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From right to left, Carl Gough and his wife, Tomoko, Yoshiko and her partner.

Nottingham ex-pat, Carl Gough tells us about Japan's preparations for the up and coming World Cup.

Friday 19th April, 6.30pm, just finished work in Minami Aoyama.

I am heading down to Roppongi, a local "gaijin" (Foreigner) hangout for a few quiet ones with the head of IT for a large software storage company.

Eamonn is 18 months into Tokyo, from London and having a ball. We meet at the local Irish bar, "The Shamrock" always good for a decent pint, although very overpriced at 1200 yen (6 GB pounds).

The Topic of conversation on everyone’s lips is up and coming World Cup, more specifically, the local TV and the portrayal of "British Hooliganism".

For two weeks straight, Fuji TV and Tokyo Broadcasting Station have been playing footage of the worst kind, running pitch battles between rival British clubs and of course, the 'Euro' which achieved worldwide coverage.

The message they are sending out is clear. Hooligans are coming from England. Batten down your doors.

That is exactly what is going to happen at kick off on the first game of the tournament.

Shops will close due to a fear of a riot and in their typical schizophrenic way welcome foreigners to Japan and forbid them to stay in certain hotels. Xenophobia is still rife!!

Japan will be hoping the England fans will behave themselves during the World Cup.

Eamonn and I discuss the finer points of Tokyo living and chuckle at the thought of hundreds of fans heading in totally the opposite direction of the stadium on one of Tokyo’s many spider web subway systems.

On the whole, most of the Japanese TV stations are getting enthusiastic. Merchandisers even more so - they'll sell lots of useless trivia at a good profit.

The fans are practicing their cheering "Ganbare Nippon" (Do your best Japan), in the deluded view that they'll help lift their team which may be difficult if you're assigned a seat as there is no alcohol and you definitely can't stand up to cheer.

In almost every instance, foreigners will have their name printed on their ticket and have to carry a passport to get into the games. As for the security - they have no idea (of a hooligans dream).

Shopkeepers are paranoid at the prospect of rampaging hooligans.

Mathematically it will take 48 hours to check everyone going into the 40, 000 man stadium.

As this is unrealistic they still plan to do it! What this means is that anyone not looking like they're a local (i.e. Japanese) will be searched. Smart move.

If all else fails and a riot ensues, the local riot police will be there with the newly invented "Net Gun" – that’s right, a gun that fires a net over troublemakers.

While the girls are buying all the blue and white face paint possible, the guys are playing it smart by picking up the latest state of the art plasma screen TV’s for home.

Eamonn hopes that Beckham will get his foot sorted out in time for the games, and that’s the feeling of most Brits in Tokyo, some even going so far as thinking that it was sabotage.

I on the other hand am very upset as this means he will be spending more time at home with Posh Spice which dramatically ruins my chances of stealing her.

Fees for all national museums will be waved, to encourage foreigners to experience Japanese culture.

As I sip my 4th pint of Guinness I can only think of closing the deal with Eamonn and getting away from it all when it starts.

Maybe I'll go to Guam, a little tropical island like Hawaii, two hours south of Japan, assuming I can get a room in a hotel of course.

On the brighter side, Japan’s Education Minister Atsuko Toyama announced that, during the World Cup, fees for all national museums would be waved for foreigners showing a passport.

Toyama explained that this was to expose foreigners to as much Japanese culture as possible. Lucky devils!