A passionate night in Vietnam. Congratulations to the U-22 Vietnam national football team! (Written by Ho)

Good morning, Vietnam! Good morning, Vietnam! Last night, I came back from Hanoi... Ho Chi Minh City is hot. Well, but the mornings and evenings are cool. 7 in the morning, temperature 23°C. Now, this time, I want to properly record what happened on December 10th, the day I arrived in Hanoi. Because, this was the day Vietnam erupted in joy for the first time in 60 years.

Hanoi at around 11 p.m. As we headed by taxi toward our hotel on the outskirts of the Old Quarter, motorbikes were streaming back and forth even though it was nearly midnight. The taxi took a roundabout route, avoiding roads closed to vehicle traffic. Running alongside the taxi were motorbikes flying the Vietnamese flag and the Korean flag. On top of that, so many motorbikes surged forward that it looked like a rush-hour commute. It wasn't just young people—adults were riding too. Families with their children aboard were riding as well. A jubilant motorbike parade on the main streets all across the country! A night when the hearts of the entire Vietnamese people were aglow with warmth. The night of the 10th was the day of the Southeast Asian Games soccer final, held in the Philippines. We, a married couple, arrived in Hanoi and left our hotel close to 7 p.m. We had plans to have dinner with my husband Sei's work friends and colleagues, and when we joined them at the restaurant, there was an extraordinary excitement in the air.

People wearing red T-shirts in Vietnam's national colors, people tying on headbands, and people putting stickers on their faces (these stickers are red heart shapes with a yellow star in the center! Stick them on both cheeks, and your cheeks look rosy and oh so cute!!)

Vietnamese food while watching soccer. It's already such a huge commotion, so... the food we ordered just doesn't come out. We ordered a hot pot dish, but there aren't enough portable gas stoves — lol. Only a chunk of meat and some noodles show up, lol lol. The staff rushes off to procure a portable gas stove, lol lol lol. But nobody gets angry. Because the customers just can't take their eyes off the soccer broadcast. As long as there's beer, shochu, and booze, everyone's happy. Every time the game gets exciting, there's a huge uproar. We even exchange cheers and drinks with the people at the table next to us.

Once points are on the board, it's pure pandemonium! Flags waving, people dancing around with a light spring in their step, folks bouncing up and down—boing boing boing~ Chairs go flying through the air, fist pumps, handshakes, hugs and hugs and hugs~~~

And then, a storm of toasts breaking out everywhere. Một (moht, 1), Hai (hai, 2), Ba (bah, 3), Vào〜 (yoh〜 = pour in the drinks)!! Gulp, gulp, gulp!

The U-22 Vietnam national team, led by South Korean coach Park Hang-seo, defeated Indonesia 3–0 to win the championship! It's their first title since the country's reunification! And with it being their first gold medal in some 60 years, all of Vietnam was swept up in a whirlwind of excitement. Whenever Vietnam's football team wins, the supporters pour out into the streets and hold a jubilant parade. They cruise through the city on their motorbikes. https://www.viet-jo.com/news/social/191211200647.html The news describes it as reckless driving and such, but that's only a small part of it. The sight is striking (because it's a mass of red!!)… it's a scene of a red crowd zipping along on their motorbikes. Naturally, you might picture a biker gang? A riot? Something scary? But they're really just riding along. Vrooom~~~~~, vrooom~~~~~, vrooom~~~~~. They don't honk their horns much, either. They glide leisurely down dimly lit roads. They ride without much hurry, without much fuss, feeling the wind. It's really quite peaceful. After all, there are even motorbikes carrying children. Wheee~~~, wheee~~~, we won, hooray~~~~~~!! That kind of feeling.

Of course, there are also spots where things get wild. (Places like District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City or around Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.) To put it in Japanese terms, it's like the crowds gathering at the Shibuya scramble crossing. Still, most Vietnamese people cruise along the main roads riding their motorbikes. It feels like they're releasing adrenaline. This is our Vietnam! The team we're cheering for won~~~!! Meanwhile, according to a newspaper article, in one district in the south there were even people parading on cultivator tractors.

The afterglow of victory lingered into the next day too. Quite a few young people could be seen buying flags at the town's national flag shop. Now then, where might they all be heading out to? Vietnam, where soccer fever runs unusually high. In last year's U-23 Asian Championship final, the viewership rating apparently topped 70%. It looks like some amazing numbers will come out this time as well. Even in the apartment complexes of Ho Chi Minh City, at the café on the ground floor, not only a TV but a projection screen monitor made its appearance, and everywhere turned into public viewing. The roar of the crowd made the ground rumble, and even without a TV you could tell — ah, they scored~ ah, they won~. It gets exciting in Japan too, but... the intensity of the fever here is on another level. I wasn't originally some super fanatical soccer fan, but seeing up close how the people of this country rejoice and have fun, I naturally found myself wanting to cheer along. Is it a sense of unity? A wish to share in the happiness? The red T-shirts are so cute (there are all kinds of designs even with the red background and star mark, so it's fun to choose), and I'm thinking maybe I'll stick on a red sticker myself... Congratulations to the Vietnam national soccer team!! When's the next match, I wonder... Expat Life Ranking