The crosstown trip from my office in central Tokyo to National Stadium is a breeze. On Tuesday night it took 35 minutes, and I arrived in time to see the Toyota Cup kick off.
It's a shame Tokyo won't be hosting any World Cup matches next June. National Stadium is a suitable venue for soccer. An architectural marvel it's not. The 37-year-old relic (equipped with running track) has less personality than Ichiro Suzuki. But remember, the three most important things about stadiums are location, location and location.
It makes no sense that Tokyo, a megalopolis which roughly one in 10 Japanese call home, won't be staging any games. It's even more mind-boggling that Tokyo never even bid to become a host city. But that's water under the bridge now. If we Tokyoites want to see World Cup soccer next summer, we'll just have to venture off the map.
That's what I did earlier this month and here's my advice: STAY HOME!
OK, if you have tickets to matches at nearby Yokohama Stadium, you should go. But the next-closest choice is Saitama Stadium 2002, the largest man-made disaster since Euro Disneyland.
The state-of-the-art stadium itself is a beauty. Getting there on game day, however, is downright painful.
Before I left for Saitama Stadium 2002 to see Japan play Italy on Nov. 7, my esteemed colleague Rob Smaal warned me: "Why would you go all the way up there when you can watch the game at home on TV?" he asked.
I foolishly ignored the tip. I wanted to see what the stadium, which will host one semifinal World Cup match, was like. I also wanted to watch one of the world's best teams (in case you've been holed up in an Afghan cave, I'm referring to Italy, not Japan).
Because of problems overlooked by architects, city planners and soccer officials, the trip from my Tamachi office to the stadium took over two hours; it should have lasted about an hour.
Half of the 60,000 fans arrived for the match that night by subway. When that many people funnel through a few turnstiles, you're bound to get huge lines . . . and staffers armed with bullhorns. They reminded the crowd -- every 6.8 seconds -- to remain patient (which made everyone extremely impatient).
The scene could have turned ugly when kids in the back briefly began pushing. Lest we forget, 11 people were crushed to death at a fireworks display last July in Hyogo Prefecture because of poor crowd control.
After 25 minutes of penguin-shuffling, we finally exited the station. It remains a mystery why a bigger station and/or another subway line weren't built.
When I finally arrived at Saitama Stadium 2002, which for no good reason is a 15-minute walk -- beside endless fields! -- from the station, no one knew which entrance I was supposed to use. I managed to locate the Official Information Booth, where two high school girls provided smiles but no information.
"Hmmm," said the first girl, who giggled a lot.
"Mmmm, the press box," said the second one. "Yes, that's a good question."
After 10 minutes of wandering the premises with a kind but clueless Saitama soccer official whose path I crossed, we finally found the entrance (a Kirin Beer vendor, obviously trained to work in an information booth, pointed us in the right direction). However, by this time Japan had already scored its first and only goal in the 10th minute.
While waiting in line for dinner at halftime and the beginning of the second half, I missed Italy's only goal. That much I could stomach. Unfortunately I can't say the same about my dinner. At the front of the line we were informed that "Food and Drinks" stands weren't serving food.
Why were they only selling drinks at a match that kicked off at dinner time? Wasn't this friendly supposed to be a dry-run for the World Cup?
In the 80th minute I had had enough and headed for the exit to avoid what promised to be a massive traffic jam after the game. Hundreds of others had the same idea. These people paid good money for their tickets and have every right to feel cheated. They missed the best part of the game in order to get home at a reasonable hour.
On Tuesday the situation was markedly different. I saw the entire game, made the crosstown trip home in 30 minutes flat and even managed to get a bite to eat at halftime.
The Toyota Cup was far more fan-friendly than Japan's friendly with Italy, and Japanese World Cup officials should be ashamed. First they goofed by leaving Tokyo out in the cold. Then they built out in the boonies.
I've heard plenty about Japan's plans to thwart terrorism and hooliganism next summer. That's great, but soccer officials should also be focusing on internal problems that already exist. From a fan's perspective, Japan is far from ready to play host.
If these problems aren't solved soon, Japan's half of the World Cup is going to morph into a colossal headache. Which leads me to my second piece of advice: Keep some aspirin by your TV.