21.  The Nomo Show gives Japanese fans another glimpse of a player who spent five years honing his tools before them.

22.  The sight of empty seats on television was too much for Japanese fans who waited years for the World Cup to come to Asia.

23.  The teen-age and twentysomething Japanese fans who lined the front row of the roped-off field did not seem to mind their poor seats.

24.  Thursday night, the Nets were nominally the home team, but the Japanese fans rooted for the better-known Magic, and particularly for Hardaway.

25.  Traditionalists in Japanese baseball might be grinding their teeth about these developments, but Japanese fans are ecstatic and Japanese media are in a frenzy.

26.  What does it say about a team that folds like a Japanese fan every time it has a chance to put its rivals away?

27.  Why risk the wrath of the Japanese fans?

28.  All around, Japanese fans were all dressed up with no place to go.

29.  Before kick off in Nantes last Saturday, the Japanese fans rolled out a giant blue flag behind the goal.

30.  But few Japanese fans have been as dedicated as those from Izumo, a farming town in western Japan where the team held its training camp before the tournament.