Lost in translation? World Cup has arrived in Japan but don´t tell everybody | Andy Bull
(The Guardian Sports News)

With the opening game just three days away you get the feeling Japan will have to perform well on the pitch to engage a nation already seduced by next year´s Tokyo OlympicsThere were six people in the bar, five friends and now one stranger too. I would have backed right out but then the barmaid said she wanted to practice her English. She´d been taking lessons, she explained, because she´s so excited about the Tokyo Olympics and is sure she will enjoy it more if she can talk to all the tourists who´ll be coming here next year. By the time I´d finished my drink we´d established that no, this wasn´t my first time in Japan, that I have family in Sapporo, and, after I´d made a clumsy mime of typing on the bar, that I was here on business, working as a sports journalist. The one thing we got stuck on was exactly which sport I was here to cover. Related: Air of unpredictability hangs over Rugby World Cup with adaptability the key | Robert Kitson Continue reading...