ALBA Golf Magazine - Daisy in July 2009 Issue

Me and Ken and Daisy Ipo at Kashimanomori Country Club for ALBA magazine July 2009 issue.

I just realized I forgot to put up a post on Daisy's photo shoot for ABLA Golf Magazine here in Japan. She was featured in the July 2009 issue for a spread they had on golf courses in Japan that accept dogs on the course. We had a fun time and Daisy was her usual photogenic self!

Enjoy the pics...

ALBA magazine photographers shooting Daisy on the golf cart.

Scanned from the magazine

Scanned from the magazine

Scanned from the magazine

Kashimanomori Country Club employees playing with Daisy while Ken and I enjoy the onsen after finishing golfing. The employees put this photo on Kashimanomori's blog.

Views of Hawaii - Spring 2009

A "Dalmatian" pigeon we saw at Lani Kai

We've been fortunate to already have gone to Hawaii twice this year so far! Ken had mileage points that got us there in January. Then, since Ken still doesn't have a job, we were able to take advantage of a last minute unheard of cheap package deal in April, just before the busy travel season of Golden Week here in Japan (guess that's how retired folks can get good deals). So, off we went again for just a few days. We got in a bit of golf and good eatin' in during those times. We also enjoyed relaxing with Janet mom, especially the times we spent on Waikiki beach renting lounge chairs and umbrellas and acting like real tourists! That is the first time I have ever gotten in the water at Waikiki, since when you live on Oahu, you avoid going there at all costs.

We had such a wonderful time, everyday, we had good weather and soaked in the ALOHA...it sure goes along way to soothe ones soul!

Here are some pictures from both trips with some details below them. Hope you will find them enjoyable.

Whales off of south Maui coast

More Whales off the south coast of Maui

Ken as we start out a beautiful morning of golf at the Kahili Golf Course (years ago called the "Grand Waikapu") in Wailuku Heights, Maui. In the background is Haleakala, a rare view without too many clouds blocking the top of the mountain!

A view at Elleair Maui Golf Club and the new homes they are stacking in around the course and on the hillside there in upper Kihei that has long been open land.

Me and Mom's toes in the sandy shore at Waikiki

An Oahu firetruck parked in front of the Safeway on Kapahulu (which has a Starbucks), we liked the surfboard on it!

Our newest fun destination on Oahu (new for us) the Lion Coffee factory store/cafe. Ken is posing here in front of their somewhat cheesy display in the entrance.

A view of Windward Oahu (Kaneohe town) from the Ko'olau Golf Course. This course by the way, has some of the most beautiful scenery however is a pretty tough course to play!

Another view at Ko'olau Golf Course, the green colors were just amazing here as the sun broke thru a cloud!

Me getting ready to drive at the Waikele Country Club on Oahu

A mother Goose at the Waikele Country Club

Baby Geese at the Waikele Country club...so cute they were!

These birds were everywhere at Waikele Country Club, I believe this one was young as some of the other ones had more distinctive black on their chests

A bird looking for a handout at the Elleair course on Maui

Ever wondered how to keep some Plumerias you find on the golf course on your cart for decoration? Well I have, they usually blow off but I decided this time to poke a little twig in the center and then push it all into the one of the holes for holding a golf tee. Silly but these are the little things one enjoys when we can't be in Hawaii everyday.

Another shot of a Plumeria in the golf cart tee holder

Ken at the Ted Makalena Municipal Golf Course on Oahu. It's a flat course that we enjoy playing. Don't expect much in the way of facilities if you go, the holes aren't even marked and it can be confusing to follow the golf cart path for a first timer. See, doesn't my Plumeria look nice in the cart?

We finally made it to a Lampert's Ice Cream, Ken with his order

Me at Lampert's, the beginning of eating my way to oblivion

We love Leonard's malasadas and they have graciously placed a wagon where you can get some fresh and hot in Waikele (in the parking lot in front of the Big Kmart) instead of having to drive all the way to their bakery on Kapahulu, YUM!

The pet hotel delivering Daisy to us to the place where we parked our car at the airport. This caregiver let Daisy ride in front and watch for us to come get her. Can you see her face in the windshield, I think at this point she saw that I was approaching.

The second time we came home, the driver had Daisy in the back of the van, there were other dogs up in the front waiting to be reunited with their families. It's a nice service the pet hotel at Narita airport has. They will bring your dog to you as you are picking up your car at the airport parking, very nice for tired travelers!

Golf with Daisy in Ibaraki, Kashimanomori C.C.

Daisy on the cart, ready to start!

This week, we found a place to golf in nearby Ibaraki that is dog friendly. This place was more welcoming to dogs than anywhere we've ever been before. Daisy was allowed to walk with us into the lobby and also during the lunch break, she was allowed to be in the room with us while we ate, though not in the main dining room. They even had a little bowl of water waiting for her!

We all had a great time. The place was called Kashimanomori Country Club and it only takes about an hour or so from our place, that is CLOSE for Tokyo area! It had very nice greens, not too fast and not too bumpy, so we had some very nice putts. There were however tons of bunkers and quite a bit of water. I managed to get myself in the bunkers pretty often on this day! But one needs to practice getting out of them once in a while and I managed to do so fairly well. Lunch was included and the locker rooms and hot spring bath was very nice. We already have reserved our next game there in a few weeks!

One view of the golf course, a kind of cloudy part of the day.

Here I am working my way out of one of the many bunkers!

Daisy was so funny! She really watched us as we would get ready to swing our club, then just like a human spectator, she'd watch the direction that the ball sailed off to. It was a little hot this day once the sun came out, so we got her T-shirt wet and put it on her to keep her cool. It worked really good, she wasn't even panting. We thought about getting ourselves wet too!

Here is a kind of photo log of how the day went. Video a the end of the post is cute of her running on the fairway. It was so cool that this place allows the dogs off the cart (just had to keep her off the greens and out of the bunkers).

In the car on the way to the Country Club, Daisy didn't mind getting up early to go "bye bye" in the car!

Enjoying a break in the grass with Ken.

After 17 holes and nearly 5 hours, I'm feeling alittle sleepy!

Just a few minutes later, after we started the 18th hole,
she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore!

Wow, it's amazing how cozy this cart is!

When we got home, she had dinner and then headed directly for her crate and passed out. Doesn't she look like a fat Caterpillar here? She was snoring like a freight train but slightly opened her eyes when she heard the camera switch on for this photo.

Video of Daisy and Ken running down the fairway as I drive by on the golf cart.

Daisy is a golfer

Watching intently as Ken gets ready to hit the ball

This weekend, we went up to the mountains in Tochigi to an area called Kinugawa. In the wintertime, there are lots of skiers at the resorts there but from now people enjoy golf, hot springs and nature there.

We stayed at Kinugawa Kogen Country Club which is a very nice golf resort and they allow guests to bring their dogs with them, even on the golf cart. Daisy had a great time! We stayed overnight in one of the log type cabins they had there too.

At first Daisy didn't realize a 'ball' was involved in what we were doing (golfing). But after she figured that out, she watched all the balls fly and wanted them real bad! We gave her one to play with at one point for alittle bit. She was surprisingly well behaved for the 5 hours it took to get thru 18 holes!

We all enjoyed the outdoors at the top of this beautiful mountain range. The snow had just melted recently and everything was starting to get green and blossom. I hope we will go back there again someday. The facilities at the Kinugawa Kogen Country Club (where we stayed and golfed) were excellent. They had a wonderful onsen (hot springs bath) that was absolutely heaven after we finished golfing each day! Also, the staff were all so friendly and the food was good too! Highly recommended! Click here to go to their website (sorry, it's in Japanese only).

As we were packing, Daisy wanted to make sure we didn't forget to bring her too!

Getting ready to start golfing!

Ken and Daisy pose nicely.

Daisy 'begging', hoping to get a ball to play with.

Sitting up worked, she got her own ball.

Daisy waits nicely while Ken tees off on the last hole, it was his best drive of the day!

The cabins we stayed in (photo from the Country Club's website).

View of the mountain range from the golf cart path near the Clubhouse.

Views of Golf in Hawaii

Entrance to the Princeville Golf Club, on Kauai.

While in Hawaii the past 2 weeks, we were able to golf quite a bit. Fortunate to have excellent weather all but the first 2 days of our time there, we golfed on Kauai, Maui and on Oahu.

On Kauai we golfed 18 holes at the Wailua Municipal Golf Course on Kuhio highway. Click here to visit the website and see some photos of the course. We also tried to golf at Princeville on the second day we were on Kauai, however, when we got there we found it was raining heavily off and on and the course was already saturated from the prior week's worth of heavy rain, so we cancelled our game. Maybe next time!

On Maui we golfed our favorite Ka'anapali Golf Resort, which has just had some major renovations. Their logo is new, as well as updates to the clubhouse and renovations of the courses. The formerly named North and South courses are now called the Royal Ka'anapali and Ka'anapali Kai respectively. And not surprisingly, the fees have increased. We had a short lesson with the head golf pro, Sutee Nitakorn, before our game and he gave us some great pointers! We had a fun time on the Kai course.

We also golfed 18 holes at the Waiehu Municipal Course near Wailuku in Maui. This is where I learned to golf many years ago. The course was in great condition, however, the fees here have also increased, in my opinion, dramatically for a municipal course, whose facilities leave much to be desired. Their "real" phone number is hard to pin down and the staff seems tired yet still managing to be friendly for the most part, probably since the place is slammed with golfers all the time. There are no reservations for tee times, you just need to go there and wait to get on the course (which may not be possible on some days, especially weekends). This course can get pretty windy, especially later in the afternoon, so go as early as you can.

On Oahu, we enjoyed 9 holes of twilight golf at Pearl Country Club in Pearl City and 18 holes at one of our favorite municipal courses, the Pali Golf Course.

The Pearl CC, one of my favorite places for twilight golf, this time had pretty long grass in the rough and if your ball landed there, it was a goner 90% of the time. The course was packed and we were instructed prior to going out, not to use time to find balls that were OB and to just drop and move on. We started at 4:10pm (twilight starts from 3:30 here) and were not able to complete the entire 9 holes before the 6pm closing time due to a group of 4 ahead of us annoyingly painstakingly trying to find each and every one of their many lost balls (despite the aforementioned instruction to keep the game moving). We were also annoyed by quite a few hungry mosquitoes here!

The Pali Golf Course was very enjoyable. This course can sometimes get rained out being that it sits right at the base of the Koolau mountain range, which is often sort of a magnet for rain clouds. We have been driven off this course by buckets of rain before. This time, however, it was an amazingly beautiful and sunny day and we had a good dry game. We saw the usual chickens and wild birds that live on the course as well as wild pigs that have become accustom to being fed by the golfers. They were so funny trotting around the course begging for food. I've seen alot of animals and birds on the golf courses in Hawaii (turkeys on Molokai, goats on the Big Island, Nene on Kauai to name a few) but these pigs were hysterical. Check out the video at the end of this post.

Booking tee times is not easy for this course (or for any of the city/county golf courses on Oahu), you will need to call a phone number with an automated service to get a tee time. If you don't have a Hawaii golf card, you can only book 3 days in advance. However, it is possible to get tee times for the Pali Course near to the time you'd like to play (especially during weekdays), unlike the Ala Wai Course, which unless you are a local and have a Hawaii golf card (that allows you to book 7 days in advance), you can bet the farm you will never get a tee time no matter how flexible your time is or which day of the week it is.

Here are some pictures we took of our recent golfing at the courses described above.

Wailua Municipal Golf Course, on Kauai

Wailua Municipal Golf Course, on Kauai

Ka'anapali Golf Course on Maui, the island of Lana'i is seen in the background.

The Lahaina Sugar Cane Train passing by while on the Ka'anapali Kai Course.

At the end of the 9th hole, this is the way to the snack bar and restrooms (access on foot, carts are no longer allowed to cross the road).

Ka'anapali Kai course with the West Maui Mountains in the background.

The Pearl Country Club in Pearl City Oahu.

The Pearl Country Club in Pearl City Oahu

View of the Pali Golf Course on Oahu from the lookout off of the Pali Highway (see the clubhouse in the lower right corner of the photo?). Though it was a hazy day due to no tradewinds, you can see in the background Kaneohe town, Kaneohe Bay and Chinaman's hat.

The Koolau Mountain range at the Pali Golf Course.

The Pali Golf Course facing Kaneohe Bay.

Wild pigs coming down out of the forest near the clubhouse before the 10th hole. They proceeded to trot down the cart path to beg from the golfers in their carts who were lined up waiting to get on the 1st tee. Seems they have become accustom to people giving them a handout.

A hen nesting in the papertowels in the garbage can of the women's restroom at the Pali Golf Course. I had quite a shock as I was attempting to toss a papertowel into the can!

The pigs on the Pali Golf Course will come when you call them! Check out this hilarious video! This pig makes a sharp left and starts running towards me when I yell out "Hey Piggie"!