The Coolest Football Fan In Japan
I’m back!
Due to the San Francisco airport being a pile of dead Boeings right now, my trip to glorious Nippon had to start in Osaka after an emergency rebooking thanks to missing my initial connection because of SFO delays. So I spent a day in Osaka to start my trip. The highlight of the day was stopping by Osaka Castle. The castle itself was fine, a bit too crowded to truly enjoy, but the best part of the adventure occurred as I was walking up the steps to the entrance.
There was a guard on the steps guiding people between two lines for the elevator and stairs. When I approached, he looked at me, and appeared to react to seeing something on me. He then said “Go Giants!” I did not respond, as I was not paying full attention to him and it took me a second to process he had not only seen me but commented on my hat. He hustled over, pointed to my hat, said “Go Giants! Football!” again, seemingly testing that I knew what he was referencing. I got it that time, and responded “Yeah, Giants! Go Giants!” in kind. He then whipped out his phone and his background was a Steelers hall of fame logo.
I looked back at him and said “Oh, are you a Steelers fan? Go Steelers!”. Of course, I do not wish for the Steelers to go, as I do not care much for the Steelers, but I was not going to yuck his yum as he tried to bond with a big doofy foreigner. He looked back at me, said “I love the Steelers! Russell Wilson! Can’t wait!”. He then walked back to his post, gave me a final glance, smiled, looked up at the sky, shook his two thumbs up in the air and said “No more Kenny Pickett!” and then cackled. We exchanged one more “Go Giants” as we passed him and went about our day.
I’ve had a lot of random sports fan interactions in public in my life. It’s one of my favorite aspects of being a sports fan, seeing a piece of gear on a stranger and being able to randomly strike up a quick conversation with them about ball. This extremely unexpected encounter with a random Japanese man who loves American football, however brief it was, may be my favorite random encounter I’ve ever had. I can still see him smiling and cackling as he threw Kenny Pickett under a bus from half a world away.
Outside that, I only ever encountered evidence of American Football one other place in my two weeks. In Harajuku, a shopping area in Tokyo, there is a small cafe called Latte Pocket, where an artist specializes in making foam art on your coffee. I was waiting in line and at the payment counter was several small toys and figurines. A Pikachu, Kirby, several other Pokemon, other characters I did not recognize. There was one other figure. You’d be suprised to see who it was.
EDIT: A twitter follower has brought to my attention the Latte Art shop owner is apparently an NFL fan. I wish I’d known this going in, I would have gotten a football themed latte art instead of a Kirby.
Regular update schedule is now back. I did not engage with football at all otherwise on this trip and am still catching up on what I missed. If you have any questions about my trip, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer.
That’s actually funny and sad that foreigners are glad you’re not on the team anymore, poor Kenny
Not as crazy as being in Japan, but I had a friendly fan on vacation once. I was about 12 in WDW with the fam. Grabbing a quick lunch at our hotel before hitting the theme parks on the first day of the trip and I had on a Buffalo Sabres hat. We sit down and before we just start eating I hear “YYYYYEEEAAAHHHH!” We stop and this dude yells “LET’S! GO! BUFF! A! LO!” I look over and see a guy in a Buffalo Bandits jersey stood up at the next table pointing at my hat. My mom was kinda freaked out (random stranger pointing at her son, HELLO) but the dude was chilled and talked with us about all the Buffalo teams. We have him a “Go Bills” when he left. Cool guy.
Kenny Pickett, officially hated worldwide.
Yup even in Pittsburgh
Who was the toy figure on the counter? Player with a headband wearing an orange jersey #15. #Patrick Mahomes? Tim Tebow? I couldn’t clearly tell if the skin color was supposed to be white or black.
It was definitely Mahomes, you can tell that’s a Chiefs jersey
Oh poor Kenny. That’s hilarious he is giving a thumbs up to the sky that he is off the team.
In Mexico City, I was shocked at how many NFL-oriented sports bars there were. Super easy to watch SNF.
🙁
Hope you had a good trip Dave!
That man has good taste
Dave why do you hate the Steelers we are (fun fact) very popular worldwide especially in the working class why do you hate us like what did we do to you?
I tend to not like successful franchises with fanbases who like to be insufferable about that success, I root for underdogs and the Steelers have spent most of my adult life as not the underdog. It’s not a personal hate like the Eagles or Cowboys.
I get it but most of us are proud and passionate and all fan bases have those kind of people
They employed S&*#burger at QB, a man stupid enough to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. A befuddlingly incompetent clod stupid or vile enough to rack up multiple rape accusations. Settling a rape case out of court may not equate to a 100% conviction of guilt, but it’s a pretty damning look in my book. The Steelers just nodded and ignored all of this, and for that, they can sit and spin for the rest of eternity.
How where the hi tech toilets?
Cleansing
Ok I’m gona catch you up on some of the shit going on rn. OK Steffon Diggs is a Texan, Dallas and Buffalo want to get shit on, and the Chiefs might have to go to Dallas because a tax plan fail or something
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting Patty in a random cafe corner in Japan
…as he threw Kenny Pickett under a bus from half a world away.
That’s a funny mental image.
A very good friend of mine was studying at the American University in Japan and ended up finding me a satin Buffalo Bills jacket at a random thrift store in Tokyo for the equivalent of $20. Never seen anything like it. It’s weird how NFL culture is everywhere.
I saw a few stores that catered to American fashion culture stuff and sports items were a big piece of it. Yankees hats were everywhere, the most common hat I saw. Some of that is probably Hideki Matsui residue but most of it just seemed like a fashion statement
My husband and I flew back to Minneapolis from Austin yesterday after seeing the solar eclipse. The line was ungodly long even though it was 4:30 am and we were blearily staring at our fellow travelers when I saw a guy with a Twins cap on. I poked hubby and said, “Hey, fellow Minnesotans.” He looked skeptical, and said, “Maybe he’s a fan from somewhere else.” I gave him a look and said, “The Twins haven’t been great since 1991. We don’t get bandwagoners. Only people from Minnesota are foolishly optimistic enough to be Twins fans.” By that time, the guy ended up next to us and heard the last part of that. He said, “You got me. Still could be their year this year. Go Twins!” Of course I had to reply in kind. I secretly hope this will be their year too.
I met someone from Minnesota visiting Spain 2 years ago to see a friend. It was like wow what a small world
“I’ve had a lot of random sports fan interactions in public in my life. It’s one of my favorite aspects of being a sports fan, seeing a piece of gear on a stranger and being able to randomly strike up a quick conversation with them about ball.”
Falcons fan here. You have never had some yaboo in a Patriots hat wade through a crowd to come chat with you.
Ohh I’m sure you enjoyed saying those other two numbers in response.
I have actually, though for obvious reasons I didn’t have the bad time you did
I have gotten picked on by Eagles fans in public though. But I’ve also had good talks and chats with other Eagles fans. Depends on the fan being inherently an asshole. There have been Giants fans in the wild that I’ve quickly disengaged from because they seemed like dicks
Whether you said it was your baby or not, I hope you told him about The Draw Play.
Didn’t have time, dude was on duty and walked back to his post after the very quick interaction. He also spoke limited English so explaining my stuff to him would have been too complicated
Bummer. Scratching out the URL on a slip of paper would have been nice, but I guess that’s a missed opportunity.
And this is why overseas travel is so awesome.
(And why America needs to not be run by people who hate foreigners)
Did you get coffee in a can from the vending machines? I’ve had to go there for work, and when I realized I could get hot coffee in a metal can (in February, so they made for nice pocket warmers), I was hooked. Got them everyday while walking to my meetings.
I’m not a big coffee guy so I didn’t, but my wife got a hot coffee. The vending machine game there is absurd. The drink I ended up getting addicted to was the CC Lemon Soda.
I was in Paris and I overheard some locals talking shit about some tourists that were fully decked out in Yankees gear: Hats, jerseys, coats, etc. I speak French and like to surprise people when they talk shit thinking the “dumb American” can’t understand what they’re saying. I also hate the Yankees so I went up and greeted them with a “yeah, I can’t stand the Yankees either.” They looked surprised for a moment and then one responded in halting English “Yankee bad, go Expos!”
I had a great conversation and found out a few of them had parents that were from Montreal so they grew up Expos fans by proxy, even after they moved. One of the most unexpected conversations I’ve had while traveling!
I also overheard some Dutch airport workers talking shit about a guy wearing a Mahomes jersey in Schippol. Had to chuckle to myself. Nobody likes bandwagon fans anywhere!
Can’t top a Kirby latte though.