehost.com/