A submission to the September 2011 J-Festa with the theme “Events in Japan“.

The Namamugi Incident was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate. It started out with a samurai attack on British nationals, ended up with the British engaging war on a province of Japan and has an interesting side piece on how the Japanese national flag was adopted.

Body of Charles Richardson, 1862

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Wednesday 12th February 2009, match day. The Socceroos were set to take on the Blue Samurai in a World Cup Qualifier match. We decided to leave Tokyo early and head down to Yokohama. First stop was Yokohama Chinatown for a bite to eat. As far as Chinatown’s go, Yokohama Chinatown is reported to be one of the largest in the world (ah, yes, this does not include towns in China)

Yokohama Chinatown

Goodwill Gate, Yokohama Chinatown

Game time drew closer, it was a 7.20pm kick-off so I had to hop a couple of trains from Motomachi-Chukagai Station to Shin-Yokohama Station. It’s a 14 minute walk from Shin-Yokohama Station to the Stadium.

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At 7.20pm (JST) on Wednesday 11th February 2009 the battle for Group 1 of the remaining Asian teams left to qualify for South Africa 2010 will continue in earnest. The mighty Socceroos (ranked 29th) sitting atop the group with three wins from three appearances will face the Blue Samurai (ranked 34th) in their backyard, Yokohama Stadium.

The Green and Gold Army

Asia’s 10 best nations are split into two groups of five with the top two finishers of each group heading directly to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The third placed teams from each group can still make it. They will playoff against each other with the winner taking on the Oceania champion for that elusive spot at the FIFA World Cup table.

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