Sunday 27 June 2010

Two days of exploring

So yesterday I went to America!

Well, not the continent, just the United States bit, the bit that sits in Okinawa and calls itself Kadena Airbase.  It's a big bit of America, Kadena Airbase, not as big as the continental US, but big in a "I can see it's really big" way.  This base is huge, about the size of Watford and inside it is a mini US, even down to fast food joints, a cinema, extra wide roads, fat people, suburban homes and a massive mall.



Yeah, see?

The British armed forces have nothing like this.

Basically Rodney rang me up on Saturday morning and asked if I had any plans.  I had none so we decided to go to Kadena, pick up supplies and then head on out to a beach he knew.

So that's what we did, stopping by in Kadena to try out US life.

Ate at Popeye's, which is a sort of Cajun chicken restaurant and chowed down on their breakfast biscuit (which is a dumpling, I found out) and also some deep fried chicken breast.  Fortified with that feast we braved the BX, which is the big supermarket above and also the commissary, which is the base food store.  The BX is like a giant Tesco's Express, only cheaper and with more stuff.  Electronics, clothes, weights, protein powder, knives, camping stuff, fishing stuff, cosmetics... EVERYTHING.  The commissary is like a food paradise, if you like big portions.  Here's half the meat isle:



Wow, huh?

All red meat, not too much fish really.  Not big on fish are Americans, it seems.

From here we then went on our beach finding adventure!

Basically, Rodney had been to this beach rave on this amazing beach 5 it was a great beach and he wanted to find it again.  Unfortunately, once you get away from the main roads of Okinawa, it's a maze at best, and the beach was on one of the local islands connected by a giant causeway, so we're talking waaaaay out there.  I won't go into the amazing tie we had tracking down the correct beach and the other beaches we found on the way, but it was well worth it when we did find it:



Look at that, amazing, huh?  And the water was so warm, it was like stepping into a warm bath.  Had a good BBQ on the beach, had a good snork too, and then it was time to return home.

Now, the original idea was to get back, dump the stuff we'd bought and head on over to the gym for some weights, but the time in water and the heat had gotten to us, so we opted instead for dumping the stuff, chatting to James and going out for a bite to eat and a drink.  So we headed out to a local isikia, drank beer at 100 Yen a pop and ate some good food, then home for sleep!

This morning was wake up at 7 and out the door by 8ish after a breakfast of bacon, eggs and organic wholemeal rolls (God Bless America). We were off on an adventure to the northern part of the island, to a place called Taira Bay.

I learnt a lot today.  I learnt that the soil in the northern part of the island is different to the soil in the southern part: northern soil is iron rich and therefore red and acidic, whereas southern soil is limestone and alkaline; different plants grow in the different parts with the plants in the northern part looking European.  The guy we wet to visit was a fellow called Yoda and he spoke very good English, being that he studied in Hawaii.  Now, he woke up one morning and decided to become a farmer, as you do, and he's doing a real good job.  His main plant is the pineapple and my god are his pineapples tasty.  I think the thing I'll miss most about the island is going to be the pineapples.  They're good, pineapples in the UK being bitter and crap in comparison.  And Yoda's pineapples are the best I've ever had.

He also rears Okinawan pigs, called Agu, which are a breed introduced from China about 2000 years ago.  Big black things covered in course hair.  Well, some of them are covered in course hair, Okinawa being Okinawa with all it's micro climates and strange little bits of land, there's a few sub breeds.  Anyway, agu are what he breeds.



Isn't he cute?  He's a boar, about 200kg and a strong breeder.  Getting a bit old now, but still loyal and friendly.  Yoda's gone down the organic natural way for his farm and he puts no chemicals on his plants: his pigs have loads of room and a high quality of life, he even lets them live for at least a year before he slaughters them.  He really impressed me and knew his stuff.

From Yoda's farm we headed off to have lunch at a little place he knew, I had the crab soba, which was excellent.  We met a fellow Yoda knew who invited us to his house.



Now this guy is an architect and owns a big company in Okinawa, his house up in Taira is a weekend retreat for him and his wife.  Well, I say retreat, it's massive and has an attached stable and horse track, as you do.  Nice guy and very connected.  There we were treated to agu meat, which goes very well with togan.... and pineapple... and mango.  It's a great meat, almost gamey, and very flavoursome.



Healthy too, the kind of thing thing that would go down a storm in Borough Market.

Alas, time came to an end and we had to head back down to Naha, stuffed with pineapple and agu meat.  Once back James fired up the BBQ and we all tucked into some of the steaks I bought yesterday.  Good steaks but I do wonder how they were raised, what with American farming practices being what they are and so different to Yoda and his techniques.  For the first time ever I actually wondered what it would be like to have a farm, which is strange as I've never had that thought before.  I spent a lot of time on farms as a kid, about 3 months a year or so, so the romance was never there for me, but seeing what Yoda's doing and is trying to accomplish, I've gotten a little inspired, which is weird.  But there you go.

Anyway, got back, ate and then trained.  Haven't properly training for two days (my god!) and looking in the mirror my body was looking big, not fat, but the muscles have clearly liked their rest.  Training wise I went for a standard whole body work out:

Stretch
1.30 Deep squat
Shadow boxing

Pull ups: 5,5,5,5,3,2
Squats with water pipe: Front-20, Back 20
Front squats: 40k 5,5,5
Press ups: 20, 10, 10, 10
Bench: 40k x10, 40k x 10, 40k x 7 (dead stop at base so no elastic return, harder)
Row: 40k x 10, 70k x 5, 70k x 5
Bicep: 40k x 3 (quic up slow as possible decline)

Now I'm sitting here all washed and relaxed and about to pack my bag: next four days I shall be MIA!  shock, horror!  Yeah, no posting.  I'm going hiking and camping with James so that'll be me gone, expect updates on Thursday.

Friday I'm going deep sea fishing!  Woohoo!

Anyway, peace out.

PS
Shaved my goatee

Saturday 26 June 2010

Adventures and brick walls

So, what have I been up to?

Well, yesterday, I came face to face with Japanese bureaucracy.  Quite an experience; the Japanese have truly perfected bureaucracy: it takes a loooong time to sort things in Japan.

Basically, I needed to renew y visa for 9 extra days to take it to the magic 99 days number.  Cool, fine.  I had an address of where to go so I went.

I had the wrong address, but they pointed me in the right direction with a bad map and, thanks to a random old man who recognised one of the land marks on the map, I eventually made it to the correct place: The Immigration bureau, 7th floor of the Law Offices.

I got there, I spoke to someone at the main desk who directed me to a guy at another desk.  The two of us then sat down and discussed me getting a visa extension.  We filled in forms.

We filled in more forms and we ummed and ahhed over some of the things we wrote down.

It may take two weeks for the approval, he told me.  Never mind that I'd be gone in two weeks, but there you go.

I then took my forms to another desk where another fellow went through them with a red pen.  He ticked some things, he re wrote my writing in others, he asked me some questions and he ummed and ahhed.  He checked my passport, looking at me suddenly and saying that I looked nothing like the picture.  I pointed out that it was my old passport and the Visa was in there and, look, here was my new passport.

I didn't look much like that photo either.

We made slow progress.  I showed him flight times, I discussed my cultural reasons for being in Japan, he gave little red ticks on boxes.

He then checked with his supervisor and came back.

I needed to pay, but I would get my extension: 4000 Yen.  I couldn't pay there though, I had to go back down to the 2nd floor and queue up and pay there and get a special stamp which I then took back up to the 7th floor and affixed to a sheet of paper and signed to show I'd paid.



Some more forms, some signing and... and I had it, my extension.  15 days, not 9, but there you go, they can only do 15 days plus, it seems.  And, as I was staying over 90 days I needed to register with the local government office.  No matter that I'd be gone in 9 days after the 90 days, I still needed to register.

But there you go.  It's done.

Tomorrow I shall post about today's American adventures and tomorrow's beach adventures!

Thursday 24 June 2010

Breaking barriers

A good day today.

Woke up after a deep sleep, tottered around the house for a bit and then moped it down to the Budokan.  Got caught in a little rain, but nothing major.

Warm up:
Deep squat held for 1.15
20 minutes of stretching

Bench mark:
Press up 40, Pull up 10, Chin up 2, HLR 10, Dip 10, HLATR 10, Wide pull up 1/2

Body weight: 101.4kg

Deadlift: 70k x 5, 100k x 5, 120k x 3, 150k x 1, 160k x 1, 170k x 1, 180k x 1
Back felt a little unhappy so put on a weight belt
190k x 1, 200k x 1, 205k x 1!

Oh yeah, more than double body weight lift!  Could possibly have gone higher, but thought it best to quit whilst I was ahead.

Bicep (21 protocol): 20k x 36, 15

Indy bench, 2x 20k: 8, 10, 10
Military press, 2 x 20k: 6, 6, 6

Finished with deserved time on the vibro machine



Then lunch at Kamefuku with James.  Then we concreted in some of the holes in his drive.  Bit of a bitch mixing cement with a very tired back, but there we go.

Then nap, dinner and of to Karate.  Now know my kata for my next grading, which is good.  Practised that and then practised bunkai, which are attacks from other people and you use the kata to deal with it.  Afterwards, Arakaki Sensei had a chat to me about it: there's "Formal Bunkai" and "Informal Bunkai". The formal stuff is the stuff for schols, for kids.  Blocks and return strikes, stuff where you are unlikely to damage your opponent severely.  This is stuff developed when Karate was brought into the school system; watered down karate.  The informal stuff is the old stuff, the ichi geki stuff, ichi geki meaning "One strike, finish".  One punch win stuff.  He showed me two of the bunkai and, yeah, far more deadly, far more effective.  Very interesting, like being shown into a hidden garden.

Anyway, bed now, tomorrow more training!

Wednesday 23 June 2010

So I met this guy who knows his stuff

Up early today and went for a run with James and Shun. Somewhere between 3 miles and 4.  A new route James had found with one of those killer Okinawa hills right in the middle...

Okay, went to Map My Run and spent half an hour sorting out Google's inability to deal with Okinawan infrastructure and it was only 2.51 miles.  Did climb 200 ft during it though, so there!

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/jp/okinawa%2c%20tomigusku/270127729503159106

Anyway, back from that and attempted the Bear with 40k.  Only managed 2 reps, James managed 2 sets, Shun managed a set and a half.  I just wasn't feeling it.  Finished off with
2 sets of 40k clean above head at 5 reps each

2 sets of 6 pull ups

Shower, food, nap.

So today I was going to go with Hisano to the Bikram Yoga.  She rang up to book us a place and... and, yeah, women only.  Outrageous!

Did manage to get to the Karate museum, though.


Colourful, huh?  Full of bits of history and weapons and books and articles.  Guy in who runs it is Tetsuhiro Hokama Hanshi (PhD, 10th Dan, 4th generation teacher with lineage); happy, relaxed and knowledgeable. The kind of guy so many of the fake masters in the West want to be.  Hell, I want a museum of martial arts in my house!

Anyway, we get to talking and it turns out that he was in the UK in 1998 at a course and Mr Kevin Pell was there, truly a small world.  He also had a copy of Ground Control and Restraint, as you do.  This means nothing to most of the people who read this blog and have no interest in the martial arts world I float in, but it's a book I've been meaning to get my grubby little mitts on for a while and, sure enough, he had a copy.  An interesting read, especially some of the claims the people in the book make.  Not very good if you actually want to learn techniques though, it just sort of shows the finished product, not how to get people down, which is the hardest bit.

Anyway, Hokama Hanshi knows my Kobudo sensei (same Kobudo school, same generation), which shows how small a world it is, and we had a good old chat about Kobudo and Karate and where things come from (all the while I'm eyeing the arsenal of weapons that are lying around)

A damn good experience, and something to aspire to, clearly.  Anyway, feeling a little rested so tomorrow I'm deadlifting!

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Monorail adventure part II: son of the bride of the monorail

So today was the day for the monorail and what a long tiring day it has been.  Good, mind, and fun, but draining in a "I walked miles in the heat and now my sensitive inner thighs are chaffed" way.  Shower has now been had, feet are up, fan is on and cup of green tea is at ready, so that's all good.

Are we sitting comfortably?

Then I'll begin.


Yup, I started at Tsubogawa Station again and then made my way up to


Which is the place with the massive posh mall complex and the Prefectural Office.  What I didn't realise, as I was rushing last time, is that it's right next to Kokusai Dori Street, the Oxford Street of Okinawa.  This clearly merited further investigation, so I did.


This is the Prefectural Office, which is their government building.  I went in and asked if I could get my visa renewed, which caused some issue as the security guards had to go and find someone who could translate my broken Japanese.  Turns out that, no, I couldn't get it renewed there, but they told me where I could, which was nice.  I think they were nervous about the protest outside, which seemed to be about the American Bases  or maybe just that everyone should wear white gloves.  

From here I wandered up Kokusai Dori Street, as it's helpfully named in English.  Or unhelpfully as "dori" means street, so they've named it Kokusai Street Street.  But there you go.  It's an interesting street, a sort of a mix of Covent Garden, Camden and Oxford Street with restaurants, night clubs, bars, trinket shops, high end shops and touristy places.  It's some kind of student say or something today as, just as I crossed the road a bunch of guys dressed in togas chased a guy dressed like a fish and jumped on him and tea bagged him a la Halo.  Humm.  I think they were students anyway.  

There's lots of Shisas on sale here and I took loads of pictures which I'll stick on Facebook to bore you all with.  Also this guy:



 I wandered up one side and then popped up to where the Jahanna-Kippan shop is, just off the main road.  Where Hisano fed me some fresh togan (it had been an hour and a half since my last feeding and I was growing hungry).  James also struck a pose in his chef's outfit



From here I wandered back down and walked down the other side of the street back to the monorail station. No more toga terrorists tackling people (my alliteration has failed me!), but there you go. Although I did see this:



Yeah, uh... penis shaped chocolates with a half naked baby on the front, naked from the waist down too.  Uh.... Japan has some aspects that I will never get.  

Anyway,  I was on the hunt for a baseball cap for myself as my hair is short and the sun is strong so I popped into here:



The Habu Box! The ultimate cool shirt place.  Baseball caps are a little expensive, so I skipped out on one but I did pick up another cool T-shirt (last one, last one).  

From here it was back on the monorail and over to



Now, last time I was here I popped into that big book shop and picked up a book on BJJ... this time I popped in with the knowledge that is had an English language section!  Top floor!  All right!  You can only read so many non fiction books on martial arts before you start craving fiction, so I picked up three nice little books and am quite happy.  I also found the Manga section, which is bigger than some libraries back in the UK!  

James turned up and we ate lunch across the road at a Japanese cafe.  There's a word for these places, but I always forget it.  Anyway, lunch was pork, rice, a fried egg, miso soup and some deep fried prawns.  God it's hard to eat a fried egg with chop sticks.  From there it was off to



Which is the far end of Kokusai Dori.  From here I wandered back up the street to the indoor market, seeing some street violence along the way!  It was too store clerks arguing and got a little heated.  Interesting to watch, a pretty standard monkey dance of posturing, arms out, chest up, but then the taller one pushed the shorter one of the head, not the chest, which is different to what happens in the UK.  Some other guy came and broke it up then and that was that.  Interesting though.  I managed to find a cheap hat in the end too, only a thousand yen.  It made me look well American though, but there you go, at least I wouldn't be adding to the sun burn on my scalp and neck.  On the way back I found an arcade and popped in.  Man was it interesting; an arcade for the more serious gamer as opposed to the more kid friendly ones I'd been in before, I gave Tekkan 5 a blast and had fun.  It had a slot for your Tekkan play card so you could record how well you'd done.  Ditto for most of the other games, including Street Fighter.  And they had playstation controllers attached to some of the machines.  I then wandered up to the Eager Beaver, which was closed but the owner was there.  Will probably watch the England game there tomorrow.   

Next up was



Which is a residential area so there was pretty much nothing to see.  About the only interesting thing was a Cocol I wandered into.  It's sort of like a Family Mart.  The magazine weren't sealed and I had a look through some of them.  Interesting, even the normal looking ones had some strange pictures...

Anyway, next was



Which is where that big shopping mall is.  On the map it had "Galleria", which I thought meant an art gallery.  No, it was a high end mall filled with high end stores like Tag and such.  I had a nice wander and popped into the Food Colliseum on the 3rd floor.  Basically a series of joined restaurants.  Had some good coffee and a doughnut and made my way off to



Which is the station near that high end gym.  Nothing else really here so I headed off to



Now this place is basically a part of Naha City hospital, which is a damn good idea, and on the other side is a massive park.  Hell of a place, had a big old walk through it, basically a massive valley so hell on the legs getting through it but well worth it.  So glad I had that cap though.

Next station was 



This is the second last station, sort of near Shuri castle, but not as near as the final station.  It's on the other side of that massive park too.  Some interesting historical sites but nothing compared to the castle itself, which was at



The end of the line!  Nice sign, amazing place.  The castle is huge and somewhere between really old and quite new as the damn thing has had a history of getting burnt down and bombed and blown up and deconstructed.  They've done a damn good job of the reconstruction though:




Hell of a place.  The actual grounds are a kilometre across and a good walk, the castle itself is a two tiered affair with outer and inner walls and a central castle structure where the king lived and ruled.  That's it up there; 800Y to get in, but well worth it, and I had a traditional cup of tea and some traditional biscuits too.  

And that's it really.  I did more than I've written but I've condensed it down or this page would be a few thousand words as opposed to about a thousand.  Hell of a day, recommend it to anyone.  

Well, hell of a two days.  Doing it in one day is pretty much impossible, you just don't get to see everything.  

Hmm, beer is now calling me.  

Monday 21 June 2010

Relax day

Or not.

James had a bed being delivered today so I stayed in and chilled whilst I waited for them.  Two nice guys who were shocked when I offered them a glass of water. Put the bed together in about twenty minutes too and that was that.

Then trained.

Warm up:
Deep squat for 1 minute
Tanren 25 per side
Sledge hammer to tyre: 34 in a minute, 1 minute rest, 45 in a minute
Tyre flips in a minute: 15, 15
Pull ups 5
Press ups 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Bench: 30k x 10, 40k x 10, 55k* x 8, 70k x 4, 40k x 15

Bent over rows: 40k x 15, 40k x 15, 40k x 15

Bicep curl: 40k x 5, 40k x 5, 40k x 5 All done with fast pull and slow as possible lower.

Butterflies: 7.5k x 20

*The two 7.5's are from different weight sets so one feels heavier than the other...

Then nap.

Training at the Budokan was kicking practise, which is hard.  Practised sweeps too.

Came back, ate, had a beer and put aloe vera on the sun burn.

Tomorrow is Monorail day!!!

Sunday 20 June 2010

Awesome Weekend of Awesomeness and Superness and such

A bit of a mouthful?  Perhaps, but very much true.  It has been a blinder of a weekend!  Adventure, alcohol, hard training, shopping, great food, sun... what more could one want?

So, to start with, Saturday...

Woke up stiff and sore from previous night's BJJ, one of the ankle locks had stuffed up my right leg slightly, but no matter!  It was a day for adventure and piddling injuries would not sway me from my course! So, breakfast eaten, Hisano gave me and James a lift to the port.


We met with Cody, Mike and Rodney at the port and boarded our adventure vessel!



From here it was but a short, bumpy hop to Tokashiki Island!  (It's pronounced Tok-as-ki, by the way, sort of like how we way Leicester)




Look at it, looks at that hill.  The whole place is basically a mass of hills and beaches.  The view from above is this



Yeah, we took a private jet back to Okinawa, this was the view.  Nice, huh?  See that island off the coast?  Well the beach to the right of it is Aharen beach, the beach we went to.  

So, anyway, we get a little bus thing to the beach and along the way we figure out that James' original idea for travel on island may not have been too wise.  See, looking at maps of the island, the distance between the port and Aharen beach isn't all that, so he put forward the idea that we all bring bikes and cycle the distance, or maybe just rent bikes there.  Now, as the crow flies it is not a long distance, maybe three miles at most.  But the roads are windy, which increases the distance; another cause for concern is the reason the roads are windy: that bloody hills!  Honestly, the island makes Okinawa look flat.  Here's a hill:



See that?  That's a small one.  It would have taken us a long, long time to cycle up those steep, steep hills (not too long to cycle down mind), and in that heat and with that sun... it would have been messy.  Thankfully we ignored James' idea and got the bus.  

So, here's the beach:



And again:



 

Yeah, that's right.  Amazing.  See that island sort of in the middle?  We snorkled out to it.  We did three different snorkling expeditions over the day; one quick one once we arrived, a loooong one out to that middle island later on and a shorter one after lunch.  The water was ridiculous.  Cool, crisp, clear in the right places and brimming with fish and coral.  We lathered ourselves in sun cream and it had no effect, we all got burnt to hell and back.  But it was worth it, something like two and a half hours of snorkelling and swimming and such. We had lunch at a little shack like restaurant which supplied filling pork curry.  Everyone drank beers all day and generally chilled.  It was great.  And then, alas, it was time to get home.  This involved us packing up and finding a place for a shower.  


  
500 Yen this place cost us!  But the water was warm and he did supply shampoo.  As it slowly dawned on us how burnt we actually were the realisation of the coming pain sunk in.  But, ah well, it was a good chance to compare sun burn and see who came off worst.  Certainly, Rodney came of least burnt as he had the foresight to wear a T-shirt.  

After the shower as we were doing a quick kit check it suddenly struck me that I needed to go to the toilet.  Now the toilet was tiny: 



So tiny in fact that I needed to open the cubicle door to wipe my bum!  And after this point I realised that it was broken!  Thankfully the bus had arrived for pick up and we scarped post haste!

Ferry terminal was nice and we chilled and monged and took funny pictures:



And then the ferry came and we returned to Okinawa for beer and football and darts at the Canadian bar we found, The Eager Beaver.



How Canadian is that, huh?

We ate well (I had a pork cutlet steak... well, two steaks and some chips), drank well and, alas, the day took it's toll and we hit it on the head early.  

This was not a bad thing as me and James got back in at around 9.30 in time for more food: Manbu and his family were visiting and the table hot plate was out and so was the steak, so we had more steak, YAY!

And then sleep!

Woke up this morning ravenous and devoured two massive bowls of cereal for breakfast.  The guys turned up for training and we set to it at about 10.30.  

We did a warm up circuit of tyre sledgehammers, pull ups, heavy bag work and tanren and then hit the Bear circuit.  

Here's our times and what we did:

James: 1:02, .52, .47, .44, .45
Me: 1:06, .50, .39, .38, .41
Shun: 1:37, 1:16 (hard night last night)
Mike: 1:13, 1:35, 4 reps final set
Rodney: 1:04, 3 reps final set

So, me and James managed five sets and I was doing active recovery by pounding away on the heavy bag!  Working on my jab, straight hook combo, which is coming along nicely.  Got a real fast burn out time on the Bear, and bearing in mind we're shifting 30kg for a set of 7 reps, it's pretty good.  Next time we'll do 40kg.  

Then lunch which was a Father's Day dinner here:

A traditional Japanese restaurant which is like a series of huts divided into rooms around a central courtyard.  Very nice.  It's main claim to fame is this building within the grounds:



This is the building where the guy who created Ultraman was born.  Ultraman is like the Superman of Japan and he's influenced a ton of stuff, like the Power Rangers, Ryujin Mabuya, that Bike riding guy and others.  

Anyway, here's the food:



Sort of a bento, which means box.  The starter was this tofu thing and I learnt that I do not like tofu.  In this box was rice, seared salmon, sashimi and some Kobe beef.  Oh my god it was good!  I recommend the beef to anyone.  A little overpriced for what it was but still okay.  

From there we went into town as Hisano had to open the shop to sell some emergency Togan (a chef uses it in his food) and then we wandered the market nearby on the hunt for a kimono for my mum!  Got a great one and a discount too as the lady selling it is Hisano's cousin.  From there I took everyone to the BEST ICECREAM PLACE IN THE WORLD.  I will fight anyone for that as is it true.  This ice cream is the best ice cream in the world.  Look:



It's amazing!  You must try it.  

And from there it was home and chillax after an epic weekend.  Humm... I feel like some tea.  

Friday 18 June 2010

BJJ and OCF!

Humm... acronyms!

Writing this with a cold, crisp beer next to me.   Mmmm!

Anyway, woke up this morning and trained with Shun. Did a 1 miler, ten 30 pull ups each (sets of 5).  Then Shun had two 6 minute rounds on the pads and I had an 8 minute round.  Hard, sweaty, but good.

Was going to go to Kobudo, but Hisano tempted me with an invite to lunch with her and James at James' favourite place to dine.  Now I was under the impression that Kamefuku was James' favourite place to dine and was therefore shocked and disheartened that there was a second place!

So at 11.15 I joined them for lunch, wondering what special place it could be that would knock Kamefuku from James' pedestal.

Okay, to be fair, after seeing the place, I can see why.  Look at that spread!  And that was only one section!  Yes, here I was in a Japanese All You Can Eat Buffet!

Oh those fools for letting me in the door!

To set the scene it was a restaurant in a new hotel down the road from the shop.  Nice, upper middle class, spacious and filled with the sort of slim, lean Japanese people who would only eat, at most, one plate of food.

It was 1600 Yen, which is about £12, and well worth it in my opinion.  Today was Spanish day ad they had a sort of Spanish theme (I say sort of as, as ever, they'd seen pictures of Spanish food but had made up their own instructions).  Still damn nice though.  I had loads of chicken and prawns and fish and spaghetti with oysters (I guess that must be Spanish) and more chicken, some Thai curry... I avoided the UK beef pie (it was an attempt to be a cottage pie) because it looked wrong.  I haven't pigged out in a long time and made te newbie mistake of drinking loads of ice water (I was thirsty, it was a hot day), which meant I didn't eat as much as I could have.  I still had room for dessert, going for the chocolate fountain and, of course, the ice cream.

Okay, if we ignore the gay pose, you'll notice that I managed to fit twice as much ice cream as should have been possible into that ice cream pot.  Good ice cream too.  And the coffee wasn't too bad.

Obviously I didn't eat as much as I should have, but wait till I return next Friday, then they'll rue the day...!

Got back by way of the Bikram Yoga place, picked up a timetable so me and Hisano will be doing that some time soon. Spent the rest of the day working on a short story: a super hero comedy piss take thing.  I'll stick it up here when it's done by the middle of next week.

Did BJJ tonight, which was good.  Got the better of one of their best guys, practised my spider guard passes and learnt a jumping knee bar (which is just not a technique for me as too quick).  Played with the usual guys, had some nice wins, some losses, but felt better than last time as I'm over that bug.  Still hard training at that intensity in this heat: 5 minute bout then 5 minutes off for nearly an hour and a half!  Everyone ese was doing 5 minute bouts with 10 -15 minutes off, but I am me.  Tired at the end, and thirsty, hence returning, showering and necking two beers!  The guy that runs the place caught me with that jumping knee bar again, and then the second time with an ankle lock that was so tight on the shin.  I wouldn't tap out till it was really close and now my shin is feeling it.  Next time round I was wise to his game and kept him at arm's length, literally.  Screwed up his take down , took side control and dominated.  Fourth time he tried some sot of wrist lock throw that I tore out of and took him down with, was getting full mount when the buzzer went.  Ah well, next week, next week.

Tomorrow Island Hopping!  Woohoo!

Thursday 17 June 2010

Wednesday/Thursday

So, bad night's sleep on Tuesday night so I didn't get up and train with James on Wednesday morning.  But I did train later in the day.  James trained using the Bear protocol, which is the following:

Barbell (30kg in our case)
Clean, Front Squat, Push Press, Back Squat, Push Press
You do that seven times, then you put the bar down.

You do 5 sets

James managed 4 in the morning.

I did 3 Long hill sprigs in 7.12.38
Then did the beat
First set: 1.49
Second set: 1.50
Third set: 1.57

No way I was getting a 4th set.

Rested 1.10 between each set (well, 1.11 after the first set)
Total time: 7.57 (including turning stop watch off time)

Sweaty as hell and draining.

That night we did grappling and throwing from the clinch at jujitsu.  A great session but it was so hot and muggy.

We knocked it on the head early and then headed over to 'The Eager Beaver', a Canadian bar we'd heard about.  Good place with a good selection of beer (expensive mind) and good nachos.  We'll be returning there on Saturday night!

Today has been a day of sleeping, reading and chilling to the max.  Needed.  Tomorrow beckons with more adventures!  And Saturday is Island Hopping!

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Epic monorail adventure! (Part I)



Today was an epic day of adventure.

The idea was pretty simple: get on the monorail at the Post office station, then go all the way down to the first stop and then start travelling!  Each stop I would get off and wander around and take some pictures.  The plan was to do it all in a day.  Only managed half of it, but next week will be Part II.

So...

This is a map of the monorail system, I got on at Tsubogawa, which is the Post office station and then took a monorail to Naha-kuko, the airport station.  I took the moped to the post office and parked up there.

So, first stop Naha-kuko:
Yup, it's an airport, not really much to see...

Next stop was Akamine, which looked familiar...


Yup, it's that second hand store.  I went back in and spent ages browsing, looking for a Mazinger Z toy for my sister.  No luck, but did get her a Gundam one.  That place it like a nerd's dream.  And there were several nerdy Japanese guys there (actually saw some fat people too, so rare on Okinawa).  They had models of just about every anime and manga character and, well, lots of girls dressed like this:


Why yes, that is a sword clenched between her large breasts.

I bought myself a little Cat girl model, and why not?

Across from all this was a massive Japanese air base that not on the map I picked up, which is funny as it's blatantly there and not a secret, but on the map it's a brown blob!

Next station was Oroku,


Which was next to a massive shopping mall, inside of which is a Body Shop and a Uni Glo.  Now, in Japan, Uni Glo is like Primark!  They've totally rebranded for Europe.  T-shirts are about £8, so I'm definitely coming back before I head back for a little shopping trip...

Also here was a Mr Donut
See that sign?  "World's Best Coffee and Fresh Donuts", well that needed testing out!  So test it I did!


Doughnut (I can't stand the American spelling) was good, coffee was okay, a little too bitter, but they do come around and fill it up.  Did the sign mean that is had the best coffee in the world and the best fresh doughnuts in the world or did it just mean the best coffee in the world with fresh doughnuts as a side thing?  Either way it's LYING!!!!

What a disappointment.

Next station was Onoyama-Koen, which is one of the two stations either side of the Budokan.  I didn't get off as I've been here loads, but here's a picture of the baseball field:


Station after that was Tsubogawa, so no get off and no picture either.

Was the next station.  The bus terminal is here, and there's a big dance hall, but it's closed so nothing really interesting.

Then I got to Kencho-mae.  This is the station for the Okinawa Prefecture Central Office and the attached shopping mall/business centre.


Nine floors high!  With a museum and the head quarters of several big businesses inside.  Real high end place, all Paul Smith and Pierre Cardin and such.  Managed to finally find Global knives for James too, so bonus!  There's a cinema inside and the Naha Museum, which is small but nice.  The basement is a junkfood court and the top floor is a roof garden/high end food place.  I ate here and had Soki Soba, which is a noodle dish with pork.  Filling.

From here I hit Miebashi which struck me as slightly familiar.  I rang Steve as we said we'd meet up and he said he was near Furujima.  I said I'd be there in an hour, giving me time to get off at each stop on the way and see stuff.

  I walked along the street and found a big book shop and looked inside.  It struck me as being very similar to one I went to with James.  Looking inside I was like: Wow, the layout is exactly the same, it must be a chain or something.

It then dawned on me that it was a book shop I'd been to with James.  Whoops.

Bought a BJJ book.  Steve then rang and said that he was at the station.  A bit of a mix up in communication, so I skipped a few stations and headed on over to see him, the idea being to get back on the monorail afterwards and go back to where I started skipping.

We met up and he showed me another gym and we generally wandered around the area, going to the big shopping centre (the one with the cinema where I saw Alice in Wonderland) and having a Starbucks.  We sat outside and chatted about Karate and such.  Now, it was a hot, hot day, muggy too.  I woke up in the morning and needed a shower and the rain cloud were gathering all day.  It broke during out conversation outside of Starbucks.  We were five metres in under cover and the rain came down hard and then the wind came in harder, blowing the rain onto us.

So inside we retreated.

The rain didn't retreat however, even now it's still coming down.  We spent some time in the arcade (for an old guy he's got a hell of a talent with an arcade gun) and then bought umbrellas and braved it.  I got on at Omoromachi, which is the station attached to the shopping centre.  I rang James and he was able to pick me up from the Post office as there was no way Betsy was going to start :(

All my time on the monorail and it was never late till I got to Omoromachi, where it was 4 minutes late, and people were grumbling and the announcer kept saying how sorry he was.  The weather was terrible and I could see why the monorail was running behind time but they were acting like it was the worst thing ever.

Anyway, James picked me up, we came home and Hisano bought pizza.  A damn good day, all told.  Humm, I'm peckish now.

Next Tuesday I will complete my journey!