RWC 2019: Scotland v Samoa

Last night I went to the first of my (now sadly only 2) Rugby World Cup games of this year's tournament, and it was... well, sweaty. But still a good time.

I don't suppose the 3 people who read (skim / glance at) this blog are rugby aficionados, so I won't get into the game itself. I will just say that it was an ugly one, lots of poor handling of the ball (presumably due to the heat and high humidity making the ball slippery from the aforementioned sweatiness). But in the end Scotland won 34 - 0, so it all turned out well for me. 

The game was packed, and the majority of the fans were not Scottish or Samoan. I always enter the ticket lottery for the highest priced tickets, because the chances are better -- most people are only willing to pay for the cheap seats -- but also tick the box that I will take less good seats if it's all that's available. Well, I definitely got the less good seats this time. I was only about 10 rows from the very top of the stadium, due to such high demand. 

 

It's great to see how the locals love the game and have embraced the tournament. A lot of the Japanese folk I saw were kitted out in their own team's gear, but many had on Scotland or Samoa tops. That means they didn't just buy a ticket to a game for a lark, they chose a side and bought the shirt. I love it. 

 

Second lesson from Japan: They are amazing at queue management here. 

 

Every lineup at the stadium -- getting in, buying food, everything -- had ropes to direct it in an efficient snake formation, and someone standing with a sign to indicate where to join the end of the queue. I thought the Brits were the champs of standing in lines, but nope, Japan takes this round.

After the game, I headed back out on the subway and decided to make one more attempt at finding the ticket office to get my Japan Rail Pass. This time I was successful, hooray! 

So all in all, a good night for me. Now off to another city... 

Kobe

Hello from Kobe, my first stop in Japan! It only took me two long haul flights and an hour and a half in a van to get here, another 8 hours ahead of where you last heard from me.

By the time I arrived last night, it was all I could do to shower off the airplane grime and crawl into bed. But after a long sleep, I got up at a reasonable hour this morning feeling mostly human despite the time change, and checked the guide book to find that it didn't have much listed here in Kobe. So after my morning dose of caffeine, my mission was to go to the one tourist spot that did catch my interest, to get my pre-paid Japan Rail Pass* and to find some lunch.

By some stroke of luck, the only place in the guide that appealed to me was the Ikuta Shrine, which happens to be right across the road from my hotel. I can even see it from my window! So I slathered on my sunblock, strolled over there, and took a look around. With very few exceptions, my preference is to stay outside and snap a few photos of religious buildings, so I did the same with this shrine. From outside the entrance it looks tiny, but from above you can see how big it really is. They believe this particular shrine dates back to 201, which probably makes it the oldest human-made structure I've ever seen. My mind can't even fathom a building of that age. Since I wasn't going in for a religious experience, I didn't stay long, but I did find the place very pretty and peaceful.

From there, I took off into the busy city streets. Given the high heat and 70% humidity, I wasn't too keen to do too much wandering; I just wanted to get my errands done and then get back to the hotel for an AC break. But I couldn't find the stupid Japan Rail Ticket Office, no matter how many different parts of Sannomiya Station I wandered through.

First lesson from Japan: it's annoying being illiterate after reading for 40 years.

I know that sounds weird, since I've been to a lot of places where I don't speak the language, but when you can read the letters, you can still figure out a few words now and then. You can at least make sense of street names to know where you're going, and make a good guess at what kind of business is inside a building based on what the sign says. Here, none of that works for me. Turn left on Bunch of Characters that Have No Meaning to Me Street? Ooookaaaaay... Aaaaaaand... I'm lost. There's not a lot of English here (at least in a smaller city like Kobe), spoken or written, so I'm just left wandering, looking at maps, gesturing, and figuring it out. I'm a road warrior, I can deal and will get along fine, it just feels wrong being in a world without any words or letters that I can understand, at all.

Anyway. A place that I did recognize by letters I can't read was Uniqlo, one of my favourite clothing stores for basics like t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and chinos... which are most of what I wear day to day, let's be honest. Given the cheaper home country prices and favourable exchange rate on the dollar, I was tempted to buy an extra suitcase and fill it up. But a clearer head prevailed, and I just picked up one plain tee to break the excessively large bill that the ATM gave me. I may not do so well next time I see a Uniqlo...

At this point, I'd been walking for over an hour and was getting tired of sweating, so I popped into 7-11, where I got a beef udon bowl for lunch to go. Yes, they actually do decent hot food at convenience stores here! When I told my Japanese friend that I don't do sit-down meals much while travelling, she said that 7-11 and Lawson are where I should buy all my food... quick, cheap, and tasty. One lunch down, and so far she's right.

Tonight I'll see my first Rugby World Cup game for 2019, then tomorrow morning I jet off to the next city. Since I had to cut my time in Japan down to only one week, it's going to be mostly a blur, but I'm going to do my best to soak up as much as I can while I'm here...


*I was advised by a Japanese pal of mine to get a Japan Rail Pass while here, because you can go everywhere on high speed trains, and it would save me tons of money. But you can't just buy one from outside the country. I had to order a voucher that got mailed to me, which I then need to take to one of the official Japan Rail ticket offices, which only exist in a few cities. Then, upon filling out some more paperwork, they will give me the actual pass that I can use for riding trains. And after I'd already paid for it and started looking up the train times between cities I'm visiting, just to plan ahead, my Japanese train finder app basically flipped me off and laughed hysterically as it told me trains were unavailable or unbearably long for all but one of my journeys. Of course.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Haggis

It's my last morning in Glasgow, which I'm spending in my hotel room with the Rugby World Cup on TV, before embarking on an excessively long journey to see some of it myself in Japan. You might be wondering why I'm in Glasgow on my way to Japan... it's not exactly a convenient stop en route. Well, it's because of Still Game, one of my favourite TV shows of all time.

Quite some time ago, the Still Game stars and writers announced that they'd be ending the TV series, and would put on one last live show to close it all out. But since I had to apply for my for RWC tickets more than a year in advance, I was already booked to be in Japan at the same time they'd be doing the show here in Glasgow. So I accepted my fate of missing it.

Then the final episode aired. And I couldn't bear the thought of that being it. The moment it ended, I got online and looked for a way to see the live show. I found that if I got a ticket to opening night and flew out the next day, I could just barely make it to my first game on the other side of the world. So I did it, paid too much for a ticket because all the normally priced ones were sold out, booked a flight, and got excited.

Of course, that was far from the last of the changes to my RWC travel plans, but more on that another time.

So here I am, the morning after the big show. Still Game: The Final Farewell last night was pure joy: fun, and so funny, and such a great way to say goodbye to the show. I am so glad I came for it, despite all the extra travel. I can't imagine how I'd feel having missed it. It's sad thinking there won't be any more new content from those folks, but I know I'll forever keep watching the hours and hours of excellence they've already provided.

And Still Game isn't all I'm saying my farewell to in this visit. Much as I love Scotland, I can't keep making excuses to come here multiple times a year, when I have so many other places I haven't been yet. Yes, I've said this before. And no, I can't call it the final farewell, as I'm sure I'll have reasons to return... I'm just no longer going to use the I'm going to Edinburgh, just because Embra excuse.

I guess it helps that I've never had much (any) affinity for Glasgow as a city, so it's not like I'm looking around wistfully as I pack my bags this morning. Nope, I feel good about the run I've had with this most beautiful and charming of countries, and know it will always be with me.

And I'm so ready to go hang out in rugby land... let's go!