Japanese Jaunt with a rugby ball. The plan.

Let's put you on the map, first of all. My apologies for both the clarity and quality of this map. It is an image that I have downloaded then embellished and finally photographed to get it on this platform.
Japan was not designed to fit onto an A4 sheet. If you tilt the image by about 60°, right up and consequently left down you now have a better idea of its orientation with respect to the equator. So the right side of the map is a lot further north than the left side. Second confusion is the island that looks like an upside down map of India is in fact geographically displaced and should really be tacked on to the top right hand corner where you can see a little bit of the extreme south west coast. This island is called Hokkaido with its capital being Sapporo and it sits off the coast of Russia. Sapporo is, of course, famous for being the venue for the Winter Olympics in 1972 so it's cold and hilly. It is also nearer to Vladivostok than Tokyo.
Just a few comparisons between Japan and the UK to get things into perspective. Japan is a bit less than twice the size of the UK (145 million sq miles/93 million sq miles) with a population of 126 million (66 for UK) people. Most of the population live in large cities and most of the land is mountainous and wooded.  Japan lies in 19th place in the Human Development Index (UK is14th), and Japan's economy ranks 3rd in the world whereas UK is 6th.

We are landing at one of the two International Airports at Tokyo called Hadeda from where we will travel to our apartment in the Matsudo-shi area of Tokyo. We have four nights in a self catering apartment before following the hi-lighted route around the islands, if you can make that out.  Hopefully you might also be able to make out the dates of our accommodation and their locations.

As well as seeing the country, the other reason that we are here is to see Wales win the above. Actually if you ask Helen, she would tell you that it is to see England win!

All long distance travel will be by the much vaunted Japanese railway system. We have purchased in advance a JR pass for £450 a head. This gives us 21 days unrestricted access to the best rail network in the world. Local travel will also be by train or bus, much of which is also covered by the JR pass.

Above you can see the details of our itinerary. Firstly apologies for the quality of the image. Converting a spreadsheet to a jpeg file proved to be beyond my IT skills so I went a rather circuitous route and this is the result. All the accommodation is pre booked and in most cases fully or partially paid for. We will be fanzoning rather than grandstanding, I don't think the match experience will be lessened, but the weight on the pocket certainly will. We were kindly offered 3 semi final tickets, but at £600 a ticket it rather put things in perspective. As the Japanese say, "a bird in your blossom beats a bee in your bonsai ".
From next weekend onwards I hope to be publishing a blog every 3 or 4 days which will contain pictures, anecdotes, opinions and observations from the land of the rising sun. If you have any comments or questions, please state them in the space provided at the end of each blog. I do really appreciate any feedback from anybody. 

Eight men in a bus. Tuesday 17th September

Breakfast is scheduled for 9.00 so I manage 20 lengths of the pool to help wake up. A hearty breakfast is called for because we're teeing off at 10.30 and hence won't get the chance of any lunch.

The swimming pool a little later in the day.

Adjacent to the pool is this large jacuzzi. 

So here we are on the first tee of the Kigbeare course. This is the most demanding of the seven courses available. Today we're playing better ball stableford and first are Keith and me, playing against Bill and Mick.

The first hole is a downhill run of about 400 yards. The only thing that you really don't want to do is hit right into the tree line, which is exactly where my ball is going. 

Bill's however was dead straight. 

A nice picture of Mick with a tee rather than a fag between his fingers. Below Mick going about his business, as it were. 

Look for the eighth man in the mirror. After the round the winners are announced and it's.......Chris (again) and Graham, by a point from Bill and Mick. Keith and I took bronze, a further point behind. 

This place has something for everyone, so here's a pictorial tour of a few of the facilities. 

One of the several rooms dedicated to crafts. The whole gamut from necromancy to pyrography is covered. 

The pottery studio. 

About a dozen snooker tables. 

Not forgetting the bowling rink. 

That's yer lot for today. 

Eight men in a bus. Monday 16th September

6am, McDonald's car park and rendezvous time with Shep and the bus. Rather appropriate really "The Lord's my shepherd, I shall not walk......." but Shep will be the first one to tell me he doesn't spell his name like that. He probably won't be the first one to tell me I'm misquoting the 23 Psalm. I think it's Old Trafford rather than quiet waters that he is led to, but there are always the pastures green for him.

Time to take the register.

     Bakewell  Andy            /
     Duce          Nigel            /
     Exton       Bill                 /
     Morris       Graham       /
     Pickett       Chris            /
     Pickett       Mick             /
     Sheppard  Keith            /
     Ward         Jason            /
     Montmorency               Absent

Our destination is the Ashbury Hotel, Fowley Cross, near Okehampton Devon. EX20 4NA. According to the sat nav, from Boston this will take 5 hours 2 minutes without stopping and is a total distance of 287 miles. I reckon with a fair wind and clear waters we should make it by 1pm.

At first sight there's no chance of fitting another four sets of clubs, four cases and four people on board. However we eventually squeeze in quite cosily.

 Here we are on the Stamford to Corby road. I think the lorry in front of us is also heading to Okehampton.

Why do the naughty boys always occupy the back seat?

Second stop, the famous Gloucester services. Why famous, you ask, well firstly for the architecture. The whole complex virtually disappears into the landscape, despite the glaring signage on the tarmac. Inside it's bright, clean and airy. Very different from the usual motorway offering. Secondly it is home to one of the best farm shops in the UK, making it the only services in the UK that people go out of their way to visit.

Third brief stop at the Exeter services. Now I don't claim to be an aficionado of motorway services but this one is as bad as Gloucester was good. Visually intrusive, with a facade dominated by advertising. The interior is no better. To get to the toilet facilities there is a circuitous route march past every franchise, a bit like some airports divert passengers through the duty free. Not many points for the Exeter services I'm afraid.
Finally arrived at 1.32pm. Here's an overview of what is on offer. This afternoon we will play the Pines course. This is a grownup course with slopey fairways and plenty of chances to get into trouble. Were we able to see them, I am sure that the views would have been fabulous. However we did see a lot of Devonian clouds and not a little rain. It means that you will have to wait until tomorrow's blog to see the much  vaunted vistas.

We are billeted in Moorview which is the brown block just to the right of the centre shiny lights.
And this is Bill and my room. In case anyone is remotely concerned, the single bed is mine.

What single bed, I hear you ask, well if you look in the mirror it's clearly visible in the left hand corner. 

Utilitarian is how I would describe the accommodation, nevertheless it's comfortable enough with plenty of storage space. There wasn't much time between finishing the golf and our evening meal, just a quick shower and change.  

There are five dining rooms with the food available from a central serving station. Basically you could eat as much as you liked. I had three courses, assiette de viandes followed by hake in parsley and lemon butter sauce with three veg and sauteed potatoes. Apple crumble and custard sweetened the last course. For mass catering the standard was excellent. 

Prizes went for first, second and third places determined by the stableford scoring system.  Chris Pickett 40 pts Keith Sheppard 31 pts Nigel Duce 27 pts.

After a long and tiring day, everyone was in bed by 10.30, except me who is still writing this. So it's good night from me.