Even with the country’s wonderfully relaxed licensing laws, a kick-off time of 10am for Japan’s first game of the 2014 World Cup seemed to suggest a huge police presence really wasn’t necessary. But a huge police presence was exactly what Shibuya got.
A funnelling of fans and shoppers that admittedly seemed like a good idea at first.
But it was an idea that quickly turned into semi-organised chaos.
The fun of which at least helped to ease the pain of Japan’s opening loss.
Bernadette Marchetti says
I know that the Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, but that guy is a bit much! Then again, it is Shibuya…Waiting for the US scores, but I’m not expecting a whole lot. The highest the US ever got was 3rd place…in 1930.
Lee says
Yeah, anything goes in Shibuya!
He was quite comical actually, blowing his whistle and showing his red card to the police.
I watched England lose yesterday, so I hope you do better than us. Tough group you’ve got though…
Linette says
What? Why? Really?
Lee says
Excessive caution is the only explanation I can think of. But even then it’s not like Japanese football fans cause bother at all. Especially not at that time of the day.
Still, it was entertaining to watch!
Linette says
Definitely!
Hans ter Horst says
I watched an Edo-style Tokyo Jidai Matsuri in Asakusa last year and was first amused by the over-policing of the many cops and their whistles. We got bored with the matsuri as waiting 20 minutes to see a float shuffle by is too slow, and I got really irritated by that bullying behaviour of the police who amongst them were giving contradictory directions yet seemed so full of themselves with their whistles that they forgot to think what they were really there for. We left early 🙂
Lee says
Don’t blame you!
To be fair, this lot weren’t aggressive at all. Not in the slightest. The only really annoying thing was their excessive use of whistles. Something you have clearly had to put up with.
But as I mentioned above, the entertainment value far outweighed any annoyances!