On Sunday, we didn't get to Gojo-Ryu as entertaining got in the way, so 6am we were up on Monday for a brisk 1/2 mile jog (well, brisk for James, not so brisk for me, and he threw in this utterly hideous new hill!), then pad work. 15 minutes straight each, working through different combinations, movement drills and so forth. Holding those Thai pads for 15 minutes straight is haaaard.
Then shower, breakfast and James had to go to work. I got to go off with Mike and have adventures!
Mike wanted to see Okinawa Land (a them park) and also the Limestone caves. There's limestone caves in Okinawa land and across the road are more caves, his wife booked us in the place across the road for 11.15. We set off from James' at about 9ish and drove in a sort of, "we know the vague direction" type of way. Along the way we noticed that Japanese road signs are real accurate: 5.1km to Okinawa world, 2.9km to... you get the picture. For a joke, we set the milometre and sure enough those signs were accurate!
Once at Okinawa Land, we hit the snake house, which was cool. Lots of snakes and a snake show! The snake show was something else, the kind of thing you just couldn't do in the UK: the guy putting it on was showing how mean and nasty a habusu can be in comparison to a cobra, and this involved him basically bitch slapping the cobra! Funny to watch, but... later he had a habusu in a glass tank and put balloons in there for it to burst. It didn't want to perform, so he prodded it with a stick!!!
From there we crossed the road to the limestone caves.
What can I say?
Fucking amazing!
Beyond amazing. We started off in a sort of grotto and then went for a walk through jungle to different caves, all of which were formed from coral and then layered over with limestone. We saw caves of the gods, we saw 150 year old trees, twig spiders and the site where they found Minatoan man, the 12,000 year old Okinawan fossil.
Excellent place.
From there back to Okinawa Land for their limestone caves, which was a 1km journey through claustrophobia. Also very cool but way more packed than the other place. Actually, Okinawa Land was very busy, rammed with people from Tokyo; and it's true what the Okinawans say, people from Tokyo look different to people from Okinawa. They're more trendy, it seems.
We ate pizza, saw the Power Rangers, spent some time in an Okinawan village and finally visited a micro brewery and tasted a fair bit of habusu amamori. Mmmmm.
From there we headed on out to a Thai restaurant up a cliff a few miles on. Hell of a place, had a dinosaur museum next to it, a herb garden and a little shop. The food was amazing, so fresh and unlike any other curry I've ever had.
Then home for a quick nap and then jujitsu!
Hard day.
Only 3 of us at training, so we had some fun with headlocks and manoeuvre drills. We video taped one another and I saw that my blocks leave me too far out from my opponent, leaving me with too much distance to gain to execute anything. Well, to execute anything that isn't ugly and brutal. So, I'll be working on that over the next few weeks...
Otherwise, fitness is getting better. My stomach is shrinking. Flexibility and balance are up. My shoulder is playing up, but I'm sure that it's a tight right bicep, and regular stretching is keeping it in line, so that's all good. My burpees are still slow, but that's my burpees, I do them at my pace, but I get through them.
I'll add pictures tomorrow. I'm dead tired now and need my sleep. Had a great day of beach and BBQ today! Wiped me out!
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