FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template
The French tricolour has been upstaged by the rising sun in this Alpine spa town since Japan’s samurai footballers arrived to a warm welcome ahead of their World Cup debut.
Japanese flags have been flown high alongside French flags along main thoroughfares and at the 500-year-old four-star Park Hotel du Casino, where the 22 Japanese set up camp last week after tuning up in Switzerland.
Some taxis are displaying small red-and-white flags while instructions and glossy pamplets in Japanese, with negligible errors, are everywhere in the centuries-old community of 25,000 people where even signs in English are rare.
Major restaurants, bars and shops were told by the municipal office last month to “avoid speaking to Japanese with eye contact” and “in no way raise your voice.”
“We are expecting 3,000 to 4,000 Japanese tourists during the entire World Cup month,” said an official at the tourist bureau in Aix-les-Bains, renowned for casinos, sports facilies and the “National Baths” institute for thermal treatment. “In an ordinary year, we don’t see many.”
At the national railway station, kiosk operator Sophie Hegoburu greets you with “arigato gozaimasu (thank you very much),” and “sayonara (good bye).” That’s all I know. But this town is all prepared to make a big welcome,” said the 25-year-old Parisienne, who has practised karate for four years.“You don’t feel this kind of atmosphere in a big city like Lyon,” she says.
About 20 Japanese tourists are seen daily at the station and the number is certain to rise after the Cup opens on Wednesday. One of them is Chieko Aburakoji, who quit her job as a nursing home worker in the mountain province of Nagano, which hosted the Winter Olympics last February, to see all three Japanese group matches. “I’ve accompanied the team through the qualifying round. I gave up a full-time job when I had to spend two weeks in central Asia,” said the 39-year-old, a fan of Jubilo Iwata striker Masayoshi Nakayama. “Now my marriage may be on the rocks.”
The town authorities have built high fencing around Japan’s training ground to keep out scouts from Japan’s group rivals-two-times champions Argentina and fellow newcomers Croatia and Jamaica. They also renovated a traditional Japanese-style garden with a stone lantern and white pebble sand at the hotel for the team. “We would like our name to become as famous among the Japanese as the Provinces,” town mayor Andre Grosjean said. Park Hotel’s co-owner Nicola Tracchia assured the Japanese the same treatment it has previously given to European national teams and clubs. European champions Real Madrid visit every year, while Arsenal and Benfica have also been guests in the past.
“I believe Japan will go through to the second round,” says Grosjean.