Vibe Check #33 (June 2026)

Welcome to the 33rd edition of our Vibe Check (6th edition for the year 2026), where we talk about anything and everything dealing with Japan, Japanese culture, anime, and/or anything that's on the top of our heads that happened in June. I hope you have a happy reading~

Check #1: FIFA WORLD CUP 

The FIFA World Cup 2026 was held in North America (Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America), and it's the biggest sporting event in the world. Every four years, qualified senior national teams would compete for soccer (or football) glory.

The two teams I was rooting for are the US Men's National Team and Japan Men's National Team. I tend to watch both of their group stage matches and was satisfied with their performances. However, the hydration breaks and the ads "predicting" the USA would win the entire World Cup were not the most favorable part of the World Cup. The reason for that is: 

1. Hydration breaks are basically known for squeezing in more ads while you wait for the match to resume. 
2. The ads "predicting" the USA would win the World Cup are jinxing the team itself. 

Now I am not saying the USA national team is bad. It's just having people glazing them up too highly, yet the group stages aren't fully over is too much to say the least...

It's like an American football team having three wins from not-so-strong teams, and all of a sudden, they're "projected" to win the league. 

...OK -_-

Whereas Japan tends to have tons (and I mean TONS) of bad luck for the entire tournament despite being undefeated on their group stages, and as of today, their bad luck costs them another knockout loss to Brazil (which is considered to be their "big brother of football"). 

To be fair, even without their stars Endo, Minamino, Mitoma, and Kubo, they did extremely well to stay in contention. However, there are two things I predicted as to why Japan lost in the knockout round for this World Cup:

1. Japan is a super strong team, but nerves, anxiety, and fatigue can get to the best of even world-class athletes. 
2. Brazil is a country where soccer is a religion to the people. It's extremely hard to beat a team like that. 

Would Japan shock the world one day? Of course! All the players now have the experience of what the World Cup is, and how the players and the entire country would use that to better themselves for the 2030 World Cup. 

Would I keep watching the World Cup if even the USA Men's team were knocked out? Yes, of course! 

Would I root for any other team? Probably not... I just want to watch the games, and that's it.

Knowingly, Japan will go back to the World Cup stronger than ever before~

Check #2: World Cup and Japanese Twitter

Leaving out the stuff that happened in the field and going to the Japanese fans. 

Japanese fans are recognized as one of the best international fans in the world, and seeing them react to American life is funny and heartwarming.

There are Japanese fans who are trying American seafood for the first time, cheering their teams on, having their first experience at an American Walmart, and just loving everything that is America.

Plus, it's not just the Japanese who are loving American life. Tons of international fans are loving American life.

For years, people would think that America is a laughingstock of the world (sometimes, we're not beating the allegations... ^^'), but the World Cup showcases how people love American life. From Japanese fans eating seafood to Scottish fans drinking up all the booze in Boston to even Argentine fans chanting someone's name because they lost their wallet and cheered when they found it. 

I am not saying the 2026 World Cup is the best World Cup ever, but it's one of those sporting events where we just have a good time inside and outside of the stadiums. 

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That's it for this month's Vibe Check. Sorry if it's mostly the World Cup since it's the only thing that happened that's interesting to me, but hopefully I can squeeze something else in for next month's Vibe Check once the World Cup is finished. I'll see you guys in next month's Vibe Check.