Tokai Tournament!
December 31, 2014

So school ended on December 22nd, and as it was our last day of school, a lot of the other international students had a fun time that night. But not for me. The next day, there was a tournament for the members of the judo club. 

Not all the members were participating. I think they had the choice to participate or not and also the strong fighters obviously didn't participate. So in total, there were about maybe 50 fighters. I offered my friend to help him warm up that day so I showed up at 9:00 with my uniform. After a few uchikomis, grip fighting, and some throws, we discussed the techniques of his first opponent. At 9:30, the tournament started. It was really interesting to watch the once friendly club members become enemies. In that moment, friendships were forgotten, as each member fought for themselves. My friend lost his first and only match but he was against a much bigger opponent. This tournament was all weights, so -66kg fighters could fight -90kg fighters. 

(The warm up!)

(The boys were ready!)

(Of course they also had to referee.)

(Fubuki getting ready for his fight.)


The tournament lasted about two hours and a half, and from what I could tell there were two winners from the two pools, cause the winners never fought. That or I messed up haha. After the tournament, Agemizu Sensei gave us all a long speech, mostly about the holidays, and what not to do, and then after that it was time to clean up the club.

They already had separated the members into three groups so I just pick number two and sat down as the captains decided which group would clean what. Our group was the winner, thus we has the easiest task: the dojo area. We cleaned the windows, the lights, the mats, and the mats again. It was pretty slack I found, and most of them didn't really clean it as well as they could. We could have finished in like 30 minutes but instead it took one hour and more. 

(Sweep, sweep, and sweep again. But this time, not foot sweeps.)

(This is the only time a big dojo is not appreciated haha.)


After everyone was done, they took out all the forgotten items of the past year and laid them out on the floor. Now this took for EVER. No one did anything. Most were too shy to take their things, so they just sat down and talked. About one hour later, we were finally allowed to go eat lunch, but we only had thirty minutes. I rushed back to the dorm, made myself the best sandwiches ever. 

(Want one?)

When I got back to the club, no one was there. I called my friend and he informed me that the meeting was in a completely different building. At that point, I should have realized that it was not going to be the usual meeting, but no, I went over there blindly. Oh and did I ever have the surprise of my life, I walked into the classroom of building 7 and sat down with every pair of eyes on me. And my embarrassment didn't stop there. As I looked to the front, I noticed everyone had pencils and notepads and they were recopying what was written on the board. I wish I could tell you what was written, but unfortunately, it was all written in kanji, and not the cleanest writing either. As they all recopied onto their papers, I sat there trying to find/recognize one kanji that I knew. By the time Agemizu sensei started talking, I had found three... Even while he spoke, I could only catch words here and there, and so I felt out of place.

I noticed the time for me to leave was coming soon and I stayed as long as I could, but I unfortunately had to leave to prepare to go visit the Iwasa family. Once more, I left the room with everyone watching. From now on I'm going to make sure to know what I'm getting into, although I was glad to see what kind of class the other members have to go through.
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Christmas Iwasa
December 30, 2014

 In order to celebrate Christmas, I was invited over to the Iwasa's house to eat dinner with their family on December 23rd. I left the dorm at around 3:30pm and arrived at the closest station near their house at around 5:07. So if you ride the fast train, it takes around 1 hour and a half. A few minutes later, Shigenori arrived smiling. It had been a while and it felt amazing to see him again! 

He walked me through the illuminations near the station and Shigenori insisted on taking one thousand pictures of me with the hello kitty illumination. Then we rode the bus that leads to his house as he explained to me so I would know the next time I came.

(The illuminations in Japan are just crazy.)

(This picture kind of worked...)


We arrived, and after shouting out "tadaima!", Reiko came to great us! Reiko is one of the sweetest persons I've met in my life and since my stay at their house when I first came to Japan, I have really become accustomed to their house. Thus it felt like home. And maybe that's why I didn't really feel like I missed Christmas this year.

I met with Daisuke's wife for the first time, and I also got to see their three month old child, Merei! Daisuke is Iwasa's oldest son, and I had met him three years ago when first coming to Japan. He arrived a few moments later and he recognized me right away! This time though, we spoke only in Japanese, while previously we had only communicated in English. Daisuke is an English teacher and therefore his English is really good.

(Daisuke and his three months old daughter, Mirei.)

Reiko then begged us to sit as she was starting to serve the dishes. And as usual her dishes were as plenty as they were delicious. It really felt strange though, since everything was in Japanese. Although I didn't understand everything, I now understood the majority of the conversation and even catching on to some of the jokes. I was also given a few gifts from Reiko and Shigenori.

(The meal was exquisite! Yeah, you should be jealous!)

(Daisuke feeding Mirei with the watchful eye of Shuko.)

(The cake. It had "Joyeux Noël" written on it, which is the French way of saying Merry Christmas.)


After the dinner, Reiko and Daisuke's wife started to sign Christmas songs and Daisuke's wife even played piano! It was funny to hear Christmas carols in Japanese but I liked it and it made me realize that these crazy holidays can affect people, the world, and life.

(Music makes everyone happy!)

After that, Reiko insisted I played some songs on the guitar. It had been a while since I had played, but I managed to pull off a few songs. The baby was sleeping therefore I tried to keep down and if anyone knows how I play the guitar, it's rarely at a low volume. But anyways, it felt great to play and I think they enjoyed it.

Yoshiki, their youngest son, then arrived home as I was getting ready to leave. Like his brother Kenzo, he has to prepare for the upcoming university entrance exams. To do so, many Japanese high school students opt to go to preparatory private evening schools specializing for that kind of studies after regular school hours. So we knew that both of them would come home late. Soon Daisuke and I were out the door since he had kindly accepted to drive me back to the station. But as we were getting to the car, Kengo popped up on his bicycle! So I got to see everyone that day!

(Mirei chan had had a long day.)


After saying our farewells, we left for the station. Moments later, I was riding the train back to home.
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A little trip to Kamakura and Enoshima
December 29, 2014

The weekend before Christmas, December 21st, I went out with a few friends out to Kamakura to have a little bit of fun. We rode the train early in the morning all the way to Enoshima where we transferred onto a smaller touristy train. As we were making our way there, I got to see the sea for the first time. I also managed to see many surfers riding the waves despite the cold. I really want to try it one day and it happens that one of my friends is willing to teach me during the summer.

Once we arrived, the first thing we did was stop to go see the famous "Daibutsu", a statue of Buddha. But before entering the area we had to wash our hands which really represents the washing of our souls before entering a holy place. After a few moments of anticipation, there it was! It was seriously huge... 

(Shotaro showing us how to wash our souls properly.)

(The Daibutsu.)

(The Daibutsu's sandals. I could fit my whole body on them.)


I tried reading about the history of the Daibutsu but I probably should have done so before leaving. We were able to enter the inside of the statue. Apparently, from the signs inside the Daibutsu, its head had to be reinforced since the metal it was made of started to rust.

After that, we headed back to the station and met this cat haha. Of course we had to take some pictures.
We also ran into a weapon shop and I was really tempted to buy a traditional Japanese sword known as "Katana." No worries mom, I still have all my figures.


(One day I'll be that famous... haha)


(Katana's of all kinds.)


We reached the station, jumped on the train again and off we were to the central part of Kamakura! There we walked around, walking in and out of various temples, parks, and buildings. That day I was having a few problems with school and stuff in general, and I was very grateful for my friend Valentina who listened to all of it and gave me advice as well as shared her problems with me.

(Of course we stopped at Starbucks.)


(I love walking down these streets.)

(The shopping town, where I bought... nothing lol.)

(We are funny.)



(I want one in my back yard.)

(That view though...)


(Make a wish...)


(One of the best pictures I took that day.)

(Bamboo forest!!)


(We got to drink a really fresh, bitter, authentic green tea.)

(Valentina, a close friend of mine.)
(ICE CREAM!!)

(Kamakura is a very beautiful place.)


After having visited everything we could, Kahea and I left the group to head off to Enoshima, where our Russian friends were waiting. As soon as we got off the train, we were greeted by a chilling wind. It got even worse when we crossed the very long bridge which led us to the illuminations. We met the Russian girls there and climbed up the mountain. This is part of what we got to see while we froze our butts. Here's what we saw there:

(The illuminations!)

(Smiling is always fun.)

(We got to climb the top of that tower and see the whole city from the top.)

(Our squad for the evening.)

(A clever name for that watch tower.)


We had some good laughs and conversations. After taking a break to eat some warm food, we headed back all the way to Tokai and that was a wrap. I can now check both those places off my bucket list!
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Transfer Ceremony at Tokai!
December 28, 2014

One thing about being part of the judo club is that you get to see the inside of what makes the world's best club, the world's best judo club. The other day, with the end of the semester coming up and the 4th year students graduating, I got to attend the transfer ceremony for the team captains. It wasn't really anything crazy, but for me it was important.

During the ceremony, names were called, people stood up, bows were exchanged and outgoing captains (both of men’s and women’s teams) soon each faced with the respective, newly named captain, and the new team was brought forward. 

Small thing really, but it's something that not many people get to see or understand.
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One good practice
December 20, 2014

 So out of these three months of practice, I have to say that I've had very few practices where I felt confident. This is due partially to me having an injury, but mostly because everyone here is soo strong.

But I did manage to get one good practice in. I always practice as hard as I can, but often a lot of the guys just don't want to practice with me, so I end up just standing on the side for a big part of practice. But the other day, I managed to fight every round, and although I still got slammed a fair bit, I managed to throw two new people. Also, I was also able to fully do the ground work part of practice and I didn't lose once! I fought four guys bigger than me and managed to pin each and every one of them. 

One thing that many don't realize is that I'm a student first. That means that studies will come first. Now that being said, I do my best to keep up with the judo schedule. But even the coaches such as Sato sensei looked at my schedule and reacted by saying that this was a tough schedule. Most of the other judo guys don't have half as many classes as I do which allows them more time to rest, train, and study. I don't have that luxury, which makes it even harder in every way. 

Although it's very mentally tough, it's these practices that make it all worth it. It's those moments that you notice the consequences of your work that make it all worth it. 

"Today belongs to those who prepare for it today." - Unknown 
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Mrs. Kinoshita
December 17, 2014

So last week on Wednesday there was an entry exam for non-Japanese students attempting to enter the regular programs of the university. It's a regular university entrance exam in Japanese, so only the Bekka students got to have a day off. Sweet!

I wish we had a day like that every week. I still had practice (mountain training in the morning and judo in the afternoon), and that just made my day even more perfect. But since I don't get this kind of days off very often, I decided to finally go visit an old acquaintance I made three years ago when my father and I came to Japan to visit my sister, Mrs. Kinoshita.

I was supposed to go visit Mrs. Kinoshita soon after arriving at Tokai, but I didn't really remember where she worked, how to get there, and I also kind of forgot as time went by. But after verifying with my parents via Skype, I decided that it was the best time to go visit her.

Mrs. Kinoshita works at the Yukokaikan (The International Friendship Residence), which is ANOTHER dorm for foreigners to stay at. Everyone in the judo club had asked me if I was staying there, and after answering yes to all of them, I realized my mistake that day. I didn't realize at the time there were two international dorms. No wonder no one understood me when I said it only takes three minutes by foot... The Yukokaikan is approximately 10 minutes biking up the hill, if you can manage it...

Anyways, why is Mrs. Kinoshita important? Well first of all, she helped my father and I when we needed a one night stay near the university back then. She also drove us to the station one day with our luggages! I also believe she helped my sister with a few things while my sister was studying at Tokai.

So yeah, I got to finally go visit her and it was great! She offered me help if ever I needed it.

(Mrs. Kinoshita and me in front of the International Residence)

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Kodokan Practice
December 16, 2014

After the Tokyo Grand Slam, there happened to be a camp at the Kodokan (judo's birthplace), and on Saturday the 13th, all members of the club had to at least take part in this practice. On the other days, if you were free, you were asked to go, but since I have classes every day, that Saturday was the only day I was able to go.

We all got to the station at around the same time, 7:00 A.M. and after grabbing some breakfast at the combini, we rode the train to Kourakuen. Once there, we walked only a few blocks and arrived at the Kodokan. I had been there before with my father three years ago, yet I didn't really remember the building itself. We were the first ones there, of course, and therefore we had the changing room to ourselves, all one hundred and some of us lol. After that, we climbed six sets of stairs to finally make it to the dojo. We sat down as we waited for the practice to start.

Soon, other judokas from different countries started showing up, including some athletes from Canada. Once the practice started, I got to line up with the Tokai team, which felt weird, but since I had come with the team, I felt like that was the only place I should go. Usually at practice I sit to the side of them all.

Practice went well. My coach, Agemizu sensei asked me if my injury was alright and then told me to be careful. I got to practice with a few other guys from different countries and some Japanese from different parts of Japan. I didn't exactly beat them all, but I felt a little more in control compared to the practices back at Tokai. It would be nice to be able to practice with these people more often but, oh well.

After the practice, I went to salute the Canadian teammates. The girls' practice was next and some of the Canadian girls had come as well. I was talking to a close friend when the Tokai team got called back for a little meeting. It felt good to be part of the group even though it's maybe just all in my head.

After that meeting, we were allowed to leave the practice, and do what we wanted. I was planning on heading right back home when I got invited to go do some shopping with some of the judo guys. We went to a few sports clothes shops and I was really temped to buy a waterproof bag. Here in Japan, it would be very useful as I have come to understand. The rain here just falls whenever it feels like it haha.

We ate some expensive pasta, which was good, had some little chats about just regular things other than judo, which was nice for a change. I headed back with a little more hope for what was to come next.
(Fubuki, me, and Masaya. Some of my closest teammate friends)

(Shinjuku, Tokyo)


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