Bo-rin-gu

~My coworker Chris (who delivered the hilarious speech in Tokyo) is heading back to England next week, so last Tuesday we had a bowling party with several other friends:

^ We went to a bowling alley named "Dream Bowl Nagaoka". The giant orange bowling pin serves as a convenient landmark (it even shows up on city maps). The word "bowling" in Japanese is pronounced "boringu", which sounds much like the word "boring". Fortunately, the boringu was not boring.

^ Here is yet another strange Japanese vending machine. This one vends...bowling shoes! There are three of these machines in Dream Bowl Nagaoka, each for a different range of shoe sizes. I'm telling you, there's a future for this in America.

The note attached to the machine says that it is unfortunately out of order. Alas, I was denied the opportunity to make use of this mechanical masterpiece, and instead I had to go to the desk, like a normal person. To my joy, I discovered that the shoes at this bowling alley close with velcro. Brilliant!

^ Bowling with friends was a lot of fun. Aside from us, the only other people there practicing for a bowling team. They were wearing uniforms and metal gloves on their right hands that looked like something out of The Terminator.

^ The scoreboard. I'm second from the bottom, although I spelled my name incorrectly in katakana. Rather than "Dei-vi-DO", it says something like, "Dei-wi-DO". Oops. But hey, at least I got a strike.

^ An action shot, complete with a blurry bowling ball. "Sutoraiku desu!" (strike!).

^ This sign shows the weights of the color-coded bowling balls. The katakana reads, "Ball Corner". For some reason, I found the sign amusing.

^ Chris, you will be missed! ~Oyasumi.