I played golf last Sunday. It was the first time I have played golf in ages. I wasn't really in the best condition, but it was definitely a lot of fun.

Here's how the story goes.

My mate who owns a bar in Kushiro organises a tournament every year for the customers of the bar. When I was living in Kushiro I took part in the tournament, but now I'm living a long way away. I decided that it would be a good opportunity to go visit my old friends, so I let my mate know that I'd be happy to take part. I had some stuff to do on Saturday morning, so I wasn't able to leave until about 1:00pm. I jumped in my car (yes, my new Subaru Impreza WRX) and took of for the nearest city, Asahikawa, where I did a little shopping. After that, I decided I would take the scenic route, via Furano, Shimizu and Obihiro (I'm not going to explain where all the places are, go look at a map).

Bad idea.

The roads were pretty crowded (everybody was out enjoying the great weather and doing some sightseeing), and everybody was keeping within the speed limit most of the time (50kmh... uhh...). There's a special autumn police campaign on now, so they are a little stricter than usual.

When I got to Obihiro I stopped for a quick bath at a great onsen there. It was a fantastic way to get rid of some of the aches and pains from driving.

At about 9:00, I finally arrived in Kushiro. I did a short tour of the old neighbourhood then went on to my mates bar. It was great to see everyone again, and it just so happened that the other foreigner who frequents the bar was having his birthday party that night. Lots of alcohol was consumed, though I was pretty tired an wussed out fairly early. But my mate kept on drinking and wouldn't let me go to bed. Finally, at about 2:30 am, he decided that I could go to bed and he would keep drinking on his own. I crashed in his mum's room above the bar.

Four hours later, he came to wake me for golf (I don't know if he slept or not - knowing him, probably not). We packed our stuff and took off for the golf course.

Now, the golf. It wasn't pretty. I pulled off a few good shots, a couple of magnificent drives (one which won me the driving competition and a big box of grapes), but overall it was pretty ugly. The first nine was not too bad. Actually, it was better that I imagined it would be seeing as I hadn't slept and was using a set of clubs that I had borrowed. The second nine was dismal. I was tired and sore and my golf was shocking. Fortunately, the driving competition took place on the final hole, so when I won I finished the day on a good note.

After the round, everyone retired to the clubhouse for the official presentation. I finished 14th out of about 35, so it wasn't too bad. Everybody won prizes for various things. I ended up with my big box of grapes, a wine tool set and a torch (yes, the prizes are pretty random).

After golf, I went back to my mates house, we went to the onsen, said goodbye and then I took off back home.

This time I decided to take the 'back road' through the mountains.

Good idea.

It was night time, so everybody was driving much faster (100, 110, 120...). At night time there are almost never any police, and if they are on patrol they keep their red lights on. This is because they want to pull people over about as much as people want to be pulled over. Not much. If they keep their lights on then people know to slow down when they pass by. It's a nice system. Also, at night people tend to drive in packs. Everybody lines up behind a car that is equipped with a radar warning detector (many cars in Japan have one of these) and we can go as fast as we want, knowing that we won't get pulled over. Drafting like this cut my travel time down from over six hours to four hours flat.

Nice.

The weekend was fun but I'm still sore (it's Wednesday now...). I really have to do more exercise.