Japan trip pt 2: Thurs and Fri (Groundslam MMA, friends)
On Thursday morning, I woke up almost normal time, like at 5 AM, because I’d gone to bed so late. THANK GOODNESS. I often can’t sleep in even after having stayed up late. I ate breakfast and went to Ground Slam’s morning pro practice, which is supposed to start at 9:30 but always starts after 10 AM. Not a huge crowd, but Seiichiro, Uno, Tokoro, and a few others were there. I enjoyed going with those three. I sparred another guy who I tapped out twice and I started to feel bad…I think he probably didn’t go so hard on me. I don’t mind not winning, or taking turns tapping out, if he’s really that much better than me. :/ It’s hard for people in general to adjust their power. And I don’t want special treatment based on gender, but based on size. I would hope if a person, guy or girl, outweighs me by 30 pounds, he or she is not going to hit me as hard as they can.
It’s not easy. Anyway, awesome sparring. I was tired. My back hurt so badly. lol So nice to see Katsumura-san again. He was just getting over a broken ankle but was doing pro wrestling anyway.
After training, I went to Kawasaki to meet Karla! Our tradition two years running is Sweets Paradise, a dessert buffet! We used to both be the same position English Teacher at Berlitz, but she has since become a manager. She told me that I always have a place if I ever want to come back. That’s nice to know, but with my back pain, I think I could never live away from my masseuse Teri in Las Vegas. LOL
I had left my evening schedule open just in case one of my Japanese friends suddenly invited me out (that happened before but I had no free time and I got scolded LOL) but that ended up not happening. I went shopping in Lazona for stuff I wanted to take back, like tea, furikake, T shirts, etc. I also got a FOOT MASSAGE at Queensway, the best place in the world!! Then I rested and went to bed early. I read “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Woke up super early. at like 2 AM, ate, took a walk, took a nap, and then went to beginner’s MMA class, run by Seiichiro. Only one other boxer guy showed up, and we did a lot of shadow boxing and bag work, which annoyed me, because I can do that alone. I always warm up and stretch out before practice starts, so I did not need 40 minutes of warm up. Oh well, it was a beginner’s class, and I did not go to Japan to do MMA. I was training to keep in shape, meet people, and so I could eat more. LOL so it was fine. It was SO HUMID. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in training in my entire life. I could barely breathe. Like 99% humidity.
Then we did light sparring, which was fun. Seiichiro was impressed with my switch stance and shuffle step that John has been teaching me, and asked me to show him, so I did. 😀 That was cool. It was also cool how, despite being young (like 20?) he’s one of the ones that can control his power.
After class, I rushed to Hirama to meet my host mother for sushi at Kappa zushi. It was raining SO HARD that the streets became rivers a few inches deep and there was nowhere I could step without completely submersing my sneaker. ;_; That sucked. But it was so nice to see my host mother. I dunno, she seemed distracted a bit? I guess everybody has their moods. But I love seeing her. 😀 She gave me gifts of spoons. I forgot her present. x_x I forgot like two more people’s omiyage. gah!
I went back to Kawasaki and relaxed for a while. Then it took me 45 minutes to get to Shimokitazawa and I enjoyed chatting with my former student friend Meiko. 😀
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