Since I came back from the camp, the guys seem less hesitant to ask me to practice. It has come to the point where I no longer get a break. At least that's how it was for the past two weeks. The fighters were preparing for the next two tournaments, and since I would consistently be there at every practice, I was now being asked to practice by much stronger opponents, much more often.

But as my father had told me, most Japanese's approach towards people is based on trust. Trust which comes from the history they have with that person. Now that I have spent quite a fair bit amount of time with them, and proven to them I am serious, they take me seriously. And going to the training camp only helped that. 

In the past two weeks, I have practiced with more different partners than I have in the last four months. I even got called up by Fubuki to get thrown. As they approach a tournament, the athletes competing get to line up and call whoever they want to throw three to five times. This was my first time being called up by an athlete. 

Now when I came back from the camp, I really wondered why I didn't feel completely desorganized like I usually do when I come back from a training camp. After a few days, I realized that it was because of something called "hei jou shin". The character representing "hei" means "even" or "peace". The character for "jou" means "ordinary" and at last the character for "shin" means your "heart". So if you can see the connection: peace + ordinary + heart. In a real context, it means self-control, presence of mind. But as I was taught by my father, it also means not letting external factors interrupt your daily routine. 

At the camp, even though the boys would stay up late and play the werewolf game, I would go and brush my teeth, get ready for bed, write my blog, and sleep. Even though I wanted to play, I knew that the best thing for me was to get as much rest as possible. This kept me in the game the whole time and it also gave me balance. It kept me centered and in the end, prevented me from forgetting things. Thanks to it, I was never late for practice, and I had my stuff packed before the others as we left. 

Now applying this all the time can be quite challenging. During the normal life, there are many things that just "pop out of nowhere" and need for you to adjust your schedule. But for the first time, I think I really understood what my father had been telling me these past few years.