Although it is old news, Japan won the AFC Asian Cup on January 29.
Kanamori-san and I planned to meet to watch the finals together. I thought it started at 10:00 pm, but actually it started at Midnight. We were planning on going to a sports bar, but all sports bars were packed by the time we arrived. Really packed. The first one actually wasn’t so crowded, but there was a cover charge of 3000 yen (over $30) and since Kanamori-san wasn’t drinking, it was deemed to pricey. We went from bar to bar, only to learn that we couldn’t enter. I guess others thought that going to a bar was a good idea as well.
We watched a lot of the first half standing outside of a bar called Mexigan (I have no idea why it is called Mexigan with a Mexican theme). It was a very cold night, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stand the whole time. Kanamori-san warmed up with a hot tea while I had a beer.
We decided to head back to my place for the second half. I felt bad, since Kanamori-san had driven and wasn’t planning on crashing at my place, he couldn’t drink. Apparently he also has a much bigger TV at home, so instead of watching the match with a bunch of really excited Japanese in a bar, we were watching from my living room, drinking tea (well, I was still drinking beer), on a smaller TV.
In the end, I had a good time. The match was really good, and the room was a lot warmer than standing outside a bar. The game went to extra time, and an amazing goal by Tadanari Lee sealed the cup for Japan.