On Monday 9th June, Kath and Karen set
off to Japan from Birmingham Airport
via Amsterdam and arrived at Narita Airport ,
Tokyo 9:00am
on Tuesday 10th June. Customs
and Passport Control took quite some time to negotiate but at the Arrivals
Barrier they were very pleased to be met by Asako who had invited them to Japan
A rickshaw ride seemed a must – the poor “driver”
Tommy who had taught himself English (which was very good) was very happy to
transport the sightseers in spite the very hot temperature.
He ran and pulled the rickshaw (not an easy
task) and he talked the whole journey of around 30 minutes only stopping to
explain more about the sights or to position the rickshaw in front of certain
buildings for the souvenir photos to be taken.
He dropped off the travellers in a different area
from where he had collected them which gave them a superb opportunity to look
at a very old shrine and then browse the streets at a leisurely pace, back
towards the city.
Asako and Shinubo collected Kath and Karen from
the hotel shortly after breakfast and drove quite some miles to the Kegon Waterfall.
A spectacular waterfall with a drop of almost
100 metres. To reach the waterfall they
had to drive up a mountain which had 48 bends in the road, mostly hairpin!
Sadly, with heavy cloud around, there were no
stops at the viewpoints but the waterfall was not disappointing. Due to very heavy rain, the fall was dropping
20 tons of water per second. An elevator
then took 1 minute to drop from the top level of the waterfall to a viewing
platform. A wonderful sight and very
wet!!
Lunch was next and was taken at a Japanese
restaurant. Their hosts chose the
selection of dishes for each of them which gave them a good idea of the
traditional Japanese food.
Back to the car and onwards to the Nikko Toshogu
Shrine. You may like to watch this video for
more details https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRVYs9Ubf4w#t=45
Lots and lots of steps to climb to see what this
shrine had to offer the visitors.
After a very interesting day, Kath and Karen
returned to their hotel for a light supper and good night’s rest.
The following morning (Thursday) they were
collected by Shobinu to transfer to the where they would be training and
judging. This was a 3 hour drive in some
torrential rain but they made it to the hotel just before lunch. The good news was that they had left the
humidity of Tokyo
That afternoon had already been arranged for Kath
to present a seminar about judging. An informal chat was what they had agreed,
but on entering the “classroom” it wasn’t as casual as expected.
Afternoon tea was served as soon as everyone
was settled and this was eaten throughout the
seminar. Kath had been asked to cover four
subjects in detail, however, the first subject “What do you look for when
judging HTM and Freestyle” took the entire time allowed for the seminar. There are only three official judges in Japan
The evening meal was served in the hotel which gave
the pair a chance to look around the venue.
This hotel is for dog owners and offers a 25m pool for the dogs and many
beautiful walks around the area all double gated to avoid any escapes!
The
dining room had rings set in the floor next to most of the chairs so that leads
could be secured. Yes their dogs are
made welcome throughout the hotel, even in the very stylish restaurant. When Kath and Karen visited Japan
Friday – the first Training Day. Due to the low heavy cloud and rain on their
journey to this new hotel, Karen and Kath were amazed when they drew back the curtains
in their hotel room – straight in front of them was the magnificent sight of
Mount Fiji in glorious Blue Sky and sunshine!!
WOW – what a start to the day!!
After breakfast they made their way to the
training hall. There were 30 people attending plus
spectators. Each handler performed their
routine and each was given feedback by both Karen and Kath who also had been
asked to judge the routine against the OEC rules and give scores for everyone
who completed their routine.
As there
are not many competitions in Japan
The feedback was
translated and a short training session was then given to each competitor. Towards the end of the day they were then
given the opportunity to try performing again and many had taken on the advice
given showing great improvement all round. Asako provided two prizes for the
most improved handler, one to be chosen by each of the trainers!
The evening was spent in the hotel restaurant
which produced another wonderful meal followed by an early night taken by Kath
and Karen as it had proved to be a long day for them both.
Saturday – Competition Day. Some of the handlers from the first training
day took part in the competition but many of the competitors were new faces in
the ring. The ring was a good size 20m x
16m. There were areas around the main ring where
people could rest their dogs and there were also two warm up rings. The building where the competition and
training took place was absolutely wonderful.
There was plenty of space for everyone and the floor had a rubberised
surface which seemed to suit both dogs and handlers.
There were quite a few entries for a country where
competing isn’t priority!
6 Novice HTM, 6 Beginner HTM, 3 Starter HTM (one
of which was a pairs routine), 12
Starters Freestyle, 26 Beginner Freestyle (including a pair and a brace), 16
Novice Freestyle (including a pair)
Starters is a class for handlers who have never entered
a competition before and the remaining handlers could then choose whether they
entered Beginners or Novice according to their experience.
Some of the Novice routines were extremely good in
Musical Interpretation, Content and Accuracy and a real pleasure for Karen and
Kath to judge. Asako had asked Kath and
Karen to bring with them three awards each to give to their choice of
handlers. The recipients of their small
silver engraved salvers were delighted to receive what they felt were very
special awards.
Sunday – another Training Day with a large entry
of 25. The format was the same as the
Friday Training Day and it pleased so many to receive individual feedback from
both Kath and Karen and training to help them to progress. On this, the second day of training most of
the handlers were able to perform their routines without food therefore there
were only a few training rounds. However, it took nearly all the day to work
through all the performances but they were all given the opportunity to perform
a second time and once again improvement could be seen from all the performances. Kath and Karen were very pleased to see the
majority of attendees huddle round to hear the feedback which was given to all of
the teams in order to maximise the amount of information they received from the
day as possible.
Another very nice meal at the hotel and an early
night as Karen and Kath were to be returned to Tokyo
More requests for extra training were received on
the final morning at Hotel Resort Woof from the organisers who had missed quite
a lot of the feedback and training given over the two training days. Happily Karen and Kath were able to give
further advice for the eager learners!
By noon
it was time to leave. Everywhere Kath
and Karen stayed, they were thrilled with the service and politeness of the
staff.
Everyone was so friendly, they
even ran out the hotel and stood on the steps to wave goodbye to their English
visitors!
Asako and Shinobu took them to a nearby “National
Park” for a very leisurely walk in the tranquil woods between the foot of Mount Fuji and the lake, a perfect relaxing time.
They then
went on to an Organic Restaurant which served the most perfect of meals!! After lunch it was time to bid farewell to
Shinobu who had been very busy throughout their visit. They then made the 3 hour drive back to Tokyo Tokyo
A snack in the room followed by another good
night’s rest and they awoke in the morning ready for a quick breakfast before
catching the shuttle bus to the airport. The return flights kept to time and
after the 19 hour flight from Tokyo to Amsterdam , there was a short transfer time before they
boarded the final flight home to England
Arriving home some 21
hours after rising that morning – home felt a great place to be!
Kath and Karen would like to thank Asako, Shinobu
and everyone they met in Japan
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