Golf ゴルフ

In Hachinohe, the ALT crew frequents certain restaurants.  One of the restaurants, Kaabe
カあべ is owned by Makun.  Makun and Todd both like golf and wanted to golf together.  Makun doesn't speak English and Todd doesn't speak Japanese.  Fortunately, Todd was able to arrange a golf outing with Makun by communicating through a fluent Japanese speaking ALT.

At the driving range, many of the balls roll back from the range automatically.  They are forced up those tubes (on the right), come down under the tee, and are automatically placed on the tee after you hit a ball.  The tee senses the ball is off, lowers below the turf, and comes up with another ball.  A pedal next to the tee allows you to set the height.  You never have to touch a ball or bend over!

Their day began at a driving range.  Then they golfed in an annual tournament.  Todd was in a foursome with the tournament winner, Barry. Barry is a 20 year resident of Hachinohe. He is an American, yoga instructor and massage therapist.   Barry and Todd have since become friends and golfed again.  

The course was nice and generally the same as you would find in the states.  A big difference was that every hole had 2 greens (only one open to play).  Another thing I wasn't used to was particularity about the rules.  It wasn't just because it was a tournament either.  Japanese don't know what mulligan is.
All of the carts I saw were 4 seater, none with 2 seats.  So one cart per 4-some.
When we pulled up to the bag drop-off, a woman with high socks came out and collected our bags.  We then checked in at the front desk (it was like a hotel) with women, and at the end (last photo) you can see several women in uniform collecting and cleaning our clubs.  No male employees that I saw.  There were, however, a few female players.

After 9 holes, everyone goes into the clubhouse for a sit-down lunch.  If you don't want lunch, you must wait for the players in front of you to finish their lunch before you start the back nine.  It took about an hour.  Virtually nobody drank alcohol and said it was because they were driving.  There wasn't even a beer cart--and definitely no tipping anywhere at anytime.
At the end we all showered together in the bathhouse locker room which included a large "onsen" hot tub pool.  It was very nice.  A little strange were the female employees in the locker room cleaning and changing towels amidst naked men walking about.

Spin-off info:  westerners generally clean ourselves with a shower or bath.  Japanese people sit naked on a small stool (or ground if no stool) and wash themselves with a bucket (and maybe a showerhead) while seated in front of a mirror.  They then proceed to shave (face/legs), brush their teeth, clean their ears, trim hairs, and every sort of bodily attendance all at the same time in the same place.