Curling Japan v GB

There are fantastic sports facilities ( Kazakoshi Park) in this small provincial town of Karuizawa, which is famous (amongst other things) for being the only town in the world to have hosted both summer and winter Olympic events - specifically equestrian three day eventing, and curling.

There are an indoor curling rink, an ice arena, multi-purpose gymnasium, outdoor tennis courts, a sports field for soccer, rugby and field hockey, a 400 metre outdoor speed-skating rink (plus a botanical garden)!

Sayuri had kindly treated us to an hour of curling instruction, which we thoroughly enjoyed, although Fiona did have a fall on the ice and has some slightly bruised ribs as a result.
The slipperiness of the ice was incredible and unique in our experience - very tricky!

We concluded the tutorial session with a brief Japan v GB match which finished in a 3:3 draw (as you can see from the scoreboard).
I distinguished myself by taking out the opposition number one stone with my final shot - and enabling Fiona and me to score 3 to equalise!!

Here are the two of us, at the end of our session, with Sayuri and our excellent instructor Fujikama.

The Japanese junior international squad was practising on an adjacent rink, but learnt very little, I am sure, from watching us!

Thoroughly enjoyable, but pretty testing and tiring.