What an amazing day! Jurky and I both hit aces today on the cottage course. She struck first, on hole #2 which was about 190ft downhill through tight woods. She stood up a champ leopard which flipped a bit before hyzering back and smacking the chains!!! I don’t think I’ve seen her that excited in the entire time I’ve known her. This was also her first ace ever!!!

I followed her with an ace on hole #1 during our second round. Threw my gummy XD wide right into the trees, it somehow cut through the leaves and ended up falling into the basket. Total luck, but hey.. I get to say I too have an international ace!!!

There was a major earthquake midday, which we barely noticed. Had others not told us about it, we would have had no idea. We spent the rest of the day in the amusement park, mostly in the little trinket stores and taking tons of pictures. We’ve been relatively isolated at the cottages or at the course thus far, so it was really nice to get to experience more of the culture and the people!

Dinner was up on the large porch at the cottages with hibachi grills on each table. It was really cool to have a nice intimate dinner with friends as a good portion of the competitors have returned home.

We depart for Tokyo tomorrow on the shikansen (bullet train) from NasuShiobara. I am sure we’re going to get horribly lost, but it’ll be all the more fun!

Sayonara, see ya tomorra!

It’s official! I’ve finally cashed at the Japan Open. I threw a 63 today on the Fujin course, ending up in a three-way tie for 35th. Not a top-ten finish, but a far cry from where I finished in 2008!

Jurkface and I walked with the gallery for the final nine, bouncing back and forth between watching the mens and womens groups. Nikko won the mens side in a playoff after Feldberg made an unfortunate error while laying up on the 18th hole. Valerie ran away with it, again. I was happy for her, of course, but I alway pull for our good friend (and roommate for the week), Des Reading.

Huge awards ceremony, party time and karaoke tonight, where I’ll be presented with my biggest cash prize since I’ve been playing pro. I’m not entirely certain how it’ll work, since we tied, but it should be around ¥15,000 (~$150).

We’re going to have a fun day at the amusement park tomorrow and then play the little 9-hole practice course at the cottages. Gonna definitely be gunning for my first international ace! But, for now, it’s party time!!

KAMPAI! (cheers)

Got up a little earlier today and fired some drives off in the practice field. Got to see Ken Climo ace one of the practice baskets from a tee they had set up off in the woods, pretty neat! We got chewed up by this nasty little gnats in the woods yesterday and my legs are pretty swollen. I think I may actually have cankles (for those unfamiliar, this means my calf and ankle can no longer be distinguished from each other).

First round was on the Fujin and I didn’t score particularly well, shot a 64 which was 2 strokes worse than yesterday. I’m still ranked in the 30’s but lost a little ground. The second round was on the Raijin course and I just plain threw poop. In fact, I think I saw some monkeys throwing poop.. and it was better than what I was doing. I pretty much missed every putt, went OB on several drives, simply put.. I just didn’t play smart golf. Don’t get me wrong, just being here is amazing, but I came to play this time!

Still, I’m hanging on in the top 50 spots, which means I have a chance at cashing if I can just play better tomorrow. The last time I was here, I was just a tourist throwing discs. I certainly didn’t come here this time with any delusions of winning, but if I can land in the cash, I will have definitively crossed a milestone in my disc golf journey.

Last round tonight! Hoping everyone continues to party late into the night! Sometimes it’s an advantage being a sober disc golfer :)

The opening ceremonies last night were just phenomenal! We were treated to an amazing dinner of all kinds of delicious Japanese foods (sushi, shabu-shabu, noodles of every shape and size). We were also give our players package which consisted of a new combination chair-bag from Innova, a pair of Keen disc golf shoes, an uchiwa (fan), 5-color metal mini, t-shirt, towel and a bunch of other cool stuff. They also had a fantastic performance by a traditional Japanese Taiko band (gigantic drums).

The competitors have been split into two pools (A and B) sorted by player rating. I’m in the A-pool and we played the Raijin (God of Thunder) course first today.. not bad. Played with Nikko Locastro, Richard Tang(Taiwan), and Kawasaki-san (Japan, President of JPDGA). Scored fairly well, but had a ton of OB’s and putting was awful. It’s really tough with these 150g discs. I actually had the box for about a quarter of the holes and felt pretty good about things. I shot a 64, which put me at about 25th in a pack of 130 players, not too shabby!

After a quick lunch, we were re-sorted by score and went off to play the Fujin (God of Wind) course. I like this course much better, but only scored 2 strokes better. Still, I’m in the cash at this point and had an awesome day. It’s hard to complain when you’re in Japan playing disc golf on a prestigious ball golf course.. with carts!

Hope I can keep up with this level of play. There is OB everywhere and these discs are very unpredictable, putting is a crapshoot at best. Can’t wait for tomorrow! Wish me luck :)

Not exactly the finishing round I had hoped for.  Ended up several places out of the cash, having shot a +5.  I had really fun groups for the 2nd and 3rd rounds and I know that helps a lot! All-in-all, 2 out of my 3 rounds were above my rating, so I’m going in the right direction. Not that rating is all that important to me, I just use it to set goals for myself and gauge my progress.

Someone recently questioned my choice to play Open while my skill level (and likelihood of cashing) is far lower than my competitors.  After some thought, I determined that my main 2 reasons are because I have more plastic than I need (so why win more?) and I hope that playing with higher-caliber players will help me improve.

On a side-note, I played a tag match up in Brighton, CO the Monday following the tourney and had a great time.  Really needed that reminder of what this is all about.  Lately, I’ve been caught up in the competition, looking forward to travel, entangled in club politics and frankly… a little full of myself. It felt great to remember why I started playing this game in the first place… to play outdoors with great people and smile!

I think my new goal for this season will be to find a good balance between raising my game, having fun and retaining humility. It is our nature as human beings to want to improve and succeed, but I think it’s far more important that I enjoy the journey than focus on the destination.