Karuizawa Curling 2012: And we're off

EDITOR'S NOTE:Laura Crockerhas quite a curling resume for such a young lass. Her Wilfrid Laurier squad from Kitchener, Ont. are the defending CIS University women's champions; she won world junior silver withRachel Homanin 2010; and she also appears as Miss October in the 2012 Women of Curling Calendar!

Crocker and Co. have teamed up with the CIS men's champions, theColin Thomassquad from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and are competing – and blogging – from Japan! The Karuizawa International is a legacy tournament created after the 1998 Olympic Winter Games, where curling was hosted in Karuizawa, a small resort town near Nagano.

Over to you, Laura!

Words and pictures by Laura Crocker

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KARUIZAWA, Japan –We made it through two full days in Karuizawa... after it took a while to get here!

After a weekend of training in Edmonton (and of course a little visit to the West Edmonton Mall) we started our Japanese journey. We first flew to Vancouver, and then arrived in Japan around 5:30 pm local time – after almost 23 hours spent in planes, trains, cars, stations and airports.

After a bit of a wait we hopped on a bullet train (where I immediately fell asleep) that runs at speeds of about 300 km/h and which took us to another train station in Tokyo. We got there a little after 8:00 pm, well after rush hour in any Canadian city, and it was the busiest station I’ve ever seen – everyone was either running or walking (or race-walking) at a pace that was way too fast for 18 slow Canadians weighed down with luggage. We once had to cross the main stream of people charging through the station – that was almost a death sentence.

While waiting for our next train, we witnessed the extreme cleanliness of Japanese society. A bunch of cleaning people were waiting outside the doors of our train, and when everyone got off they gave a signal, then ran on to pick up garbage, disinfect the tray table of every single seat, change the napkins behind people’s heads, and of course switch the direction of the chairs – because facing the wrong way would be far too stressful!

After finally leaving our last train we were met at the Karuizawa station by our hotel escort, and headed there. The hotel is really nice; the building itself is beautiful, and we’re told that our rooms are very spacious for Japan standards – a good thing if you’ve ever seen the room that Sarah and I share after a few days! We slept as best we could but we all woke up pretty early, but with just enough sleep to get us through the day.

Of interest: each night our hotel asks us what time we want breakfast, and then has everything ready for us the next morning. For our debut Japanese sunrise we had salad, French fries, croissants, eggs, ham, fruit, cornflakes, tea and pear juice. It was incredible!

On practice day we played a “friendship match” against a local Japanese team in connection with their earthquake relief fund and awareness campaign. We played against one of the most animated and dramatic skips I have ever seen – so it was a ton of fun. Their faces were covered with Canada tattoos and they all seemed quite happy to be here... and we were definitely glad to be a part of it!

After that game we taught a curling clinic to a group of school kids from grades 3-5 (thankfully with an interpreter on our sheet). These were some of the best curling kids I have ever seen, it was unreal! They all made origami for us to say thank you, they in turn were ecstatic to receive the Canada flags, tattoos, pencils, chocolate loonies etc. that we gave to them. They were so polite, and such a pleasure to spend time with.

Our first day ended with a welcome dinner that was also attended by the local teams from the friendship matchups. There were lots of different foods, and what we all thought was a meatball turned out to be... octopus. Jen, who has an irrational fear of anything even remotely octopus-like (calamari, for example), ate half of it and is now scarred for life.

During the dinner an auction was held to raise money for the Japanese earthquake relief fund, and while it was hard for us to know exactly what was going on, it was really fun to watch. The most expensive item at the auction, worth about 20,000 yen, was a pair of those crazy Norwegian curling pants... and I have never seen anyone as excited as the man who won them!

Our second day in Karuizawa meant our first day of official competition! For Sarah and I, it started with a 5:30 am wake up call… we are not fans of this whole jet lag thing! Our breakfast this morning was, again, incredible – we enjoyed yogurt, buns, croissants, fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, salad, and something that tasted like a tomato pasta sauce with zucchini and green peppers. Our hotel spoils us!

After breakfast we were off to the rink for pre-competition practice followed by the opening ceremonies. The mayor of Karuizawa and some other important person threw the ceremonial first rocks, and neither one of them looked like they had curled before. They just got out there in their dress shirts and ties, grabbed a Canadian broom from the backboards, and off they went in their sneakers. And both pulled off half-decent shots!

After the ceremonies we had a bit of time to relax at the hotel, and then went out for lunch. We found a place with “Fromage” in the name and thought that sounded pretty promising, so we decided to check it out... and we are certainly glad we did! Just as we were struggling with the menu and attempting to communicate with the waitress, an English-speaking Japanese man from the organizing committee walked in. He explained the menu items and ordered for us – this was such a helpful coincidence! We ate salad and some pizza, but the pizza...! It had the thinnest crust imaginable, and was so light and delicious, and nothing like the heavy, greasy pizzas we have in Canada. No wonder everyone here is skinny!

After lunch it was time for our first game of the competition against Switzerland, while the Canadian men took on Norway. Unfortunately the event didn’t start the way we wanted, and both our teams came up a little short in our games. The ice was a bit trickier today and our opponents, who were skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, managed it better than we did. They were the better team on the ice this afternoon, but we took a lot away from it and we are going to use that going forward. Tomorrow we have a busy day: three matches against Korea, Japan and the “Nagano Selection” team... and we’re ready to get ourselves back in the win column!

Today at the rink a Japanese man approached us and gave us each a piece of origami, and we engaged in a nice conversation with him – both parties doing the the best they could, of course. Later on, this same fellow later traded with Sarah’s dad – a kimono for a Canada scarf – explaining that the scarf would be given to his daughter (photo at left). Meanwhile, the kimono was such a beautiful piece of clothing... everyone here is just so nice and polite and happy all the time; western society could learn a thing or two from these people.

After cheering ourselves up with a bit of Japanese TV – extravagant pop concerts and ridiculous game shows – we’re off to rest up for our early start tomorrow. Hopefully we can all sleep well and not wake up five times through the night... like I have been doing! Thanks to all who are following along back home – sayōnara!