Whenever I ask my kids about where I could bowl in this area, they all respond with, "Yonezawa." Yonezawa is a 30 minute drive from my town and there are two bowling alleys. This was the first time that I had gone bowling since I've arrived here AND my first ever at a Japanese bowling alley.
SUNDAY ISN'T BOWLING NIGHT
It was a Sunday night, and we had reserved 2 lanes in advance since our original plan was to bowl on Friday - but the place had been jam-packed! We were expecting to see the same scene as we did a "take two!" into the alley. But we were quickly stopped in our tracks as our panoramic view revealed that we were the only ones in the entire bowling alley!
Empy LanesA SIMILARITY
THE FRONT CLERKS ARE JUST AS CRANKY AS THEIR AMERICAN COUNTERPARTS
Maybe the lack of rewards and excitement as a bowling alley clerk is universal because the man at the counter was in no jolly mood. Never carried a smile, never a welcoming hoo-ha shout. The moment he saw us he grunted something, which I guess translated to, "what size?" as he approached the shoe counter.
Why are these clerks never happy? I guess there are a number of reasons, but in my opinion, I think it's because they have to stand by and care for all those smelly bowling shoes and listen to balls being thrown against wood panels all day. I think having that, day in and day out, to look forward to would be a bit of a pisser.
JAPAN'S PIMP BOWLING SHOES
They are fabulous! Since I have small feet, I was given the brightest color, which is probably appealing to the kids, neon green. Now neon green shoes don't sound very "hip" but actually, I would where them in public any day! My friends got the neon purple ones and the only male of the night got the mundane, I'm-an-older-man, dark blue ones.
These look nothing like ours! NOTHING. Plus, they are velcro-strapped and really comfortable! My perfect shoe. I wanted to take them home, but Mister Happy was too scary to approach and ask.
Giving BAPS a run for their moneyA DIFFERENCE
STORAGE LOCKERS FOR YOUR SHOES
In Japan, you store your shoes in lockers at the front while you wear the bowling ones and hope that no one steals them since they don't give you a key to lock it up.
But I don't think anyone would want to steal someone else's WORN shoes... or would they?
A SIMILARITY
THE "STRIKE/SPARE" SCREENS ARE IN ENGLISH
The score screen is all in Japanese, names and all. But whenever you get a strike or spare - the screen that has the animated bowling pins dancing around is in ENGLISH! How interesting... But, I think it would be a lot more entertaining if it were in katakana:
"Su-to-ra-i-kuuuu!" or ""Su-pe-a-ruuuu!
...would have given me a good chuckle.
A DIFFERENCE
THE BOWLING BALLS ARE LABELED S, M
I noticed that besides the typical label of how heavy the balls are (which is still in pounds, surprisingly), there is also a little "small/medium" label above the finger holes on each ball.
They are to indicate what size the holes are, but when I looked at all of ours, they either had "small" or "medium," but no "LARGE." No fat fingers in Japan? Come on now... you're not all that skinny. But just to be fair, I didn't look at ALL the balls in the place.
A SIMILARITY
LET'S FACE IT, WHEN YOU GET A STRIKE - YOU CHEER!
And that's the same in Japan and America. Although I think we are a bit louder than the Japanese and more prone to do victory dances, we are both very excited when we knock down all the pins. We might jump up and down, yell and be obnoxious, but the Japanese do it, too, in a slightly toned down way.
They don't do the team-high5 thing though, bummer.
WII BOWLING IS NOT SUFFICIENT PRACTICE
My pro-status on Wii Sports - Bowling does nothing for me in real life bowling. I get killer scores on my lovely Wii - what, with all the guidance control features on the game, how could you NOT get a strike?
The pro-status gave me a boost of confidence. Sure, I can easily score 200 in real life. No biggie.
Ha! Yea right! I was suffering that night - my bowling arm wasn't delivering. I broke a nail - sounds girlie, I know - but it's such a distraction. My fingers didn't fit the balls right and I was bowling like crap! But by the third game, I had really warmed-up and got back into my "groove," too bad it was the last game.
So as a warning, just because you're a stellar bowler in Wii Bowling - don't take that attitude w/you to the lanes because your ego will be quickly and surely, deflated. LOL
Not a shining momentTHE BOWLING REPORT CARD
TAKE IT HOME TO SHOW YOUR MOMMY!
After you pay, Mister Happy gives each person an individualized printout of all the games you played and a frame-by-frame record of your scores.
It's printed on that type of old-school printer paper that has perforated strips on the side - with all those little holes that align w/teeth inside the printer. In other words, it looks like the report cards we used to get in elementary-high school.
I think it's a nice gesture - giving you a report card to remind you of how awesome or sad of a bowler you are, but then, it kind of makes the night of fun-bowling turn into a training session.
Is it because in Japan, they like to document and have a hard-copy of EVERYTHING, to make it official?
ODE TO THE QUEEN OF FORM
This woman mesmerizes me. Just look at the picture. When was this hairstyle popular? the 60's/70's? I have no clue, but there's no doubt that she is classic. She is pinned everywhere in this joint and every time I passed her, I just stared and admired her beauty.
I love how her hair color matches the color of her tights. Her poise is so elegant and she holds the most perfect form - look at her fingers. I took her advice and tried this tactic - being much more lady-like when I bowl, and instead, I got a gutter ball! David has the picture to prove it.
But the shadow on the ground looks like she's about to go in for a kill. So for that, I bow down to you, Queen of Form.
Queen of Form
Posts
1 comments:
Ah the memories of youth bowling and your team beating those other pro bowler kids (can't remember their names). Then you guys won most of the trophies...that really got their parents' underwear in a bunch.
Cool shoes! I remember when the bowling here got rid of their shoes, if I recall correctly, they dumped them in a dumpster behind the bowling alley. Chief Dean and his counterpart found them and sold them for $5 a pair. Later I read somewhere where wearing bowling shoes was "in." Maybe next time if Mr Grumpy isn't working you can ask to purchase a pair...do they have them in their pro shop at the bowling alley?
Too bad we couldn't bowl during our visit but we have sight-seeing to do and weeds to pull from the rice field.
Ciao
Post a Comment