Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captures the true spirit of Asia's first World Cup, 26 Nov 2002
By A Customer
In among a slue of books about Japanese football and the country's World Cup experience, We Are Nippon is as a refreshing, true-to-life account that is as invigoratingly personal as it is wryly amusing.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
World Cup 2002 - an insider's viewpoint, 9 Jan 2003
For Simon Moran, World Cups had always been a distant event. As a kid they were held in far off places like Argentina and Mexico, and even as England were being knocked out of France 1998, Moran was an English journalist living in Japan watching the game on a TV screen in Osaka.
The chance to cover a World Cup on his own, adopted, doorstep was therefore not one to be missed and his World Cup diary, We Are Nippon, provides more than the usual 'I was there when we beat the Argies'-type account.There is plenty of that of course, but where We Are Nippon differs from the average fan's-eye account is in the fact that the World Cup is not seen in isolation as an opportunity to have a few beers in an exotic location. Moran is able to gauge the feeling of the locals as the World Cup approaches, the apprehension of the 'foreign invasion' and the Japanese people's reaction to playing host to the outside world.
Travelling 6,400 miles across the country and taking in 14 games, including a good few from the safety of a bar seat, Moran also chooses to view the game through the eyes of an assortment of colleagues, friends and acquaintances, including Koreans and Germans which also lends the book a more worldly view than some others. The Korean view is particularly interesting as he explains why Korea was spelt with a 'C'. as this would put it ahead of Japan in the Roman alphabet.
As an Japanese-speaking Englishman, Moran is well-placed to comment on the phenomenal support for England from the home nation, and notes snippets of information like the fact that the hotel England stayed at in Awaji Island was inundated with requests from girls wanting to sleep in David Beckham's bed. In fact, England proved so popular that the hotel still has a £25 surcharge on any room used by the England team.
Where Moran's book excels is in the fact he speaks the language and understands the culture. There's no 'weird' local customs, or wide-eyed foreigner abroad here, and the book is all the more readable for it.
As the memories of World Cup 2002 fade into the distance, a rash of books have hit the shelves, We Are Nippon achieves the rare distinction of getting a good balance between the foreign visitor and hosts viewpoint, and for that reason is well worth the read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent illustration of Japan and World Cup 2002, 1 Dec 2002
I have always wanted to go to Japan, and I have always wanted to go to the World Cup. So far, I've managed neither. Now that I have read We are Nippon, though, I feel I have done both.
This book really brings to life the games and the country I could only see on television. It tells as much about the Japanese as it does the tournament, and Moran's conversations with the people of the country he describes in fascinating detail are a real highlight. We learn about Japan in 2002 through the observations of football fans, sashimi chefs, hostesses, wannabe hooligans and ethnic Koreans - all sharpened with Moran's sardonic wit. I was a bit sceptical when I saw the book describe itself as 'the perfect souvenir...or illustration', but that's exactly what it is!
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