Park golf & North Korea
I recently discovered my new favourite sport! Being pretty crap at anything involving a ball and co-ordination, I was a bit skeptical when my friends told me after a very nice lunch at an organic-food restaurant in the middle of the forest that we were going to go for a game of park golf. Why do we have to spoil a perfectly nice park by playing golf in it? I thought. And what the hell is park golf anyway? It doesn't sound Japanese, but it was apparently invented in Japan. Reassured that it was more like mini-golf or croquet than real golf, I found myself with a huge mallet in my hands and a small fluorescent blue ball at my feet, staring at a white flag in the distance marking the hole to aim for.
'Your aim is to get in in under 4 shots.' instructed my friend.
'Is there a limit?' I asked.
'Well, after 10 we stop counting.'
I steeled myself and swung the club, but the ball just trembled in its tee as my club whizzed through the air without actually hitting it. I laughed uncomfortably and aimed again. This time, although I thought I had swung the club a bit like an angry chimpanzee I somehow managed to hit the ball very gently and it fell off the tee, rolled slowly across the platform, sideways, plopped off onto the grass and went under the base of the sign marking the first hole. Everyone except me thought that was very funny. I muttered curses to myself as I scrambled around red-faced trying to retrieve the ball.
Third time lucky. This time I hit the ball, in the right direction, with enough force, and managed to get it in the hole in three shots (NOT including the first two swings, they don't count).
'You got a birdie!' My friend told me. It was so exciting even though I didn't know what a birdie was. I cheered up immensely, and decided I liked this game. It just seemed to be my day. Monstrously huge mosquito-bug things bit almost everyone else except me. I only lost two more balls into the bushes. I didn't even have to take off my new summer hat, and I didn't get dirty. From now on, park golf is my new favourite sport. My family will not be surprised that my chosen sport is one that is normally played by senior citizens.
Incidentally, when we were at the sports centre hiring the mallets, I noticed a strange poster. It was a picture of a deserted beach and one lost shoe, lying forlornly in the foreground.
'That's creepy,' said Yuki.
'What does it mean?'
'It's about the North Korean abductees.'
There's a very strong resentment in Japan about the North Korean abductees. Even in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, there was this poster. Many Japanese wanted to impose sanctions on North Korea even before the recent NK missile tests. It's kind of extreme to risk starving thousands of people to death in payback for less than twenty abductees. But now, with the missile tests, Japan has a stronger reason to begin sanctions. Which weapon, the missiles or the sanctions, has the potential to be more destructive? I'd go with sanctions. Any ideas on that?
I'm thinking about taking up croquet when I get back to New Zealand.
'Your aim is to get in in under 4 shots.' instructed my friend.
'Is there a limit?' I asked.
'Well, after 10 we stop counting.'
I steeled myself and swung the club, but the ball just trembled in its tee as my club whizzed through the air without actually hitting it. I laughed uncomfortably and aimed again. This time, although I thought I had swung the club a bit like an angry chimpanzee I somehow managed to hit the ball very gently and it fell off the tee, rolled slowly across the platform, sideways, plopped off onto the grass and went under the base of the sign marking the first hole. Everyone except me thought that was very funny. I muttered curses to myself as I scrambled around red-faced trying to retrieve the ball.
Third time lucky. This time I hit the ball, in the right direction, with enough force, and managed to get it in the hole in three shots (NOT including the first two swings, they don't count).
'You got a birdie!' My friend told me. It was so exciting even though I didn't know what a birdie was. I cheered up immensely, and decided I liked this game. It just seemed to be my day. Monstrously huge mosquito-bug things bit almost everyone else except me. I only lost two more balls into the bushes. I didn't even have to take off my new summer hat, and I didn't get dirty. From now on, park golf is my new favourite sport. My family will not be surprised that my chosen sport is one that is normally played by senior citizens.
Incidentally, when we were at the sports centre hiring the mallets, I noticed a strange poster. It was a picture of a deserted beach and one lost shoe, lying forlornly in the foreground.
'That's creepy,' said Yuki.
'What does it mean?'
'It's about the North Korean abductees.'
There's a very strong resentment in Japan about the North Korean abductees. Even in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere, there was this poster. Many Japanese wanted to impose sanctions on North Korea even before the recent NK missile tests. It's kind of extreme to risk starving thousands of people to death in payback for less than twenty abductees. But now, with the missile tests, Japan has a stronger reason to begin sanctions. Which weapon, the missiles or the sanctions, has the potential to be more destructive? I'd go with sanctions. Any ideas on that?
I'm thinking about taking up croquet when I get back to New Zealand.
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