As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, Mr. Sato has been taking fairly good care of me. But it has come to a point that I can't even believe. First, he helped me at the Yokohama practice. Then he invited me for supper and drove me back to the university. He also said that he would drive me back every Thursday.

But it did not stop there. The next practice on Friday morning, after the warm up, the fighters for that weekend's tournament lined up to throw, as they usually do. They called out whoever they wanted as partner and got to practice throwing before their tournament.

Now I never thought I would ever do such a thing since I'm not part of the team and I have no tournaments. Yet as we were doing our normal uchi-komi during the warm up, Mr. Sato called me and told me that I would be joining those throwing to practice the combination he had shown me the night before. I could NOT believe it. But as the athletes were called up to line up, I kept my eyes on Mr. Sato who soon called out my name and told me again to get in line. That way everyone knew.

My first partner was Fubuki, but I went and asked many different fighters, including Honma, the coach who had accompanied me to the Touin Gakuen University. I think I threw over 30 times in those seven minutes, the most I have thrown since I have been here. Many were wondering why I was up there and one even asked me if I had a tournament coming up. I didn't care, I was up there. It was an opportunity to throw, and I didn't waste any time.

Once that was done, I was quite exhausted. I always wondered why the fighters would take their time throwing. I understood why, haha. Mr. Sato told me I was done for now, and the practice continued. About five minutes before the "randori" started, Mr. Sato once again called out my name. But he also called out Haruka Tachimoto's name. He brought us to one side of the dojo, took a chalk and a belt, and just as he had done for many of the team's top athletes, he made me draw two circles onto the mats. After that, he showed Haruka and I what he wanted us to work on. We had to practice a specific foot sweep while hoping in the shape of the circle. We did this maybe 40 times. He would come back from time to time, show us something new to work on, and we were off again. Haruka is quite a strong athlete and knew much more than me what to do, so she gave me tips here and there. After that, he told us we were done, and we could go back to the normal practice. I thanked him and joined in as much as I could.

By that point, I was quite exhausted. It has been a while since I had done so many repetitions without breaks. The club doesn't really usually run that way. But it just gave me more energy. To have someone look over you while everyone else seems not to care can be quite... moving. Motivating. I am very greatful for him taking the time for me.