Catch Up! part 3!

J106 Monday August 6th
(EDITOR: Just realized that my dates are wrong for the past week's worth of entires. Poo.)
I woke up at 9 again, wonderfully lazy time that it is. My air conditioner is truly powerful, able to chill my room to near-winter levels in mere minutes. I have to ration it: it costs a ton, I don't want to get used to it, and it's wreaking havoc with my respiratory system. But, it's not hot!

I got ready for the day, showering and packing and dressing. I biked down to the station and met up with K and Sylvia. They, myself, Clive, Dan, and Bostian were going to spend the day golfing. I grabbed a quick breakfast at Lawson's, and got about halfway through when Danny rolled up in his new wheels.

Dan is an Australian chap, and a right good soul. He and I get along swimmingly. He's a few years older than most of the other teachers around Hitachi, and he seems to have done everything under the sun. He's a surfer, he once owned a successful restaurant, he sailed, he's a good golfer, and a dozen other things I can't remember. Being Australian, where they drive on the crazy side of the road, he didn't have to jump through the bureaucratic nightmare hoops that are the driver's license tests here to get his license. His car cost 100,000 yen, about 1,000 USD. It's a little van, Honda I think, from the Stone Age. But it's solid, gets good gas mileage, and benefits from a number of power-boosting engine tricks.

We all piled in, myself in the front seat, Clive, K, and Sylvia in the back steet, and poor Bostian in the trunk, perched atop some new wheels Danny had yet to install. Dan drove, of course, and we set off!

To where, we weren't quite sure. We knew the name of the place, and the general direction. After 20 minutes of driving or so, we stopped and asked for directions. We kept going. All this time I'm taking photos and video of the drive, so beautiful is the day. We stop and ask for directions again, this time getting instructions that lead us right to the place.

Now, realize that I've shrunk nearly an hour's worth of driving into a small paragraph. That was a fun time for the gathered (except maybe Bostian's backside).

We got the golf course and proceeded to pay for our game. And clubs. And balls. And carts. It wasn't that bad, though. One golf club we found wanted 10,500 yen apiece from us, nearly 100 USD. This place was over half that, only around 4000 yen per person.

We split into two teams of three. Myself, K, and Sylvia in one cart, Bostian, Clive, and Danny in the other. They went ahead of us, and rapidly expanded their lead. Danny is good at golf. He's also an English teacher. His powers combined to turn Bostian and Clive into golf machines. Clive is a naturally sporty person, easily picking up nearly anything to do with physical motion or activity. His bowling skills are apparently tremendous. After a few holes he was driving like a freaking pro.

My group was not so fortunate. In short, we all kinda sucked. I nailed a nice drive early on, but soon came to the realization that, for all my power, I had neither accuracy nor control, those crucial elements of a good golf game. We three spent the first two holes languishing in the hot, hot sun and being very bad at golf. After the second hole, we decided to catch up with the other three guys. I myself elected to stay in the car. I felt the beginnings of dehydration and heat exhaustion work in me, and I knew I had to cool off, stay out of the sun, and drink a lot of fluids, otherwise I was going to be in trouble. The next two or three holes I sat out, enjoying the shade and a pair of cool drinks I purchased from a vending machine on the course.

Around hole 8 I was back in the game, having felt rejuvenated by my rest, and was willing to give it another go. With some tips from Danny and Bostian I improved my game immensely, and was no longer swinging 8 times to hit the ball once.

After the 9th hole we called it a day. We went back to the lodge and returned our equipment. We sat down in the AC to rest before returning to the car. We found a Go board, and I explained the basics, such as I recalled them, to the gathered. K was my opponent, and did a decent job for a beginning. Realize that this is coming from someone who has played, maybe, 2 games of Go in his life. Still, it was fun. We were run off before too long, though, as our payment only covered our game, not lodge time. We piled in the car again, this time in search of food.

South we journeyed. Ever south we rode. We passed through city and farmland alike. We passed through Hitachi, searching for a Mexican joint that K had been to a year prior. Dan took a slight detour to show us his favorite surfing spots. We saw some beautiful coastlines, the likes of which I'd never seen before. Majestic rock outcroppings and broad reefs and sand bars made the scenery very dramatic.

Night had long since fallen when we decided we weren't going to find the Mexican place. We'd driven through the towns of coastal Ibaraki for hours, and no sign of anything remotely Mexican, save Sylvia, was to be found. We wound up following directions from a friend of Dan's, but unable to find the place he had recommended. We settled for a bar and grill called "Another Space."

Beer was had. Delicious, cool, beer. And pasta. Delicious, multi-cheese pasta. Alas, poor Bostian, though, did not get his food. He ordered when we did, but we suspect something horrible had happened in the kitchen. We'd been at the place over an hour, all of us save the Slovenian man having eaten our fill of delicious food. We inquired to the waiters several times, always polite, but were met with looks of fear and uncertainty.

At last, they provided Bostian with not one, but two chicken dishes, free of charge. Bostian enjoyed the first, and wilst going to the bathroom, the waiters brought out the other. Bostian's double take at the magically re-created food was priceless. He got it to go, we paid, and got back in the car. I switched places with Bostian, feeling that making him sit in the trunk of the van one more time, especially after the lack of food he'd suffered, was too much for him.

My ride was an exercise in calming exercises. Dan is not a bad driver; indeed, he reminds me of myself in driving style and attention to the road. Still, to drive on Japanese roads is to abandon at least some of your sanity. Being 90 degrees from the force of acceleration and lacking a seatbelt, or a seat for that matter, made the experience all the more memorable.

At last, we arrived home safe and sound. Bostian left first, heading out from his apartment to enjoy some billiards. I reclaimed my front seat, happy to have a seatbelt again. Clive, K, and Syliva all got out at the same place. Dan dropped me off last, at the train station, where I'd parked my bike earlier that morning.

I rode home, quite exhausted. I enjoyed a cold shower and then blissful, resting sleep. I worked the next day, though it was not to be as taxing as I anticipated.