Fukuoka

April 27th
Fukuoka, Japan

Finally, after years of waiting (10 days), we were allowed to set foot in Fukuoka. My plan, go with the trombone player, Jersey, and find a tennis court for a match. I had rented two bikes from the crew office that morning so that we’d be able to cover more ground in our search, which was a good plan, till I found out Jersey had remembered my suggestion from the other night and rented a bike for himself as well, leaving me with an extra bike I’d paid for with no way of returning it. Due to late arrival and boat drill, we had some time to search for a third person that would be interested in using the bike and reimbursing me for the $5 I spent, and did eventually find a Chinese girl, May, that Jersey was friends with and who wanted to tag along.
Before I go any further, let me describe Jersey real quick. Jersey, the trombone player on the ship is a 60-year-old Polish man with very rough English skills. I can communicate with him, but it certainly takes a lot of effort on both of our parts, something I can’t do for extended periods of time. But, that aside, he has such a happy demeanor and infectious personality that it makes you want to be his friend. He’s very fit considering his age, and notorious for finding tennis partners, somehow finding a court, and then winning the match. But back to the trip…
We left the ship around 2PM on the bikes, which were actually quite nice. We hadn’t even made it though out of the terminal when it was obvious that May hadn’t been on a bike for quite some time, which considering the pedestrian and bicycle congestion of Japan, worried me, but we set out regardless. Our first stop was barely past the terminal where we came across a high school marching band. Jersey had his camera and was having a good time walking among the band taking video in a way that only he could do. It was funny for the 10 minutes we spent watching them warm up, not to mention brought back some memories of my PR drum major days. I eventually pulled my Polish friend from the band and we set off again with our sites set on a park I’d visited once before.
After a nice ride to the park and some lucky navigation, we came across the courts. The man in charge of the courts saw we had rackets and approached us to explain the situation. Luckily, many people speak enough English to get points across, so we discovered the courts were booked till 7, exactly when we had to be back at the ship. After some more “discussion” and Jersey’s seemly inability to comprehend that we couldn’t play tennis, we were told that the next nearest courts were at a complex on the complete opposite side of the city. The complex was listed on our maps, but barely, and way in the corner with limited road depictions – just my type of an adventure. So we left the park and began our trek into what was completely new territory for all of us. I - being the youngest, most fit, and one with the map - had the lead.
The first half was easy, all ground I’d covered before, and the rivers cutting through the city always provided a reference point. It wasn’t till we crossed the final river and entered a much more industrial part of the city that navigation got difficult. I had a fairly good idea of which direction to lead, and I guess my other adventure experiences paid off because we arrived at the sports complex without a single wrong turn. It took forever because May wasn’t exactly keeping pace, but considering she had managed to get through the city without any problems, she was doing exceptionally well in light of how she began the trip.
We arrived at the courts around 4:45, almost 3 hours after first leaving the ship. The tennis arena was gorgeous, and a completely separate part of the larger sports complex. We parked the bikes and walked in the building to try to get a reservation to play ASAP considering we had 2 hours before we needed to be back on the ship. So we walked in and Jersey starts talking to the ladies behind the counter, introducing us as the international team (yeah, an American and old Polish man playing in Asia, if that isn’t international, I don’t know what is). After some difficulty with the non English speaking people behind the desk, we were able to get an indoor court at 5PM at a student rate, of which I’m still not sure how jersey convinced them of. So we got our stuff together and headed to the courts to start our match.
The courts were different than anything I’d ever played on before. The indoor courts weren’t standard carpeting like I’m used to at home, but something a little harder and covered with a dusting of sand. The sand made it like playing on a clay court, and aside from obscuring my vision of the lines, made it really hard to not slip while changing directions. I was playing on a racket Jersey had probably bought somewhere for $20, and after a short warm up, we started playing. Jersey played well, and as I expected, very consistently. Unfortunately, my out of practice game is the exact opposite of consistency, and I need not suffer the humiliation of posting his first set score in a public venue.
We left shortly into the second set, worried that the 75 minutes we allotted to return to the ship might not be enough. Again, I lead the way back to the ship through now barely familiar territory, trying to set a good pace. I’d stop every so often to let May and Jersey catch up, at which point Jersey would love telling me that I was a genius for being able to figure out how to get there and back, and we did eventually make it back to the ship with less than 15 minutes to spare. So from 2 till 7, we had close to a non stop cardio activity going on, and thanks to all my recent gym visits, was really quite pleasant (unlike the bike story of Cozumel late November).
We had a show to play that night, but that pretty much sums up the day. I do plan on playing tennis once more before I leave the ship and redeeming some of the pride I left on those courts, but till then, I’ll just keep doing my thing here on the ships. Thanks for reading and have a great one!