Costco in Japan!
February 15th, 2015

 On January 25th, 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. 

On the way there, one of the judo girls happened to be on the same train as us, and I decided to approach her for the first time. It’s really cute how you can make a girl smile just by talking to her. Anyway…

Mina was waiting for us at the station, and after a few minutes of walking, we got to the shop. A few minutes later, we were in our pink car, on our way to Costco. 

I had never been to Costco, even in Canada, and thus I found it quite interesting that my first time would be here in Japan. It took about 30 minutes to drive there, but we plugged in my iPhone for some music, and had fun convos which made time pass.

(The massive interior of Costco.)

It was just like a normal Costco I guess but it had been a while since I had been in an "american style" super-market so I really enjoyed it. It's crazy how the mind works because, as I walked into the store, I already had a sense of where things were and how the store would be organized. In Japanese supermarkets, I usually have no idea and just wander around till I find what I need.

I ended up buying pizza, cookies, brownies, cereal and... nutella spread! I must say I did get fat the next two weeks.


(PIZZA... Oh how I missed you!)

(There seemed to be an accident or something up ahead, so everyone that was near got stopped lol.)

(The loot. Man was it ever good.)

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A day of Celebrations (Part 2)
February 3, 2015

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.

When I entered the room, they had already started eating! We had all ordered the all-you-can-eat style meal, as well as the all-you-can-drink... But the best part was that our teacher, Taoda sensei, was also game with it all. I have to say she is pretty young, which only made things better.

The food was delicious and can I ever say that I ate. Since I was late, I had technically half an hour less to eat and drink, but I'm fairly certain that I ate more that anyone in that room that day. I mostly likely drank more than anyone as well haha, but not all on my fault. During the meal, I was introduced for the first time I believe to "nihon shu", which is the japanese rice wine. It was served to us hot, and boy was I ever surprised at how good it was. But my teacher kept pouring me more and more, which ended up making me a little dizzy by the end of the meal. 

With our stomachs full we left the restaurant as a group only to end up at the kareoke place nearby. Our teacher also came along. It was the second time I had been to kareoke since my stay in Japan, but my first time as a group. We sang our hearts out, and I ended up singing a lot since I knew almost every song played. I'm glad no one recorded anything that evening because I believe all our voices were quite off that night.

After that night, the Thai students and me walked Taoda back to her apartment, since her walk had become quite hesitant.

Quite a good way to finish the semester if you ask me.

(Most of my classmates from the Bekka program)

(Our teacher had fun too!)

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A Day of Celebrations (Part 1)
February 2, 2015

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.

(Taoda sensei, myself, and Tonosaki sensei.)

(Celebration!)

(Food...)

(More food...)

(... and more.)

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Kitchen Construction
February 1, 2015

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...
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Hair Cuts in the Kaikan
I got my third haircut about a week ago, and once again, it was performed in the dorm, by Jaeyun, my Korean friend. To give you an idea of how it goes, here’s a little video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQ0zXftRGc

I also cut my friend's hair that day to help him fix the mistakes made while cutting his own hair.

(Hejae going nuts about his hair.)

I must say cutting hair here in the Kaikan (our dorm) is quite a fun time!
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A dinner with Koreans!
December 29, 2015

 This past Saturday, I was invited by my Korean friends to share a dinner with them. They had bought the groceries, and they planned to cook, and eat together. At the time I got the invitation, I was just about to put my noodles on the stove, so I quickly put them back in the cupboard, threw out bowling water and oil, took a quick shower and rushed back to the kitchen. I paid 1,000 yen for my share of the meal.

I helped cook the meat in a frying pan, as well as cut the green onions into REALLY thin slices. Once everything was ready, one of the girls showed me how to make… whatever they call it and shoved one in my mouth. They took a piece of lettuce, threw in the green onions, a piece of meat and some sauce, and wrapped it all in the lettuce. I had fun making some and then pushing them into other people’s mouths. 

(Haha... We had fun!)

(Cooking, cutting, talking.)

They also had made Korean soup, which was spicy, but really good. I didn’t really do this much during the semester even though this was not their first communal meal. Now this was probably the last time, but I must say that I really enjoyed it. I made new Korean friends, ate great food and had a good time just dancing while we ate and chatting about out lives. One of the many things that make this trip priceless.


(I got to make some new friends.)

(Mmmm....)

(Hejae cooking it up.)


(This...)



(The soup.)


(They will be leaving this semester, therefore maybe I'll see them in Korea? *hint, hint*)
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2nd Tournament at Tokai
On January 11th, there was a second judo tournament within the club. I think this one was to determine those who would compete in a certain tournament later on. I still had my cast during that time, so it was quite difficult to move around without being noticed that day.

It was pretty much the same thing as the last one, except they fought over three fighting areas, and they only fought those from their one weight class. It lasted about 7 hours in total, and I ended up eating lunch and supper as one meal. 

Not much to say here, but one thing that was good about that is that the other members and the coaches could see me, and thus they could see that I didn’t just give up after getting injured.
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