Golf in Japan - Round #2

I'm a lucky guy.  What can I say?  Thanks to my good friend Sam, I was able to have a second round of golf in Japan in October of 2008.  I can't remember the specifics, but I do know that this particular round of golf was arranged on an early Saturday morning in the Tohoku region at Osato Golf Course.  It was about an 8-10 mile drive from Tagajo.  The course was managed (or owned) by Accordia Golf.  It was a pretty funky set up I remember, as we paid via some kind of automated teller machine that was set up inside the clubhouse.  We had a group of seven golfers, and Sam arranged a very cool little competition between our groups.  Here is a shot of our members before we headed out to the first tee.

It was a beautiful day in Miyagi, and the cool air helped alleviate the effects of a long evening from the night before.  I do remember Sam and I being very tired this particular morning.  As you can see, we had a great group assembled for this particular outing.  My good friend Yusa-san (second from left) drove me from my hotel (Tagajo Castle) to the course.  Yusa-san is a very skilled golfer who I have played with before a couple of times in the U.S.  He has quite a large number of golf clubs, and I have always joked that his second set of clubs (which he always lets me use) is better than my primary set back home!

I can't remember very much about the golf.  I do remember they had the typical very nice lunch set up after the first 9 holes (I had the Gyoza and a coke, though my appetite was not all the way there yet).  I think I played a little better on the back 9, as I was a bit more awake by then. 

After the round, we gathered in the Clubhouse and tallied up our scores.  Sam gave out prizes.  It was arranged so everyone won something.  Sam did such a nice job.

I still have one of the prizes I won that day.  It was a set of tees and ball markers.  I keep it in my golf bag as a constant reminder of that great morning of golf with my friends in Miyagi.

Just another great memory from one of my visits to Japan.  As I said at the beginning, I am a very lucky guy.  Thank you Sam, thank you Yusa-san and thank you to all the others who made it such a great day.

Nov. 2010 Japan Trip - Post #13: Goodbye to Tohoku

I figure I better start wrapping up my most meaningful trip to Japan back in November of 2010 before it fades too deeply into my memory.  There are just two more posts to go on the series, this being one of them.

After spending a couple of days in fantastic Matsushima, and seeing many of my wonderful friends in Miyagi prefecture, it was time to leave Tohoku.  A sad day for sure, but we needed to head back to Tokyo, and prepare for our flight home the next day.  We took a nice breakfast at the Century Hotel on the edge of Matsushima Bay, packed up our suitcases, and took the hotel shuttle bus to Matsushimakaigan station.

While on the station platform waiting for our Senseki Line train to Sendai, I took a few pictures.

The air was crisp but not too cold and the trees were blooming their beautiful colors.  There was a quiet peacefulness about the place.  Too bad we had to leave.

I took the following photo looking forward off the station platform towards the bay.  Little did we know that only four shorts months later, a historical tsunami would wash in off this bay and cause so much damage.

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11th, 2011, I frantically searched the internet for news on my friends, and our company's nearby facilities.  Then I also checked on Matsushima.  I feared for it's fate, due to it's immediate proximity to the ocean and the epicenter of this massive quake.  I stumbled onto a web-site of an American photographer, who shared a love of this place, who was also trying to gather news about it.  He was able to find an American woman who was there during the disaster, who posted news and a large number of great photos on her Facebook page.  Seeing this information was very comforting, as while Matsushima did indeed suffer much damage, it was far less than I had feared.  It seems the islands acted as a barrier to the brunt of the tsunami force, and the resulting wave was not as bad as those suffered by the surrounding communities.  One of the pictures on this Facebook page was taken from almost the exact spot as my picture above only a few days after the tsunami.  I copied it and put it alongside mine, so you can see what it looked like.

We had a very relaxing trip back to Tokyo, with a comfortable connection time at Sendai Station that allowed us to peruse the wonderful shops there.  The Shinkansen is such a wonderful way to get around Japan.  So much easier than the hassles of air travel.  So while we said our goodbye's to Miyagi and the Tohoku, we captured fantastic memories of our time there, and certainly do hope to visit again - together - some day.  Thank you to all who made it so special.