Park Golf

I played Park Golf last night in a small tournament with the Yakuba staff (town staff). It was my first game in several years. With a six birdies I think I did pretty well. The results, however, were disappointing; I had the lowest score on my team and we didn't win. In the end, I believe something of the years I played golf did rubbed off. I was on the Board of Education team which consisted off myself, the superintendent, Yuki and Kevin. (Yuki is a bit of a Park Golf shark.) Even for fourth place we received 7000 yen. We are in negotiations on what to do with it. After everyone finished - and it was quite dark - there was yaki niku. The chance to get out was especially nice considering it had been raining for days, and is still raining on into tomorrow. The rain stopped for about six hours last night and was perfectly timed with the event.

I realize some may not be familiar with Park Golf in Alberta. The sport developed as a result of the astronomical green fees in Japan. It works something like a pitch and put course but the swing and equipment are taken from croquet. And there is still something of the Japanese culture on the game that makes it impossible to forget I am in here (not that I would want too). To me, the sport's image is quite "lame", something akin to poor man's golf or a senior's outing. However, I will admit, I had a really good time last night with great people. There is no stigma attached to it what-so-ever here as evidenced by the fact that there were lots of 23 and 24 year old Shikaoi Firefighters out that night. Most people view it as an important piece of an active life. I don't know how popular it is down South, but the large market in Hokkaido has created a wide variety of highly specialized Park Golf equipment including special tees, special clubs, special shoes, etc.