Konichiwa!!! We’ve arrived safely in Japan, nice little 10+ hour flight from LA to Tokyo. The Hero Disc staff picked us up at the airport and drove us the 3 hours to the cottages near the course in NasuShiobara. After a very very long sleep, the Jurk and I got in two sweet practice rounds with our friends Dan and Michelle. We have two courses this year which are both amazing! They are both long and pretty technical, if we didn’t have golf carts I think I would’ve passed out halfway through!
I’d have to say the highlight of the day was watching a family of wild monkeys scrambling around the fairway as we were teeing off on the first hole! We waited for them to get safely into the woods before we threw. Jurky’s first drive went high and left into the trees and resulted in a barrage of very angry monkey screeches!! I also put one into the woods and upon retrieving found that two of the monkeys were sitting next to my disc, poking at it. We were instructed not to look them in the eye, but they just took off when they saw me. Gotta love any round of disc golf that starts with a wild monkey sighting!!!
We played both courses again today with Des and Jay, learning and taking mental notes in preparation for tomorrow. The opening ceremonies were tonight! Hard to put it into words..
A live taiko band (traditional Japanese drums) got things rolling, then an amazing dinner with made-to-order sushi of fresh caught fish and delicious steak. I opted out of the baby octopus!
Then the Hero Disc truck opened up to reveal our players package!! A bag with built-in chair, metal mini, personalized bag tag, tshirt, fan, cake, party jacket, towel and keychain with the country you’re representing. Simply unbelievable!!!
Competition starts tomorrow and I am super-excited! It’s a shotgun start at 9:30. I tee off on hole 5, playing with Nikko Locastro, a player from Japan and a player from Taiwan! Hopefully the rain and wind will stay away! The weather thus far had been almost as perfect as the culture and experience.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventure! Wish me luck!
Tags: Japan open