Yesterday, after having packed everything up, I left my dorm, headed towards the station.

On my way there, I passed one of the judo guys from the club, and he invited me to come say hi to a few of the member who were eating in a restaurant nearby. I walked in and sure enough they were there. I congratulated them on the tournament, which they had just won and told them I was off to the hospital. They wished me good luck, and I left. After getting the last little things I needed, I walked up the stairs to the station and onto the train. Two stations later I walked off, and met my aunt who was waiting for me at the taxi stop. We rode the next taxi to the hospital and headed to the short term hospital stay part of the hospital, as I had been indicated.

About one month ago, I was asked by one of my friends if I was free on October 23^rd. After verifying that I was, I asked her why and she told me that some of her friends were looking for a DJ to play at a party in Honatsugi. I must say I was quite delighted at the fact that she had even thought of me. Two days later, I met the organizer who is also a DJ/Producer. This was my first time meeting someone like me who DJs, makes music in Japan. My first thought: Might be making a track with him! Haha

So after that conversation, I started inviting people. He had made some pretty cool posters and videos to help promote the night. It seemed like it was going to be a good experience. Now I have DJed here in Japan at most of the Kaikan parties and even the International Friday Night in December last year, but none of these had given me the freedom of playing what I wanted. I always had to play music that pleased the crowd. But this time, maybe I had a chance!

So about two weeks ago, on October 9^th, I had my last judo practice at the Tokai University Judo club. After one year of practice with the team, following them to tournaments, training camps, morning runs and hard weight sessions, I have now taken my leave.

Why? Well for many reasons, the biggest one being my surgery, which will happen tomorrow (at the time of writing). I had some preparations for the surgery such as purchasing the needed articles and making sure I understand the procedure. I also had to start my preparation for what is to come after my surgery, since it seems like I will be quite busy. Not being able to talk will make these preparations quite difficult, therefore I took the opportunity with this time I got. The last reason was that I wanted to have a little fun with my friends before I leave. Once my surgery is done, going out with friends will become quite difficult.

To say thank you and good bye to the team, I wrote a speech, which my dad helped correct, and after that practice, I said it out loud to those who were there.

One thing I noticed was that as I was practicing the speech, I would end up getting very emotional as I said the last line. I came to realize that I worked hard throughout the year. One year ago, these guys whom I barely knew came to be a part of my daily life. This club became my second home that I shared with these guys, and I must say I went through a lot.

As I said the last lines, the emotions filled me up, and I couldn't help the tears that came to my eyes. After I was done, the whole club bowed to me, and gave me a round of applause. I shook Agemizu sensei's hand and returned to sit down with everyone.

Agemizu then spoke to the club for about 5 minutes about what I had said and my whole stay in Japan, which was very nice of him. The practice ended, and I asked if I could grab a picture with everyone.


After the picture, a lot of guys came to shake my hand and tell me thank you or good luck. One guy was even crying. Fubuki and Kotaro invited me to diner, and all the coaches came to thank me one last time.


That night, I ate with Fubuki, Kotaro and... which was a good ending to it all. After spending a few moments in Kotaro's room, I headed back to my room, a huge weight off my shoulders.


After one whole year, I survived. Partially.

The other weekend, after spending some time with my friend Ayaka in Yokohama, I seemed to have kept a good place in her mind because when she was asked if she knew a DJ, I was the first and only name she referred.

So I ended being invited to perform at a party on the 23^rd of October which would take place in Honatsugi. It's a self promoted party, but it's apparently going to be very close to a club feel. So, after checking my availability, I quickly replied that yes I would take the job. And by job I mean yes, I am getting paid. This is one of my first times getting paid for DJing, which I find is quite an accomplishment. One of my goals before coming here, was to get a real gig and here I am knocking one more goal down!

Not too sure how this is gonna go, but I think it will be a good experience.

When I met the other DJ for that night, and the one who invited me, it was different than what usually happens when I meet DJs here in Japan. This guy also makes music like me, so we showed each other our music, and I was quite amazed at his stuff. Our conversation ran very smoothly since we both knew most of what the other was talking about.

Who knows, I might be making a song with him some time. Now that would be cool!

Here's just two new songs I managed to make with the free time I have acquired! Enjoy!

Last week, my friend invited me to an event which would take place in Yokohama, and had something to do with high school students. I wasn't too sure what I was getting into, but speaking with high school students is always fun since they are not as shy as university students, so I decided I would go and help out.

So on Sunday, I headed off to the station to meet all those gathered for the event. We left at about 8:20 and arrived at around 9:30 at our destination. We walked into the building, and found out that all the high school students were already waiting for us. We were given a number, and we then split into our proper groups.

After being explained our task for about one hour, we were served food. This was most likely going to become a new product, since we were asked some feedback upon it. During this whole time, I tried talking as much as I could to the two girls next to me. I wanted to make them comfortable with me and likewise feel comfortable with them. Since we would spend the rest of the day together, I wanted to make it as pleasant as possible. I started nicely, but then made more and more jokes, stupid ones too, and surprisingly, they responded well to it all. They added on to the jokes and we had some good laughs. We finished the report, and waited for the rest of the groups to finish. Then, it was time to leave and walk the town of Yokohama.

We headed out to the China Town. Now I've been there more than enough times now that I can almost tell where we are in the middle of this crazy place. My grandmother herself told me she has only been to Yokohama twice in her life. Crazy. We walked a bit here and there, then found a place to eat a small and VERY HOT Chinese dumpling. It was good, but I ended up burning my tongue on it. The professor who was following our group was the one who ended up paying for it, which was very nice of him.


We walked some more and then headed out to the Yamashita Park, near the main port. I still love the feeling this city has when it comes to being near the sea. You can just feel the air and the atmosphere change as you walk along the side of the water.

This took us to the Marine Tower, which was another one of our goals. Before getting there, I grabbed myself a strawberry milkshake at McDonalds, which made everyone laugh. We also passed the Hotel New Grand, which I had seen once before during a past trip here. I ended up explaining to the group the history of this building, which I know so very well (thanks to my dad.) We climbed it, using the stairs and not the elevator, and received a nice card for it too! The view from up there was quite... astonishing! I haven't climbed the Sky Tree yet, so I don't know how that feels, but here was most likely better since we could see the sea. Actually, we could see the Sky Tree from where we were.

After making our way down, we headed back through China Town, grabbed some ice cream cones and headed back to the first building. From there, we prepared our presentation. We had to present how we felt about the city and give feedback on the different places we went to see. I took charge of the group, directing everyone on what to do and write, and got our whole team rolling and ready on time. I also ended up making a few funny comments during our presentation which made the crowd laugh. That was amazing to do in a different language.

After the whole event was over, and I had said goodbye to the new friends I had made, I headed off to one of the best ramen shops I had ever been with Ayaka (Japanese) and Heiki (Finland). I had been there once before and so I knew it was worth the walk and wait. After about an hour and a half of just that, we sat down and chowed down our delicious meal.

We split at the station, and Heiki and I headed back to Tokai after a long day. I really enjoyed the experience, and I have to thank those high school students for it.

The other day, I was doing weights in the dojo's basement with some of the boys, and a guy named Nomura had been doing some exercises using two dumbbells of about 8 kg each. After I was done with one exercise, I went over to the bench next to Nomura's while he went to chat with a few other friends. I was tempted to take his dumbbells, since he didn't seem to be using them seriously, but I decided to go pick up those of 10 kg instead.

When I started doing my exercises, I heard him yell out something. I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation, to be honest, but I caught that one. He had said that I had taken his dumbbells, speaking indirectly to anyone listening, but not expecting me to catch on. On top of that, he had used the term "Mamo-ri" instead of my real name "Mamoru" to make sure I didn't understand. But many people had addressed me by that name before so this time, I caught on. I caught on and simply told him that no, I had not touched his dumbbells and that they were still where he had left them, near the bench next to mine.

He was slightly surprised, put down the new dumbbells he had already picked up, and returned to his bench and quickly changed the topic of conversation with his friend, most likely slightly embarrassed.

Not a huge feeat, but I think that catching on to a conversation while not paying attention is something one can only achieve with a certain knowledge of the language. In other words, progress has been made.