I did my first two days last weekend, and then had successive attempts at interviews thwarted by rain. Weather seems to be the only thing that stops them from playing soccer at this park….
Anyways, here are the notes I took last Sunday. They’re mostly about the way the guys were playing soccer – that was really the main interesting thing going on, but I also used to play soccer so I’m kind of interested in how people play recreationally here in Tokyo.
- The guys here are actually playing soccer now – yesterday they just stood around, maybe kicking the ball around a little bit, while I was here.
- One group discerns between teams with neon yellow jerseys – the other group seems to rely on people recognizing their team’s faces.
- There’s also three guys on the side practicing juggling, and doing some conditioning training from the looks of it
- Two older guys watch from the benches, where I am; they may be homeless and just enjoying the show, but there are no obvious signs of that
- Both soccer groups have cones set up as goals
- The group closer to me seems to be fairly young guys, maybe about my age, maybe a little older; the far group seems both older and more experienced at soccer
- This area has clearly been self-designated as the place where adult guys can play soccer – even my host mom knew there would be soccer here
- Yesterday there were also a couple of guys practicing juggling – I assume the park is one of the few places one can find any real open space
- Despite the fact that this open area is spotted with trees, it seems to work well for this kind of mini-soccer (seems like 5 per side)
- Guys have dropped their bags under a tree between the two fields, and the guys not playing at the time are sitting there.
- Neither group seems especially competitive – each is probably one group of friends meeting to play friendly soccer, rather than some sort of organized match between groups
And then this Sunday, I interviewed two of the guys sitting on the sidelines. (I didn’t want to try and pull someone out of the game for this, of course). I was definitely incredibly nervous, and on the recordings you can hear my excellent use of the Japanese language (that was sarcasm). But the guys I interviewed were very congenial, and chatted with me for a while in between the two interviews – really kind of returning the interview and asking me about why I’m studying abroad, why I’m interested in Japan, etc.
These interviews that felt like 4 or 5 minute long conversations at the time turned out to be one or two minute ones, so that’s definitely one thing I’ve learned.
The questions I asked were basically about soccer, the park, and…well…playing soccer in the park. I didn’t get any stunning revelations or anything (I don’t think there could be any about playing soccer in a park), but it was still interesting to hear how long these guys had been playing in the park, why they come, etc.
I’m not sure if I we were supposed to do a full transcription/translation or not, but for now I’ll just summarize in English.
This first guy, 24 years old, said he’d been coming to the park since he started college, so about 6 years ago. He says the park is good because it’s free, and you can play with lots of different people. He comes once a week, on either Saturday or Sunday. At the end he mentions that it was very hot at the time (which it was), and that it gets really cold in the winter, but they still always play there, so it’s a “special place” for them.
The second guy, 23, said he’d also been coming to the park since entering college, so about 5 years. He said he came because his senpai (upperclassmen, perhaps one of which was the first guy I interviewed) played there. He also mentioned the ability to play soccer for free as being a good thing about the park, as well as the fact that there are always people there to play with and that you can play with the same group each week. Like the other guy, he only comes once a week, on either day of the weekend. His closing comment was “ゴールがほしいです”(I want a goal).
Looking back on it, I wish I’d made my questions a little more specific, especially about the park. It seemed like there were always homeless people watching – about 20 meters away from the soccer area is a big collection of tents and tarps set up in the park – so I had kind of wanted to know what the soccer players thought about that situation. And also, for guys who’ve been coming about once a week for 5 or 6 years, how that situation may have changed. But I also didn’t want to ask that directly…I guess that’s another interview skill I’ll need to work on.
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