Sensei Max Doubt, 9th dan, is starting a new Bujinkan class here in the valley.  Up until now, his classes have been located at UCSC, and at the Santa Cruz Budokan.  Now, we get him on our side of the hill!

The time:  6:30pm to 8:30-ish, Mondays and Wednesdays

Location:  John D. Morgan Park in Campbell  (San Tomas  Expwy & Budd Ave)

For more info, contact me via email at jason_postman@yahoo.com .

Ever since I started training, I’ve tried to learn Japanese.  With all of the trips to Japan that I take, being able to speak Japanese would be a big plus… not only for just getting around, but for being able to understand the things the Shihan say without having to rely on a translator.

Lacking the time to go and enroll at the local community college, I’ve tried to use the Pimsluer “Learn to Speak Japanese” series of about 50 Audio CD’s.  I made great progress quickly, but it just seemed to drop by the way side, since I never have the time to sit and devote 100% of my attention to listening.

So, for a while I got a tutor.  A nice girl I found on Craig’s list would meet me once a week, and we’d go over a workbook that I bought at a used bookstore.  She had me study the Hiragana first, so I could pronounce everything for the workbook better.   This worked out ok, because she’d go over the lesson with me, and then say “But… this isn’t what people actually say in Japan, they would say …”.   This went on for a while, then she moved.

I was thinking of trying to find a class again that would fit into my work/training/Pink Tornado schedule, and then Trueheart gave me some great advice.  As a former Japanese major in college, his japanese skills are infinitely superior to mine, and he sent me a great email with instructions for the best/fastest way to learn Japanese.

I am including his email in it’s entirety here (with his permission).  If you are wanting to learn Japanese, I strongly suggest you follow his advice.

I have all of the books mentioned in PDF format, and some extra study resources, as well as a lot of the Heisig flash card decks.  You can download them from here, but the links are blind… email me directly for the links.

I am currently knee deep in the Kanji… which I failed miserably at trying to learn before.  Amazingly, it’s easy to learn with the method described below.

<BEGIN EMAIL>

Dude, forgive this long wall text.  I have buckets of advice for learning Japanese, but I’ve tried to keep this short and only the necessary information.  Still it’s long though because there’s a lot of information that’s necessary.  I hope you can find the time because it is definitely a worthwhile investment.

If you want to study Japanese at an accelerated pace, then you need to be able to read and write the language.  Unless you can pay for some hot, spunky Japanese girl to follow you around all day and make conversation, your only affordable access to the language is books, manga, TV, anime, and the internet. And the beauty of the written word in particular is that it gives you access to the language whenever and wherever you want.  For both you and me, all we want is to be able to understand soke’s speech, so reading and writing seems like a distraction.  But it’s like lowering your kamae: to a whitebelt it seems unrelated, but once you try it everything becomes easier.

To get started: download the program Anki from the following website:

http://ichi2.net/anki/

While you’re there watch some of the videos to get accustomed to what this software accomplishes.  A more technical introduction is here:

http://www.supermemo.com/articles/theory.htm

Then download and read the introduction to “Remembering the Kanji” and do the first few lessons.  Web address:

http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/miscPublications/pdf/RK4/RK%201_sample.pdf

[Jason: I have this book in PDF format.]
You’ll want to order the whole book ASAP.  I’ve attached to this email an Anki deck of lesson 1 from my own studies.  Be sure to install the KanjiStrokeOrders font (google it).  This deck has images associated with each kanji, which I find tremendously helpful.  I wish I could send you the whole deck premade, but I just started going back and adding image support to it.  For lesson 2 and beyond you’ll find the following forum thread to be of help:

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=2553

[Jason:  Trueheart has sent me the first dozen decks… links available upon request.]

Some theory and background: theres some dudes in academia that figured out you can learn a language much quicker if you focus entirely on input (massive amounts of reading and listening) before doing any output (writing or speaking).  Back in the 80’s and 90’s some Polish guys applied this principle to English and were able to get to native level fluency in an impressively short period of time.  Their story is on antimoon.com, and there’s some good advice to be found there.  I’ll link to just one article, the “Myths and Facts of learning English”:

http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths.htm

Just replace “English” with “Japanese” and its solid advice.

In 2004 a Kenyan guy that had read the antimoon stuff decided to apply those lessons to learning Japanese.  He had no prior exposure to the language, but by the end of 2005 he had landed a job with Sony in Tokyo in a fully Japanese environment.  His website is:

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about

His writing is a bit over the top at times, but his advice is solid. Finally, a community of Japanese language learners that follow and extend upon his method has developed in the forum section of the following website:

http://kanji.koohii.com/

The site very useful (especially the stories and the forum), but the algorithm behind its SRS is substandard.  Much better to invest your time and energy into Anki.

The basic roadmap (time estimates assume about an hour of study spread through the day, every day):

These steps in serial (don’t skip ahead!)
1) Learn Joyo kanji list (~2000 kanji).  2-4 months
2) Learn hiragana and katakana.  1 week max.
3) Learn onyomi readings with movie method 2-3 weeks.
4) Learn grammar using Tae Kim and sentence method (about 1000 sentences) 1-2 months.

The next items are done simultaneously:
5a) Learn kunyomi readings by replacing RTK keywords.
5b) Begin sentences with Kanji.Odyssey.2001
5c) Start reading native media.  First simple manga, then more complex manga, newspapers, and novels.  THIS is where progress is rapid and fluency is achieved.

Some terminology there is from the community and might not make sense without that background.  But if you started now I would expect to be starting stage 5 by January of next year, and rapidly progressing by the time of your spring trip next year.

I’m gonna end this email before it gets any longer.  Good luck, and please contact me (or ask me in the mornings) if anything is unclear.

– Trueheart

<END EMAIL>

Well, Japan 6 has come and gone by in a flash.  All in all, a most excellent trip.

The flight back was nice and smooth… completely un-fraught with peril.

Some odd things have happend after returning home.  After a day or so, nothing hurt.  This has been the least painful trip thus far.  The lack of beer drinking has really kept the knees is good working order.

The second odd thing that happened was the jet-lag.  I did everything right…  Slept a lot on the plane… stayed up until about 9:00 pm before crashing out when I got home… didn’t sleep in… but jet lag is still kicking my ass two weeks later.  The oddest part, is that my body clock seems to be in some weird time zone that is neither here, nor anywhere near Japan.  When lucky, I get 3 or 4 hours of sleep without waking up.  But, on the bright side, I’m awake in more than enough time to make it to the dojo.

I blame this all on beer.

I hardly had any at all this trip… and I had problems adjusting to the time when I was there.  Then, come home, more problems.  Beer every night always fixed the time zone problem… but I’d come home wrecked.  Interesting catch-22.

I can’t wait to go back.

Some random logistics learned this trip:

-  Use traveler’s checks at Narita Airport for a better exchange rate.

-  There’s a JP Bank ATM that’s available at the Ayase station.. very handy.

-  Cheaper, and quite Pimp dojo tabi are available at the temple in Asakusa… on the left hand side just before the “no photography” buildings.

-  For a 10 day trip, I spent $100 on my suica card.

-  The best ramen in the known universe is only 29 minutes away at Ueno station.  (I’ll put the location in the guide)

-  Wearing a silly mask on the plane will in fact, keep you from getting sick when the guy a few seats over is coughing the whole way over the pacific.

-  Chu-Hi now comes in “Chu-Hi STRONG… 8%!!”.  Date rape in a can.

-  Just because someone has lived in japan for a long time, isn’t a gaurantee that they know what they hell they’re talking about.

-  It’s easier to just ask for change at the hotel lobby than specifically try to horde your 100 yen coins for the massage chairs at Narita airport.

I’ll go into more detail on these and other observations later.  For now, I’m just enjoying moving at the dojo with the crew, and feeling that japan flow without any pain.  I just wish I could sleep.

Last training day, I try not to get bummed out. 

I woke up to my phone ringing… it was 7:20am, and Bri-Dog was calling.  He said that he was going to skip breakfast in favor of more sleep.  I was still asleep, and just grunted a few amenable sounds and went right back into snoring away.  I didn’t hear the alarm clock either… I was dead tired from going to bed so late the night before.

I woke up at 9:45, took a fast shower, and called Bri-Dog.  He was still crashed out, and we were running late for class.  He stumbled out the door, and we scurried off to catch the later train that would get us to Soke’s class.  We both slept through the 9:00am class… but we made it to Soke’s class.

It was the most packed it has been since I’ve been here.  I guess another crew from somewhere had come in.  This was exactly what I was trying to avoid.  The resident ninjas all said that it’s pretty much been constantly crowded, so my attempts at scheduling the trip to avoid the crowd are now pretty much moot.

I partnered up with the Ambassador, and right before things started, the Coolnoichi showed up.  Since I already had a dance partner, I introduced her to the Bri-Dog.  He already had a dance partner, but handed her to a guy standing next to him that was looking for a partner.  This all proved very fortunate.

Class was excellent… Soke was very genki, and it was a great way to end on a high note.

Just before the break, people were called up to demonstrate.  A green belt and a black belt used a real bo… the black belt was horrible and worse than the green belt.  Soke basically scolded them and said they should use padded weapons.  Coolnoichi’s partner got called up, and then did a demo.  Her movement was really smooth and nice… there wasn’t any “holy crap, Soke is watching” nerves.  I remember how she looked a year ago… a young green belt that was really rough around the edges, but that had a warriors heart.  Here, she flowed really nice.  Just as I was thinking… “hey, that felt really nice”… Soke interrupted them as they were going to sit back down.  He asked who her teacher was… I thought.. “uh-oh.. here it comes…”, and then asked what rank she was.  On the spot, Soke, with Noguchi sensei nodding beside him, promoted her to Shodan on the spot.  She was quite surprised.  Hehehe!

Huge congrats to the Coolnoichi!

This was one of those Japan synergy kind of moments.  The stars line up, and you can feel them lining up, and then something cool happens.  These cool happenings tell us (if we are sensitive enough to listen) that we are on the right path, and that things are unfolding before us as they are supposed to.  This happens a lot here in Japan, unless you are one of the monkeys that comes to try and prove something to everyone, instead of just coming to learn.

This was the only spot promotion that I saw during this trip.

On the break, I gave Coolnoichi one of my extra calligraphy boards, and got in line with her.  When asked what I wanted, I pointed to her and said “Please draw her”.  Soke drew a kunoichi with big boobs.. chuckled and handed it to me saying “heheheh… kunoichi desu!”.   He drew her a kitty cat looking at a fish head.  Coolnoichi laughed when she saw was Soke drew for me when I explained that it was a portrait of her… “My boobs aren’t huge like that!!” she said.  I told her she that she was a rock star.

After class, the Tele-Novella star came and said goodbye.  I gave her the pack of nicotine gum that I found in my jacket pocket (I had mentioned it a few days before when I saw her smoking at the train station), and she gave me one of their dojo shirts.  It’s a really cool shirt, with a purple Bujinkan logo on the front, and skulls with a sombrero on the back.  Hopefully they’ll come by and train with us some time.  I doubt I’ll ever make it down to mexico city… but if I do I’ll certainly stop by and see them.

A bunch of us walked down to the tabi store so Bri-Dog and I could fill orders from the folks at home, and we hit the funeral-stuff store for candles for the dojo and incense.  (It turns out that there is a funeral store right on the main drag in east-side Kashiwa.)

Since the Ambassador was with us, we hit Coco’s for lunch instead of Sazeraiya.  There was great conversation, and Larry sensei and the Ambassador filled the Coolnoichi in on the sort of comings and goings of the Hombu… and strongly encouraged her to make the time to get out and train at Soke’s class more.  We also told her that something a person-I-shall-not-name said about her promotion basically not counting was totaly bullshit, and that people who say such things should be avoided.  I mean, if Soke says it, then it is so.  If you want to argue with this, go join the Gembukan.  *shakes head in disgust*

We all went our separate ways, with Bri-Dog and I agreeing to meet up with Coolnoichi later for beers after her other training class.  I used this time to get all of my stuff packed up and ready to go, because on monday it’s time to go home.  I also called up the Pink Tornado, and told her about the promotion.  We couldn’t really talk well because she was on a ferry or something.

This trying to call her up while she’s in New York has proved problematic.  I guess she’s having too much fun there… which is a good thing.

We met up in Otsuka, and when to Ikebukuro for dinner and beers.  After much walking around, we settled on a ramen shop that turned out to not be that good.  Then we looked for a bar… and I discovered while walking around that Ikebukuro is a shitty area.  Lots of pachinko parlors, and the japan equivalent of nudie bars.  It was like a lower class redlight district… not where I wanted to hang.  However, we found a Hub Pub, and got some beers there.

A couple of random japanese guys were smiling and sending intention our way… I assumed they were sweet on the blonde gaijin chick with us.  Coolnoichi wrote down her email on a piece of paper, and handed it to one as they walked by.  We all sort of broke into conversation, they were very excited.  Unfortunately, when we went to leave, it was me and Bri-Dog that were getting the looks… and we agreed that the dudes were sweet on us.  Doh!  Gaydar totally non-operational in japan.

We hugged and said good night, and agreed to hang out next trip.

The trains weren’t super full for being so late, probably because it was sunday night, and we went back to the hotel.  We tried to stop at the pub for another beer, but it was closed.

Today is now monday, and it’s the travel day for going home.  Thanks to some clever planning, we’ll have a leisurely trip back, without having to rush anywhere.  I’m pretty sore, but in much better shape than other trips here.  All in all, it’s been and excellent trip, and Bri-Dog and I will be bringing lots of cool stuff home.  I’m crossing my fingers for a smooth flight.

Before passing out yet again, I’m going to force out a quick update.

Yesterday was day 8… and it was a good day.  Lots of walking.

I headed out solo to meet up with the Ambassador in Ueno for lunch and to discuss things.  We found the 2nd Soup Nazi… and had an amazingly good lunch.  This Soup Nazi is only different by the number of cubicles for eating in, and the addition of 3 tables so you can be slightly social with friends.  There is 2 4-top’s, and a 2-top.   There are still signs everywhere saying “no phones, no loud talking, etc”… but at least you can look at your buddies and nod enthusiastically about just how damn good the ramen is!

We took a long stroll around Ueno park, and the lake that is there.  Nice park, but the conversation was better.

I dragged the Ambassador to Asakusa so I could stock up on omamori, and look for a tabi store that Ms. Tele-Novella told me about at the hombu.  I did find it, but all of the really cool pattern tabi were sold out in my size.  But, I got some kick ass ones that are black with black soles.  Very cool, because they won’t show the dirt.  

I got my fortune… No. 12, Best Fortune.  Woo-hoo!

The Ambassador and I saw a porn star.  Hot girl, dressed like a schoolgirl, but not a schoolgirl, with two guys video taping everything she did, and two guys in suits standing just off camera.  But… a closer look showed that she had LOTS of natural-style makeup on, and had slight bags under her eyes… they kind you get from smoking, drinking, and staying up late.  I found it odd… they were filming her, a fake schoolgirl, when there was literally entire platoons of them (and much cuter ones), all around us.  *shrugs*

This dude in a track suit was walking around with a Great Dane that was as big as a small horse.  I got pictures.  The japanese people were fascinated.  The Ambassador and I theorized that he uses the dog to get chicks.

A few trains later and we ended up in Atago.  Bri-Dog had gone to train with Paul Masse, and I didn’t make it in time, so more deep philosophy and talk of boobies.

Soke’s class was of course, really great.  Soke was Genki this night.

After, Bri-Dog and I bumped into Larry, and he offered to give us a ride back to Kashiwa.  Two side trips were made.  The first was to a manga store, who’s location I’ll never find again,  that had manga at really great prices.  The second was for some ramen (no, I don’t have a problem, I can quite any time I want) in Kashiwa.  A block past the emergency overpass and we had dinner and talked story at a great little place that also had the most amazing gyoza I’ve ever had.  Most yummy!

We said good night, and I got back in, around 1:00 am, and collapsed into bed.  Hence the lack of an update from this day until now.

Today, Day 9, was the “day off”.  Bri-Dog and I sync’d up with Hottie-san, and hopped the train out to grab some ramen at the Soup Nazi in Ueno, then on to meet up with her in Shibuya.  It was POURING rain.  All day, non-stop, very unseasonably heavy rain.  My dreams of going to visit Fuji rain down the rain gutters and out into the sea.

We got to the Soup Nazi… and the line was huge.  Way too huge.  Instead, we grabbed a couple of 10,000 variety sandwich, no surprises, and some cream puffs from a bakery and had a quick lunch.  We ended up being a little late to the Hachiko… but it was all good.

Hottie-san looked gorgeous as always, and we walked around and continued the hunt for Capcom Girls figurines.  We hit various places, and took a walk down Harajuku as well.  I did a fair amount of filming, though unfortunately there wasn’t a sea of hotties, but rather a sea of umbrellas.   We saw much crazy shit.

Even though is was raining really heavy, Hottie-san took us to the Meiji shrine.  It was gorgeous in the rain.  We saw some wedding parties… I bought omamori… and I got lots of footage that I think the Pink Tornado with like.

We were reading the wishes that people put up on the little wooden shingles, and chuckling about how materialistic peoples wishes seemed to be (Some would say.. ‘wish for good health or peace’… I was saying ‘I’d wish for the ability to shoot death rays from my eyes, and to be able to fly!’… etc).  Bri-Dog pointed out something really funny, and that was that if you are going to wish for “material shit”… wish for something good… like a BMW 3 series.

10 Minutes before, I’d taken half a vicodin from all of the walking, and this was so damn funny that I almost pee’d my pants.

I told Bri-Dog that if he’d wish for a BMW, I’d pay for it.  So we did… I bought the shingle, and he filled it out.  I tried to film it… but it’s all shaking because I couldn’t stop laughing.  So right in front, where you see the wishes for everything from a better job to world peace, is Bri-Dog’s wish… which reads: (I shit you not)

“I want a BMW 3 series with REAL (underlined for emphasis) leather seats and a Bose sound system and a GPS Nav system with a cute Japanese Girl voice and seat warmers so my butt stays warm in the winter.”

Oh my god… classic.

I will now officially declare that every time I come to Japan, I will make this identical wish (only say “I want Brian to have…”).   With our combined power, we can make this happen, and it will make him happy.

After the shrine, we ended up at Hottie-san’s house.  We were quite wet… so I dropped my pants off and put them in her dryer, along with Bri-Dog’s sweater, and our socks.  I have no problems walking around pantsless, especially when hot chicks are involved.  She served us beers (tried to seduce us), and made some snack food that was really delicious (tried to seduce us), and showed us her bedroom (tried to seduce us), and used the computer on the bed with Bri-Dog and myself to get added as friends on Facebook (tried to seduce us), and then demonstrated her hula-hoop skills…. (successfully seduced us).

Yes, I got all of this on film.

I took some black-mailable photos too.

Then, we headed out and got dinner at a great place.  The name, location, even which train station… I have no idea.  Needless to say, she did it again, and chose a great place.  They had the mysterious green sauce of happiness on the table too!  

Bri-Dog and I accomplished our mission too…. and that was the first rule of dealing with Hottie-san;  she isn’t allowed to pay for anything.  She tried to get sneaky a few times, but our diligence paid off, and she was treated to everything today.  Mission success!

It was a long train ride back to the hotel… and the only reason I’m still awake is that I’ve got a load of laundry in the dryer.  Gotta be fresh for tomorrow, as it is our last training day.

This trip went by too quickly, again.

At least I was able to get ahold of the Pink Tornado on the phone tonight.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

Ugh… missed an update, doh!

Looking back, what happened on day 6?  I was out all day… got back late… did a bunch of training… but I can’t think of any specifics.  How odd is that?  Am I missing a day?

Oh yes, now I remember…

The highlight of the day was Nagato sensei’s class.  Bri-Dog and I split up and partnered with a coupld of residents.  I met another Jason!  It was trippy, because he’s lived here for over a decade, and this is the first time I’ve met him.  We’re the same size, only he’s blonde-ish… which makes him appear to be the “Good” Jason, making me the “Evil” Jason.

He was great to train with, and class was most excellent.  The next time he’s in California, I hope he comes by and looks us up.

Yesterday Bri-Dog and I hit Akihabara to go “thing” hunting.  He was hunting around for one kind of thing, I was hunting for another.  We met up with the Ambassador for lunch at a great noodle in Kita Senju that was a close runner up to the Soup Nazi.

After lunch we hit Geek Town again, and ended up talking to a girl I will call “Super Nerd” from the UK.  She seemed to know her way around pretty good… being Super Nerd and all… so she merged into our hunt.  Turns out she just got out of college and is doing the “travel all around the world” thing.  In a few months she’ll be in San Francisco, so we got her email address to keep in touch.  She was hilaroious to hang out with.  She even out-nerded the Coolnoichi… not an easy task.

Akihabara was full of ultra cute girls dressed like naughty maids, handing out flyers for some maid themed cafe.  Note to self:  Get 10 ultra hot japanese maids.

We bolted out of Akihabara just in time to make it to Noguchi sensei’s class.  Really good class… got the whole thing on video.  And, as hoped, I got to see El Rob.  We hung out for a bit and talked story after class, and grabbed a beer and little pizza right by the train station.  It was good to hang for a bit, being that El Rob is a cool dude.  Sunday I get to see the Coolnoichi again, which I’m really looking forward to.

Perhaps it’s best that I’m getting to see the folks that I wanted to see one at a time instead of all at once.  Hmm…

Got back to the hotel pretty late, and called The Pink Tornado up on Skype while munching on a sandwich of 10,000 varieties, no surprises.

I passed out just before 1:00 am, and woke up pretty sore today.  Full schedule though, so I gotta get cracking.

Oh yeah, and I bought some gum called “Black Black”… mostly because the name sounded cool to me.  It says on the wrapper, and I shit you not, “Hi-Technical Excellent Taste and Flavor”.  With stuff like that, I just had to try it.   Holy Dogshit!!  This stuff is so minty, after chewing a piece I feel as if I’ve been chemically sterilized.  Hi-Techinical is right!

Ah!  Great Success!  Oh no, Terrible Mistake!

That was the theme for today.

Today I was feeling a bit rough around the edges, so I went and got a massage.  The hours at the place have changed though, and I had to wait until noon.  My “frequent visitor” card got me a discount, and the person I got was REALLY good.  Finally!  A good massage!

I screwed up the schedule, and missed a Noguchi sensei class, but made it to Ayase for Soke’s class… only Soke wasn’t there.  It had started raining around 6:00pm, and the humidity was crazy.   The wind got a bit uppity, and the umbrella was useless, as atomized water was hitting me from every direction.  I think the underside of the umbrella got just as wet as the top side.

Noguchi sensei taught instead as a fill-in… and it was a lot of Kukishin waza.   Even though I was by the windows, it didn’t help any.  Within 5 minutes I had completely sweat through my Gi and had to take it off.  The more I sweat, the hotter I got, and just sweated more.  No water break either… so I just went and took one.  Good thing I did too.

Right after class, I made a dash for the vending machine and pounded down some water.  By the time we got back to the hotel, I was feeling pretty shitty… and I pretty much just collapsed on the bed.  I thought I had drank enough water… but I got dehydrated pretty good.  At 2:00 am, I woke up in total misery, and pushed 4 bottles of water down.  This morning as I write this, I feel like I’ve got a really bad hangover.  Ugh, I’ve been here before.  If I am to have this hangover, I wish that at least I could have enjoyed a party first!

A great discovery was made in all of this though… and that is another Gaijin Friendly ATM machine has been discovered.  This one appears to be open late/early too!  I’ll include a picture of it in the guide (yes, I took a picture).  It’s located just before the turnstiles at the Ayase trainstation, in a little booth like they make the smokers use.  Woo-hoo!   This having to wait until 9:00am monday thru friday to use the ATM is a pain in the ass.

Nagato sensei today at 2:30…. I can’t wait!

Knees at 70%, Back at 80%… but that’s the lack of water making things hurt more.

Happy 4-20 y’all!  Remember, it’s Hitler’s Birthday too.  Celebrate the fact that he’s being raped in hell.

Today started off rather sluggish.  Bri-Dog and I got breakfast, then went over the schedule for the day.  Our first class wasn’t until 2:30… so we went back upstairs and crashed.  The lack of sleep caught up with me, and I was out cold for a couple of hours.
I hit the ATM, and it worked… woo-hoo!  I shouldn’t need any more cash while I’m here.
We met up for lunch just before heading off to the Hombu, and we went for the coin-op-food-stop for some curry and rice.  Ahh!  So nice, and cheap to boot.  That’ll be burping nice all day. A meal for 450 yen, you just can’t beat it.

Our first class was Nagato sensei… and it was spectacular.  Still pretty full today, but it appears that the french have thinned out a little.  The spanish speakers (not to be confused with spainards) from all over South America are still here in great numbers.
I really enjoyed this class, and got a lot out.  Yes Mr. Ambassador, I did as you said.  Nagato sensei asked us our names and where we were from.  I got a lot out of class… and since it was warmer today, I didn’t drink enough water and got a little dehydrated.  I had to sit down after class and wait for the shakes to stop.

There was a long break between classes, so we headed off into Noda for a run at the tabi shop.  Unfortunately, Bri-Dog forgot the shopping list, so we skipped it and headed to Coco’s instead.  I was in the mood for a light lunch, a sandwich perhaps, so we went there instead of the other place.  No sandwiches on the menu though, I must be thinking of a different place.  *shrugs*  So I got french toast, they do that well, and Bri-Dog was brave and got some truly disgusting pasta soup bowl thing.  We were joined by a kiwi dude, who ate one of their Abomanation pizzas.  Truly nasty.  It was like watching an autopsy.  I’m pretty sure in Leviticus, somewhere between the Shrimp, and homosexuality it mentions “Pizza from Cocos in Noda”.  Surely foul.
We hit our next class, then headed home.  We were pretty tired, and feeling the first day’s training now.  The body loves to tell me “Oh yeah, you’re not 20 any more.”

On the way back in, we stopped at the pub for a pint, and nursed it down slowly.  I got one of those too-expensive-and-tiny-but-yummy pizzas.  We didn’t stay long, and headed back to the hotel to turn in.  It was late, I was buzzed, so I crashed instead of doing the usual update.
Officially, I am a dumbshit.  This whole time I’ve been bitching about the steep-as-hell stairs that lead down into the pub… and last night Bri-Dog pointed out that there is an elevator.  I will go home to BFF with a note pinned to my shirt that reads “Must work on Zanshin”.  *shakes head in disgust*
It’s 6:00 in the morning now, and I’ve got my laundry going.  My room stinks like tiger balm so bad that I had to open the window.  Still, having a blast.  More Soke tonight, and before that a trip to Ueno station to find the Soup Nazi that we discovered is there.  Perhaps today would be a good day for Asakusa… I don’t know.

I’ve decided that the doors to the Kashiwa Plaza Hotel (Annex) are totally passive aggressive.  They’re automatic, but take an extra .5 seconds to open… which is exactly how much time you need to roll your eyes and sigh.  I swear I can hear them go… “Fine… *sigh*…” every time they open.  You have to stop your forward motion for just long enough for it to be mildly irritating.

Knees at 88%, back at 75%… but a massage will fix that.

Today was an odd day.
I woke up at about 2:30 am unable to sleep.  Apparently my lack of beer drinking is having an adverse effect… and though my wallet and joints feel good about it, there appears to be a problem adjusting to this time zone.  I’ll have to try and remember this for when I get home.
Slighty rough around the edges from less than 4 hours of sleep, I ate the usual breakfast with the Bri-Dog, and headed out for training.  Again, we were a little early, but I’m liking the extra time to stretch out and warm up.  The sky is a lot more blue today, and warmer is nice.
Today’s Sunday schedule that used to be Nagato sensei and then Soke is the new way of the first class being a rotating class, which reminds me of the Second Saturday Seminar back home.  Oguri sensei taught, and it was an extension of the same theme as yesterday.  The Hombu was crowded, and during the water break I performed my Moses immitation and parted the sea of shoes, making a path that Soke could easily walk through.  (This shoe mess always rubs me the wrong way… so I like to try and neaten things up out of pure embarassment).  At the end of class, more folks showed up for Soke’s class, and proceeded to fill the channel I had dredged out.  Great.  Well, one can try, yes?
I was excited for today, and planning on seeing/reconnecting with 6 people in particular.  I got to see and train with the Ambassador right of the bat, but nobody else showed up!  I know that life can get in the way of training, even here in Japan, but come on guys… this is Soke!
The Ambassador was smooth and deadly.  Soke said some interesting things.  None of which I will repeat here.
After class, Bri-Dog, the Ambassador, and this dude from Denmark went for lunch.  I talked everyone into Saizeriya, purely because I think Coco’s is disgusting.  Maybe it’s just me, but I like to be able to get full, and have all the water I want.  That little tiny glass of water is Japan’s way of saying.. “FUCK YOU!”.  (Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like D-Money there… but it’s one of my sore points.  Damn shot glass of water.  *sigh* )
We all talked for a long time, and kept ordering more sub-standard food.  I left bloated like a tick, and we mosey’d down to the station.  Bri-Dog and I came back to the hotel, and I turned in for the day.
It was early, so I sent some emails, and then spent some quality time with my notes.
I finally was able to sync up with Coolnoichi, and we made plans to do some hitting and then beer drinking next sunday.
I passed out from being so tired, and woke up just to do this update before I have a beer, watch a show on Hulu, then crash for the night.
No real drama today, I kept my note-taking nice and stealthy.

I have the following song stuck in my head, and despite attempts at clearing it with my iPod, it remains.  Perhaps this is the theme song for this trip.  *shrugs*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG2_kpSYxXI

Japan 6, Day 2 update…

Today was the first day of training for us.  The jet-lag that knocked us out cold last night at 9:00, woke me up at around 5:00 am Japan time.  I got the sleep I needed though, so I took the time to get my gear ready for the day, and take a nice long shower, do some emailing, etc.
Bri-Dog and I went downstairs and got the usual breakfast, then retreated back to our rooms since it was so damn early, and we didn’t need to be at the train station until 10:00.
A quick weather check showed grey skies again, but the REAL check… how many people are carrying umbrellas… was a negative for rain.
We left for the dojo a little early still, stopping by the yummy bakery for baked treats.
Not seeing a whole lot of ninjas in Kashiwa, so I was hoping it had thinned out.  I was wrong.  Pretty full classes for Senou sensei and Oguri sensei.  Lots of spaniards and their leader, lots of french and their leader too.
Great training though… Bri-Dog and I settled into the japanergy almost immediately, and did some cool shit.
I took notes.
I was the only one.

[ I’ve redacted what I’ve posted here, until I get back home, lest I get in an awkward situation or killed.  ]

I told Bri-Dog what had happened, and he was like “WTF? You’re kidding right?”… and so for the rest of the day, when I’d see Bri-Dog taking notes, I’d say “Dude, come on now, you aren’t supposed to take notes! *snicker*”.

Sorry to be catty about this whole thing, but what a bunch of bullshit.
Don’t hate me because I’m a good student.

I won’t be going to any of his seminars, that’s for sure.  Lest I feel tempted to write down something.  *shakes head*

Anyways, Bri-Dog and I met some cool folks from other dojos.  I got to talking to a tele-novella star about where to get crazy tabi.  She gave me directions to a booth in Asakusa… I will hit it when I go there.

We jumped on the train and headed back to the hotel for a quick shower (seperately), and then took the train down into Shibuya on a quest for the Soup Nazi, and to buy calligraphy blanks for Soke’s class tomorrow.  Long train ride… over an hour… with our stomachs growling all the way.  We found the place, about 8 people were in line… but it was worth it.  OMG… SOOOooo worth it.  Best noodles in Japan.  I gorged.  I filmed it all.  I even tried to point the camera into the “behind the bamboo curtain”… but it didn’t work out.

The Hour plus train ride there, and hour plus train ride back was sooooo worth it.

I just got back to the hotel… having my combat allowance beer (1 per day), and about to fall asleep all slathered up with tiger balm.

I’m psyched to see a bunch of folks tomorrow… there was too many unfamiliar faces today, though the absence of the “Noda Watch” girls was refreshing.  I guess it was a big crime day in Noda.  *shrugs*… *walks away*.

Tomorrow is Soke’s class… the whole reason for being here.

Knees at 90%, Back at 96%.