Yokohama Stadium

About three months ago, I was sitting in my ex-flat in Cardiff, (it is still a flat, it’s just I am not there) watching New Zealand play Australia when the commentator told the world that the third game of the series was taking place in October in Yokohama. Well, golly-gee, I remember saying to myself. I am going to be in Yokohama in October too. I made it my mission to get a ticket.

But like most things in Japan nothing is initially as straight forward as it looks. So getting a ticket proved a bit of a quest. It’s not that they had sold out and I had to go on the black market, tt was  just that no one seemed to know who was selling them. Google failed me,  The All Blacks Web page had no idea, there was nothing on the Japan RFU site, I asked Jeeves and he just shrugged his shoulders. But eventually, I found a link that took me to a website that allowed me to buy a ticket and pick it up at a 7-11. Like most things in Japan, simple once you know how.  It was all systems go. I was very excited. 

When I got to Yokohama, the guidebook told me about the great baseball stadium in the Bay. You could see the floodlights as you walked through Yamashite Park. I guessed that was where the game would take place, which was just fine by me. Watch the game, have a look at some of the baseball memorabilia, go to Chiantown for some dumplings, then stroll along the waterfront before heading home. A perfect day. 

Except, Yokohama has two stadiums, the baseball stadium where they play baseball and the football stadium where they play football. The Nissan Stadium, the football stadium, is not in the Bay at all. It is 15 kilometres North, 40 minutes by public transport. How was I supposed to know that there were two bloody stadiums? Isn’t one stadium enough? 

Obviously the rugby was going to take place at the football stadium, the place that Brazil won the round ball World Cup in 2002. Anyway, surely no idiot, even one slightly bewildered in Japan, would go to the wrong stadium. Surely! 

That’s right. Luckily I saw the error of my ways two days before the big game so was able to go to the right stadium, at the right time and watch the wonderful All Blacks in action.