Cherry blossoms, 2005

Japan Cup 2004

The photos above were taken at the Japan Cup in November of 2004. Bob from HSPC played with Adrian from Aoyama Petanque CC and a Japanese guy. The team finished second and won 5,000 yen each.

Our official team logo

Kawamura san from MPC has kindly created our team logo from the photographs he took on the weekend. Thanks very much. 誠に有り難うございます！

Anyone know where you can get some good quality shirts printed up in Tokyo?

HSPC's team emblem

Look out Nike and Adidas, HSPC now has its own team emblem courtesy of these photos from Kawamura san at MPC. The cone is from our favorite Himalaya Sugi tree.

All rights reserved. Merchandising release to follow.

Toasting the weather

Despite gloomy weekend forecasts of snow and rain, Saturday was a balmy day down the park and the first plum tree buds started to bloom in the area. Together with the unusual January weather, there were several upsets during the day with Steve and Greg getting the better of Bob and Raj and the team of Raj, Mike and Greg coming back from 9-0 to defeat Bob, Steve and Charlie. Mike continued his good form of late and was undefeated on the day.

This Sunday HSPC will be fielding a team in a triples tournament at Akasaka High School.

Good luck guys.

The sound of one hand clap ...

A good turnout at Myoshoji on Saturday Jan. 20, with Charlie Kamata and two of his MPC teammates showing up for a few games.

For some reason, probably a lack of beer consumption, HSPC struggled early in a few games of triples and were beaten soundly by MPC. Seemed every round we'd all throw one ball in the gutter followed by a decent shot. You don't tend to win too many games when you're playing three boules to your opponent's six ...

On Sunday a few of us made it to the park and Bob and Yutaka teamed up against Mike and myself. We got off to a great start leading 8-0 but as expected they fought back and evened the scores at 9-9. The tide turned again, though, and with Mike throwing some solid knock out shots we held on to win.

The rematch was another close affair and the scores were locked up at 12-12 before Mike sent the cochonnet back deep and with Bob still holding one boule and nothing really close we thought they'd take the game but Bob's shot came up short.

Bob did throw the shot of the day, though, with a brilliant high lob to extract our boule from a tightly-packed cluster.

HSPC comes third in New Year Tokyo Cup

HSPC participated in its first tournament of the year at the Akasaka High-School ground, with the team of Bob, Bill and Rajan, defeating Fukugawa for third spot.

The team lost once in the morning round but with a 2-1 record (and a high win/loss point ratio) advanced to the finals.

Congratulations guys.

(Photo courtesy of Aoyama Petanque)

More pics of the HSPC Cup

(Photos courtesy of Kawamura san, MPC)

Brothers in boules

A few links to Petanque sites in Japan.

The Japan Petanque Boules Union site offers a wealth of information on the game in Japan, including tournament information, how to obtain a license, and numerous links to official organizations, clubs, etc.

We also regular play with with our good friends at Aoyama Petanque CC and the Myoshoji Petanque Club, who share the same homeground as HSPC.

The inaugural HSPC Cup

HSPC held its first tournament on Dec. 30 at our homeground, Myoshoji Park.

Six teams participated in the triples league format, two from HSPC, two from MPC, one from Aoyama Petanque and a team put together for the event.

The weather was ideal and thanks to the annual New Year exodus from Tokyo, the park wasn’t crowded and we could play three games simultaneously.

The games were fought out in a competitive, yet friendly, manner and at the end of the day HSPC 2 (Raj, Steve and Greg) emerged undefeated to lift the cup, or in this case three bottles of wine.

In second place was team BRT (Bill, Rajesh and Takahashi), while MPC 1 (Kamada, Samejima, Kato) came in third.

After the day's play, the teams retreated to a local izakaya for the end-of-year party and presentation of the prizes.

Team BRT’s performance was outstanding as it was the first Petanque game for Bill, who generally spends his weekends on the pitcher’s mound.

A big thank you to Masafumi ‘Charlie’ Kamata for his help in organizing the event and for bringing the kegs of beer!

Choosing the right boules

Several members have recently expressed an interest in buying, or upgrading, their boules. Here's a handy guide, unfortunately only in Japanese, to choosing the right weight and size.

Our beloved clubhouse

After racking our brains trying to come up with a name for our “drinking club with a petanque problem,” the lads finally agreed to pay tribute to our expansive clubhouse. The Himalaya cedar tree, or Himalaya sugi as it’s know in Japanese, offers a forest of protection to the weary petanque player, shielding enthusiasts from snow, sunburn and lukewarm Sapporo.

Here you can see our dedicated members defying the elements and fine-tuning their stroke despite the blizzard.

Tournament on Feb 4

There will be a triples tournament on Sunday, Feb. 4 at the Akasaka Chugakko ground. Usual times, usual procedures.