Stereotypes & Golf....

so...ive been here a few weeks now, which i reckon puts me in a position to dispel or confirm a few stereotypes of japan.
1. japanese are into new gadgets...true...see apartment pics
2. japanese tv is all mad game shows ala clive james...true...japanese tv is woeful, half is crazy weird and somewhat pointless game shows, the other half is dull, long and pointless japanese baseball.
3. japanese people are polite...very true, japanese are incredibly polite. last week i stopped at a pedestrian crossing to let a bunch of school kids cross..when they got to the other side, they all turned in unison and bowed to me....a small thing to them maybe, but it made my day
4. japanese are the best manufacturers in the world...false, suppliers here are awful, worse than malaysia
5. japanese are crazy about golf....true..partially. my uk boss is over for a few weeks and we were very kindly invited to play in the japan company who we are working with's annual golf tournament. i had to get up at 5am on saturday morning and drive 30 mins down the coast to the course, its a professional championship course, and is stunning. we had clear blue skies all day and is was quite hot, even for october...mid 20's i think. anyway, japan does many things well, golf being one of them. we arrived in the car so be met by a few women, who opened our boot and took our clubs...then next time we saw them was when they were in a golf buggy on the first tee! the place itself was incredible. set in the mountains near mount yahiko, on the rugged coast near niigata. i was playing with the presidents sister, and a couple of other japanese guys whom i work with (whom?? or who???...) and although one guy spoke english, the other two didnt, however, i always find it weird that even when you cant understand a word any one is saying, you can manage to have great conversations, and make and understand jokes. i won't bore you with golf talk...i personally find golf talk tediously boring, however, it was a great day. you play 9 holes, then go for lunch and a few beers (the japanese are very inistent on trying to get you drunk a lot! especially in business), then we played the back 9. now i havent played in over 2 years, so i was a little worried, however, i was just good enough to enjoy it without spending the whole day in bushes. so most of the time we drove around in our little buggy, however, there were times and places where to get from a green to the next tee, it was up a hill....now, anywhere else, youd simply walk up the hill...not here, they had 'travelators' (kinda a big conveyor belt that moves you up the hill so you dont have to walk....heaven forbid!) some of these things were about 100 metres long! pic included above. anyway, we got to the prize ceremony and apparently i had come 3rd out of the 20 participants, so i got a lovely little trophy...which i cant actually read...i presume it says '3rd place' and not something derogatory .... plus loads of other prizes for winning the 'closest to the pin' competition and stuff. my boss came 15th, and was spuriously awarded a prize for coming 15th 14th, 13th.......4th didnt get a prize mind you..just the top 3 and 15th!! methinks polical motives were at hand! especially as we are their customer....(that goes on a heck of a lot here)
ive put a few photos up of the day, although they dont really do justice to the beauty of the place.

last night i went out with gareth, a new guy from work who has just moved out, we went to a place called immigrants cafe, which is kinda the main ex pat bar in town. i had my first bottle of sake, which is quite inoffensive in taste. i was too tired for a big night out, so we got the last train home at 11.30. unfortunately, he doesnt know many places yet, and i unfortunately fell asleep on the train.. to be woken up by gareth some time later, asking me if this was our station...bleerily i looked out of the window and decided it was, so we hoped off, just as the doors were closing...only to discover that it was not indeed out station....it was 2 before ours, which is about an hours walk home...needless to say we got a taxi home at great expense...

in other news...after a bit of bad news/stuff late friday night, i decided to cheer myself up and treat myself to a new trumpet. it had been a bit of a waynes world thing for a while, where id seen this trumpet in a shop weeks ago, and id been going in to the shop just to ogle it ever since ('she will be mine..oh yes, she will be mine'). anyway, i decided to treat myself. i got her/it on saturday, and she is beautiful, a yamaha 800s custom to those (if any) are interested..and it/she's silver...she is a very good model and is a a professional instrument, she is very expensive, but i got her second hand...ill not say how much in case my mom is reading this and will probably kill me!! but she is lovely. gareth is a guitar player, and we have talked about forming a little acoustic band here, and also with a teacher friend of mine deccy....we'll see....well, it gives me something to do in the evenings now at least.

today we had a football match on the practice pitch/park of the big swan 2002 world cup stadium, i played my newly acuired position of left back, and happily we beat a japanese team 4-3.

now, i think its bedtime. next weekend needs to be a relaxing one...im shattered!

oyasuminasai (goodnight)
Glen-san