It was a very exciting and interesting morning session today, our last one with Soke Sensei. Part of the Canadian team joined us for this mornings session, there was a lot of people in the dojo! Maybe 26 altogether. Lets just say there wasn’t much room in the sohonbu after we all lined up. We went through the longest seiza I’ve had since I’ve been here, probably about 30 minutes, we’ve been doing about 20 or 25 minutes. Then Sensei Sandra led us through a 20 minute warm up and stretch. Then Soke sensei had us all introduce ourselves, by the end of that it was 7:30 am so we had about 30 minutes worth of training left.

We did some basic stepping which was like 3 steps forward and back.  We then did some partner work open hand blocking and punching which got into high speed, continuously kept swapping, in uchihachi-dachi and shiko-dachi.  After that we did a balance test game, same as we do it at home in all the seven standing stances heisoku-dachi to sonkyo in each stance we would try push each over, who ever lost got to be the special person to do 10 push ups. Guess what, I lost every time except for the last time, yay. So I ended up doing 60 push ups on the wooden floor on my knuckles. That was so much fun!!! Ha ha ha not, it hurt.

By the end of that it was the end of class it was a lot of fun, we then had about an hour of taking tooooooooooo many photos groups photos single photos, lots of photos! It was great to meet everyone they were all so nice. Todd Sensei then took us through the tour of the Dojo and what all the master and high Sensei’s written on planks of wood that hung on the walls of the dojo. Sami caught me giving her a weirdo look, she just had to take a close up.  Meanie……………..

We found out a lot of amazing information about Chito-Ryu.  For example, did you know that Hank Slemansky Sensei trained here in Kumamoto? He then moved to America after his military career was up, and one of his students was actually Elvis Presley.  So Elvis actually studied the same style of karate that we do.  I found that absolutely fascinating, as I love Elvis and when I found out that he actually got a black belt in karate that made me look forward and be proud of working towards mine. But to find out that i am actually doing the same style as him is mind blowing for me. If you look back in some of his albums you see Elvis wearing a silver Chito Ryu crest pin on one of his suits.

We also found out that O’Sensei is the only person in Chito Ryu that has received a gold belt, which means that all head Sensei of each Dojo in the world came together and discussed who they thought has made the biggest contribution to Chito-Ryu karate and the all agreed that O’Sensei deserved that honour. He is the only one that can wear the gold Chito Ryu crest pin. 

We then got shown some of the weapons and we got to try out the metal bo, which is made with two bos.  The objective is to make the inner bo vibrate while using it.

Sami also ran into the wall while doing souji trying to beat Sam to the end i don’t know who won, Sami definitely hit the wall first.

Friday we didn’t get up to a whole lot during the day, mainly just trying to relax and recover from injuries bruises ect. Sam, Helen and I did go out for a short walk, and some Lunch at a sushi restaurant.  I had some nice salmon and prawn dishes, still looking for some cooked tuna dishes but can only seem to find raw one.

We also bumped into Soke Sensei at the 2nd street store (the second hand shop).  He was joking about being bored waiting for his wife to finish shopping and looking for things.  We had a bit of a talk to him just about the typhoon and Soke Cup and things like that. Was funny seeing him out and about, he has a funny sense of humour.

That night was possibly our last session with Soke Sensei as we still don’t know about Monday morning yet.  At the start of the session it was quite full on.  Partner work, started with some basic stepping and keeping the timing, we then did some fast laps of just stepping forward and attacking and the other would just block as they stepped back. literally just chasing the person to the back wall, we did a few laps of that. Then we got into some kicking laps of speedy kicking, then some kicking and countering, after the kick. We did done two laps of each progression, and by the end we were all drenched in sweat, and this was only the first 15 minutes of class.

I quite enjoyed the high intensity work out, I kind of wanted to do more of it. But we then got into kata started with Kihon kata ich and all the way to shihohai.  Speedy kata, which makes you feel so out of whack.  Your technique is never stable or strong, mainly getting through the kata as quickly as you can. Once we got to Shihohai we did the basic timing, going up to chinto in our own time. I was mainly focusing on keeping my heels down during stepping and working on my shime and hikite. It was good kata practise time for Soke Cup, so I spent more time on my chosen kata; looking at the little detail, speedy areas of the kata and where to slow it down more.

We then broke into some groups Sam, Helen and I were with Mark Sensei from the Blue mountain.  He took us through the advanced kata again but in more depth, details, correct position and what certain moves and attacks are meant to be doing giving us more knowledge about the kata.  We spent more time on Seisan, Bassai and Neseishi dai. I found this very helpful to tidy up my kata.  Thankfully only a few tweeks nothing  major, but things I wasn’t aware of.

At the end of class we done some souji as you can see we are getting better and better every time. Also got to take a few group photo’s with Soke Sensei.

Saturday morning Semi led us through some stretches again.  After that we did some preparations for the typhoon, just brings stuff inside and tying up the window covers outside. We headed of to the zoo catching the train, then the Tram about a 45 minute ride to get there. There wasn’t a hole lot open that we could see, we did see some elephants and giarffas, and a few other animals.  It was nice just getting out and doing something though. I got a nice little snack and snow cone from one of the food stalls there, which was actually quite yummy.

Sami found her little ruby, a pet from the gift shop that she’s gotten the past two times she come to this zoo, but each time she looses it.  She’d better not lose this one. From the zoo we went back to the city centre and had a look at the festival, there was a lot of food stalls, that looked quite interesting, and a lot of sporting activities set up as you can see Sami participated in some of them, looking good really hacking them.

After such a long day we did some food shopping and headed home to rest our feet and have some food. I got a little bored so I went out and watched the Sunset at around 7:10 pm. Sam joined me, we pretty much just done a lap around the park. It was so beautiful though, half the sky looked like a calm storm and the other half looked like a beautiful sunset, blue sky with some orange clouds.

When we got back Sam, Helen and I decided to go back to the festival, just for something to do.  To see if there was any parades or anything interesting to look at.  There wasn’t a whole lot, we saw a lot of the dancers all dressed up and fancy.  There a clown make up on and some pretty cool big costumes.  And a really impressive mime dancer, that had some crazy body control, was incredible to watch, hopefully I can upload the video. After that we pretty much just headed home.

I’m sitting here now Sunday Morning in my room listening to the wind outside blowing things about. We are home bound for the day, don’t know how i’m gonna get through it as I’m not the type of person to sit inside all day.  I might go down and do some kata practise I guess.  Its handy having the dojo just down stairs.  If the weather turns out to be good, we might have Kobudo training at the hall, but I kinda of doubt that’s gonna happen. I am really hoping that we have morning training tomorrow though, just to have another session with Soke Sensei.  I have been enjoying them a lot and want to take advantage of the opportunity to take in his training as much as I can while I’m here.

About 25 minutes into seiza… due to finish up any second now.  It doesn’t even hurt anymore, yes uncomfortable, but not painful and no numb feet. Thank god the seiza is getting easier and I’m not dreading it so much.

Just the usual morning session, stepping, kicking, speed laps, and kata. But to finish up, we did some bunkai – nesashi bunkai and henshuho. I was with Todd Sensei which was quite insightful, even though I felt like was practically doing everything wrong, hahaha. He taught me some tiny little detailed thing that really helped and made me put in less effort. Just things like lift the arm higher and hold the arm in a particular place.

I was thrown quite a few times surprisingly didn’t hurt so much considering it was on wooden floor.  The first throw I was so scared, falling to the floor, screwed up face ready to hit the ground, when suddenly it just stopped I was caught about an inch from the floor from Todd Sensei. He doesn’t like throwing on wooden floor as it is dangerous. He did let me go down a few times, but wasn’t hard at all.

During the day, I took Sam up to the golf driving range to hit some balls. Luckily, it was quite a quick walk, now that I knew where to go. When we got there, it was simple for Sam to say what we wanted just pointed to the sign and said two. That didn’t work for me the last time though haha.  About 3 minutes later we had our stuff and was heading to our golf platforms.  Last time it took 20 minutes for me to get there, oh well I got a free ice coffee hehe.

Of course, my ball machine was broken, I don’t know if this place likes me or hates me.  As I went down to tell them they gave me another coin for 50 balls and a new platform. So, we got to use the balls that I had already put in the broken one, so instead of 50 each we got roughly 70 each, yay. I hit some pretty good shots this time, got to about 150m a few times, turning into a pro.  Then again, I hit some pretty awful ones as well. Sam seemed like he had it all sorted out, hitting the top of the net and over the 200m lines.

After that we headed back towards home through the park and walked into mister donut.  I couldn’t resist having another mango sorbet cup. After that though and eating the ice out of my water I was freezing cold sitting in the aircon. I was actually looking forward to going back in the heat, but I knew as soon as I got out there I would want to go back into the aircon.

As we walk out the heat hits us like a brick wall, I’m quite used to the heat now, it’s just like a hot summer day at home. But the sun, it’s like a vampire walking into the sun it feels like you’re on fire, the first week while we were here it was pretty much cloudy every day only really started getting sunny Saturday when Helen arrived. We have been using umbrellas, which I highly recommend getting one that you can fit in your back pack, they are very handy if you’re going be out adventuring all day.

On the way home, we picked up some more food supplies, drinks and food and popcorn yummy. I had a shower when we got home because it was so sweaty.  Then we sat down in the aircon, popped the popcorn and watched Rogue One, as we still had a few hours before Kobudo training. I kind of fell asleep in Sam’s room for a while and didn’t get to see the end of the movie, but it’s hard keeping your eyes open when you’re really exhausted, so I let myself get some sleep.  Hopefully I didn’t disturb Sam too much as he was still watching the end of the movie. Apparently, I move around a lot, sorry.

At 7:40 we got picked up for our Wednesday night kobudo training at the hall.  We were working more on the demonstration for the Soke Cup, working hard as there a chance I might have to perform it at the Soke Cup with the Australian team, not quite sure yet as nothing has been confirmed but we are all training as though we are doing the demonstration. Going into more detail instead of just memorizing the sequence. Which we are very lucky to be getting that kind of treatment, and going through basic’s 1 to 15.  I’m loving going through the basic’s, I find them very enjoyable and fun to work on.

My eye. Urgghhhhh was hurting a lot again during the training, I was like one eye willy.  I kept it closed pretty much the whole training. It was pretty bad the pain of just looking, just constant aching. Really frustrated me as, my eye was feeling perfectly fine for the past two days straight, without any dramas at all.

Because of my eye, we skipped out on the Thursday morning park training.  I was very much looking forward to it, but I think my eye needed some rest. Early in the morning I got up and got an ice pack for my eye, the pain was so bad I just wanted it to go away and was hoping the ice helped. After an hour or two of holding it there it started feeling better just in time for our 10-12 Kobudo training.  It was still annoying to train with, as it was quite distracting but you just work through it.  I was looking forward to the end of class though just to rest my eye and not have to look around so much.  But I didn’t want it to end because it was bo training.

After breakfast/lunch or as the hobbits say second breakfast, we found ourselves sharing our bruises stories and we all had a few identical bruises.  We’ve working hard of course and got some battle scars to prove it, mainly bruises on the elbows, hips and back. And a few weird ones that we have no idea how we could have gotten them, but then again Steven has been kicking people in his sleep and Sami’s been like a sleeping ninja at times.

Helen, Sam and I headed out for something to do.  We went to the city centre, thought it might be a good chance look at some shoes, shirts and souvenirs. We took the train to the end of the line and caught the tram into the city. Was very handy and a lot better than walking when your feet are trying to sabotage you.

We got some Maccas for the first time since being in Japan.  I actually quite enjoyed it, it was nice trying something that you know.  It wa a little weird as they put your drink in a bag as well. I got handed a plastic bag with two brown paper bags in it.  At first, I was like god what did I actually order, that’s a lot of food.  But in one of them was of them was my drink.  A bit weird but okay.

We then headed to the big department store which was mainly designer clothes so was quite expensive, but we did find a bit of a Kumamon souvenir section.  We also found a second hand shop, where we seen some beautiful shoes and also found a $300 shirt, in a second hand shop. Sam should have bought those shoes, they would of looked so nice with his outfit for the banquet.

After a bit of looking around we decided to head home, we had training in two hours and wanted to rest and eat beforehand. It was good getting out even just for a bit of a walk around and look at some different scenery. It was great getting back and just putting our feet up in the air-con though. I got a little bit of sleep till Sam woke me saying it was time for training.

We went downstairs a bit early to have a bit of a pre-training chat and mess around. We had a warm up then Sensai Sandra took over taking us through Kata, focusing on eye’s, knees and pull back.  We then partnered up and took turns doing kata, with the other person checking  their stability, giving a poke every now and then.  There were a few areas of kata where I could strengthen my stance, mainly kosa dachi. I got to partner up with Misaki san I think her name was, she is a Tokyo champion in Kumite and Kata, so it was a little bit intimidating performing in front of her.  It was also amazing to watch her perform her kata, it was quite entertaining to watch, the speed, accuracy, smooth transition. I felt very lucky to be able to train with her and have her give me some pointers and tips.

It was another fun and enjoyable day, with a nice ride on the Kumamon Train.

Friday Morning, possibly out last morning session with Soke Sensei, depending how bad the typhoon is. Yes, there will be a typhoon hitting here Saturday night mainly Sunday, deja-vu same thing happened last Soke Cup in Hong Kong.  We were all hotel bound for a whole day in Hong Kong. Looks like we will be Sohonbu bound for the whole of Sunday, kind of messed up our weekend plans but oh well, it will be interesting.  Hopefully it doesn’t scare Steven too much we will take care of him though.

Again, the same morning session as usual, but for the end part we got to get into partners and one would hold a wooden knife/sword, they would step forward and either stab or slice down. It was our job to block or disarm the attack and finish up with a counter. This was weird, I’ve never done an exercise like this before, it wasn’t too hard, but at the same time, hard to come up with different ways of countering. At one stage, I pretty much did the same thing three times in a row.  I thought I might mix it up a bit so I engaged as it was coming and took Sam of balance, it took him a bit by surprise I think too. My turn to slice him up, he had a few different blocks and counters than me.  I wanted to try out as well.  I think he possibly could have got cut a few times though. This exercise was a lot of fun to work with, its good doing different things every now and then.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday.  I feels like it should still be Tuesday.  These past two weeks have gone way too fast and I don’t want it to end so quickly.  I am looking forward to the rest of the team meeting us here though.  It is something to look forward to, but it also means it’s coming closer and closer to going home.

Tuesday, 6:30 we headed to the park for morning training, has Sensei Martin watching via video chat, just doing some performance kata and kumite training.  Sami wasn’t feeling so well, so was just Sam and I for Kumite which i found very good as Sam always pushes me to work harder and go faster. Also it was Helen’s first park training. She only did the kata part of the session, then turned into a photographer for the next part.

Came home, had showers, and ate.  Then, we pretty much Jump into the next session Kobodu. Mark Snow Sensei and Adam McDonald Sensei from the Blue Mountains joined us for the class.  They in Japan the day before, was a good session, but a bit tight for space with 7 people holding bo.  But we got through the class without injuries. Just working on shishi no sho demonstration and basics 1-15.

At 5:30pm we were going to get picked up by Miyazaki Sensei and go to his Dojo which was about a 40 minute drive through the city. It was a very different class, at the start we pushed back our lines to the back of the class. I thought we were going to be jogging laps of the dojo, but we literally just walked across and back.  It was so weird.  We then walked backwards, then we skipped, not skipping with high knees, we skipped as though we were little girls with a lollie pops.  It was a very different warm up than I’ve seen over here so far.

We then did some basic stepping but with out hands on our hips instead of behind our bodies which again didn’t feel quite right. We then split into groups and had the opportunity to teach again.  I was scared of that, however I only had two yellow belts and was working on Saisan Kata which was actually quite easy, ust going through the kata with them and fixing up some pull backs and posture.

Break time, the kids put on their kumite gear ready to get physical, Sami and i had the little white belts mainly just holding bags while they attacked, was very cute to watch. To finish off the session we got into some matches, Sam and I were judges with the flags, and Sensei Sandra was the head referee.  It was interesting to see them fight.  There were three matches, the last one was probably the most entertaining.  The girl was very quick and did not hold back with her attacks.  It was different to see in such a young girl.

After the session we had a bit of social time, setting up some table and chairs all the kids parents and teachers sat down for some nibbles and some time to talk and get to know each other. We all had to stand up and say some stuff about our self’s, they all tried talking in English and well.  Sandra, Sam and I spoke in Japanese.

It was a very nice atmosphere had a lot of fun talking and eating. I sat next to Inko (I think that was her name).  She kinda of spoke some English so she was helping me through it all, thank god. They also made some little gift bags up for us, and one of the student’s grandmother’s made us all an owl out of paper as you will see in my photos, hand made, that’s crazy it looks store bought.

Today after this mornings session, I’m gonna take the group up to the golf range now that I know where I’m actually going and hopefully go see the castle.  Apparently its open to public now.  We still cant go in the actual castle but get to walk around the grounds will be a good day hopefully.

This weekend, we still had a training session each day, Saturday morning session was just more of a stretching and talking about that things we are learning. After that we had some breakfast, Sam and Sandra then had to take me to a chemist to find something to help with my eye. As it was the worst it had ever been Friday night and Saturday morning, had a lot of pain and more swelling, pretty much hurt so much I had to hold my eye closed for hours at a time. We got some drops which I was hoping would work, otherwise we were told to get me to the hospital first thing Monday morning which I was very scared about. We got back by 11am where we met Helen who had just arrived at the Sohonbu.

Sam, Helen and I went out adventuring no real plan mainly have a look at the castle and at a few shops. We were about 15 minutes away practically stepping on the bus, when we realised that we had the key to lock up the Sohonbu, therefore Sandra and the kids couldn’t leave. We then had to walk all that way back to return the key.  Had a quick shirt change and headed out again.  We tried catching a train which went wrong as we ended up waiting for the wrong train and had missed ours.  We went across the street and waited for the bus to take us to the city centre. We eventually got there 2 hours later to when we first left to Sohonbu.

Walking over to the Kumamoto Castle, areas were taped off and looked like there was no entry, when we asked a staff member he then pointed to the map and pretty much the whole castle was closed off. Quite disappointed, I was really looking forward to seeing it and looking through it.  I then remembered that the Suzenji Gardens wasn’t far away and we decided we would get some food, then catch the tram there.

Public transport over here is very easy I you know what busses to take, trains and trams are easy, buses you need to know which one and where it takes you. Also, defiantly must have exact change as they don’t give you change back. There is a change machine on the trams trains, and buses which is very handy.  You put in 100 yen 50 yen coins and it gives you 10 yen coins.  Most of the time ive been paying 150-170 yen per ride which isn’t much probably around $2.00 or so depending on how far you are going.

We got off the Tram at stop for the Suzenji Gardens, number 18 I think it was.  From there it’s about a five-minute walk and we were at the entrance.  There was a 500yen entry fee and they gave you a map and a fancy little ticket.

It was absolutely beautiful, so green and hilly, lovely shaped trees had a very instant relaxing, peaceful feel to it, I was instantly happy to be there. Sam, Helen and I were there for a few hours looking around taking photos and enjoying the scenery.  It was in the late afternoon by the time we got there so it was very quiet, not many other people around which was good, we could enjoy it more.  We left around 5:00pm as far as I can remember.  Did a bit of food shopping and headed home.

  
 

Where we had a shower, and got ready to go out for dinner. We decided on a Korean BBQ.  I’m not sure of the name, but was just 5-minute walk from the Sohonbu, practically at the end of the street. We sat at a kotatsu, a small table where we sat in seiza, and many other positions as it was actually very uncomfortable where I thought it would be fun and different, definitely going to choose a normal table next time. Haha, my bad.

That was just Saturday such a big day, we went on a little detour walk on the way back.  Sam and I sat down and watched a movie where we both kept nudging each other to stay awake.  Haha, bed time!

Finally a sleep in well kind of… I still woke up at 6am! Haha, nope go back to sleep!  I woke up properly at 8am.  Yeah that’s better, had a nice relaxing morning. Found out we had Kobodu training 2-4pm so wasn’t much time for too much adventuring. Was contemplating on staying home and watching movies until training. But when I’m in another country, I like to use all my energy and force myself out to enjoy it and see it as much as I can while I’m there.

Sam seemed as though he wasn’t going anywhere, Helen was just going to pop out for some groceries and Sandra and the Kids weren’t going out either. I was just about to sit down and stay as well as I was scared of going out in Japan by myself alone.  I decided against it, I’m an adult I can take care of myself. Got sun screen definitely need sun screen had and glasses, shoes and went out.

I was planning on adventuring the left side of the park as we always go to the right, was only like 5 minutes and it ended, well that’s boring, but I kept walking up to the road and onwards, didn’t look like there was much ahead but I just wanted to get out, kept walking then I noticed that the big net was quite close. The big net that I was told was a golf driving range, I’m not a big fan of golf but the big net with huge red poles just looked so interesting and I wanted to go since I first saw it upon arriving in Kumamoto. I just wanted to go there, just to be there, very random I know.

Any how I came to a T-intersection with the big net right up on the hill in the middle.  Damn, where do I go now.  I knew one path would take me there and the other wouldn’t I chose to go right, I thought that looked more promising.  Hahahah WRONG!!!!!!!!!! Had to walk all the way back about 10 minutes.  Got to the T- intersection.  I tried looking up kumamoto golf range, the big net didn’t come up. Well looks like google maps won’t be helping me get there, it’s all up to me.

As I kept going I got more and more scared I would get lost and wouldn’t make it back in time to get picked up for training, but I wanted to keep going.  I took the left path which I should of originally taken. Kept following and following the road was very narrow and had to keep stopping to let cars past, got very creepy all by myself, people giving me weird looks.  Surrounded by old houses, some looked clean and respectable others looked like a lot of trouble.  God I hope I don’t get taken, that wouldn’t be very nice. I came to an area where I felt as though I could touch the net it was so close, but the road went all zig zaggy up the hill I still didn’t know if it would actually take me there.  But I kept on following the path, got to some steps which looked like a cheat way instead of following the windy road.  One more lap got to the top and I saw a sign that said “Kumamoto Golf Range”.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I’m there I actually got so excited that a ran all the way to the entrance.  Mainly because I got myself there all by myself.   Usually I don’t really go out without a friend so this was quite an adventure for me, I actually felt proud of myself, silly I know.

Next problem how do I ask to hit some balls. Went up to the counter talking for about 10 minutes.  No one had a clue what I was trying to say, they sat me down at a table and served my ice coffee, I don’t like ice coffee.  But after that hike, just getting into Aircon!!!! And very much enjoyed it, was like water to a person who had been in the dessert for months.

A man came up who could speak some English, found out he actually lived in Brisbane for 5 years and just came home, so we chatted about that for a bit, I told him I just wanna shoot 50 balls for 600yen he sorted that out for me and they lent me some golf clubs for free I still think they done that cause they felt sorry for me. Also gave me the iced coffee for free, god I felt like a rich billionaire they were all so lovely and nice.

I finished my drink grabbed the clubs, went outside, they gave me a spot on the second floor, whoop whoop. I started hitting some balls only had a little bit of knowledge back from playing golf at school.

It was automated where the ball rolls out and the t pops up from the ground haha very very entertaining.  Every ball that came out I sat and watched it roll out and pop up.  It was all new to me. I hit some pretty good shots, I got a few to the 150m area most was at the 100m though still alright.  I do think that being on the top gave me more distance advantage.  Still it felt good getting those shots in.

As I was alone and wanted a photo, I went up and asked this elderly man that helped me get the balls from the machine earlier to take a photo of me.  I was waiting for him to sit down as I didn’t want to interrupt his practise.

All 50 balls were gone time to head back down, I sat there for a moment though.  This was another happy time where I felt completely relaxed and happy, nothing on my mind.

Time to head back to eat and rest before training.  It was only a 20 minute walk if you don’t get lost the first time hahha. Had some food and laid on my bed to shut my eyes for about half an hour then time to get ready for Kobudo. I mentioned in an earlier post so ill skip that part now.

Time for Steven’s Birthday dinner party at Miyazaki Sensei’s house. We got there and they were all very lovely.  We sat at an kotatsu again, more fiddling around with seating positions. We mainly just had a casual talk about life.  A little bit of karate, mainly our life styles, things we like to do, just normal conversation that you would have with friends.

This was the first proper Japanese home that we’ve been in so far. Take your shoes off at the front door make sure you don’t have stinky feet. They had quite a spread of food, pizza, veggies, sushi, chicken, fruit, wide variety of things I thought I was at a buffet. The food was amazing, also was different for me.

As I was sitting next to Miyazaki Sensai, I was on duty filling his drink.  I was constantly checking his cup to see if it was empty, it was customary to never fill your own drink, others had to do it for you. I was offered some beer, Ashashi I think it was I only had one cup then I went to coke haha, I’m not much of a beer person but I like trying different things.

We were lucky enough to see Miyazaki Sensai’s upstairs Dojo while we were there, got a group photo and saw all his grading certificates, too many to count, went back down and talked some more while we enjoyed some cake.

It hit around 10:30pm time to take us home, we pilled into the cars and they were kind enough to drive us all the way back to the Sohonbu.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out cold haha.  That’s just our first weekend here gosh, wonder what next weekend will be like.

Yesterday we attended a Kobodu demonstration practise rehearsal session, kihon bo 1-15.  1-8 I already know, 9-15 however was very new to me. We started learning it last Thursday in our morning kobodu session, and yesterday we got to go through it again and mainly remember the sequence.  The sequence i found easy to remember, the technique on the other hand I found very complicated, much more advanced techniques then i’m used to, especially number 14. I think it is when both hands on the bo are holding the bo the same way, that felt bazaar, and un-natural. I very much enjoyed doing it though I found it fun and love learning new bo techniques and kata’s. My shushi no sho I think is coming along well, with technique, speed and understanding on the kata. I do find number 1 quit hard to grasp though, I never feel completely happy with how it feels, I feel as though i’m no where near where it should be.

We had our first morning training of the week this morning, which was quite similar to every other morning we’ve had with Soke Sensai, we done some partner work where we match each others steps.  We then bring our hands together and one person has a soft movement around the hand and tries to tag.  The other person tries to block and then quickly counter. I couldn’t quite get my hips to work with me for that activity.

We all have the night off tonight celebrating Stevens Birthday then a big day tomorrow with two morning sessions and an afternoon session. Otherwise for now its time to relax and celebrate.

Its already Friday, wow!  Doesn’t feel like we’ve been here that long but it’s also feels like each day is a few days long. Not sure how that works. I am getting use to the heat but my feet are cutting out on me, getting very achy and sore, I haven’t yet attended a class with 100% energy, I’ve been mostly training with 80% – 90%, so I’m guessing I’m still getting use to these conditions.

We’ve been having a few late nights. On Wednesday, we went to a big open gym to train, as the sohonbu was too small to train in for kobudo training.  We didn’t get home until 10:15 and every morning we wake up at 6:00am for either park training or morning sessions with Soke Sensai, so it has been a bit difficult to get a good night’s rest. I think it all caught up to me yesterday as I actually had two naps during the day and didn’t feel like going out and adventuring at all. It was actually weird to sleep during the day I don’t usually do that unless I am really really out of energy. But I am really enjoying the training and am learning a lot from a lot of different Sensei.  I’m am enjoying having a few hours just to sit around and do nothing.  Back home I don’t have any time for that at all, I’m always going from one thing straight to the next and am lucky to get a good 7 hours of sleep a night. So, it’s good just resting here through the day, I think I definitely need it.

We have one or two more sessions for the day and Sami is going to lead us through a stretch tomorrow morning and have a chat about how we are all holding up, then we got the weekend which I’m hoping to do some sightseeing and adventuring. Then getting back to our last week of training in the Sohonbu, which I’m scared will go way too fast.

Tuesday- started out with morning training in the park gi pants and t-shirt. Pretty much just preparations for Soke cup with kata and kumite practise and performances, was quite hot and by the end of the hour and a half training, but it was a good atmosphere to train, with a nice breeze every now and then.

We then had a two hour 10:00 -12:00 Kobudo training with Higuchi Sensia, where Sam and I learnt shushi no sho bo kata mainly just remembering the sequence not so much worrying about to much detail at that stage. I found that very helpful and enjoyable just to have time to go through it as many times as we wanted. I am now very confident with shushi no sho, so I can now start looking at detail of my stances, targets ect.

During the day Sensie Sandra took us out to the city centre mostly to show us where shops and things we can go see are, we enjoyed some really yummy crepes that Sam spotted. Then Sensai Sandra took the kids home as Sam and I kept exploring around all the shops. At about 5:50pm Sam and I received a message from Sensai Sandra saying that we are getting picked up from the Sohonbu in an hour to go train in Masuda Sensia’s Dojo. We went to the bus stop to try and get back in time to have showers and eat, when our bus did not arrive, we then had to run!!!! 1.6km to the train station to get back in time, we just made it in time to have a 30 second shower each, jump in the car and go. We feel sorry for the people who has to clean the train as we left quite a bit of a sweat pool for them. 😛 As you could guess after such a big day Sam and I were both very worn out and exhausted, and had another training session ahead of us.

We walk into Mesuda Sensai’s Dojo wearing gi pants a t-shirt and a belt which felt bazar without a gi jacket on. We got introduced luckily, we had a lady who could speak English to help us understand what was going on during the class. We followed along with some basic’s and a few junior kata, we then got to relax and watch the class perform some higher-level kata’s for us, Sam and I then performed Bassai, and Sami and Steven demonstrated shihohai. After that Sensia Sandra, Sam and I had a surprise attack of teaching small groups of students each, which was quite scary as we do not speak their language and they have small differences of technique to us. Such as their blocking is to the side of their body not the centre, small details like that, that their Sensei teaches them. I was put in charge of teaching four young green belt girls. Which one of them spoke a tiny bit of English, but I had to do most of my feedback and comments by demonstrating to them. It was quite difficult as most of the time I just got a blank stare back in my direction and did not really know how to be clear to them to what I was trying to say.

At about 8:30pm adult class started which consisted mostly of black belts only one was a green belt of a class of about elevenish students. They said it would finish at 9:45pm, so late. So Sensei Sandra took the kids home and Sam and I stayed back to train which was a bit scary as Sandra know more Japanese then we do and she was helping us out a lot with understanding instructions and having conversations. It was a great adult session mainly just went through senior kata’s first slowly than normal speed with intensity and intent. Sam got taught how to do rohai dai, and I got some more touch ups on sochin. Which I found very helpful, but the first four directions in that kata they do extremely fast was actually hard to keep up. Another funny thing I found was that a few of the men in that class was getting effected by the heat more than Sam and I were.  I found that amusing as they should be use to training in those conditions. We finished the class with a kumite round between Sam and a boy about 20 that was going to Soke cup for kumite, it was very interesting to watch him fight as he got very low to the ground, and had a good amount of speed.

Masuda Sensei’s adult class

By the end of class I was ready to pass out for a good 9 hours, but by the time we got home it was just past 10:00pm, we had a shower got some food and got into bed by 11:00pm and had an early morning training with Soke Sensei to look forward to.

Such a big day

Okay so the travelling was obviously the worst part of getting here long flights waiting at airports and delayed flights.  The car drive from Fukuoka to Kumamoto was great, such a beautiful country with lots to look at. The heat here isn’t as bad as I thought it would be but still quite humid and makes you sweat even when you are sitting down having a cool drink.

Sensai Sandra, Sami, Sam and I had our first training this morning from 6:30 – 8:00 am, first 30 minutes was in seiza which at the start was comfortable, about half way through I noticed my feet went fully numb without me realising it, and obviously it got worst to the point where I couldn’t bend my toes underneath my foot as we were meant to be standing up, when I finally got up I looked down and seen my left foot was securely on the ground but felt as though I was looking at someone else’s foot because I could not feel a thing. Was a bit scary cause I’ve never experienced that before.

As we started to train just with basic chudan-zuki in uchi-hachi-datchi, I wasn’t very stabilised as my feet were still coming back to being alive. Then we got into some basic stepping up and down the dojo, it took me a while getting use to training on wooden floors but by the end of it I was getting the hang of it. Having a smoother step transition instead of a bumpy one as my feet kept sticking to the ground.

Seeing as though it was early morning training the heat wasn’t too bad, mainly just the gi sticking to you was making it difficult to train properly. We got into doing all kata from kihon dosa ichi up to the highest kata we know and back down.  I found that a little bit difficult whilst getting used to the heat, and the floors, also didn’t help that my left eye and cheek was swollen up and my eye was hurting for some unknown reason. So I spent 80% of the lesson with my left eye closed, which did not help my balance as I was changing direction. But overall I really enjoyed the first session in the sohonbu dojo with Soke Sensai.

Okay so Sunday the 16th was our last squad training before Sensai Sandra, Sam and myself leave for Japan this coming weekend. It was a great session with Special guest visitors from previous Soka cups, it was very interesting to hear their perspectives and experiences from when they attended their international tournaments in previous years.

During this squad training we experimented on making our presence stand out to others, have a strong, focused, confident and level presence in the way that we present ourselves in the ring while doing not only kata but kumite. Throughout this training I didn’t feel quite at my peak with my energy and concentration. However I feel as though since the start of my journey training for the Soke Cup, my kata and kumite has improve quite a lot, with technique, better understanding of kata and improving my technique using my stance to excel my technique and better, more soft use of my hips.

With my kumite, my fighting style has changed quite a lot from how it was a few months ago, I am using different attacks as in faking an attack pull back then attack again, I am doing more than one or two attacks now I am following through a lot more doing three or more attacks, I feel lighter on my feet and have stretched out my stance so I am more stable and can move quicker while attacking and getting out of the way of an attack.

As a conclusion I am happy with where I am at with my karate technique and spirit. I found this last squad session together very enjoyable and helpful with my preparations for my scholarship to Japan.