After a petanque marathon on Saturday, the boys of HSPC showed their mettle by turning out two teams for the 19th Japan Cup tournament, played on Sunday, June 20, in the shadow of Tokyo Midtown. Raj, Bill, and Francis formed one team, while Steve, Bob, and Don made up the other. It was a day of mixed results for the Himalayans. Raj, Bill, and Francis got off to a good start, winning their first game, but were then bogged down by exceedingly slow play in game two, where they eventually lost to the team that wound up winning the tournament. The painfully slow torture of that game two loss seemed to deflate the HSPC boys for a while, but they finally rallied to pull out a close win in their final game. Steve, Bob, and Don had better luck, winning five out of six games on the day and finishing third overall, which brought a prize of one bottle of Bordeaux for each of the three players--the kind of prize that HSPC takes to heart (and in the case of Don's bottle, almost immediately to the stomach).
The petanque was followed by a gathering at an outdoor pub in Roppongi attended by all the players (except Bill), Mike, and some special guests -- Francis' girlfriend Leigh, brother Alex, Layla, and Jamie. The pretty faces of the young ladies together with the pleasant breeze and cool glasses of beer (awanashi, of course) made it an evening to remember.
