Culture day in Asakusa with Megumi!

On Thursday morning, I sparred at Ground Slam. Only Noripi, some other guy, and Caol Uno came. I did three hard rounds and then stuff started hurting, so I figured, rather than push it when I wasn’t feeling good, I’d just stop. :/ Regret…bah, but it was wise, I guess. I would have just gone through the motions half heartedly and gotten crushed… Ground Slam is NOT a place for less than 100%.

After that, I had my chicken and veggies….and some chocolate. 😡 I met Megumi at Asakusa, and we watched the Jidai Parade together! Actually, at first we were planning to go to the Meiji Jingu (Shrine) like I do every year, because they have Kobudo (traditional martial arts) demonstrations, like Iaido (sword drawing). There were really cool archery demonstrations, and also yabusame (archery from horse back).

But then I read on Twitter’s @TimeoutTokyo which I follow that Asakusa was having this huge parade, and it looked much more interesting. Plus, any excuse to go to Asakusa. I love that place. So we went!

I love this pic…I took it by accident. Megumi is trying to sneak by, but she looks SO intent on her ice cream in this picture. I love it.

Megumi and I eating Monjaman! Monja Yaki inside a niku-man. Omg so good- meat and veggies. We split it.

I got interviewed by TBS, a major TV station!! The reporter said that she didn’t know if I’d be aired, since they interviewed a lot of foreigners. 🙂 I wonder if it was! Megumi snagged my camera and took pics! 😀

I thought these Tokugawa Ieyasu soliders were kind of funny, with one guy with the drum on his back, and the other guy beating on it.

So we saw famous kabuki actors, people dressed up with swans on their heads, middle-schoolers pulling a giant stone block representing some Edo castle, archers, samurai, etc etc! I made a video blog- please check it out!
Link to youtube video blog

Hahah when the cranes came by, I said, “Oh what are those? Tell me on my video blog” in Japanese, and Megumi said, “Tsuru!” I thought she said, “Tsuri” which means “Fishing,” so I said, “Okay, so you can say, ‘They are fishing!'” and she repeated, “They are fishing!” 😀 Then they got closer, and I thought….wait, I don’t see anyone fishing. I see birds…cranes…TSURU, oh. lol “Megumi, sorry, those are cranes! Please say, “they are cranes!” and she dutifully repeated, “They are cranes! :D”

I ate the BEST tako-yaki of my entire LIFE. The dude added shrimp AND octopus. omg so crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I wanna go back just to go to that guy’s booth again.

After that, I went to the gym and lifted/did physical training. 🙂 I did my best, and I’m really sore now. It’s a good sore. …