Just a few minutes' walk down the hill from the art museums of Mishima Clematis Garden, served by a free shuttle bus from Mishima station, the Shizuoka Football Museum is nothing like as well known as its neighbour, which I think is rather a shame. I know it's intended for a very different kind of visitor, but I enjoyed looking round as a break from the culture up the road. I imagine it would also be enjoyed by many of the young kids whose parents bring them to the art museums, especially as there's no entrance fee.
There are a few rooms of open-plan displays, and much of the information on the walls is given in both Japanese and English, some of it entertainingly bombastic. I read that "football was spread around the world by the glorious British Empire", and about Shizuoka's being a "football kingdom", though the prefecture's two J-League teams have fallen on lean times since that was written.
There is plenty of focus on those two teams, Jubilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse. One display shows all the players from their ranks who've gone on to the national team, counted off by head-shaped silhouettes bearing an amusing range of hairstyles. The 'Hall of Fame' gives details of the clubs' past successes - at least I assume it does, as it's only in Japanese, as are the recorded voice messages from 'Players of the Future'.
There's also a lot to interest more general fans too. Trophies, medals, balls and lots of shirts are shown off in display cases, including shirts worn by Kuzuyoshi Miura, Japan's most storied player, in his spells with Genoa in Italy and Brazilian powerhouses Santos. (I was amused to see that Santos were sponsored by Kleenex, complete with the Portugese for 'tissues' printed on the shirt.) Another room brings us shirts worn by overseas stars: Alessandro del Piero of Juventus, a New York Cosmos shirt worn by Pele, Diego Maradona at Napoli, and one Lionel Messi who, if you've read this far, should need no introduction.
As well as all this there's a moderately interesting display on boot and ball manufacture, and a section dedicated to the World Cup. This has all the balls used since 1970 (that is, one example of each year, not every single ball), and more shirts, mostly Japanese but also including some worn at the 2002 World Cup in Japan by England, Germany and Brazil, which I rather hope were liberated from laundry-baskets by enterprising hotel staff. Also dotted around are some pictures from that World Cup, among them one of German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn leaning displeased against his goalpost, and a very young-looking David Beckham.
Then at the end there are a couple of oldish but perfectly functional football tables, free to play, if only there'd been any other visitors while I was there. Looks like I just have to round up some friends and come back for a day-long tournament one time...
