Lets be honest. I was never really a hockey girl, growing up. I had my favourite teams, my favourite players, and like any good Canadian, I though Gary Bettman was an idiot. (I still stand by the fact that if your city doesn’t get snow, you have no business having a hockey team.) But I wasn’t the type to watch every game with my father or anything like that.
That being said. I am Canadian. And looking back, hockey was more in my blood than I realized.
When I began to live in Japan, I realized I missed that part of my Canadian culture. The one where we’d sit around, freezing, watching a piece of rubber bounce around on ice, and people would beat the crap out of each other trying to get to that piece of rubber. Once in a while, I’d look into what was going on, and heard about a hockey team in Tokyo, but didn’t really look beyond it. (I learnt they were called the Seibu Prince Bunnies, but closed during the recession. Is it not the most amazing hockey team name EVER?!)
However, when I moved to Anyang, I found out I was living in the Best Hockey Town in Asia.
Wait, wait?
Anyang is home of one of two hockey teams in Korea that are members of the Asia League Ice Hockey. The league is made up of seven teams in total. Four from Japan, two from Korea, and one in China. I’ve been intrigued by the league for ages, but never managed to get to a game last year. This year though, I watched the schedule like a HAWK.
Over the past weekend, the Nippon Paper Cranes came to Anyang to do a 3-game series over the weekend. I went to the Saturday opener. From the second I walked into the arena, it felt like this wonderful feeling of home washing over me. Arenas tend to look the same where ever you are, and they sound the same too. I was a bit late, so I walked in to hear the sounds of an announcer yelling out the score in Korean and crowds of fans cheering along.
When I walked in, I didn’t expect to see many people. I mean, come on. It’s hockey. In Korea. How popular could it be?
It was packed.
I was floored, there was a SERIOUS fanbase for the Anyang Halla. Really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. As an active member of the k-pop community here, I should have realized that everything in Korea will have its own passionate following. Koreans don’t do ANYTHING halfassed.
One of the players even had his own fangirls. And they had fan signs. Just like the ones I make for concerts. Those girls were my HEROES.
The atmosphere was really fun, and I had a great time. After one game, I’ve decided I’m definitely going to try and make it out to some more games. It’s well worth a trip down line 4 to Indeogwon or Pyeongchon to see the Anyang Halla play. Or, if you’re on the east side of Seoul, you can check out the High1, the other team in South Korea, based out of Chuncheon..
Anyang Halla’s official English website
The Asia League Ice Hockey official website.