Germany's Beethoven town turns Japanese

BONN, Germany, May 24 (Reuters) The music of Ludwig van Beethoven will set the scene for Japan's soccer team when they arrive for the World Cup on Friday.

The Asian champions unexpectedly picked Bonn, where Beethoven was born, as their base in Germany for the World Cup even though the small town on the Rhine River was not on the list of 110 host venues recommended by world governing body FIFA.

Even if the Japanese players do not all share the same devotion to Beethoven as their classical-music-loving compatriots, they will have trouble escaping echoes of the German composer in the city that has latched on to his memory.

''We're going to do everything to make sure they feel at home in the city of Beethoven no matter if they are players or tourists,'' said Bonn mayor Baerbel Dieckmann. ''The city is absolutely delighted to host the Japanese team.'' The city of 312,295, which was the seat of the German government until it moved back to Berlin in 1999, has gone all out for its Asian guests since the Japanese federation decided to make the leafy Rhine-side destination their base.

It has put up Japanese blue banners all over town. A ''German Japanese Media Partners Supporters'' centre for the 300 journalists following Japan has been set up in a local museum, now swathed in the team's colours, and the team will take up an entire 252-room Hilton Hotel near the Rhine's banks.

With a rich offering of museums, concert halls, operas and other high-brow cultural distractions that would make a larger city proud, Bonn has adapted well to the loss of the government and parliament seven years ago.

''It's pleasant,'' Japan coach Zico said after he inspected Bonn and its first-rate training facilities three kms from the hotel. ''It has a serene atmosphere.'' BEETHOVEN MUSEUM Bonn revels in the memory of Beethoven, born here in 1770, even though he left at the age of 20 and spent his most creative years in Vienna. His birth house has been lovingly preserved as a museum and is across the street from the Japan team hotel.

There is a Beethoven concert hall around the corner, a Beethoven orchestra, an annual Beethoven festival, a Beethoven Alle (avenue), and two schools named after the composer who died in 1827 in Vienna.

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