Evil TV, Megumi, K-taro dojo, 7.1 earthquake

In the morning I took a walk and saw some really pretty sights. I took a few pictures.

Yesterday I was on Evil TV and I got to talk to Jens “Little Evil” Pulver himself! And Felice Herrig, a fellow female fighter.

Jens said, “I love this girl!” to the camera when I came on and waved. He said things like, “Of course I know you, but for a noob, tell us, how did you get to Japan?”

Jens Pulver KNOWS me? Of course? Wow!! I mean, yes I’m ranked in the top ten in my weight division, but this guy is a UFC fighter who I was watching before I started fighting professionally. I’m so touched he’d know me. 😀

You can see the video here: I start around the 30 min mark.
http://www.alienwarearena.com/mma

I had lunch at a sushi restaurant Kappa Zushi. I tried this new “salmon cheese” sushi mix…looked sketchy and tasted worse. I didn’t feel so good after that.

Later in the afternoon, I met Megumi for the first time since the quake. We studied English together, and she did pretty well.

I’m thinking about fights next month…. I can’t go into detail. I’m not so sure, but it’s time to step up the cardio just in case. I need to reduce my stress level at work….Plus, my time-off request was flat out denied, so …. even if I get an offer, what am I supposed to do? 🙁

The style of getting fights is different in Japan than in the US. In the US, the promoter says, “Okay, ABC opponent, at whatever weight, for whatever to show plus something to win, travel costs paid, for this date.” In Japan, the promoter says, “Are you interested in fighting for our promotion?” and if you say yes, THEN they start talking about opponents. For me, it’s like, “Well….how can I make a judgment call?”

In the evening, I went to K-Taro dojo. It was the first time I went on Thursday, and unlike Mondays where Miyazawa-san teaches, K-taro himself was there! We did wrestling, grappling, and hitting some mits. I rolled with a BJJ black belt! And learned a really important wrestling theory. I got really inspired. K-Taro’s body type is also like mine, with long arms and legs, so the moves he teaches just seems to “work” for me. I know that a technique is a technique, but sometimes I get the feeling that some of Abe’s moves work better for people with short arms and legs and a lower center of gravity. Maybe it’s my imagination? He vehemently denied this…. I don’t wanna make excuses for not picking up a move.

No more excuses for anything.
“Stay calm and carry on.” That’s the motto for Japan nowadays.

I stepped on the scale and found that I’d gained weight recently. I’ve been stress eating a lot lately…. 🙁 As of last night, I’m on a diet.

At 11 PM, I was just getting ready to get into my futon, when I heard the creaking of my bookshelves and TV stand. I looked around and stuff was moving. Then I felt it. Quake! It was slowly getting bigger and not stopping, so I sat down. It didn’t stop. It got bigger. I tweeted my alarm, and saw other people tweeting, too. Tweet tweet! I ended up getting dressed just in case I had to run outside, but it wound down.

I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nothing fell off shelves or anything- it wasn’t THAT strong- but it was the horror that maybe it could! And I KNEW that somewhere else it must have been MUCH stronger. I read on twitter that it was Miyagi again, in the same place as before, and there was a small tsunami warning.

There are collections everywhere. It does my heart good to see it.

Come on, mother Earth, can’t you cut those guys a break? 🙁 I wrote my parents a quick email, reassuring them that I was fine, and then went to bed. 🙁 My friends in Nagoya even felt it.…

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