Today, thanks to my father, I was able to recognize Yasuyuki Muneta who had come along with the policed team to practice at Tokai. Why thanks to my dad? Well because he took the time to show me all these videos of the Japanese Judo legends back home.

Apparently, Mr. Yasuyuki has been working for the Japanese National Police Academy and is training their judo team. I was just watching innocently the practice when I spotted his eyes. I recognized him right away. One look at the name on his back, and sure enough, it was him. He was quite loud, shouting at his partner as he fought away. Of course his career is over, but I must say I was quite glad to have seen him in person.


For those of you who don't know, Muneta is a former Senior A (+100kg) of Japan, twice World Champion (2003 and 2007). You can see him in action in this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU8Rym-OpaI

Now I'm also going to take the time to give you all a report on my judo/injury status.

I've gone from a cast, to a brace to nothing at all, to being able to bike, to run, to do weights, and soon, very soon, to practice. I've been doing weights with the team again for at least two to three weeks now, and during most practices, I go downstairs to do weights on my own. I also started running a little bit, and will be going to my first mountain training tomorrow. I officially went to one before, but it turned into a dash training at the university, after which some of us stayed back and played soccer. At first it was ok, and I was running all over the place, but after a few contacts with the other team, I knew I couldn't keep it up without further hurting it. But soccer was still fun since it was something different for once.

I plan on being back into full practice by the end of March.

My weight has reached its highest point since the new year, at 73kg, but has been stable at around 71.8kg for the last few weeks. It is REALLY hard to lose weight when you don't have a great chef cooking all your meals (my mom), or can't practice fully. Plus on top of that, I keep receiving all these cakes and treats from friends and acquaintances haha so that's not helping either.

Yeah so another wind has come to help me carry on this fight.

In Japan, the school semester ends at the end of January. Therefore, on January 31^st, the judo club held its annual graduation party for the 4^th year students graduating. At the same time, they use this celebration to congratulate the participants in the All Japan University Team Competition which was held in Osaka last October.

First, let me start by explaining the practice that morning. Everyone was obviously excited for the celebration that night. But there was also something else completely different. As I watched, I came to realize that all the 4^th year students were fighting, and it seemed like they were not allowed to say no to anyone. Therefore, fight after fight, they fought and fought, becoming more and more tired. But I guess since this might be one of their last time fighting, they had fun. Everyone was laughing at how tired they were.

For the last 30 minutes of the practice, the graduating students were all put in a line in front and they were allowed to call anyone they wanted to throw three last times. After getting thrown, everyone could throw the senior three times as well. In that moment, I could really see the years that had passed through each member. Every member wanting to get thrown one last time by his seniors, no matter the size, laughing and reminding each other of old jokes. But in that moment, I didn't really feel part of that group. I was still the lonely foreigner. Except, I realized soon enough that one of my friends, Daisuke, was up in line throwing everyone. I had forgotten he was graduating. My leg was still hurting, so I hesitated for a moment, but then trusting my heart, I stepped up in front of him to take my falls. He smiled at me and thanked me for coming. He threw me lightly due to my leg, and then I had a go at three throws myself. We bowed, I congratulated him, and I walked back to join the others waiting on the opposite side of the mat.


The practice ended by an announcement that we had to wear suits for the ceremony.

Except the only problem is that they all own the same exact suit, and I knew that. Three hours later, I showed up at Comsquare, with my grey suit. One of the 4^th year students told me I looked sharp, but as soon as I walked in, as predicted, all eyes landed on me. Imagine this, all these Japanese guys in their black suits, white shirts, and me, the foreigner, showing up with a grey suit and a purple dress shirt. I kind of felt proud, but then again, I believe I was a hot topic of conversation for the first 15 minutes.

Finally, after about 20 minutes of waiting, we were called to the front of the room. Many people came and made speeches, most of which I didn't know, and congratulated the winners of the team competition as well as the graduates. The food had been served in front of us, and only the 4^th year students and the coaches had been allowed to eat. The first, second, and third year student had to wait. And booy did they wait! After about... two hours of speeches and comments, and all these things, they were finally allowed to eat.

I chatted a little bit here and there with some members I knew, took a few pictures, gave a gift to Agemizu sensei, and then I had to say my goodbyes. I had to go DJ at the Farewell party for the International students. Besides, most of them were going to go drink, if they hadn't already. Most of the 4^th year students were already drunk, which made it really funny to watch. After congratulating Daisuke one last time, I took my leave from the room, wondering what is must feel like to be them.

During the week of February the 8^th to the 14^th, I ended up going to Shibuya 3 times.

The first time, I went with a friend called Mari. I thought it was going to be a date, but by the end of that day, I could see that I clearly failed haha. But I still enjoyed the day. She walked me around the area and showed me a little bit of the touristic parts of Shibuya and Harajuku, which is right next door.




The next time, I went to a party with Chipa. We went at night, and since I had just been there, it was interesting that my mind had already memorized the place. I still recall that moment when, three years ago, I came to visit my sister in Japan with my dad, and ended up guiding her around Tokyo for a bit. A gift I received was a good sense of direction, and in Japan, I must say it is quite handy.

So we entered a small little bar, and stayed there for three hours. During that time, I got to talk to many Japanese, which is why we went there, and it was good practice. But trust me, when you're trying to impress someone in a language that you aren't 100 percent fluent in, it can be quite stressful. Time passed quickly and Chipa and I soon had to rush back to catch the last train back to Tokai.


The last time was on Valentine's Day. Since I had nothing to do that night, I decided to go out. I managed to convince my friend Miguel to come with me, and soon we were off. It kinda was a crazy thing to do, and to be honest it was my first time going out that late, but we ended up riding the last train to go there, so you can imagine what time we came back... But it was fun. This time, the room was filled with foreigners and the music was pumping. I got to meet this girl from Tahiti, and she told me about her life and how she has traveled the world, or most of it, already. I couldn't help but think that I also would like to do that.




Overall, I got to see every side of Shibuya, which I think is an experience that can't really be replaced. Sure, I had fun, I learned a lot, but I also got to see a different perspective of Japan. I must say I kind of like the night life, but I couldn't do this every night. People are really crazy.

On January 25^th, I went out with Chipa to Ebina. We had planned about a week ago to try to go buy some REAL pizza at Costco, here in Japan, and after finding out that our friend Mina had a membership card, we quickly made plans to go. Now, we didn’t plan to just buy pizza, but also other types of food that you can’t normally get in Japanese supermarkets, therefore, if we went by train, it would be a pain to bring all that stuff back. Thus we decided to rent a car! And that’s where Chipa and I were headed off to that day; the rental shop. 

After the graduation ceremony for the students who were leaving, I had to head over to my judo practice. But once that was done, I rushed over back to my dorm, changed my clothes, and headed down the hill to meet my class at the "yaki-niku" (BBQ style meat) restaurant.

On the last day of January, we had the graduation ceremony for the students who are leaving this semester. This included most of the Koreans, the Hawaiians, and some others as well. Our teacher had asked us to go (even the ones not graduating yet like myself), just to support our classmates who were. The whole ceremony was taking place in the Comsquare building, the same one where the International Friday Night had taken place, and where most celebrations take place here in Tokai.

All the students were called one by one to receive their certificate, which is quite normal, but what differed from Canadian ceremonies, was that each one of them had to bow to the crowd, to the officials, then, again once they received their certificate. With about 30 students graduating, that makes for a lot of bows...

After the ceremony, there was a buffet served and we were allowed to talk and enjoy what would probably be our last time together. I had to leave a little early, since there is apparently no rest for the judo club.

Now we have about two months of holidays until the next semester starts, which is different from the Canadian semesters. From February to March, we basically have no classes. On the other hand, I still have judo practices, of course, but I was planning on trying to start cooking a lot so that once the next semester comes, I would be used to it, and maybe I will have found little tricks to make it go faster?

But no. It happens that throughout most of our break, our kitchen will be under construction. They are completely re-doing everything, which means that if you want to cook, you must head over to the girls dorm and cook. One would think that that's not a problem, but let me explain why it destroyed all hopes of cooking regularly throughout this break.

First, we have to carry all these things over to their dorm. This includes not only the groceries for our meal, but also all the equipment such as pans, knifes, cutting boards, etc. There is no place we can just store it over there, so we would also have to bring it all back. We also have to purchase and bring our own soap, because the L-Kan doesn't provide any. Lastly, we are only allowed to be in one of the kitchens, which would mean an extra crammed environment.

Thus, I decided to postpone that plan for now...