All Japan Championship

First things first. Just arrived in Tokio, waiting for our connection flight to Osaka/Itami, Mika and I we had to had sushi ! Oishii des



Arrived in Japan the first thing you will notice is how clean, organized and strict this country is. Of all the places in Asia I have travelled to Japan reminds me of Germany the most. Once you have figured out how to read the bus schedule you better make sure if the bus leaves at 7.35 to be there ON TIME. One minute later and you will have to wait for the next one, no exceptions...

The taxi price is compared to what I had to pay the week before in the Philippines outrageous. 40 US $ from the airport to the hotel, in Manila it would have cost me less than 4 US $...

Japan is very organized. Even the birds follow certain "sitting on a pole rules"

And Japan is about food. I have never been interested in sushi until I met my girlfriend Luciene. She really got me into appreciating the Japanese cuisine. I love it
So, the All Japan Championship started with a playermeeting and - a buffet !



The All Japan Championship is the tournament with the longest history in the world of billiards. 40 years the event has been around !!! It was only my second appearance after 2003 when I finished in third place...

The venue, the hall of the New Archaic Hotel in Amagasaki has nothing spectacular to offer but tables organized and lined up in the center of the arena and seating for the spectators on the left and the right. The tournament director desk has evenything under control...



Unfortunately my tournament story is again - short. I would like to mention my opponents names, but I only saw the Japanese characters on the scoreboards and I didn't make the effort to draw it down.

Anyway, I was leading my first match 8:4 when I pretty much didn't get a chance again. He started running racks and leaving deadly safeties. The last clearance was excellent and I found myself after the first round on the loser side already...

After beating my next opponent the same old story from match number one happened again to me. I was winning 8:4, missed a railshot and had only one more visit with a three rail kickshot which I missed and the tournament was over for me...

The other two Euorpean did better. Mika and Ralf finished 3rd and 4th. Taiwanese Wu Chia Ching collected another title by winning the 40th edition of the All Japan Championships.

There is one interesting thing to mention: "The Draw" It was very obvious that the draw has been tweaked a bit. On every sheet the "foreigners" had to battle it out by themselves, while the other side was completely filled with Japanese players. Every single sheet, so there was a guaranteed Japanese player in the further round...

I started the post with food. So I want to end it with food as well...

Ever had Okonomiyaki Mr Neumann ?