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Sunday morning in Poblenou....

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The matchday programme - Leeds United v Oxford United 21/12/2024

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Leeds United: Meslier, Bogle, Ampadu, Rodon, James, Rothwell (Guilavogui 83), Piroe (Joseph 74), Aaronson (Gnonto 74), Solomon (Ramazani 74), Tanaka, Byram (Schmidt 77).

Subs not used: Darlow, Struijk, Bamford, Chambers. After multiple delays by Turkish Airlines we arrived in Barcelona a day late, but got home just in time for me to watch Leeds United's final Elland Road fixture of 2024 on my laptop.

The game was about as one sided as the score suggests, but we needed to win to keep up with the other teams who are challenging for promotion. Five points separate the Championship's top four teams - Leeds are in second place, three points behind Sheffield United….

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I kept a five yen coin for luck….

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Godzilla

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If singing your favourite songs badly while drunk was a crime, I think I'd be facing a life sentence with no hope of parole, but it was great fun....

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The restaurant in Tokyo's Asakusa underground district that appears in the film "Perfect Days"....

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Cocktails at Tokyo Sky Tree

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Hi

Hope all is good with you. Enjoying the recent Japanese content as well as the occasional fanzine scan. You were kind enough to scan in a York fanzine (Beaten to the Punch) a few years back for me as it contained a review of the first gig by The Sisters of Mercy, and I did a post on it for my own blog about T’Sisters. Blog posts like that one helped to revive interest in the early days of the band and since then there have been two excellent biographies published about the band, so thanks again for your help. I noticed amongst the cover scans that you have added that there is one for another York zine, Getting Nowhere Fast, which says that there is an interview with TSOM inside, which is probably one of their first ever interviews (possibly the second, as an educated guess, after the one in Leeds zine Whippings and Apologies).

I know from previous replies to others that you don’t have much time for scanning zines these days, and you must be snowed under with requests, but if you could put it up one day, I and many other fans would be very grateful.

Cheers

Nik

Hi Nik

Thanks for getting in touch again. I'm currently recovering from a night of drunken karaoke in Tokyo, and will be returning to Europe at the end of the week....

I should be able to scan and upload a few more zines in 2025 and already made a short list, to which I'll add that issue of Getting Nowhere Fast. If I remember correctly it's A5 size and fairly short and sweet. The issue of Beaten To The Punch that I posted featured the band Girls At Our Best! - and Getting Nowhere Fast is also the name of their first single - so there's a connection....

I can't promise to post it by a certain date but it will definitely go up at some point.

All the best for Xmas and the New Year!

Cheers

J

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I can't resist trying out new Japanese convenience store drinks every day. This one contains turmeric....

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Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi

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Leeds United smiley

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Leeds United: Meslier, Bogle (Joseph 82), Rodon, Struijk, Byram (Ampadu 82), Tanaka, Rothwell (Solomon 77), James, Gnonto (Bamford 65), Aaronson (Ramazani 65), Piroe.

Subs not used: Darlow, Guilavogui, Schmidt, Wober.

This was a decent point away from home for Leeds.

Preston's game plan was to sit back, deny us space to run into, waste as much time as possible and hit us on the break. In the first half this worked like a dream for them. Leeds totally dominated the possession stats but didn't manage to create many goal scoring opportunities, and Preston scored a great counter-attacking goal totally against the run of play.

They should have been down to 10 men after Ben Whiteman made an appalling challenge on Jayden Bogle when already on a yellow card, but the referee took no action against him and ended up booking an understandably angry Daniel Farke instead.

Leeds managed to up the tempo in the second half and did more than enough to win the game, but the ball just wouldn't go into the net. Dan James hit the bar, Patrick Bamford missed a sitter from close range and the Preston goalkeeper had to make a few excellent saves.

By the end our formation was something like three at the back and everybody else up front, and we finally got the equaliser we deserved when a low cross by James was flicked on by Mateo Joseph, and Jack Whatmough deflected the ball into his own net….

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In Japan, sometimes you buy stuff just because the packaging looks so cute....

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Itsukushima Shrine

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Hiroshima A Bomb Dome

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Sushi rolls are awesome....