06 September, 2006

theturkey-plus-one

no, it's not Thanksgiving in Japan, and we haven't suddenly come across any gobbling fowl in the Land of the Rising Sun; the title of this post has reference to the biggest thing to happen in thejayfather's sporting life in decades: a turkey in bowling.

the other night Jill and i drove out to an alley we had seen and proceeded to get our game on, after renting our shoes. from a vending machine, that is, as with everything else you buy in Japan. i may have mentioned the curry restaurant we went to where you order at a vending machine and then the food is practically waiting for you when you sit down. at a theme park a couple of days we found the lines for the food ticket vending machines too long to stand, so we were going to ask a lady sitting at a window by the machines where else we could get food. it turned out that she was selling the same tickets as could be had at the vending machines, but nobody wanted to deal with her. perhaps all the rules of social interaction here make people reluctant to want to deal with humans. in any case, you can buy alcohol and cigarettes from vending machines that litter the streets here, and i've been told that there are more vending machines per capita in Japan than anywhere else on earth. i believe it.


bowling shoes from a vending machine, naturally.

so after we had done all that with the shoes, we began to bowl, putting up pretty poor scores in our first game. in the second game, unusually, i was beating Jill, and this put me in the zone. as the following photograph proves, my strikes started in the seventh frame, but they didn't stop anywhere near there. even after securing a turkey, which is three strikes in a row, i felt sure i could keep going, and for one more ball, the first of the 10th frame, i did. maybe the pressure was too great after that, or maybe it just seemed i had nothing left to prove, but the streak ended at four. which is just as well, really, because i don't know the correct term for a double turkey.


pretty much the best bowling score ever.

so now that bowling has effectively been conquered, i guess thejayfather will be moving on to master another sport, though i don't know what that will be. feel free to send your suggestions, and then watch this space...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some turkeys are easily satisfied! Not only is the question whether the jayfeather can make four in a row again, but the target now is five in a row.

The Carroll's said...

WOW!! That is AWESOME!!! Interesting with shoes coming out of a dispenser like that. Very interesting!