鴨川 シー ワールド

Drink Driving??? Of course not. This is the Aqualine, an 11km long tunnel through the bottom of the ocean from Tokyo to Chiba.

We took the underwater Aqualine to get to Kamogawa in Chiba. Above were the pics taken from the cockpit of the Mark X, notice the speed blur......the Speedometer maxed out at 180kmh, pulling at just over 4,000rpm in 5th, with one more gear to spare.. This is how it looks inside the tunnel from the passenger's seat. The Aqualine cuts about 40kms off the trip.

Today was a trip for Chloe to Kamogawa Seaworld. Before we reached the park, we had lunch at Coco's family restaurant. We ordered 黒 ビーフ　カレー　(Black Beef Curry), which came in black, of course. It was quite spicy but enjoyable. We lost 1hour waiting for a table and the food. Fortunately the Seaworld is only 2 minutes down the road.


Kamogawa Seaworld is a theme park for underwater life. There are Killer Whales, Beluga Whales, Dolphins and Sea Lion performances.

Some of the highlights in pics:

This is Orca doing a somersault...

All these were taken with my Olympus SWD 50-200mm Lens.

Dolphins were very intelligent indeed. They are very agile and playful little mammals.

Chloe had a whale of a time...with her "Sea Friends" as she calls them..

Feeding time for the dolphins. They were anticipating with glee and kept jumping out of the water.

Zuien Country Club

Dinner last night was at a famous local fish restaurant called 大渡やな, a traditional Japanese riverside restaurant. Dinner consisted of 鮎 定食　(Ayu Teishoku), which came with 2 塩焼き (shioyaki) skewers and a fried battered Ayu fish. The fish is caught in the stream just outside the restaurant. This was accompanied by a bottled of Asahi Super Dry and Kagoshima Imo Shochu. Later we shared a bottled of Leeuwin Art Series Shiraz and was zonked out for golf next morning.

Today is the final day of golf for the week. Zuien country club is part of the Monterey Hotel group. Its a resort course and we stayed there for the night.

Having had a rough night drinking, morning was tough....After a nice breakfast, still felt like going to bed. We requested to extend the tee-off time to 8:30a.m. from 7:52a.m. Being a resort and part of a hotel group, the service and hospitality was excellent. All the staff were courteous, polite and friendly.

We played through 18 holes and had a nice lunch at the club, then used the massage chair and had a nap before driving home. I chose the most popular (人気　No.1) 石焼　海鮮そば, which is a hot stone cooked seafood noodles, which is a Chinese style noodle dish.

Driving home was a chore as we encountered torrential downpur and thunderstorm. Very rare especially after rainy season was declared over. Here's how poor the driving conditions were.

Visibility was poor, less than 100m. We stopped by the Parking Area at Hasuda （蓮田）　Had some curry bun and coffee and bought some famous 宇都宮　餃子 (Utsunomiya Gyoza) for the home. All in all a fruitful golf practice trip. Look forward to the next trip in about a months time.

Pete Dye day 24July

24th July was 2 rounds of golf at Pete Dye courses in Tochigi （栃木）. The Royal course was then followed by the VIP course. We started early bird at 5:30a.m. and finished by 9:30a.m. Had a shower and changed and went to the next course VIP. First round was good and played 91. My rythmn was back and confidence restored after the recent "bug". Looked forward to the second round today.

Following is the first hole at the VIP course. This round was also a good round, a longer but more challenging course and I played 92. The new bridgestone Tourstage X-Driver I bought came in very handy. The Tour AD PT6 shaft was very very consistent and had good carry. On one hole, I managed to hit a 105mph drive, which sent the ball over 300yds.

Karuizawa （軽井沢） 21-22July

Had visitors over for the last weekend which included 2 days of golf in Karuizawa （軽井沢）. First course on Monday 21st was Mitsuinomori （三井の森）Country Club. Its a tight course in the hills in Karuizawa. Had to forget my last round in Narita so it was all to build up confidence.

Dinner was at Yakiniku and had the famous Matsuzaka （松坂）beef for our guests to taste. The wife bought 2 Coach handbags (again) at the outlets.....

The photo above is from Second day of golf at Prince Hotel Karuizawa 2 West Course. It is a very long par 3 (>200yds) with cross-headwind. I hit a a good 3-iron but the wind caught it and brought it into the hazard. I got some rythmn back and was swinging well with the driver today and hit some pretty long drives which put most par 4 within my reach for regulation. The irons were still inconsistent but I managed to play 50/47 and won the bet with my guest.

Golfing week

Its been a week of golf this past week. First was Taiheiyo Narita (太平洋　成田) on Friday 18th. It was a misrable round as I took some anti-biotics and anti-inflkammation drug first thing in the morning which weakened my whole body...started at the range but couldn't hit a singled iron up...

Rested over the weekend to prepare for the next week when I will be on 4 days leave for golf only.
　

Cosmo Classic at Chiba

Today was a round of golf with old friend Helmut from Australia and a former colleague at Cosmo Classic Golf Club in Chiba. Started the round well with 3 bogeys and a birdie on a par 3. Things went downhill when I played 14 over the next five holes! Lost my feel for irons after an OB drive...

Score was 16 over 52 on the first nine (shame) after such a good start on the first 4 holes. Second nine took a while as the break time given for lunch was 1hr 30mins. Some local golf competition was being held so that must have been the reason. Recovered slighly in second nine with 49, no pars whatsoever on this round except for the birdie on the par3.

Not a good day.

Old German friend

Dinner was with old friend H from Australia. In our grip are 2 tankards of Sapporo beer in a ハンバーグ (hamburgu) restarant in Shinagawa. H used to work in the same city when I was in Australia. Was a golf buddy as well as beer buddy.

After dinner it was off to Roppongi for a few Erdingers and Jagermeisters at Bernd's Bar, a German pub. Then it was over to the Legends Sports Bar across the street to watch F1 qualifying and Rugby. After that it was back to Bernd's for a few more swigs. Met a German chap there who owns a S2000 F20C...Shared some info with him on the car, especially the fastest NA S2000 in the world, the ASM Autobacs S2000.

Then it was home at 1am. Had an Umeishu nightcap and some Jazz music on the surround system before retiring. Got to wake up at 4:30am for golf tomorrow.

Day2 Jun 23

Day 2 was at Halla san country Club. This is a Japanese designed course and had a lot more features and challenging to play, albeit shorter. We played with a 6 handicapper Mr. Kim (centre), who owns 松島　カラオケ　クラブ　（Matsushima　Karaoke Club）in Jeju. He gave us a lot of pointers on set-up and putting. I managed to outdrive him on the last 340yd par 4, where I hit about 300yds, just a few yeards ahead of him. We both parred the hole.

All in all, a very enjoyable and enlightening day of golf to play with a single handicapper.

Last day lunch was 太刀魚　鍋　"tachiuo nabe" in spicy Korean sauce. It was a vey bony and there is a proper way to debone it. It came cooked with daikon and potato. Its supposed to give stamina and energy...

The dish was accompanied by the usual Korean side dishes. We had some light Hite beer to cool down before heading to the airport and home.

Airport was only 15mins away so we had sometime to shop and enjoy a cuppa coffee. Duty free shopping included 五目茶　（gojicha） or omija in Korean and ゆず (yuzu) drink concentrate. Both are local produce in Jeju. 　　

After that it was boarding on KE flight back to Narita. Onboard, the Korean CA was pretty! A certain Ms. Lee in particular...