6/18/2012 1:06 AM
Keith,
I just got off the phone with Akihiro (Andy) Furuta about a reunion in Guam......which we are both attending. I mentioned your needing your ball washers refurbished....stripping, priming, painting, replacing parts, etc. He is sure he can find a company there in Tokyo. He's going to email me a company name. Have you not found a local company in Japan, or more specifically, near the Tokyo area, that can help you with that? He's certain that he can find one.
And to all, before I get criticized for "outsourcing", Keith is IN Japan. Why should he need to send ballwashers all the way back to the US?
Keith, I'll pass his email on to you as soon as I receive it. He told me that he would get back to me within 48 hours. I still cannot believe that you two have not hooked up yet. He knows anybody that is anybody.....whatever that means. I also found out that our old chairman of the company that built Mangilao Golf Course in Guam, and I do mean "old", is now a famous TV personality in his spare time. How an 88 year old finds spare time to do TV, while running a major corporation is baffling, but he always did have the energy of a 20 year old.
Is there a requirement from your US military golf course chain of command that requires you to ship all that weight back to the states? I hope not. Regardless, "Andy" is going to contact his friends in the manufacturing sector and see if he can help. His only requirement is that if he finds a local firm that can refurbish your ballwashers, "better than new", is that I fly to Tokyo so that he can take you and me out for all the sashimi and sake we can handle. I know him. He actually means all "he" can handle, which indicates that you and I may need hospitalization afterwards.
He did, in his own sick way, promise that he would provide me with one of those Japanese hotels that have coffin size rooms for me to stay in. Man....that guy is cruel. I've been there, done that, and he knows it. That's why he was laughing. "Jeff-san, these hotel rooms are fantastic. Just pretend you're dead."
I'll let you know.
Jeff