Sightseeing - Imperial Palace, Tokyo

Today (21st July) is a national holiday in Japan (Marine Day according to my phone), so no work to worry about. Even if I did have work, it would only be a one hour adult class. We decided to go to the Imperial Palace in the middle of Tokyo and (finally) do some tourist stuff.



So, a bit of a History lesson for you...
The Imperial Palace is on the sight of what was once Edo-jo (Edo = early Tokyo, a little fishing village + jo = castle. Ieyasu Tokugawa chose this sight for his castle in 1590 after making a deal were he was awarded the eight provinces of Kanto in exchange for his three provinces closer to Kyoto (the capital). Tokugawa was fine with the exchange, he was Lord of Kanto, the richest granary in Japan, and it gave him the chance, and the finances to build a mighty fortress to rival Kyoto. Within 10 years, he was ruling the whole country from Edo-jo as military shogun.



Tokugawa secured 250 years of unbroken peace for Japan. The shogunate was eventually overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1867. The following year, Emporer Meiji moved his court to Edo, from Kyoto and renamed the city Tokyo - the Eastern Capital.



At its peak, the castle had 99 gates, 21 watchtowers (3 are still standing) and 28 armouries. It was completed in 1640, and at the time, was the largest castle in the world.



We arrived late afternoon, which meant that we coudn't visit the gardens as they were closing (we'll go back later). We had a good walk around, and it's not until your stood infront of the walls, and start walking around them, that you really appreciate the size and complexity of the building. We had a good day of sightseeing.

Shiramizu Annual Summer Camp

The Nippon Budokan Training Centre in Chiba was the venue for the Shiramizu dojo annual summer training camp. It took place on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July 2008 and 97 Shiramizu students attended.

Amy and I were kindly invited to go along by Arakawa Sensei, despite it primarily being a child-orientated weekend. With us being big kids ourselves, we naturally jumped at the chance! It would be a great way to see how this camping trip compares to our own Hartlepool Wadokai version and it would also be a good training weekend.

We had an early start on the Saturday morning where we had to meet in the local kindergarten car park at 6:00am. Arakawa Sensei gave a short talk to everyone and when he had all the helpers/instructors lined up, he introduced us all and we all had to give a short speech.　Amy and I weren't actually officials, we were just there for kicks,　though we would still help out wherever we could.

The various Sensei got everyone locked and loaded on the coaches and we were ready to leave for 7:00am. We were on bus 2 with Yoshihara & Yamazaki Sensei and also Yuki Sempai, one of the cadets who was acting as an official for the weekend.


The journey was very long, approximately 6 hours including a number of breaks. The kids didn't seem to mind the journey and had very high spirits throughout. The kids all started cheering as soon as they could see the coastline.






We got to the Nippon Budokan Training Centre at about 1.30pm, and by the time we got everyone unpacked and had got through the welcome/introductions in the hotel foyer, it was close to 2pm. Sensei announced that training would begin at 2pm, so we had a few minutes to get changed and get to the Dojo. In the medley that followed, I managed to lose Lawrence who had the key to our room and, more importantly knew my room number. Uehara Sensei must have sensed my dismay, because he quickly told me which room I was staying in.

The room that we were staying at was very traditional, with tatami on the floor and futons hidden in a big cupboard that are simply pulled out and rolled along the floor when its bedtime.

We got changed and headed down to the training venue; we walked past a huge dojo which had Kendo-ka and Judo-ka busy training inside. I had to resist the urge to stay and watch.


The training was pretty standard by Shiramizu standards, we ran through a lot of basics and then we split for Kata. All the officials were given their own group of students to teach. I think Sensei could tell that everyone was starting to tire a little. So he stopped the training and got everyone to have various races from one end of the hall to the next, performing different techniques. The highlight of this bit of training was the jumping Sando-geri which Arakawa Sensei expertly demonstrated. This short ice-breaker gave everyone enough of an energy boost to finish off with Kumite.

We (the Dan grades) were primarily taught Kumite by Fujimoto Sensei, who use to be on the Japan National Team. He was very good at explaining things, and his English was pretty good too. I learned quite a lot about closing down the distance and breaking the line from him. The other students were split into smaller groups and led by different people, including a few University students. The day's training finished with the Seniors (...and me!) having a short Kumite session whilst everyone else observed.

The training finished and we bowed out and went to get changed for a barbeque. It was pretty cool, the kids were divided up and the Dan grade kids were put in charge of cooking on the hot plate for their respective teams. It was really good to see and quite funny watching some of the kids concentrating really hard on cooking one burger at a time, and then be uncertain of which hungry kid to give it too. The various sensei gave them all some advice, which was basically 'throw everything on!'

Everyone got there fill and we finished off with some fireworks. All the kids (and me and Amy!) were given a big pack with various sparklers.

After everyone got cleaned up and the kids were all in bed, we had a bit of a chill out in Arakawa Sensei's room, all the officials (and us) were treated to a late night snack of ice cream, which was lovely!

Sunday...
It was another early start, 6.00am. The original idea was to go for a run up to a close-by vantage point, do a bit of training and then run back. However, Arakawa sensei hurt his leg yesterday, so the run turned into a walk, for the most part anyway. For which we were all grateful. We stopped at the half way point to perform some basics and work up a sweat, and then we headed back.
After the walk, we had a Japanese style breakfast and then we were off to the Dojo for more training. This session was a little over an hour, and we covered more basics and quickly moved onto kata. This time, Amy and I were taught by Yamazaki Sensei along with the other Dan grades. Todays training was finished off with an exhibition match between two younger students, with full head gear.

After training, we packed up and loaded the coaches and set off for Kanagawa Sea world. This was a relatively short bus ride, and the scenery kept the children occupied.

The kids were organised into their teams again and sent on their way into the park to see the sights. The team leaders were kitted out with synchronised watches so that they wouldn't be late back too, a very good idea!. We spent a few hours there, and had lunch, and then headed home.

All in all, it was a very well organised weekend. It was a lot of travelling for two days, but it was still very enjoyable for everyone. The trip to sea world in particular was very enjoyable for the kids.

Carl

Teaching on my own...

Today was my first day of teaching English classes completely on my own. I'd taught a few Shiramizu classes, but until now, I'd always had Lawrence standing in the background. The kid from my first class was very shy, or at least pretended to be. I won her over by acting dumb and confusing numbers and colours etc...

After work, I had a meeting with the managing director of ACTY. This was the first time I had met him. He asked about my background, experience etc... All in all, we had a good chat, and he seems like a pretty decent guy.

I would have been late for training had it not been cancelled, so I spent the night packing for the weekend away.

Lost in Tokyo...

Despite being here just a little over two weeks, I think I'm getting used to the Tokyo rail network now, so to save Lawrence some time, and to test my navigation skills, I thought I would make my own way to work. Simple enough, I had been twice already with Lawrence, so it should be fine.

The trains are pretty straight forward, they are 99.9% of the time running as scheduled, most areas have stations listed in English and the times are usually on the electronic boards, so if you have a ‘train leaving’ time you can usually find the right train.

I got to Ikebukuro station fine, with no dramas. A bit of useless trivia for you, Ikebukuro station is Japan’s second busiest station, with 2.7 million commuters passing through it every day.

The problem came when I needed to find the train to Nerima, for some reason, none of the electronic scoreboards were showing a time, and there were more trains waiting at the station than usual. I jumped on the first train I came to which was going in the right direction, I had a quick look at the route, and I worked out that Nerima was the 4th stop.

So, the train leaves, and I simply count the stops, however, the 4th stop is not Nerima, so I decide to wait for the next one, but that turns out to be Tokorozawa. I see sense and get off the train at this station before the train changes lines. I have a look at the route at the station and work out that I am on the correct line, but my train didn’t stop at Nerima. I decide to go up through the station and get on the train going the opposite way, back to Ikebukuro.

Whilst on the train back, I find a notice that has all the different types of trains that run this route. It also lists which trains are rapid / express / semi-express etc... So not all trains stop at every station, I figured out that I had mistakenly got on an ‘express’ train, instead of a ‘rapid’ train. When I got to Ikebukuro, I simply jump onto the waiting ‘rapid’ train going back the way I’ve just came, and sure enough, the first stop is Nerima. I got to work 1 hour and 20 minutes late.

Oguchi Sensei already knew that I was going to be late because she takes the same line to work, Lawrence also only got there 20 minutes before I did.
It turns out that someone decided to jump in front of a train on the Seibu-Ikebukuro line (our line), which obviously slows things down a bit, but, if that wasn’t enough, someone then decides to jump in front of another train at the other end of the line. Great, so that’s why none of the notice boards were showing times.

Ogushi Sensei took Lawrence and I out for lunch, as a 'thank you' to Lawrence for the last year, and a 'welcome' to me. The food was very nice, typical Japanese style.

I taught the full day on my own, I thought the second class would have been a challenge because we had two extra kids in the class. (This is the same class that I made one of them cry a few weeks ago). The day was fine, I had no problems with the lessons. In the last class, we were shown a video of two of the kids fighting in a Kyukushinko Karate tournament. It's very different from what we do under WKF rules, they wore full headgear and body armour, which seems to be the standard in Japan for kids. Also, despite this style being 'full contact', competitors can't attack the head with punches, strangely kicks are ok. I also didn't quite understand the scoring system.

After work, we headed back home. Got changed and went training.

Day 16 - double training

So I’m still suffering from a combination of my running adventure on Monday morning and the Takagi Sensei training last night. I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed, get showered and ready for the morning adult class at Shiramizu. I was on the verge of throwing one of my legendary hissy fits when I realised that the wife had let her cleaning duties slip, I had no clean and dry boxer shorts! She’s obviously broken, but I don’t say anything, I’m still half asleep, and it’s far too early and far too hot outside to be starting world war 3! I just pick a random pair, and yes, I put on damp boxer shorts. Which to be fair, made no difference whatsoever because as soon as I stepped outside I was soaked through with sweat.

We (Amy and I) had a gentle walk to the dojo, which is only a 10 minute walk away from our home, along the banks of the river which incidentally, also forms the border between Sugito town (where we live) and Miyashiro town.

We get to the dojo nice and early, Yamazaki Sensei is already there, vacuuming the dojo floor as we arrive. We say the normal greeting ‘onaigashimasu’ as we bow into the dojo, and remove our shoes before we step onto the hardwood floor. I don't think Onaigashimasu has really got a direct translation into English, but the Japanese people say it a lot. It’s basically a greeting.

The dojo was very hot, just think about stepping off an air conditioned plane onto an Egyptian airstrip, were the heat just smacks you in the face! We got changed in the small permanently air conditioned office / trophy room. Once ready, we braced ourselves and re-entered the dojo to start stretching.

The attendance was a lot lower than last week, with some of the usual faces missing. Despite this, the class started on time with running for a few minutes, and then various exercises to get everything working. We then moved onto line work. The usual techniques were performed for about 30 minutes and then we had a break.

During the break, I had a chat with one of the students, who despite being at an age when many would be hanging up their walking boots, has only recently started Karate and loves it. He was intrigued by the H20 pack in my backpack; I explained that I use it when I walk up mountains. He looked surprised and said ‘I thought England was flat, I didn’t think there were any mountains there’, I smiled and explained the Pennine area; the Lake District; Snowdonia and of course the Scottish highlands. We then got onto talking about the temperature in England, how it is a lot milder than Russia and Canada, despite being on the same latitude. He asked if it was due to the effect of the Gulf Stream, I said it was, but I explained the problem of the melting ice caps, they are forcing the cold arctic water south, thus interfering with the course of the Gulf Stream. We both agreed that England would be a lot colder place to live if we ever lost it. I told him that we were staying in Japan anyway, so the colder British weather won't affect us!

After the break, Sensei split us up, Yamazaki Sensei took us through the Pinan Kata’s from Shodan upwards. This was a wise move, because although Hartlepool Wadokai and Shiramizu are from the same ‘brand’ of Wado i.e. JKF-Wadokai, we still perform Kata with slight differences from each other. We worked through the various Kata, with Yuki Sensei being very patient with us, and using her limited English to make our lives easier. I was having a particularly harder time than usual though due to my ankle. I was struggling to pivot over the left foot without getting serious pain, and the joint wasn’t as flexible as it should be. The result was a very unstable performance of Sandan; a shocking attempt at Yondon and finally Godan, without a jump!. I was getting particularly annoyed with my body part way through Yondan, and Yamazaki sensei realised that I was uncomfortable. I told her I was fine, and she continued giving the count, this time concentrating more on Amy’s kata performance.

After a while, Sensei left us to self-practise Pinan Godan. I did a bit of stretching to loosen the ankle a bit and then started, albeit very slowly. Yamazaki sensei kept a watchful eye on us, and steered us in the right direction on a few moves. When she wasn’t putting us right, she practised some kata herself, and as you would expect from a Japan national Kata champion, her form was very good, inspiring even. I was jealous that her petite form allowed her to move so crisply, me being a western troll, who only likes to fight, I can’t quite manage to perform Kata so gracefully. But I will keep at it, maybe one day.

Arakawa Sensei kidnapped Amy and took her into the office so that she could fill out an application for an English teaching job. When he stepped back in, he put us through Seishan Kata. I was concentrating hard, trying to get it right. Arakawa Sensei spent a lot of time on me, and I feel as though I learned more about Seishan in those ten minutes, than I have in the past 5 years.

Training finished with a bit of a talk by sensei, again in Japanese. Now, despite not speaking the language, I kind of followed what was said. I think Sensei was saying that Takagi Sensei had talked to him about the way I punch in Junzuki. I always lock out the striking shoulder, and the striking arm. This, he said is the correct application of the technique, but not the best way to practise. Takagi Sensei mentioned Okinawa-te (Okinawa hand – a predecessor and early influence to modern day Karate), and how when you punch, the arm is sort of curved and therefore not locked. It’s a much more relaxed technique, and quicker too.

I agreed, and tried to blame it on my sporting background (lol). But I was quite pleased that Takagi sensei took the time to notice how I performed during training with him. The challenge of course, will be to put the techniques right for my next training session with him.

We cleaned the floor by hand, as is the usual custom, and then bowed out and got changed.

Sensei reminded us that we were going for lunch straight after training, so we quickly got changed. I had to borrow Amy’s expertise to wrestle me out of my Gi-pants as they were so soaked in sweat, that I couldn’t undo them. Nice.

We went to the Flying something restaurant, we’ve been there loads in the last two weeks, but I still keep forgetting the name. Afterwards, we were dropped off at Joyful Honda for supplies and we walked back home.

We chilled out for a while, and then I stole Amy's bike and headed to the dojo to do some paperwork. I spent a couple of hours checking email, proof reading the blog, writing this diary etc... And then went next door for teh English class. I was running the class on my own, Lawrence and Amy in background.

The class was very good, we got the kids learning some new, more complicated sentences. Lawrence admitted that the kids had done the same sort of thing for the past two years. So its about time that they were challenged a bit. Afterwards, I got some good feedback from Lawrence and then we went across to the dojo to get ready for training with the kids.

The training was good, we bowed in with Arakawa sensei, Yoshihara sensei and Uehara sensei (sporting a new haircut) who turned up a few minutes late. Uehara Sensei ran most of the class, with lots of warm up drills, jogging etc... We ran through the usually sort of basics before the break.

After the break Arakawa Sensei put us with the brown belts for seishan and naihanchi which was taught by Uehara Sensei. Afterwards, we moved onto Kumite drills. I was selected to be at the front of the line up (for all the other kids to attack). There are some really good fighters amongst the kids, despite their ages, they have very good awareness of distancing and timing.

We ended up free fighting, with the kids. Towards the end of the session, everyone else stopped to watch me fighting the kids. Sensei thought it would be a good idea for him to pick my next opponent, and to keep us fighting for ages. I was shattered, but kept going, trying not to hurt the kids - too much. I was purple by the time we finished.　We cleaned the dojo floor, and bowed out.　

Day 15 - Guseikai Training

Tuesday
Me and Amy were almost late for the Shiramizu English Class today, what made the thing worse was that this was the first class that I would be teaching on my own, with Lawrence just observing. When we arrived, just on time for the class to start (but by Japanese standards at least 10 mins late!), Arakawa Sensei was waiting with the kids in the English class, I was very embarrassed, but we didn't have time for any apologies as the kids were all sat waiting for us. I felt a little relieved as Lawrence was a few minutes later than us, which was sort of like a 'get-out-of-jail' card for me!

After a slow start to the first class, they all went by very easily, and I enjoyed my first taste of teaching English.

After the English class, Arakawa Sensei took us to Ikebukuro for training with Takagi Sensei, at his Gusei-kai dojo. Takagi Sensei is the chairman of the JKF-Wadokai Technical Committee, so he obviously knows his stuff. Arakawa Sensei is just one of Takagi Sensei' well respected students, we are very lucky to be training with them both.

We (Me, Amy, Lawrence) went in Sensei’s shiny new car (which is actually his wife’s car, but Sensei has stolen it!) along the highway. We got there at 8.20pm, which was a little late because Sensei had to wait for my Shiramizu English class to finish.

We bowed in and joined the rest of them in the lines were everyone was still warming up. We ran through various basics including: Junzuki/Kette Junzuki; Gyakuzuki/Kette Gyakuzuki; Tobikomizuki; Nagashizuki; Junzuki no-tsukomi/Kette Junzuki no-tsukomi; Gyakuzuki no-tsukomi/ Kette Gyakuzuki no-tsukomi;

We then moved onto Kata, we ran through Seishan; Kushanku and Chinto. We were next given some time for Kata free practise. I concentrated on Chinto and Niiseishi mostly, whilst watching other people perform very good Kata.

After a while, we bowed out and then moved onto approximately 30 minutes of Kumite drills which was led by Arakawa sensei. I really enjoyed the training, it was quite traditional stuff, but the quality was good.

Once we got changed, we headed outside were I got chatted up by one of the cute Japanese girls who had been training... which was nice, I hope to see her again (lol).
We dropped off the 3 young Shiramizu lads who had also been at the training in Omiya (Yuki; Snau; Kento) on the way home, we managed to get lost too. Sensei' new sat nav didn't want to recognise the address of the Kento's home. So we were driving around for ages, I was ok though. I just got my IPod out and started watching 'Bad Boys'.

We eventually got back to Sugito, just before the good firefights in the movie. We were all starving, so we went for some food, the first place decided to switch its lights off just as we parked up. Sp we went to another place instead, and had a very late night snack.

a little accident...

Monday morning - day 14,
Having decided that I can no longer use 'Jet-Leg' as an excuse anymore, I made a concerted effort to drag my backside out of bed this morning for training.

I got up at 7am to go for a short run, I ran from home, over Wado bridge, through Miyashiro town, to the Dojo and back again. It's only short, and took about 20 minutes. It was enough to start with, at least until my body fully acclimatises.

When I got home, I had some breakfast and a shower, then it was off to the dojo for morning self-training. I'd forgotton about the new 'dance' class at the dojo (They just hire the hall, Arakawa Sensei doesn't teach it!). So we had just over an hour for training.

After training, we headed to the internet cafe at Tobu. On the way there, I er, had a little accident. My backpack, that I use everyday, has a 'water tank' in it, with a over the shoulder straw. It's very useful in this heat. Anyway, when I put my back on the floor of the train, I inadvertently pressed on teh straw. After a few minutes, their was a river of water all the way down the train and a very cross-looking train conductor! I hastily got my towel out of my bag, and set off drying up the floor before the train arrived at Tobu station. Thankfully, their was only two other people in our train carraige, one of whom was asleep. The other guy, naturally thought the whole thing was hilarious.

When we got to Tobu, with Amy still laughing at me! I rung out the saturated towel and hung it over a railing outside the internet cafe to dry out. I updated the Internship blog inside and then we headed home.

It wasn't until we got home that I realised that i'd left my towel at Tobu. Again, Amy decided to laugh at my misfortune. I left Amy at home and stole her bike, on route to the internet cafe (which is only a 10 min bike ride), I decided to try and find the elusive Joyful Honda.

I went the same way as before, to Sugito station and passed McDonalds. This time, I turned left and after a few minutes came across the store. I think the Japanese guy who gave Amy directions before just wanted to mess with the Gaijins lol. I had a look around the store, and picked up a few supplies (pringles, mmm!)

Afterwards, I went back to internet cafe to upload some photos on the blog, and of course to pick up my towel!.

On the way back, I headed straight to Lawrence’ place for a private lesson with Kota. Kota, by the way could one day give Lewis Hamilton a run for his money in F1. He's a total Karting junky, and spends all his free time, and no doubt all his parents money, on Karting practise.

After the lesson, Me and Lawrence went to the local Noodle place for snacks before we headed to the dojo for our English class.

Lazy weekend...

Saturday
I decided to have a sleep in, because I was shattered from last night.
Amy, being a machine was up early enough to go training at Shiramizu with the kids class.

After training, we went clothes and food shopping. This took us ages, because we only had one bike between the two of us, we had to walk. Sugito isn't huge, but everything is quite far apart when you're walking. The heat in particular takes its toll.

When we got back home, our tans were significantly improved but our bodies needed a rest. We both crashed out, and we were late for training as a result. We thought the class started later than it did – doh!

Sunday
Lawrence took us to a Free Japanese class in Hasuda, which is an 8 or 12 minute train ride (depending which train you catch) from Kuki. I really enjoyed this, I talked to an interesting guy, Akihiko Yokoyama, (call him Aki). He has lived in England before, so his English is very good. He taught me a long introduction in Japanese, which I had to say infront of everyone.

Afterwards, we went shopping in the big department stores of Omiya, and I finally bought some ipod speakers - woo!.

The next few days...

The next few days were pretty standard, and I don't want to bore my limited readership too much with boring details...

Monday
We were a little hungover, apparently Japanese beer is stronger than in the UK. Hmmm, maybe... We went to the internet cafe, and chilled out at the station coffee shop for a while watching the locals go about their daily routine. Later on, we joined Lawrence at the dojo for a Shiramizu English class.

Tuesday - The quest for Joyful Honda
Joyful Honda, despite having a rubbish name, is huge, and sells almost anything you could want, at reasonable prices. It even sells pets, though their puppies are very expensive!

Anyway, we knew that this place was on route 4. Route 4 is the main road through Sugito, and it houses most of the food places; baseball ranges; bowling alley etc... But we didn't know where exactly.　

We set off north from our home, towards Sugito Takanodai station (about a 10 min walk). I was pleased to find a McDonalds near to the station, which I quickly marked on our map. We decided to ask someone for directions, a good way for Amy to practise her Japanese... After we got directions, we turned right and walked for miles... and miles... and we didn't find the place! Amy’s Japanese can’t be very good yet, because we ended up in the wrong direction (which i later found out!).

We had a few Shiramizu English classes later on, with Karate training afterwards.

Wednesday
This morning Arakawa sensei had arranged for me to have an Interview at a very exclusive local kindergarten for a job starting in September. Sensei also teaches Karate here, so it would be good for me to work there, because I could then help Sensei with the classes.　

I wasn't absolutely sure what the job was that I was applying for, but I still wanted to make a good impression, so full suit it would be. Amy had also been asked to turn up too, so we walked the 5 minutes from home to the kindergarten. When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Rei and baby Ema (Richard Sensei' wife and child). After a few minutes, we were also met by Arakawa Sensei. - I had my own entourage for the interview, I felt like a VIP!

Apparently, the interview went well, with both Rei and sensei translating for me. I think it went well because baby Ema was there, and as the Shiramizu mascot, she's a pro for getting all the attention. Though I am told that I have a nice smile. Arakawa Sensei gave us a tour of the place; he knows it well because he runs a branch dojo there. We watched a few classes, and got a feel for the place.

The kindergarten is private, and quite prestigious, so it's good for the Internship to work here again. I got the job (?), and I start in September on Monday & Tuesday mornings, I will basically meet and greet the kids and parents and talk English with them, I don’t have any set classes either, so thats pretty good.

Rei kindly took us home after the interview, and waited for us to get our Gi’s on, and then dropped us off at training for the morning adult class. We went for a meal after training with some of the class and instructors.

We had a Shiramizu English class on the afternoon, and then a private lesson afterwards, so I missed the evening training session.

Thursday
A pretty ordinary Thursday. I was at work all day in Nerima with Lawrence, I finished work with a splitting headache. Once we got back to Wado station, we headed home, got changed and went to the Dojo for training.

Friday

We went to the internet cafe on the morning before I went to work at ACTY in Yoshinohara at 2.30pm.　Lawrence stayed behind at work for a meal with the owners. A sort of thank you for the past year, I was invited too as a ‘welcome’ but i couldn’t face sushi – sorry!

This was the first time that I would be getting the train back on my own, so I'm pleased to say that I had no problems.

When I got back, I got changed and headed to the dojo for the kids High performanceclass. Richard Sensei turned up part way through training. He had cycled all the way from Omiya on his wife’s old bike, it took him 66 minutes! Not bad, considering the distance... It shows how much of a nice guy he is, he could have quite easily drove or took the train, but he wanted to give Amy the bike so that we could both have one.

Near the end of the class, Arakawa Sensei had us (Me and Amy) in a line up doing a lot of high kicks against focus pads, he kept changing the kids that were with us. I'm not sure if it was to make us work up a sweat, or to test our skills, or to maybe give the kids a taste of European kicking techniques, or maybe a combination of all three.

Also, sensei was teaching his students how to fight against a south paw fighter i.e. Me! Since i’m the only one (that i've seen) at Shiramizu, which I think is slightly unfair (lol) but it can only serve to improve my fighting.

We went for a meal afterwards with the other Sensei, unfortunately Richard Sensei had to get dropped off at Wado station because baby Ema was poorly. Despite this, we had another good, if very late night.

Tournament report – Saitama Wadokai Championships Sunday 6th July

The Asuharu community centre was the venue for the Saitama Wadokai Championships on a very hot and humid Sunday 6th July 2008. The day was going to prove difficult for me because as an active competitor, I’m not used to watching tournaments, I normally compete in them!

(Richard here - the deadline for participants was over a month in advance so we were unable to get a spot for Carl and Amy not knowing what their schedule would be in the first week. But they are registed for the Wadokai nationals in August!)


Amy on the other hand was kept very busy taking photos all day.

What struck me straight away, before we even got into the sports centre was the punctuality of the Japanese! The majority of athletes and their parents were waiting outside the sport's centre before it even opened for business. When we turned up, there was already a buzz in the air, despite already being 25 degrees at 8:30am, the kids were messing around whilst the parents looked on, no doubt jealous of their youthful energy!

6 clubs attended the tournament, with approximately 300 total competitors; by far the biggest turnout was Arakawa Sensei's Shirimizu dojo with an impressive 160 students, most of who competed in both Kata AND Kumite. From what I could ascertain, the next big turnout was from KICK Karate and then a number of other clubs (sorry I can't read Japanese yet so I don't know their names).

The tournament was setup very well, there were 5 mat areas set up in the hall, with all spectators kept out of the way in stadium seats overlooking all the areas. It gave the event a very ‘clean’ look throughout the day. Usually, at UK tournaments, you can't see past the first area due to huge crowds of parents standing around the mat. Not so in Japan. The hall with its grand marble pillars and stadium seating also gave the tournament a feeling similar to the coliseum in Rome; the students would be going into combat like the gladiators of the past.

There was the usual sort of expectant buzz in the air, as you get at all good tournaments. What stood out were the ‘team’ warm-ups, which lasted for well over an hour. All the different dojo got their students together and the students were put through their paces. I always find that this sort of warm up serves two purposes. Firstly, it gets all the students fired up for the day ahead, their bodies become more agile and the techniques become that bit more sharper, the younger students feeding off the more experienced person stood next to them, it’s a great way to build team spirit. Secondly, it is a great way to psych out all the competitors from the other dojo! Shirimizu filled half the hall with its competitors, surely an intimidating sight for everyone else. The effect of all 300 students warming up together was an impressive sight to see and hear, it was as though the competition had already started, with each group trying to ‘out-Kiai’ the next.

The Shirimizu warm-up was split up in two (due to the large numbers of competitors). Yoshihara Sensei and Yamazaki Sensei took the young yellow and blue belt kids whilst the older and higher grade kids and adults were led by Mori-san, with the other Shirimizu instructors walking between the two groups correcting and encouraging as necessary. Both warm-ups consisted of a lot of bouncing, stretching and Kihon moves, with a lot of synchronised counting. They then moved onto punches with Kiai, and finally onto Kata. I must say that this part was very good, watching 70+ 6-9 year olds perform the different Pinan Kata in near perfect unison – an awesome sight.

It was during his warm-up that Amy donned her Gi so that she could pretend to be a competitor, and therefore get closer to the action for better photos.


At 9:30am, the students were marshalled into lines by dojo.

What followed was a standard opening ceremony, with a lot of speeches by various people. Arakawa Sensei, who happened to be running the tournament, gave a short speech which drew out 5 students (4 of whom were from Shirimizu), they were all presented with a certificate and a small envelope, these kids had been selected to the Japan National Wadokai Team for the forthcoming Wadokai World Championships in August.

After the final bow, it was onto the day’s business. Each mat area was announced and the students were organised into the correct ring. With Japanese efficiency, all 5 Kata rings were ready to go in a matter of minutes. All of the rings ‘bowed in’ together and at 10:00am the tournament begun.


The Kata sections involved both Aka (red) and Ao (blue) competitors perform their chosen Kata simultaneously in front of 5 officials, with the winner getting the majority of the official’s flags. It was Shirimizu up first on all five areas, and impressively, all got through to the next round. This would turn out to be a sign of what the day had in store. What followed was 2 hours of great Kata, no matter which area you watched, there was some very good Kata on display. The main thing that caught my attention was the difference in the Kime points (points of focus) and the general pace of the kata, particularly with the more experienced competitors.


After each round, the area would stop and the officials would have all the students bow out, those competitors that hadn’t made it through the first round were then dismissed.

Round 2 on all areas led to a lot of exciting Shirimizu vs. Shirimizu matches. Next up was the Seniors Dan Grade Kata division, I paid particular attention to this category as it would have been my division had I been competing and Lawrence, my predecessor was also entered. Lawrence was first up, and he got a bye because the other guy didn't turn up. Second round, Lawrence gave a good performance of Pinan Godan (the compulsory Kata), he won this round 5-0. Third round, and a Shirimizu final was between Lawrence (with Seishan) and Tsubasa Oshima (with Chinto). Tsubasa won the final 5-0 with an excellent performance and a well deserved result. Lawrence was thrilled with his second place finish.

At 12 o’clock, when all the Kata areas had finished, everyone broke for 1 hour lunch.


Kumite begun promptly at 1:00pm with everyone bowing in together and each mat area starting at the same time. The main difference between Japan and UK Kumite competition is the extra compulsory safety equipment that is required here in Japan for juniors and ladies. This consists of a huge helmet, with face guard and body armour. The end result is 200 cute little storm troopers lined up at the side of the areas minus the laser-guns of course!







The competitors were all fearless, if a little predictable. From what I could see, everyone's strategy seemed to rely on being the fastest off the mark, with very little in the way off ring-craft. The fighters attack constantly with punches until the referee stops the fight. A lot of the fighters had killer gyakuzuki’s (reverse punches) and were particularly good at stealing the distance from each other, getting in range and then striking to get the point. The downside to the fighting was that most people fought in the same way, most, if not all held a left stance throughout the tournament.



I was particularly impressed whilst watching Yuki Okamura (sorry, no photo), from Shirimizu in the cadets Kumite division, he was, in my humble opinion, the best fighter of the day, showing great skill in picking off his opponents. I think at times he was too confident; losing a few points, but that didn’t stop him from taking gold.

I was a little disappointed with the senior divisions, the categories were quite small (compared to the kid's categories) and the standard wasn't the best I've seen. I still watched the Seniors Dan grade category with interest because again, this would have been my division. This category had a few good bouts, but none had the flair that had been shown in the previous divisions. Mori-san from Shirimizu put on a good display and he was very confident in a few of his bouts, having no guard and simply dodging the opponent's strikes.

All in all, the competition was very well organised and very well run. The Kata standard was very good and there was some good Kumite on display too. I can't wait until the Wadokai Nationals to see how Amy and I perform.

Richard Sensei; Rei (Richard's wife)& baby Ema (The Shiramizu mascot) turned up at the competition towards the end. The plan was to watch the end of the competition, then go for a coffee. However, the sports hall was very hot. Rei and Ema in particular didn’t like the heat, so we decided to leave just before the end and go for a coffee to catch up on the week so far.

We went in Richards car to Tobudobutsu-koen station because it has a nice coffee shop there with tons of different cakes for sale. Problem was, we couldn’t get the car parked anywhere. So, Rei decided to kick out us and Richard and go home, we agreed to meet up at a later date for the coffee and chat.

We talked for hours about allsorts... including our respective Karate goals; and of course politics, in Japan, Canada and the UK/Europe.

We (Amy and I) had hoped to get changed before hand, however it wasn't going to happen because we all talked too much. We went to an Izakaya (traditional type of pub) which just so happens to be next to the coffee shop, for a joint ‘after competition party’ and a ‘welcome Carl & Amy party’.



All of the Shiramizu instructors were there, and some of the adult class and parents. There was lots of eating and drinking, the biggest thing i noticed was that Arakawa Sensei did not drink alcohol at all. Its all part of his image, forever the professional. Everyone their gave a speech about how the tournament went, benefits & concerns, and a bit of a welcome to Japan Carl & Amy. The most enthusiastic speech by far was by Suzuki Sensei, I have no idea what he said, but it was full of energy.



It was a really good night, and we drank one or two er, soft drinks. We took a late train home afterwards...

Day 5 – 05.07.08

We got in quite late last night, so we decided, well actually our bodies decided for us, that we should have a sleep in.

Once we dragged ourselves out of bed, we headed to the internet cafe at Tobudobutsu-koen station (a 2 min train ride from Wado station). I had to proof read the internship blog before it could be posted (a good rule to make sure that we look good, especially since I write diary style, there's often many grammatical errors to correct!).

Once we had checked our emails etc... we headed back home to get changed for training. The days Adult training at Shiramizu was earlier than usual 4.30pm-6.00pm because we were all helping to set up the Saitama Wadokai Karate Championships.

After training we hitched a ride with Kikuchi sensei to the competition venue. We had a bit of a wait whilst a gymnastics session finished up, it was good to see how organised the gymnastic kids were. They had the huge hall cleared away in a matter of minutes, with very little adult supervision.

The set up for the competition was pretty straight forward, their was no tatami to lay, we simply taped the perimeter of the area. The chairs; tables and of course the trophies were set up in a very short time.

We went for a meal afterwards with a few of the Shiramizu instructors.

Day 4 - Fri 4th July

This was my first day working at ACTY in Yoshinohara, this is approximately 75 mins travelling from home. Amy and I planned on spending the morning shopping at Omiya station and the surrounding area. Omiya is a major station in the Japan rail network and has tons of huge department stores. We agreed to meet Lawrence at some sort of metal sculpture thing in the middle of the station a few minutes before our train. Simple enough...

What we actually did was to get off two stops too early at HIGASHI-Omiya, which translates as east-Omiya, basically thr wrong part of town!. So, naturally, the station is not as big and the shops surrounding the station aren’t that great either. Also, we couldn’t find anything that looked remotely like a sculpture, unless Lawrence meant the electricity pylons!!!

We went wandering around, and got something to eat from a nice looking restaurant, which turned out to be a takeaway place! So, we didn’t have anywhere to eat it! We had a wonder around, to look for somewhere to eat the food, out of sight. After about 10 minutes of wandering in the blazing sun, we gave it up as a bad job and decided to go to a sit-down restaurant instead. Never mind, lesson learned...

Eventually, we decided that we weren’t where we were supposed to be. So, I called Lawrence from a pay phone. I specifically asked if there were two Omiya stations, ‘no’, he replied. So, we wondered around for a bit longer until we walked back into the station and found an English route board, which specifically stated Higashi-Omiya AND Omiya. The penny dropped, we had a laugh about our stupidity and quickly bought two more tickets to get to Omiya.

By the time we got the Omiya station, which IS huge, has tons of shops etc... we didn’t have time to go shopping! I had to find somewhere to get changed into my business gear (full suit!). The problem was that it was so hot and humid that I was literally sweating straight through my shirt – Yuk! The only solution was to wear a T shirt as a base layer, to soak up the sweat. Not a very nice thought, but I guess that this is the only way Gaijin cope in the Japanese business world.

We quickly found Lawrence standing at this ahem, sculpture, which kind of looks like a 'bean stalk'. I’ll get Amy to take a picture for you all to see. We got rid of Amy, who sort of had a vague idea of how to get back to Wado station on her own, and we went to catch our train.

The train journey is pretty straight forward, a couple of stops along the ‘new shuttle’, which I’m told is not new at all, but has been there for years!
We arrived at Yoshinohara station, and we had a brisk walk up alongside the highway to the ACTY place of work. Lawrence had to clock in at the office at the back of the building, and we went round to the front to meet Miki (I think?).

The work was pretty straight forward stuff, two lessons of 45 minutes each. The first class was with a really bubbly little 6 yr old girl. The next class was with two 11 yr kids. One of the kids is just getting to grips with English, whilst the other is much further along, so as a teacher, you have split your time and attention between the two of them whilst keeping them both busy.

After work, Miki kindly gave us a ride in her car to Omiya station; this saved us about 20 minutes, which in Japan is a lifetime! She also kindly gave us an iced coffee milkshake thing which tasted funky at first, but you could grow to love it, especially after the caffeine kicks in!

We were dropped just outside of the station, Lawrence popped into a little convenience store for some snacks whilst I went into the bookstore next door to try and secure a couple of English-Japanese dictionaries. I find it strange that we packed about 10 different books, an assortment of dictionaries; thesauruses and grammar books, but yet we forgot to bring any English-Japanese dictionaries! Typical! The train ride from Omiya - to Kuki – to Wado was pretty uneventful.

We set off from Wado for home for another quick turnaround, we had to quickly get changed into our Gi and get to the Dojo in time for Kids ‘High performance’ class, were we would help out.

We got to the dojo in the middle of the second kids class. Arakawa sensei has the top Shiramizu kids helping out in this class, thus giving the lower grade kids someone to aspire to. A good way of working and it definitely drives the lower grades to excel.

This class seamlessly runs into the high performance class, Yoshihara sensei took the lower grade kids to one side for a cool down / stamina session, before bowing them out. This left just the high performance kids, the various Sensei and of course, the three Gaijin.

The training was full of energy; Sensei had everyone run through basics and few Kata to start with. Then the class moved onto Kumite drills on pads, with me; Amy; and a few of Instructors holding the pads, the students lined up in 5 lines, in front of the person holding the pad. The students then started with a simple Okuri-ashi Tobikimizuki against the pads. After performing the technique, they would move to the back of the next line and so on. Sensei had everyone run through various other techniques, including Gyakuzuki, Tobikomizuki, Gyakuzuki combination; counter punching etc...

Sensei stopped the class, and decided that we all should do tons of stamina. This was loads of press-ups and sit-ups which left me a little sore.
The session bowed out, and we (Amy and I) quickly packed our bag and got ready to leave. We were then informed that every Friday after training, the intern is to accompany the instructors for a bite to eat and a general get together because Keiko-san, Arakawa Sensei’s wife, refuses to cook anything on a Friday night. So, sensei has turned Friday into a sort of boy’s night (with Amy). Because we hadn’t been informed before hand, we ended up going to some fancy restaurant in our Gi-pants; thankfully we both had the sense to bring T-shirts.
The meal was very tasty, and we had a good chat and a laugh with the various instructors.

It ended up being a very late night, on the way home; Sensei wanted to pop into a bookstore to look at Car magazines (he's getting a new car for his wife), which for whatever reason was still open at midnight! Anyway, the store was pretty cool, it had loads of games, DVD’s and toys for sale too so they occupied my time while sensei looked through the different Car mags.
We got home quite late, and straight to bed.

Shiramizu annual Summer Camp

The Nippon Budokan Training Centre in Chiba was the venue for the Shiramizu dojo annual summer training camp. It took place on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July 2008 and 97 Shiramizu students attended.

Amy and I were kindly invited to go along by Arakawa Sensei, despite it primarily being a child-orientated weekend. With us being big kids ourselves, we naturally jumped at the chance! It would be a great way to see how this camping trip compares to our own Hartlepool Wadokai version and it would also be a good training weekend.

We had an early start on the Saturday morning where we had to meet in the local kindergarten car park at 6:00am. Arakawa Sensei gave a short talk to everyone and when he had all the helpers/instructors lined up, he introduced us all and we all had to give a short speech.　Amy and I weren't actually officials, we were just there for kicks,　though we would still help out wherever we could.

The various Sensei got everyone locked and loaded on the coaches and we were ready to leave for 7:00am. We were on bus 2 with Yoshihara & Yamazaki Sensei and also Yuki Sempai, one of the cadets who was acting as an official for the weekend.


The journey was very long, approximately 6 hours including a number of breaks. The kids didn't seem to mind the journey and had very high spirits throughout. The kids all started cheering as soon as they could see the coastline.






We got to the Nippon Budokan Training Centre at about 1.30pm, and by the time we got everyone unpacked and had got through the welcome/introductions in the hotel foyer, it was close to 2pm. Sensei announced that training would begin at 2pm, so we had a few minutes to get changed and get to the Dojo. In the medley that followed, I managed to lose Lawrence who had the key to our room and, more importantly knew my room number. Uehara Sensei must have sensed my dismay, because he quickly told me which room I was staying in.

The room that we were staying at was very traditional, with tatami on the floor and futons hidden in a big cupboard that are simply pulled out and rolled along the floor when its bedtime.

We got changed and headed down to the training venue; we walked past a huge dojo which had Kendo-ka and Judo-ka busy training inside. I had to resist the urge to stay and watch.


The training was pretty standard by Shiramizu standards, we ran through a lot of basics and then we split for Kata. All the officials were given their own group of students to teach. I think Sensei could tell that everyone was starting to tire a little. So he stopped the training and got everyone to have various races from one end of the hall to the next, performing different techniques. The highlight of this bit of training was the jumping Sando-geri which Arakawa Sensei expertly demonstrated. This short ice-breaker gave everyone enough of an energy boost to finish off with Kumite.

We (the Dan grades) were primarily taught Kumite by Fujimoto Sensei, who use to be on the Japan National Team. He was very good at explaining things, and his English was pretty good too. I learned quite a lot about closing down the distance and breaking the line from him. The other students were split into smaller groups and led by different people, including a few University students. The day's training finished with the Seniors (...and me!) having a short Kumite session whilst everyone else observed.

The training finished and we bowed out and went to get changed for a barbeque. It was pretty cool, the kids were divided up and the Dan grade kids were put in charge of cooking on the hot plate for their respective teams. It was really good to see and quite funny watching some of the kids concentrating really hard on cooking one burger at a time, and then be uncertain of which hungry kid to give it too. The various sensei gave them all some advice, which was basically 'throw everything on!'

Everyone got there fill and we finished off with some fireworks. All the kids (and me and Amy!) were given a big pack with various sparklers.

After everyone got cleaned up and the kids were all in bed, we had a bit of a chill out in Arakawa Sensei's room, all the officials (and us) were treated to a late night snack of ice cream, which was lovely!

Sunday...
It was another early start, 6.00am. The original idea was to go for a run up to a close-by vantage point, do a bit of training and then run back. However, Arakawa sensei hurt his leg yesterday, so the run turned into a walk, for the most part anyway. For which we were all grateful. We stopped at the half way point to perform some basics and work up a sweat, and then we headed back.
After the walk, we had a Japanese style breakfast and then we were off to the Dojo for more training. This session was a little over an hour, and we covered more basics and quickly moved onto kata. This time, Amy and I were taught by Yamazaki Sensei along with the other Dan grades. Todays training was finished off with an exhibition match between two younger students, with full head gear.

After training, we packed up and loaded the coaches and set off for Kanagawa Sea world. This was a relatively short bus ride, and the scenery kept the children occupied.

The kids were organised into their teams again and sent on their way into the park to see the sights. The team leaders were kitted out with synchronised watches so that they wouldn't be late back too, a very good idea!. We spent a few hours there, and had lunch, and then headed home.

All in all, it was a very well organised weekend. It was a lot of travelling for two days, but it was still very enjoyable for everyone. The trip to sea world in particular was very enjoyable for the kids.

Carl

Day 3, first day at work...

Day 3 – 2nd July 2008
Up bright and early for my first day’s work, i will be shadowing Lawrence-San.
I had to get up very early and dress in full business attire, to make a good impression at my interview (this turned out to be an informal chat). As it turned out, i got up far too early, so i had a bit more of a sleep. I had to wake Amy up and get her to take me to the Wado train station (our local one) because i wasn’t too sure about how to get there, and i didnt think it would be very good to be late for my first day at work!.

We made it in about 10 minutes, we had a bit of a sit down and then i bought my first ticket @ 140 Yen and made my way through the turnstiles , under the walkway and onto the platform. The train arrived exactly when it was supposed to and i got on for the 5 min ride to Kuki station. At Kuki, i bought another ticket @ 740 Yen. I took this train on a 40 min ride to Akabane station where i met up with Lawrence, he had came out of work early to show me where to go. I bought another ticket @ 170 Yen, following the Siebu Ikebukuru line. I’m not sure how long i was on this train for, but we got off at Nerima Station. We came out of the station, which happens to be in the middle of Tokyo into what seems to be a busy business area. We took a short walk and entered the I.C.E building (the name of the company).

It was interesting to see NOVA are back in business after such a high profile forced closure of the company by the Japanese Government (they weren’t paying their staff!).

We arrived at our workplace @ 11.00am, which turns out to just be a sort of office room, in a tower block. I think i was expecting some sort of traditional school, never mind. Theres loads of resources, toys and books etc...
Lawrence introduced me to Oguchi Sensei – the owner of the school, she doesn’t speak much English and to Muyami, Oguchi Sensei’s daughter, who also works at the school.
The two ladies were concerned that i didn’t speak with a Canadian or American accent, and that is what they’re used to (Muyami-San is married to a Canadian). The interview basically consisted of Lawrence explaining why i wasn’t Canadian, he won them over by saying that i was a proper English perso whilst he is simply a `pretend` English person! which was funny.

After the brief introduction, we had a slow start, i watched Lawrence fix some wonky tables and chairs. Meanwhile, i was busying myself reading through the student profiles and some of the lesson course books etc... Whilst we were getting ourselves organised, Renee, daughter of Muyami-san was brought in. She is only 4 years old, and really cute, with a cheeky grin. She was acting all shy ‘cos there was a Gaigin (foreigner / white man!) in the room, but i soon won her over and we were mucking around and playing – i even got her to tell me her name.

The first teaching class was 1:30-2:20, It was a private lesson and went by very quickly and without incident.

We finished for lunch, Lawrence took me to a cheap Japanese food place. It cost less than £2.50 for the meal – bargain! The only problem is that its all meat, no vegetarian options. Its not really a problem though, because i pretty much gave up being a vegi the minute the plane landed at Narita Airport .
We went and picked up some snacks for later on, then headed back to the school.

The rest of the day was filled with back to back lessons:
3:00-3:40
This class was to knock my confidence a bit because i managed to make a 3 yr old cry!
The class started off well enough, we started the two kids with a somple alphabet game. Part way through, my kid started crying, and i mean crying! You’d think someone had slapped her in the face! I was quite pleased that the two ladies Muyami-San & Oguchi sensei where still there and the kids mother too.

It turns out that the poor kid had a bad experience at an international language school, she was taught by a white guy. Apparently he was a bit of a scumbag and was really mean to the kids. So she is terrified of white men – aka ME!

I ended up leaving the teaching area until the class finished. Aftert the class, we started playing a ball game. Which we slowly brought her into, by the end of the game, i could just about hand her the ball without her running off to her mum. I think i have some work to do here...

The rest of the classes went by pretty quickly and without incident and we finished at 6.40pm

All in all, it was a good experience. I finished with a splitting headache, but it was very good to see how you can run the same lesson (with slightly different emphasis) with all the different abilities and age groups.

After work, we headed back to Nerima station. There had been some sort of accident, i think a house fell onto the tracks or a train crashed into a house or something. Anyway, this meant that a few trains were delayed, so we had to take the long way home, on the Tokyo ring route.

This turned out to be an experience of running for trains, with blisters off my new shoes and one train were we were literally packed in like sardines. As we all got on, a few Japanese gentlemen stumbled. It was a very cosy ride, but thankfully most people, including us got off after a few stations. I can’t quite remember which trains we got back to Wado station.

We walked home, separating at the Wado bridge. I quickly got changed into my Gi and headed to the Shirimizu Dojo going past Lawrence-san’s home on the way to pick him up. He being used to being punctual, the Japanese way, he was already waiting outside for me. The walk to the dojo is only a few minutes, so we arrived for about 8:30pm (the class started at 8:00pm) but Arakawa sensei doesn’t mind the intern (me) being late because its part of the job.

The session was run by Suzuki Sensei. We quickly bowed in, warmed up briefly and moved into the lines for Kata. We were practising Pinan Yodan. And then Wanshu, we all practised this together and then the class split in two. With half practising at a time, when it was my turn, i was pushed to the front. We performed single techniques first, then all the way through, which of course i messed up.

We had a short break, then put on our hand mitts and did 30 mins of fight drills. It was all good training. We bowed out, and then everyone just hung around. Not like in UK dojo’ where everyone runs off straight after the lesson. I introduced myself to a few of the Japanese guys in my worst Japanese, which of course they loved – the trick is the make loads of hand signals, speak slowly, and smile lots .
Me and Lawrence stayed back a little, Amy just sat and watched ‘cos she had been there since the start, i practised a bit of stretching, a little bag work and makiwara. We then got changed and headed back home for a well deserved shower and food.

Day 2...

Day 2 – 1st July 2008
It seems Yoshihara Sensei drew the short straw, because she was volunteered to take us shopping for the essentials like bedding, food etc... We spent a small fortune, but it was mostly stuff that will be left behind in the ‘intern apartment’ for the next person.

Yoshihara sensei is very nice, all day she was trying to speak English, which is actually pretty good, and she was also teaching us some simple Japanese which we appreciated.

After we unpacked, we headed to a local noodle restaurant which serves traditional Japanese food. I got some meat concoction and cold noodle things. On the whole, the food was good. Yoshihara sensei insisted on paying for it, which was very nice of her.

After the meal, we were dropped off at our apartment where we promptly fell asleep. A few hours later Arakawa sensei woke us up when he came round to our place with loads of goodies, new carpets, light bulbs etc... The carpet was a doddle to lie; it seems that the room is a standard size, so the carpet is like a giant rug, which (almost) fits perfectly!

Arakawa sensei left us to it, and we fell asleep again – obviously still jet lagged.
Later on, Lawrence-san turned up from work to show us how to get to the train station, and how the trains work etc... we got on at Wado station (not the karate style, just a coincidence), and took the train one stop to Kuki station where we had planned to get something to eat, so we had a stroll down one of the local streets. However, by this time it was quite late and everywhere was either closed or was closing, so we decided to turn back and head home. Me being the new gaijin, i didn’t realise that the roads we were crossing had a ‘green man’ on them, so i walked straight over road when i wasn’t supposed to. When i realised, i turned round and made a ‘whoops!’ sort of look, much to the amusement of a local Japanese lady. Lawrence shouted something like ‘you gaijin are crazy!'.

The rest of the journey home was pretty uneventful; we checked our email at Lawrence’s place and picked up our bags and took them home to unpack.
We were pretty hungry after shopping; unpacking and sleeping all day, so we tried our hands at cooking Japanese style. Which was pretty tasty...

Day 1 in Japan...30th June 2008

OK, so its a bit late i admit.　But i have been very busy over the past two weeks in Japan...

30th June saw me, Amy and Mikey driving down to Birmingham airport. Of course, me being the control freak that i am, i insisted on driving. Problem was, we didn't actually set off until just after midnight 29th/30th June. So, i managed to get about 3/4 of the way there, and i had to sleep so that meant Amy had to drive the rest of the way. The original plan was for Mikey to drive my car all the way there and back again so that we could sleep, but, their was a slight problem with that. I er, forgot to get Mikey insured on my car before the insurance company went to sleep on the Sunday afternoon - doh! Anyway, it wasn't too much of a problem, a quick phone call to the insurance company on the Monday morning and Mikey was good to go home.

We had a stupidly long wait at the airport because we were informed by our carrier that we had to be at the airport 3 hours before the flight, why? so we can do some shopping obviously. Because the check in desk didn't open until about an hour before the flight took off!

As usual when i go anywhere, there was some drama before we actually got through check in. We had a huge challenge of trying to get our luggage weight down to the allowance of 20kg, the only way i could achieve this was to fill my hand luggage with the rest. This meant that my hand luggage weighed in at 15kg. Now, usually this wouldn't have been a problem because the airlines never bother weighing hand luggage. Until today...

The jobsworth at the desk insisted that we left things behind so we had to recall Amy's main hold bag back so we could fill that up with more stuff. Also, i ended up leaving some of my books etc... behind with Mikey.

After this little drama, we had to rush through customs, get everything scanned and my hand luggage had to be manually checked (i think because of all the books i was carrying). This slowed us down even more, so when we finally found our plane, we were two of the last to get on.

The actual flight to Zurich was straightforward, until we arrived over the airport ready to land. We had to circle for ages waiting for our landing slot.

When we eventually landed, we had to dash through customs etc... get my hand luggage manually checked again, and get taken to a small cubicle with this security guy (!), thankfully i didn't get a strip search, he just ran his hand-held metal detector thing over me and i was off.

The flight to Tokyo from Zurich was to take 12 hours, the longest flight id ever endured. Despite this, it went by pretty quickly. About a 3rd of the way through, we realised (after watching the Japanese guy next to us) that we had our own personal TV screens. The same guy helped me get my TV setup and then i was away... It was like having your own media centre, it was well cool. Their was 100s of movies to watch, games, music etc... I ended up watching 10,000BC, Jumper and something else which I've forgotten the name of, by this time the flight was about done.

In between all the movie watching, the cute air hostesses insisting on bringing us loads of lovely snacks & meals, all were lovely.

We finally arrived at Tokyo Narita airport, and we were through customs (after getting our finger prints & photos taken!) ready to go. All we had to do was find Arakawa sensei, someone who we`d never met before, and weren't too sure of what he looked like. I spent the next hour wandering around the airport looking for someone looking for us, if that makes sense...

After a while, i decided that either he wasn't here yet, or this whole Japan trip thing was actually a huge practical joke, and we were being secretly filmed. Not wanting to improve any imaginary TV ratings, i decided to sit down and chill out. About 2 minutes into my chilling out, Arakawa Sensei walks into the airport, and straight over to us. We have a very basic introduction, Sensei doesn't speak a lot of English and we speak zero Japanese.

First impressions of Sensei are that of a very nice guy, genuinely interested in us. Sensei kindly had two starbucks coffee milkshake things for us, they were very nice, we also had a bit of chat.

We had a 2 hour drive to Sugito by car, Sensei was pointing out the sights and important landmarks along the way.

We were took past our new apartment and Lawrence’s place. (about a 5 min walk from our place) Then onto Sensei’s house, which is pretty cool with the Dojo as the full ground floor. There is also a portacabin thing outside the main building which is the venue for the Shiramizu English classes.
We were given a quick tour of the dojo and introduced to Sensei’s wife, Keiko. I was surprised to hear that Keiko-San doesn't train in Martial Arts, however their two sons aged 7 & 10 do.

We were left on our own for a short while until Lawrence-san (the current intern) arrived from work.
We introduced ourselves; it was great to finally meet in person after months of talking to each other via email. Btw Lawrence-san is very good at Japanese, despite arriving here a year ago and knowing nothing – its got to be a good sign for us!

We were taken by car to see our new apartment and introduced to the landlords husband, his wife is a Yoga master, with over 500 students! We were also driven past their home which doubles up as their yoga studio too, a very nice place!

We (Arakawa; Amy; Lawrence; me) then went out for a particularly American meal, which had nothing at all vegetarian on, except maybe salad. So, it seems that i will NOT be a vegetarian in Japan. The meal was particularly tasty, which sensei insisted on paying for – something, it would seem that is a bit of an established custom. At the meal it was decided that Amy would train to become a Yoga Instructor whilst in Japan.

Afterwards we were dropped off with our luggage at Lawrence place, were we could check our emails and get showered etc... we were also introduced to the land lady who is also a yoga master.
Once chilled out and clean, we then went back to the Dojo to watch a Junior Kyu grading. There were 36 kids grading with a 90% pass rate. Btw, all the kids were very lively and fantastic at Karate. All of whom were between 7 – 9 years old. I was totally shattered, and the hall was very warm so i kept nodding off. The parts i saw, in particular the young brown belts were totally ace. The grades seemed to consist of basics, combinations, which were done one after the other, as though fighting someone and Pinan Kata. One kid in particular (turns out to be arakawa Sensei’s Youngest son, Masatoshi who is only 7 yrs old) was very good.
I was surprised afterwards to learn that two out of 5 brown belt kids didn't pass, they were all brill!

Part way through the grade Richard-san turned up from work, we went into a small room and talked. He let us know of the expectations of the intern etc... how Amy will fit in etc... he seemed to be very driven and a very nice guy.

We were interrupted and paraded in front of the now full dojo, we were given a short intro by sensei which Richard kindly translated for us. Then we were asked to give a short introduction in simple English, which Richard translated for the crowd. It wasn’t a great performance –but i’m gonna blame that on the jet lag! Anyway, we were both sufficiently embarrassed so the Japanese loved it.
We bowed out and escaped back to our room, were our brain was filled with more random stuff by Richard-san.

After our talk, i gave them some gifts, including a cuddly monkey for Ema, Richard & Rei’s baby girl, who also happens to be the Shirimizu mascot!

Afterwards, we went for a very nice meal. This time an Italian restaurant. We had a good chat, and again sensei insisted in paying for it! We were escorted outside were Lawrence kindly taught us how to thank sensei in Japanese. Domo arigato gosaimasu! = thank you very much...
We said our goodbyes and went back to Lawrence’ place for sleep.


NOTE - i will put some related photos on as soon as i find my memory stick, i had it here a moment ago...