On Saturday afternoon, the weather was picture perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. Sunny, warm with a slight breeze. The kind of day that makes you love living in Okinawa.
Benny and I went to a Friendship Picnic jointly hosted by the Navy and some Japanese locals who live near the Navy base. I played volleyball with some Japanese and American children before eating a lunch of chicken and beef prepared by the Japanese. The Americans brought the side dishes.
After lunch, the real competitive fun started: A ground golf tournament.
Ground golf is like croquet, except for the mallets are shaped a bit differently and your "hole" is a metal circle where the ball must stop inside the circle in order to complete that hole. This outdoor game is very popular in Japan, especially among senior citizens. In the park behind our house there is a group of old men and women who play daily starting around 7 a.m.
Benny and I first played ground golf at the YYY resort on Labor Day weekend on Ie island. I'm terrible at it. Benny is better than me. So he played on Saturday, while I was the official photographer for the tournament.
Smile for the camera ground golf player.
Here is Benny digging his ball out of an obstacle hole. He also had trouble avoiding the sand volleyball court.
This is serious business.
Benny walked away with the last place in the tournament. But because the Japanese have a group mentality in their culture, everyone got a prize. My wrapped gift was a travel coffee mug, which the guy who gave it to me said it was "for the baby." Benny got a eco-LED flashlight. It is a flashlight that doesn't require batteries. You squeeze a trigger on it and the light turns on. Benny has been playing with it all day. It's his new favorite toy.
2 comments:
Maybe he meant that the travel coffee mug is for after the baby when you haven't slept in three days and are desperate for caffeine?
The only thing that came to mind when I saw those pictures was Happy Gilmore. That movie has forever ruined golf for me!
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