Friday September 3rd: Golf and a Resumption of Mahjong (Mechanical Tables Permitting...)

Now that September is here, the summer mahjong recess is officially over and was marked by a sweltering day of golf at Hiroshima Golf Club and an eventful evening of mahjong at Kodama mahjong parlour...

It's been several months since I last handled a golf club, except for a few ten minute bashes at the indoor place at the back of the Xebio sports shop at Shoko Centre. There are several advantages to practising there. For one thing, you don't have to take your clubs. Another advantage is that you are the only one inside the practice area. A further advantage is that one practice session only lasts a few minutes. You put 300 yen into a slot and blast your balls at a screen while a computerised thingummy works out the distance and direction that your ball supposedly went and you get to see a tracer-fire line arching gracefully down a fairway on the screen.

Anyway, apart from a few of those sessions, it has been several months since I last picked up one of MY golf clubs (er, or the ones Jaime gave me when he got a new set)... but I had agreed to play golf with Jaime at the Hiroshima Golf Club on Friday. So Thursday saw me back at Xebio getting in a bit of practice blasting balls at the screen. I tried out a fairway wood and was so impressed with the results that I promptly bought a second-hand one for just under 10,000 yen; a no. 3, 40 cm, 22 degrees loft. Perfect for getting a duffer's ball up the fairway, and for cutting down on the number of clubs in the bag.

My bag now consists of just seven clubs:

1 x driver: This produces amazing banana shots and is sometimes useful for getting balls from the tee to the green on par 3 holes - and over valleys (see below)...

1 x fairway wood: Drives nice and straight on the fairway, if only I could remember to aim for the flag... Also good for getting my ball out of flattish bunkers...

1 x no. 6 iron: A doubtful club that sometimes helps me out of the rough, and sometimes doesn't.

1 x no. 7, 8 & 9: My trusty irons for the shorter game, my relative strong point...

1 x P/S: A most necessary club for deep bunkers and other trying situations. I have discarded the pitching wedge and the sand wedge in favour of the combi. In golf, as in life, fewer is often wiser. Ask Tiger.

Hiroshima Golf Club is easy to get to. Just hop on the tram for two stops and catch a taxi up the hill. Our tee-off time was a civilized 10:15 and there was nobody behind us. Perfect!

Hiroshima Golf Club opened as a 9-hole course in 1952. Today it is a challenging 18-hole hill-top course with fine views of western Hiroshima and the sea and islands beyond.

Hiroshima Golf Club

It was a sweltering day, with temperatures well into the mid-30s centigrade. We survived on bottles of Aquarius Sparkling, "a low-calorie isotonic sports drink. It contains amino acid BCAA, citric acid and D-ribose, and uses a technology called ‘Bubble Smoother’ from Soda Kouryou to suppress the fizz."

None the less, a cleansing beer at the refreshment huts after the 5th and 14th holes, and a beer at lunch, were also necessary to keep the spirits up and the tension down... Lunch - a pretty good yakiniku beef set.

As for the golf, well, it had its ups and downs. The new fairway wood showed promise, but, as I say, it was a difficult course! Hopes of getting round without getting into double figures on any hold were dashed at the third, where my ball insisted on taking the difficult route along the right, through the trees and bunkers...

There were a couple of inspirational moments, one of which Jaime captured on video. The somewhat eccentric swing was fully justified by the result! A workman was lurking under the trees by the footbridge so I aimed at him rather than at the fairway and pulled off a fine banana-shot, causing the ball to land on the edge of the fairway.

Here's a photo of Jaime at the top of his swing:

Jaime using an iron on a par 3 hole.

That evening we met up at The Shack as Kemby's is currently being refurbished under new ownership. If what I hear is right, the music stage is to be removed and the kitchen extended, with a big window put in so that you can see the chefs in action.

Noda and Nobu were waiting for us when we arrived at Kodama. We were on the table in the far right corner - at least we were until the machine swallowed two of the tiles. There then followed a twenty minute session in which we tipped the table back and forth while Jaime worked with a screwdriver and a pair of large tweezers to locate and pull out the two tiles. We then switched table while Mama-san continued in her attempts to locate a phantom "third tile" with the help of Noda until he was called back to the game.

Ah, the game.

There was only one big loser tonight, and that, for a change, was Noda. He finished bottom in the first game, which Jaime won. Then in the second game he ended up owing Nobu 40,000 points. This was put down to the fact that Nobu had been "studying" and came to the parlour armed with TWO mahjong books (although it emerged that he had bought one of them only today).

Meanwhile, David plodded through the middle, conceding little (except a 5-bamboo to Noda on a single tile wait) and taking little, hoping to the last to come out ahead, especially as he was last Oya in the second game, but Jaime pipped him to the finish so he had to make do with -2.

Nobu's good form wobbled a bit in the second game when he committed two Riichi-chombo errors in a row by failing to see everything he was waiting for - including a discarded tile!

Tonights result certainly helped to "tighten up" the game to almost 1,000 points between Noda and Nobu. Jaime's winning streak continues and he is now in second place, and he managed to achieve tonights win in spite of getting distracted by news about the demise of David English House school and Facebook photos of its most beautiful former employee...

Nobu -6, +72* = +66
Jaime +31, +20 = +51
===

David +3, -5 = -2

Noda -28, -87 = -105

DH
Jaopanese Mahjong

Sunday 25th November: A Game of Three Penalties

Above: Disappointment as Jaime's penalty is saved...

Here's a pic of Jaime taking the first of our three penalties during a fine game played in lovely autumnal weather on the grass pitch in the park near Hiroshima airport. As you can see, the shot was on target, but the other team's goalkeeper was wide awake and saved the penalty. One of our strikers pounced on the ball but the angle was too oblique for him to squeeze it home.

Altogether it was an eventful first half, which I happily observed from the touchline. We scored first, but then they replied with three goals. Then they gave away the penalty and Jaime stepped up to take it...

Half time score 3:1.

Jaime came off at half time and I went on at left back. Within five minutes of the second half one of their nippy attackers ran through with the ball. I didn't close him down and he shot. Our stand-in goalkeeper, the team captain, seemed to have the ball covered but to our dismay he completely misjudged it and the ball went over his arms and into the goal...

4:1.

Game over, you might think, but our team never seems to give up and even the oldest member was in reasonable form despite the excesses of two successive nights of mahjong and booze, and able to intercept a few balls with boot and head and even stay on the ball long enough to turn and pass it back at one stage!

Charging forward in support of the attack, I put in a follow up shot after one of our attackers' shots came of the goalkeeper - my left footed shot was also on target, but unfortunately it was blocked by the goalkeeper.

Every time there was a corner I went up and played my customary decoy role - the height advantage worries the defenders, and takes their mind off out younger skillful players! Mind you, if the goalkeeper had not been so good at plucking the ball from mid-air it would have dropped right where I was on the goal line.

Anyway, we won a penalty, which was slotted home, and then scored in open play with about five or ten minutes left. Then right at the end our attacker broke through and into the box where he was blatantly tripped by the last defender... Penalty!

He put the ball away with great composure to bring the score up to 4-4 with less than a minute to go. For that he got called "You f***ing hero," and a clap on the back by the oldest player in the team.

The other team kicked off, and a few kicks later the ref blew the final whistle. Utter elation!

Above: Just to prove that I really was on the pitch, policing the left of the defence...

Sunday 20th May: Victory for the Hiroshima Blues

DEH 4 v AC Telan 0: The DEH boys march on!
Our new goal-scoring hero is third from right.
(Photo: Jaime, 20/5/07)

There was a time when The Poor Little Cypriot and most of the football team he played for, Inter-Milang, a team of English teachers, Peruvian labourers, and one or two brave or foolhardy Japanese guys, took it for granted that training for a Sunday match was something that took place at a selection of watering holes on the Saturday night before the game.

The keenest players would often extend their pre-match training session into the early daylight hours of the same Sunday morning. How fondly I remember raising the umpteenth glass of nappy ale to our distinguished captain, C. Sevenoaks (Chelsea), who, propping up the bar with his elbow, would remove the drooping cigarette from his slackening lip and raise a glass in hearty toast to the merits of barside training.

Our pallid and motley crew would arrive at the football pitch a bare ten minutes before kick off and look with misgiving at the immaculately track-suited Japanese opposition. We would marvel at their preened hairstyles and at the sheer number of balls they had to practise with as compared to our one (or occasional less than one) rather grubby and under-inflated specimen. Yes, we were up against the likes of Hitler or Goebbels when it came to ball possession.

The less gung-ho, or less experienced, players would opine with oracular certainty,

"We're going to get stuffed..."

It must be confessed that sometimes they were right. Who would want to remember the 8-1 stuffing that was administered to us on a wet and miserably hung-over day when we had to resort to calling upon the mighty frame of the gentle Canadian rugby-playing giant David Berger to stand in for our missing goalkeeper?

But, more often than not, Inter-Milang would march, or totter, or huff and puff its hungover way to glory via a fag-break at half time for Captain C. Sevenoaks, and the remarkably agile winger Guy Perrin and the even more remarkably gifted ball artist Trevor (Surname?) who had a very peculiar - yet peculiarly effective - style on the ball.

In the very early days there was also the physical toughness of a fellow Leeds United supporter, Simon, whose words of encouragement usually went along the lines of, "Knock one or two of them down in the first five minutes and we'll be alright." Harsh, but effective. In the world of Japanese Sunday football, anybody who looks like he's not going to pull out of a challenge often finds himself in possession of the ball which, in my case at least, can be a bit of a problem because I don't mind the challenge but am always perplexed when I find the ball at my feet...

In those far distant bachelor days of yore the biggest match of the season was the one between the two rival English Language School teams, Inter-Milang and David English House. In the first such match Yours Truly volunteered to go in goal and pulled off enough fine saves to bring us, the firm underdogs, through to a 2-1 victory (as I recall). DEH was big enough in those days to field an "A" and a "B" team and most of the players were DEH teachers (unlike the situation nowadays). Inter-Milang was supposed to be playing the DEH "B" team, but the ranks of DEH "B" (can anybody remember what they called their team?) were liberally reinforced with players drafted in from the "A" team which made that early victory all the sweeter.

Roll forward fourteen years(!) and DEH fields just one team, Lang Education Centre none at all. All three foreign players who regularly play for DEH used to play for Inter-Milang and the pre-match barside training, although it does sometimes occur, is less common than in former times. Thus it came to pass that last Saturday two of the foreign players were in a bar watching the F. A. Cup final but NOT drinking. The third foreign player cannot abide to be in a bar without drinking and so elected to play it safe and stay at home since age and unfitness have rendered the ancient body less resilient to the rigours of an all night drinking session with Tim Buthod followed by a football match in the early summer heat against a team of fit 19-21 year-olds.

Thus it was that the three of us met at Hiroshima Airport clear headed and keen and eager for the game which was at what we now consider our "home" pitch, an all grass affair between the airport, Forest Hills golf course and a woodland park.

When I say we were eager for the game, I ought also to confess that we were all very pleased to see that our Japanese team mates had turned up in sufficient numbers for there to be one substitute. I should also mention that I leapt for joy when I was asked to be the sub!

The first half was a pretty evenly matched affair, but as the team had played well I told the captain that he should keep things as they were and bring me on later. Anyway, I was working hard enough shouting from the sideline.

We had a new player, little but effective, and since it was his first game he was expected to come off at half time to let the older player on according to the Japanese rules of seniority. However, it was obvious to me that the worst thing we could do would be to substitute me for him. About ten minutes into the second half, after he had scored our opening goal, he came over to me and put on an almost convincing show of "tiredness" but I prevailed upon him to get back on the pitch and within five minutes he had scored a second!!



With about a quarter of an hour to go Jaime flagged and so I went on for him. Jaime had had a good game and been involved in setting up one of the goals and had a few chances himself in both halves. I had expected to come on for Dan, but he remained solid in defence throughout the game.

Being brought on in place of Jaime meant that I was to play in attack...! My first touch of the ball was to nod on a goal kick, which perhaps fooled the other team into thinking they had a major force to be reckoned with in attack. Unfortunately, hesitation on the ball in one incident, and an inept kick that sent the ball towards our defenders may have shattered that illusion... Nevertheless, the fact is that we scored two more goals in that last fifteen minutes, but if I was involved it was more in the capacity of drawing off defenders. If only I'd run to the post for a corner... Later, a juicy header went - over my head... Then, a split second vision of an open goal was swiftly slammed shut...

Still, we finished 4-0 ahead, scoring more goals and winning more points than in the whole of our "B" Division campaign last season!

Jaime has written a full report on his blog here.

After the match the three foreigners celebrated victory over a rather good okonomiyaki and beer at Hiroshima Airport, where the arrival of the Pokemon aeroplane caused a stir on the viewing platform...






David Hurley
japanese-mahjong.com
japanese-games-shop.com

Sunday 10th December: 10 Men... 9 Men... "B" Division... "C" Division...

I arrived at Yano stati
on at about a quarter to ten this morning, half an hour behind schedule as I had missed the 9:03 from Hiroshima.

Jaime was already at Yano when I got there and we took a taxi up to the football pitches a few miles into the countryside. It was a cold day, but bright, lovely conditions for football and no need for any undershirts during the game! We were greeted by the unwelcome news that there were only ten players - including us. I had been looking forward to a second half twenty-minute stroll up and down a small patch of the pitch but instead had to prepare myself for a full game...

Actually, if there was to be a day when I would have to do this sort of thing today was the ideal day indeed. I am two weeks into the booze-fast (my personal Advent fast kicked in a few days before the start of Advent this year) and so was not suffering from a hangover. Yesterday I had made good use of my one-hour break between classes at DEH Nakamachi by whipping across the road and into a very pleasant hotel bath-house for a good soak and a long sauna and had had a good night's sleep; the fatigue of Friday evening was long gone.

The captain (standing in for Yuusuke who was not able to play today) shunted me out to left back, an ideal position for someone not really intending to run around too much...

We had never lost to the team we were up against. They were another Hirodai team and Jaime knew one or two of the players. However, I think we must always have had a full team when we played them before.

Today's game started brightly enough and I didn't feel myself to be under much pressure - actually it was one of the easier first halves to play in for me and I was able to pace it pretty well. On the other hand it was not my best performance although I stopped a couple of crosses and took the ball off the geezer I was marking for a corner. We soaked up most of their attacks and saw them off until about 15 or 20 minutes in when the ball came off our post and was picked up by one of their strikers who powered it into the back of the net - a rocket of a shot.

Apart from that our goalkeeper stopped everything else. His biggest problem was goal kicks which were consistently low and consistently dropping to one of the other team's strikers. The goalkeeper spent the half-time interval practising his goalkicks - kicking ball after ball at the fence.

One other problem we had was our throw ins - the old problem of too many foul throws.

At the other end nothing came of any of our attacks but at half time the talk was of how if we could score a goal... - the feeling was that we were still definitely in the game.

In the second half I thought I had added to our throw-in woes by actually failing to throw the ball in at all! I certainly threw it up the line but the ball simply never crossed the line. However, it turned out that the ref had not been ready so I got a second chance and this time managed to throw the ball in and to one of our players!

The other team sent attack after attack down their right which had me chasing around, but nothing came of their attacks although it must be admitted that they were putting in the shots. If anything got through then our goalkeeper was either there to pick it up with immense calm, or equally cooly sharp in judging when let it go.

The ball heads up the other end and Jaime and their goalkeeper are chasing a 50-50 ball and both arrive at the same time and Jaime goes over the goalie and crashes to the ground. He fell heavily onto his shoulder and didn't get up. But we all know Jaime's sense of melodrama... One of the other team's attackers opined that he was not hurt and I assumed he'd be right as rain in a few minutes. Our captain was asking him if he was "really" hurt and was attempting to move his arm just to make sure!

Jaime was helped off the pitch and didn't come back on so we were now reduced to nine men.

The amazing thing was that it seemed to spark something in the team and the Japanese played their hearts out and even the old codger raised his game too! Attack after attack came in again, and every one was dealt with somehow or other. I found myself contantly having to run back as the ball whizzed over my noddle to one of the guys on the right. The effort of running meant that any time I won the ball there was little I could do with it - I mean less than usual... - but most of the time I was just chasing those attackers around.

They had several corners and none came to anything though we were certainly lucky that another searing shot from their nippy attacker went just wide.

Then we had a five minute spell of attacking their goal - amazing! But there was little clear space to be seen to shoot at and so the game ended 1-0 to the other Hirodai team and it looks ever more likely that we will be playing in "C" Division next season. Well, provided we can get a full team out, the games ought to be easier, oughtn't they??

After the match Jaime went to the hospital in Funairi which confirmed that he had "done something" to his "AC joint". I had no idea what "AC" stood for and checked it out online:

What is the AC Joint in the shoulder?
The top of the wing bone or scapula is the acromion. (It is called the acromioclavicular joint.) The joint formed where the acromion connects to the collar bone or clavicle is the AC joint. Usually there is a protuberance or bump in this area, which can be quite large in some people normally. This joint, like most joints in the body, has a cartilage disk or meniscus inside and the ends of the bones are covered with cartilage. The joint is held together by a capsule, and the clavicle is held in the proper position by two heavy ligaments called coracoclavicular ligaments.

How is the AC Joint usually injured?
The AC joint is injured most often when one falls directly on the point of the shoulder. {Ah yes! It was a heavy fall, not an athletic roll!}

The trauma will separate the acromion away from the clavicle, causing a sprain or a true AC joint dislocation. In a mild injury, the ligaments which support the AC joint are simply stretched, but with more severe injury, the ligaments can partially or completely tear.
Source: http://www.scoi.com/acjoint.htm

David Hurley
japanese-mahjong.com
japanese-games-shop.com