Day 2 - Friendship Force Gifu-Sacramento, Day 2, WTRD 33 of 49, October 5, 2017

Roz, Hiro-San, Russ

Today, is another busy day for us, and we are watching the sky closely. Most of our activities are out of doors and the forecast is for rain starting in the afternoon.  For now it overcast. Our activities today are golfing and cormorant fishing.

Golfing in Japan

Our first activity of the day is golfing.  We are up at 5:00 am, leave at 6:00 am.  We are to be at the golf course by 7:00 to rent clubs, shoes, and have breakfast.  The navigation system in Hiro’s car is taking us all over, but not to the golf course.  It is now 7:10 and we are somewhere, but not sure where exactly.  Hiro has been to the course before, but wanted to make sure we didn’t take a wrong turn so used the GPS, and she just doesn't want to cooperate.

Finally, Hiro gives up on the navigation system and thinks he spots that right road.  We drive some more; he sees some signs and is feeling more confident.  We’ve made it to the Akechi Golf Club.

Valets meet us at the door, unload our bags, and walk us inside, but not before we notice the navy  blue sports jackets hanging outside the front doors. If you are a man and don’t have one, you must put one on to enter the club.  Hiro had forewarned Russ that he needed to wear his jacket, so he was prepared.

We registered at the front desk, and were each given a little wallet with a locker number and attached key.  Inside the wallet was a pink ticket for breakfast, lunch and two mid-course drinks.  I went into the ladies’ locker room, stowed away my after-golf-clothes and purse, then joined the rest of our group up stairs for a buffet breakfast, salad greens, rice porridge, soup, scrambled eggs, meatballs, and breads.

After finishing breakfast, we were assigned to our golf cart.  It is a four seater, self driving cart that follows an electrical track on the pavement. 

Hiro and Russ converse  with no hands on the wheel and the cart rolls on safely

Carts do not go on the fairways.  When you want the cart to move, you press the button on the dash board.  When you want the cart to stop, you push the button again.  Best of all, there are start/stop buttons for each person in the back seat.

Back Seat Drivers Can operate vehicle

Everyone can be a driver and stay in their preferred seat.

Hiro told us there is a television control room with cameras on each fairway and hole.  Messages are sent to the cart’s LCD for you to speed up your play, or to stop and wait because you are approaching too closely to the party in front.  We started our play on the 10th hole.  The cart knew where to take us.  At first we thought we were having navigational problems again when the cart did not head to the first tee. We were taken to the 10th. 

After playing the back 9, the cart returned us to the club house for lunch.  Very sophisticated.

Two helpers came out and tidied the cart, and went about cleaning our golf clubs, while we went to the compressed air shoe cleaner and cleaned our shoes.  

By the time we came in for lunch, it was raining lightly.  We went upstairs to the dining room, and ordered meals from a menu along with beer, sodas, cocktails.  

We were allocated a 40 minute period to eat and a restart tee time at the end of the lunch period.

We went out to our spiffy clean cart and clean clubs, and played nine more holes.  Between holes five and six, and fifteen and sixteen, there are little tea houses where we could get our ticketed drinks and use the restrooms.  

We were finished with our game about two pm.  When we returned the cart, the workers came out, helped us out of the cart, unloaded the bags (ours were rentals, Hiros were not.). All clubs were cleaned, polished, covers put on, bags zipped. Hiro’s bags were taken out to his car.

Once again we cleaned off our shoes, went inside and retired to the Sento (the traditional Japanese communal bath) for a hot soak.  I was the only woman, so I entered the bath for women by myself. The men entered into their own locker room and bath area. The pre and post dressing rooms are separate from the locker room.  I  took my clean change of clothes in stocking feet into the bath changing area where there were some open and private areas to take off my clothes (yes, you skinny soak). 

I was concerned about taking a bath with my tattoo as most Sento and Onsen (hot spring) baths will not allow people with tattoos into the bath.  There was one woman just going into the bath when I walked into the  pre-bath area.  No one else was in the room which would have easily accommodated 20 women.  By the time I went into the bath area, the other woman had come out and was dressing.  She paid no attention to me. So I didn’t need to worry about my tattoo. Russ on the other hand, I learned later, had to have his tattoo examined by a club official and was cleared to go into the bath.

At every station in the women’s bath there were baskets for clothes, plastic bags for dirty clothes, hair dryers, moisture cream, mosture oil, hairspray, tissue.  There were also large jars of qtips, and stacks of large clean white towels and smaller white towels.

Stripped down wearing only my small towel, I walked into the bath area, and took a hot shower first,  (body wash, shampoo, and conditioner).  I wrapped my towel around my head and slipped into the steaming and bubbling water.  The bath area had large picture windows that looked out into a private garden. I luxuriated and relaxed in solitude for 15 minutes, before stepping out, of the bath area, and entering the pre/post bath area.  As I was dressing another woman came in, but essentially, I had the whole place to myself. What a great way to end a day of golf.

Cormorant Fishing

But wait, the day was not over.  We drove to Inuyama where we were to pick up Kiyoko and and Andy’s Host, Toshiko at the train station.  We waited for their train to arrive at the Inuyama Hotel on the Kiso River with a cafe where we drank tea, beer, and mango juice and ate some cookies Russ bought at the sweet shop.  Our evening was going to be attending the cormorant fishing demonstration, a 1300 year old method of fishing in the river.

Suzanne, and her hosts, also joined us, and we all went to the river and the dock to board a long boat with a tea table in the middle and seats on either side.  

Bento boxes of sushi and sashima were  set at very place. By this time it was pouring rain.  We climbed into the boat quickly, but just like in Japanese homes, we had to take our shoes off and quickly step on the mats without getting our feet wet.  Not easy to do with open sides and water blowing into the boat.

The food was excellent, but the view of the river and castle were limited to zero visibility due to the plastic covering that had been lowered on the sides and back of the boat to prevent wind and rain from soaking us.  

Our boat captain and his first mate look pretty wet on the stern.

We finished our meal while moored under a large bridge.  The rain cleared for a few minutes so we could take some river bank photos.  

We then returned to the dock and exited the boat in two queues, put on our shoes as we stepped off the dry mats onto the wet deck of the stern.  

We had a half hour to wait before re-boarding the boats that were cleaned of tables and dinner ware, and were being readied for the cormorant fishing show.  Japanese fisherman traditionally have used cormorants with twine strings tied around the birds’ necks to catch fish alongside a dugout fishing canoe.

A bright light from a fire burning on the bow of the boat attracts the fish.  The cormorant dives for the fish, catches them in its bill, but cannot swallow the fish because of the twine tied tightly around their gullet.  The fishermen pull up the cormorant into the boat, relieve him of his catch, and the bird is thrown back into the water.  One fisherman acts as the main puppeteer master of these birds, many as 8 at birds at time on strings, swimming over around, diving, tangling the strings like unruly spaghetti, and the fisherman proficiently keeps the lines from tangling.

The rain let up just enough where we had a pretty clear view of this cultural tradition.  It was very interesting.  The birds were fed well and rewarded after their grueling and seemingly cruel  handling by the fisherman.

When the show ended, we disembarked from the boat a final time, opened our umbrellas, and hustled to the car.  We still had about an hour’s ride home, long enough for me to type up this post.  

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R’s after a wonderful and interesting day with our hosts in Japan.