A day of golf via the Umi Hotaru in the middle of Tokyo Bay, a suburban sculpture park and a day on Tanigawa-dake – a trifecta report.
I played golf with my colleagues a week ago, and gained quite an insight into this Japanese ritual. This was my group’s 10th annual golf day, which is scheduled for a public holiday. Everyone in the office had been practising hard, whilst I was busy doing other things. My one scheduled trip to the local golf practice range was cancelled because of bad weather. So, I turned up at the club – a beautiful, manicured course in Chiba Prefecture, not having hit a ball in years.
My day started badly when the head of the driver I was using flew down the practice range along with my ball. No, I did not engage in golf club abuse. It just flew off. Then I sliced the ball terribly on my tee shot on the first hole, and lost the ball. My excuse is that the clubs I borrowed were too short…
Here’s a Google Earth link to the Kimisarazu golf course. I can still see my ball on the 17th, landing on the green in the middle of the lake, then bouncing off and running into the water on the far side of the green… I thought I’d come good by then…
In the bus to and from the golf course, we travelled on the Tokyo Aqualine, a tunnel/bridge crossing Tokyo Bay from Kawasaki to Kisarazu. In the middle, where the tunnel rises out of the water to become a bridge, is the Umi Hotaru (“Sea Firefly”), which has restaurants and a viewing deck.
