Saturday, the 29th of April 2006, can unequivocally be called my best day in Japan ever. It started unremarkably enough around 8:30am with the four of us staggering one by one out of our rooms and towards the kitchen as we bravely fought hangovers of various severity from an impromptu margarita bash the night before.

Finding a human in our floor’s kitchen before 10am on a Saturday is generally nigh impossible, finding *four* humans battling various stages of inebriatory-consequentiality rather than zonked out in bed is downright absurd. These kids must be up to something…

Yah damn right.

Saturday was a big, big day, one we had been looking forward to for an entire week – Saturday, you see, was bowling and soccer day.

There are many things to do with friends in Japan – but some adventures are easier to come by than others. Karaoke can pretty much be had anytime, anyplace – the same can be said for sushi. If you feel the urge to break out of the shackles of routine and seek out something truly unique, however, it takes some coordinated planning.

Those of you who know me well certainly understand my penchant for bowling. It’s one of the few “sports” I can still successfully do with the current state of my knees, and furthermore it’s a “sport” that people of all(and no) skill levels can enjoy together, at the same time. Unfortunately, there are no alleys in lil ol’ Beppu – but there are a few in Oita, and Satoshi and I decided it was time to visit one. Truth be told though, it was just our warm-up activity. The centerpiece of the day’s adventure was going to watch the Oita Trinita play, Oita’s J-League professional soccer team.

Despite its second-billing, bowling was still a blast. The alley itself was a typically Japanese twist on an American classic. It had 40 or so lanes, but that sort of real estate is nearly impossible to come by in Japan even out here in lowly Oita, so they build up! Your first floor is parking, your second floor contains the front desk and lanes 1 through 20, and your third floor has the remaining 20 lanes. Pretty cool, huh? We skillfully tossed two games each and a good time was had by all.

Highlights included Jane’s petulant posing…

Satoshi fully clad in his favorite color with a ball to match…

and Jessica getting a personal best score.

Game time was drawing near though, so after the second game we snapped a quick group photo and split for some lunch.

After a quick bite to eat we made our way to the bus stop where we could catch the shuttle out to Oita Dome. When we got there the line of people waiting for the bus to the stadium was already quite long and blue Trinita jerseys were everywhere… it was only the tiniest hint of the madness that was to come.

Now on a clear day I can actually see Oita Dome from my dorm window, but getting to it is another matter as it’s a 30 minute bus ride from Oita Station out into the foothills. I had even seen design images of it online while researching the Trinita, but nothing could prepare me for seeing it in person.

It truly is an engineering masterpiece. Its nickname is the “Big Eye” and with good reason – the roof splits into two lids and opens and closes just like a real eye. Upon its completion in 2001 the Oita Dome was named the best stadium design in the world by Architecture Week magazine. I should also add that the Trinita have indeed been promoted to J-League 1st Division as that engineering article suggests they might. The dome hosted three World Cup games in 2002 and is the exclusive home of the Oita Trinita.

Once you step off that bus, well, it pretty much just hits you and only becomes more awe-inspiring as you approach closer.

Growing up as I have in America, this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of watching a soccer match in a stadium that was designed from the beginning solely to house that one sport, and it makes a breathtaking difference.

It wasn’t until after I had been in my seat 10 or 15 minutes though before I realized the most amazing aspect(to me) of the dome’s construction. Looking towards the opposite side of the field, it occurred to me that I had entered the stadium by walking onto the second deck – yet we hadn’t used any stairs.

As it turns out, Oita Dome has no walls. It is literally just a roof. All the space inside the stadium was actually blasted and excavated out of the hilltop. Perhaps 65% of the stadium’s total inner volume is completely below ground – now that is just cool!

Enough about that already – what about the game? Well, the Trinita lost 3-0, although it was much closer than the score tells. The second half was an incredible display of 99 ways to make your fans *think* you’re going to score, and then screw it up. Things like beating the keeper only to have a defender clear it off the line(twice), crosses rolling inches past the out-stretched boots of sliding forwards, headers from point-blank range hitting posts – it was astonishing. I am only thankful that I have unpullably short hair at the moment, or else I’d likely have yanked it all out in anguish!

That’s not to say it wasn’t an absolute blast though – it was far and away the best soccer game I’ve ever seen in person, due almost entirely to the fact that Oita has absolutely RABID fans. Fully one quarter of the stadium is occupied by the “Fighting Blues” who begin chanting Trinita songs in unison about 15 minutes before kickoff and don’t stop until the final whistle has long since blown.

“Yeah yeah, so they chant, big deal… I bet they bang drums too? Who cares? There are crazies like that at every MLS game in the country you big loser!”

I concede the point, however, I’ve never in my life been to a game featuring 90 minutes of this… captured on mp3 from Satoshi’s camera.

It is my understanding that on the Old Continent such behavior is the rule, not the exception, but as a fiercely passionate soccer fan forced to grow up in the United States… it was my first time being surrounded by such pageantry – and it was utterly intoxicating!

My high school soccer career was successful enough, but with college came two predominantly disappointing years of play before I washed out of the squad altogether nearly 4 years ago. Ever since I have carried my passion for the game – a passion distilled to a perfect clarity by thousands of hours of practice and play – with no outlet into which I could channel it. Before Saturday’s match I had nearly given that passion up for dead, what had once burned white hot within me was now no more than a smoldering wisp of faded and painful memories.

Yet from the first kickoff, when all 20,650 fans wildly cheered for the Trinita and then set into a team song that shook the seats, I was a man reborn.

Soccer, nay, FUTBOL – is the world’s sport, regardless of the little interest Americans show it. Starting in the third week of June nearly 5 Billion people will be watching the World Cup in Germany. There is simply NO comparison on Earth.

I have, finally, again found my place in the sport. Granted no longer as a player, but as a fan perched not with a smattering of fans in a cavernous and empty football stadium in America, but surrounded by a sea of Fighting Blues – fans with perhaps the greatest slogan of all time:

“OITA TIL WE DIE!“

…oh, and Jessica and Jane had fun too.