Last weekend, we visited Komazawa area to watch Japan’s domestic rugby competition, Top League played against Tokyo’s team Toshiba Brave Lupus and Nagoya’s team, Toyota Verblitz.
As we haven’t been in the area before, we wandered around before the game kicked off at 12pm.
About Komazawa area
- Komazawa is one of the areas in Tokyo’s 23 wards with the largest population, Setagaya ward.
- Known as a family friendly area, Komazawa’s biggest draw card is 駒沢公園(Komazawa park) that adds a lot of greenery
- Not only greenery, it is accessible with only 1 train stop to the bustling Shibuya and is accessible to many other suburbs including Sangenjaya, Jiyugaoka by bike
- Komazawa itself offers a range of cafes and restaurants
Around the park, we came across this beautiful little bakery called Griotte:
…walked past this sports cafe (their latte was 670yen or AUD$7.50?!)
…curly whirly ribbon fries at Brooklyn Ribbon Fries cafe:
..and briefly had a peek at a model house with a gallery space below:
We wanted to explore more but the game was about to start! Before the game, a little bit about Komazawa Olympic Park:
About Komazawa Olympic Park
Komazawa Olympic Park was built in 1964 and was built as the second major sporting venue for 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Events including Volleyball and wrestling were held back in 1964. After Olympic, it was turned into a park.
Over 41 hectares park consists of 2km jogging course, athletics stadium, baseball stadium, tennis courts, dog run and cycling path.
I haven’t been to a rugby game in a while and the last time was during 2019 Japan Rugby World Cup and previously in Australia.
What was different from Australian rugby games was the amount of women supporters like these ladies around us:
Also, it was a quiet game where audiences were absorbed in the game and clapped when a try was made.
This shouldn’t be a surprise as we all intentionally made our way to this game. However oddly as rugby being a relatively new sports that are shadowed by the dominant national sports including baseball and sumo (unlike Australia where rugby is the dominant national sports), I felt that the Japanese audience was more into the game itself compared to in Australia where people visit the game to chat, drink, holler out around where the game is happening.
Watching a game of rugby under a warm winter sun and exploring a new suburb was an interesting blend of an Australian and Japanese lifestyle for me.
I hope you have a safe weekend.
Native Expat 