Sports

A good few years ago, I played a good few rounds of golf here — some of them on absolutely beautiful courses too. And, it has to be said that waywardly whacking a ball round meticulously maintained holes, with mountains in the background and caddy-san careering about in a cart with everyone’s clubs, really was a treat.

However, the trouble is, actually getting to that hitting a ball stage can be a real hassle. For starters, there’s finding a course that’s affordable in the first place. Then harder still is trying to find a vacant time slot. Plus, even if one is eventually fortunate enough to get a date sometime in the not too distant future, it’ll still be an incredibly early and random tee-off time: 7:46 maybe, or a slightly luckier 8:11. A time that must, under all circumstances, be adhered to. The prospect of missing it, even by a minute, apparently jeopardising the whole fabric of time. Either that or a severe telling off from caddy-san. The latter of which, without a doubt, is the more worrying.

All of which, needless to say, takes some of the shine off going, making it nowhere near as relaxing as it should be.

Totally unlike the time this fella in Kawasaki is enjoying. Yes, there are no holes. Plus the backdrop is far from beautiful. But he has space. All the time he could ever wish for. And the biggest water hazard in the whole wide world.

A gentle bit of sport-related banter between friends, with both happily content in the knowledge that, at least in regards to their respective teams, the other really doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

It’s often said that when the Japanese start something new, especially if it’s a sport or hobby, they go in for it in the biggest way possible, by immediately buying an absolute glut of the very best gear large pots of cash can purchase. Everything, basically, bar the proverbial kitchen sink.

However, it’s a notion that, if one looks a little closer, is clearly a load of codswallop.

With the summer being as insufferably hot as it has been, and indeed somewhat surprisingly still is, getting away from the urban sprawl for a little while and doing what one wants to is wonderful.

Especially so in fact if maybe, just maybe, there is a higher degree of enjoying that rarest of beasts, a breeze.

For me at least, faffing about with the iPhone’s TiltShift Generator app never fails to fascinate, and although the results can be more than a little mixed, the better ones undoubtedly offer a different take on a topic — such as, for example, the fairly recently featured Kyotei boat racing stadium, photos of which, when fiddled about with for a few minutes, look really rather fetching.

Other contests can take on a slightly different feel too. Like the daily effort to beat other drivers.

Or simply others’ drives.

Plus there is also the sad sight of homeless ‘homes’ by the river.

And finally, the considerably more calming find of fishermen perched around a pond.

As always, some of these pictures have been previously posted at Tokyotimes’s Posterous, where all my iPhone photos, whether tilt-shift or otherwise, are posted.