This is a continuation of my RTW diary from November 2003.
After watching a few rounds of the opening day of the Fukuoka Sumo Basho, I headed out to ‘Michaels American Pub’ in Fuji-Yoshida. I’d heard a rumour that it’s the only bar on Mount Fuji to have a satellite dish and a sports channel and I was hoping to watch the England v Wales match.
I got a bus from the ryokan to the town centre. I went to University in Aberystwyth – a small but picturesque town at the foot of a mountain on the West coast of Wales. I mention it because as I got off the bus in the town centre of Fuji-Yoshida, it was about as lively as Aberystwyth on a wet Sunday night. But hang on, it was a wet Sunday night! Fuji-Yoshida was also halfway up a mountain. It had been raining all day. Apart from going up the mountain and checking my email, there had been nothing else to do. Both Wales and Japan have five letters in their name. Both countries revere dragons. The locals all speak in a strange language incapable of flexible modernisation and are all shorter than me… That Welsh connection over and over again – was it a sign that it was to be Wales’ night in the rugby?!! Was I standing too long in a bus queue to come up with all of this stuff?!
The rumours were true (about the bar having a satellite channel), and I arrived at Michaels’ Americanu Pubu (I swear this is what the bus driver called it!) to find England 3-10 down to an apparently rampant Wales. The omens were coming to fruition! Judging from the highlights of the first half, if the Welsh team had practised catching or running while holding the ball now and again they might have been even further ahead.
But good old Jonny Wilkinson sorted us out and Wales and Japan now have another thing in common – they are both out of the Rugby World Cup and England are through to a Semi Final against France!
I guess the thing about being the number one team in the world is everyone is out to get you and raises their game accordingly. Hopefully the French will be too cocky about their own game plan to worry about ours and we will stuff them good and proper!
Magnanimously I have to say that Wales didn’t do too badly in this tournament. They certainly did better than the South African pundit who (when I was in Cape Town) predicted the Welsh “will be dead and rotting long before the quarter finals get under way”, and that they would lose to Canada and Tonga to come bottom of their group. That as it may be, the Welsh lasted a day longer in the tournament than the Bokkers and put up a better fight against the English than the men in green did way back when I saw that particular game by the Taj Mahal…
After the rugby, the owner of the pub challenged me to a darts tournament. A couple of the locals joined in too. The rules were pretty simple. In each game, it was simply the first down to zero. No need to worry about finishing on a double. “We’re not very good and it takes too long” explained the eponymous pub-owner.
As five of us were playing, the fourth and last people who got from 301 down to 0 had to buy a drink for the people who came first and second. I am not a confident darts player. I just throw the darts in fast succession (a speedy rhythmic motion that was the talk of the pub!) and vaguely at the board. I’m happy to take whatever points I get. Anyway, the first match had me needing 104 points and 70 points behind the 4th ranked player. Michael had just been the first to 0, and I went up to the oche. I managed to score a Triple 19, Double 16 and 15 to finish! Eric Bristow, eat your heart out. After three more rounds I’d paid off the bar bill and only had to pay for the hot dogs I’d had while the match was on!
What a hustler :)
After watching a few rounds of the opening day of the Fukuoka Sumo Basho, I headed out to ‘Michaels American Pub’ in Fuji-Yoshida. I’d heard a rumour that it’s the only bar on Mount Fuji to have a satellite dish and a sports channel and I was hoping to watch the England v Wales match.
I got a bus from the ryokan to the town centre. I went to University in Aberystwyth – a small but picturesque town at the foot of a mountain on the West coast of Wales. I mention it because as I got off the bus in the town centre of Fuji-Yoshida, it was about as lively as Aberystwyth on a wet Sunday night. But hang on, it was a wet Sunday night! Fuji-Yoshida was also halfway up a mountain. It had been raining all day. Apart from going up the mountain and checking my email, there had been nothing else to do. Both Wales and Japan have five letters in their name. Both countries revere dragons. The locals all speak in a strange language incapable of flexible modernisation and are all shorter than me… That Welsh connection over and over again – was it a sign that it was to be Wales’ night in the rugby?!! Was I standing too long in a bus queue to come up with all of this stuff?!
The rumours were true (about the bar having a satellite channel), and I arrived at Michaels’ Americanu Pubu (I swear this is what the bus driver called it!) to find England 3-10 down to an apparently rampant Wales. The omens were coming to fruition! Judging from the highlights of the first half, if the Welsh team had practised catching or running while holding the ball now and again they might have been even further ahead.
But good old Jonny Wilkinson sorted us out and Wales and Japan now have another thing in common – they are both out of the Rugby World Cup and England are through to a Semi Final against France!
I guess the thing about being the number one team in the world is everyone is out to get you and raises their game accordingly. Hopefully the French will be too cocky about their own game plan to worry about ours and we will stuff them good and proper!
Magnanimously I have to say that Wales didn’t do too badly in this tournament. They certainly did better than the South African pundit who (when I was in Cape Town) predicted the Welsh “will be dead and rotting long before the quarter finals get under way”, and that they would lose to Canada and Tonga to come bottom of their group. That as it may be, the Welsh lasted a day longer in the tournament than the Bokkers and put up a better fight against the English than the men in green did way back when I saw that particular game by the Taj Mahal…
After the rugby, the owner of the pub challenged me to a darts tournament. A couple of the locals joined in too. The rules were pretty simple. In each game, it was simply the first down to zero. No need to worry about finishing on a double. “We’re not very good and it takes too long” explained the eponymous pub-owner.
As five of us were playing, the fourth and last people who got from 301 down to 0 had to buy a drink for the people who came first and second. I am not a confident darts player. I just throw the darts in fast succession (a speedy rhythmic motion that was the talk of the pub!) and vaguely at the board. I’m happy to take whatever points I get. Anyway, the first match had me needing 104 points and 70 points behind the 4th ranked player. Michael had just been the first to 0, and I went up to the oche. I managed to score a Triple 19, Double 16 and 15 to finish! Eric Bristow, eat your heart out. After three more rounds I’d paid off the bar bill and only had to pay for the hot dogs I’d had while the match was on!
What a hustler :)
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