bigger balls

Desperate for some fresh air and a quiet space, I took up the offer of some weekend time at Ian's place. Two hours by local train and ¥1,620 (AUD$20) later, I arrive in Kudamatsu. If you say it with an Australian accent, no ticketing staff will ever know where you want to go. So it's "Kudamatsu" ...? Yeah, that's what I said. What's the difference?

Well after dark, it is still important to practice your swing. Just south of the train station dozens of golfers were playing not your usual game of whack-fuck. Multiple storeys of swingers all practising their drive into the night air. With so many golf balls being slammed almost simultaneously, it makes a great drumming noise.

Without hesitation, Ian showed me around to the friendly Canadian neighbours' place. I noticed that people tend to live in houses a lot more here than Hiroshima. Many houses have absolutely brilliant gardens, all maintained to the n^th degree. Sharlene's place is still a typical Nova apartment, but about 10 times cleaner and nicer than what we're sharing in at the moment. Sharlene loaned her bike for me to use, a familiar mamachira style bike.

Kudamatsu is a little too small to really go out on the town. Even just for dinner, Ian and I headed to the adjacent Tokoyama? After a great tasting dinner and a beer to wash it down, we wandered around to explore the Saturday night offerings. The Russian doll venue with its proud poster displaying the wares, looked like it wasn't even open tonight. Several other bars we investigated for opportunity were strictly no gaijin venues, especially if you can't even ask for a drink in Japanese!

Sunday rained most the day. Ian located the nearby entertainment warehouse with karaoke, billiards, ten pin bowling and various poker machines. Ian proceeded to kick my arse in several games of 9-ball at the pool tables. He tried to teach me a few tricks along the way, but all I could walk away with was 2 things:

1. The balls are bigger, and thus the cue is heavier.
2. The tables are lower, and thus the cleavage is more apparent.
   

Great! Just need to work on my form a little more...