Flashing lights

(Kyoto Tower)

Things have slowed down a bit recently, not in terms of how much we train or the intensity of it all, just nothing much going on when we arent training right now. We have more or less settled into a bit of a daily routine now. Routines are comfortable, but im 12,000 K's from home so I dont want to get comfortable I want to stay on the edge! haha.

It goes something like this. 0730 - I wake up, go downstairs half asleep and make some toast, cofee and have a bannana + 1 litre of water. Tim's usually next down around 0745 and Lee at 0800. After breakfast I spend an hour pacing around the house, packing a gi into my bag, filling water bottles and have a quick shower(which is our of order now :( !) Before I know it 0900 rolls around and its suddenly a change in pace to a mad rush for the door to get out and on our bikes. Someone allways without fail forgets something so we generally get moving around 10 past. Its a bit of a trek/cycle to the Kidotai training compound. We generally arrive around 1010 giving us 20 minutes to get changed, cut our nails and do some light stretching.

The Riot Police Judo training is a simple & effective structure. 15 minutes of stretching, 15 minutes of Uchikomi (repeatative practice of a throw, taking your partner to the point of throwing - this builds muscle memory) then an hour of Randori (free sparring) in 5 minute rounds.
After training we do another stretch and get back on our bikes after using their nice showers and get back home...usually by 1300.
At this point we have 2 hours to sit around, read love letters from female fans back home, do some shopping and take a nap.
And once again, before I know it 1500 is here and its time to get going again, usually with a nice clean, dry Gi. Logisticly this is not allways possible but we do endevour to make this happen.

Hoon along at top speed to Rits University for training, I like getting there 30 minutes early so I can have a quick shower, get changed slowely and chat a bit. We start training at 1600 - the structure here is a bit fluid, with Kasuga Sensei changing it occasionaly. Last night it was 1 hour Newaza Randori (ground fighting) 1 hour tachiwaza (standing fighting) then 30 minutes of throwing drills...which hurt!
After this is all wound up its around 1900 so Lee, Tim & I take 20 minutes to have some water and refresh before hitting Rits nice Gym. The Judo guys come in around the same time and go through these insane circuits, we are working on a different programme here more on putting a bit more power but after a month or 2 will transition into their programme.

2030, feeling really nicely wasted I go home and fall into my bed, after I take it out of storage and unfold it and make it. Zzzz Zzzz Zzz, Alarm goes off. Repeat.

When we have a bit of spare time I like to get out and mix things up a bit so that I dont go crazy doing the same old thing everyday, on sunday it was a really nice sunny day so Lee & I headed down to the river and had a bit of a swim in the centre of town. The water wasnt all that deep but it was nice to splash around and kick back on the river bank in the sun. Some Uni Students making a raft ( which failed miserably) kicked back alongside us and practiced their not so bad but not so good english on us. This coming Sunday we have promised Tim we will go to the local Irish Pub and get a good pub meal of steak and a pint of Guiness...suprisingly it didnt take much encouragement to get me onboard for this.




(Shimei Shaggers)

This morning we turned up at the Kidotai Compound but no one was training, infact no one was there. We were weirded out. Judo is allways on everymorning. "OK, Oh damn we will have to take a rest morning, oh thats the worst thing!" We were saying, while thinking "Oh this is kinda awesome, I'm going back to bed!!" Before we could make a move one of the Riot Cop Judo players came in wearing his running gear saying today they are doing mountain training, and hey! why not you guys come along!! Awesome, sounds interesting.

So we get running with the Squad up this huge mountain covered in forest but with paths and shrines through it, only problem being the fact I decided to wear walking shoes and no socks this morning...this is gonna be painfull. 5 K's later and 1000 Meters higher, yeah this is now pretty painfull I have some wicked blisters growing on my feet, bigger with every step. Tim & Lee with their nice running shoes were feeling good though and up ahead of the squad. When my feet felt like they were about to fall off one of Cops caught upto me and said the finish is just around the corner so I gassed it as fast as I could so I could beat the main pack. Phew.
I took my shoes off and sure enough I have some pretty blisters on my feet. Nothing too raw so I can still train with a bit of tape tonight.



(Relax'in area on the roof)

Word is that the Uni Judo Club is averaging 20 on the Mat on Saturdays, which is pretty cool. Not as good as 60 on the mat here 6 days a week! But still really good.
Also Sensei Ricks operation back in NZ was a success so he will be recovered and back on the mat in 6 weeks or so which is great news.
Bill Vincent is still over here and plans to train with us tomorow morning at the Kidotai, which will be good - hopefully can get a few more pointers from him regarding a few bits of my game I was honed before my competition in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, everything is going well & I'm still enjoying the training and thinkg I'm making some progress so all is as it should be. I'm loving it all

Jordan

What is Judo,

I know a few of my friends & family arent to sure how Judo works, so heres a really basic run down below.

For those of you that are in the know, enjoy the highlight reels.



This video mostly shows Tachiwaza, which is the standing part of the fight.
The aim here is to throw your opponent flat on his back for Ippon (Perfect score - Instant Win) If you throw him but not with a clean, powerfull throw you may get a smaller point such as Wazari (Half Score) or Yuko (1 point, more of a tie breaker)

From scoring a smaller point you have the option of continuing the fight on the ground with Newaza (see below video & description) or standing back up to continue the fight up top, if your opponent lets you that is.




This video shows Newaza, which is the groundfighting part of Judo.
The aim here is to win either by A) Pinning your opponent flat on his back for 25 seconds B)Forcing him to 'tapout' submit to an Armbar C) Force him to Tapout/Sumbit to a Choke or Strangle, and if hes not co-operative render him unconscious.

Note: If the ref feels the fight on the ground is stagnent with neither party making progress he will stand the fight back up.

1 Month Down

(Unrelated but awesome picture)

Have now been here for 1 Month, not sure how many more I'm here for but I'm looking at anything between 6-11 which is really vague but I work with what information I have. Initially I planned on being home for the Nationals but thats not too likely now but will play it by ear. I definatly don't think its worth coming back to NZ just for that one competition, but on the other hand I will want to test myself, the Auckland Internationals early next year is probably a better bet.

The last few days have been some of the toughest yet, but everything is still going good. We were invited by Matsura Sensei from the Kidotai Riot Police to come train with the community programme Dojo one evening that he runs. Matsura has been one of the friendliest guys at the Kidotai to us so far, going out of his way to look out for us and smash us extra hard into the mats so we thought it would be good to come along one evening to pay our regards.

So on Tuesday morning at training we told him we would be training with the Dojo that evening, he said thats fine but that he would not be in attendance that evening due to other commitments. No problem we rekoned, everyone over here has been nothing but welcoming to us so far so this will be no problem. We biked to training at the community Dojo run by the Police that evening which is in the same compound as the riot police. The quest took about 1 hour by bike in the rain, so needless to say by the time we finally arrived with burning thighs, we were really hungry to get fighting. One problem. The club is run primarily for Junior High School & Elementary School Students and the Sensei was a real old school Gaijin hater (Gaijin means foreigner). We decided to try and make the best of the situation and at least get warm while we were there, so we went and bowed to the Sensei, who ignored us until training and then told us that we better not injure anybody or else!

The boys both looked at me a bit nervously at this point and hastily warned me not to use any flying/rolling armbars on the kids, haha yeah right. The training wasnt actually so bad once we got into it, we all got a few decent fights with the cops that took the class but nothing too tough. We behaved like true Judoka Gentlemen so were feeling quite chuffed with ourselves as we got changed after class, out of the corner of his eye Tim noticed one of the Judoka from the club rubbing his ribs while talking to Gaijin Hating Sensei and gesturing towards Lee. We decided this would be a timely moment in which to take our leave and so the 3 musketeers rode off into the rain. Not to be seen again at this Dojo.


Yesterday, on Wednesday when riding our bikes home from training with the Kidotai for our between training naps/snacks/cry in the corner, out of the blue an undercover cop jumped out from behind a train station pulling Tim over. This guy was part of the super secret elite undercover stolen bike detection squad so he wished to check Tim's bikes rego. We all suddenly got really nervous because all of our bikes were found abandoned around Kyoto so any of them could have been reported as stolen a long time ago before being abanndoned by the thief in the junkyard that we found them.
Lee did not seem to see the police badge, and suggested that we all gun it as fast as we can back home. Before this idea could come to frutition the officer was allready on the radio checking the rego number. We decided to sweet talk the officer, saying we did Judo with the riot cops who are way tougher than him and theyr our mates etc. He then decided they had no data on the bike and we were free to go. Props to Tim for keeping a cool head while Lee & I suggested alternatives that would of not worked out so well.

Phew...that could of gone bad.


Today I recieved a package from home, from my much loved aunty Trish (thanks your the best) containing essentails like Cadbury chocolate, Top shelf cofee, Soup & Pinaple Lumps. In the bottom of the parcel was a lovelly note from Trish saying keep up the good work etc, but there was one offending clause in the letter which the guys noted immediatly "I sure hope you and the guys all enjoy this" they then decided this obviously meant that this is a communal care package for the shared welfare of all in Shimei Hall. Sorry guys, not a chance.

Olympian Bill Vincent from New Zealand came around to visit today, which was good - he was totally blown away by our huge place & how great a facility it was. Bill said he would show us the way to Ritsumeikan University & sit in on our training that night there. So off we went to training with 3 on bikes and one running on foot (Tim on way there, yours truly on the way back) The Judo players at Ritsumeikan are some of the nicest Judo players we have met so far, joking around with us from the start. Of course they had to be the toughest we have met so far aswell, taking us all to bits during the randori's (sparring), their grip strength is alot better than ours and they have really good technique. After being smashed about 5 times in a row I decided I would try and out muscle them as being a Kiwi lad familiar with the gym I can do. Wrong. These guys are also twice as strong as us. Luckily there is a really well equiped gym attached to the Dojo which we have the run of now - so we can get some good weight training done now and deliver some real power.
Ritsumeikan are currently Number 1 Uni Judo squad in Kyoto having bet the prior title holders in the city: Sangyo University in the most recent competition, ranking now 3rd in the whole Kansai region (Kansai being South-West Japan)



It was a good experience; as I was training at Kyoto University recently and getting alot of the guys (including with a few 'Robert Levy' rolling chokes) that used to throw/submit me all over the place showed me how far I have come so far. Tonight at Ritsumeikan showed me how far I still have to go. Which is allways a good wake up call.

After training we went to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant with Bill who gave us all some good pointers on our Judo & discussed Judo NZ in general aswell as his experience as a Judo player. Bill competed in 2 Olympics & qualified for 3 (not doing one due to the Moscow boycott) so he knows what hes talking about and has been where we are right now himself so it pays to listen to this guy.

It has come to light that I sleep shout so I may soon be forced to start taping my mouth shut at night, as this scares Lee who thinks the place is haunted.

Plan for the near future is build up towards our competition training mornings at the Riot Police, Ritsumeikan at night and hitting the weights when we have the time.

Jordan

The Storm Of the Century

Recruitment add for Japanese Police.



Last week training at Kidotai Tim & I were both feeling cool about having both had the better of the muscle man Judo cop in randori, who we had been informed is a Pro K1/MMA fighter. Upon learning from Sensei Rick that he has only been doing Judo for 2 weeks'ish our ego's were fairly deflated.

I have been feeling pretty good lately about being the only un-injured Judoka in the house, untill this morning when I woke up with a really sore shoulder, I'm not sure how I did it as it was fine when I went to sleep lastnight.
It's a bit of a pain, this morning at training I couldn't do much with my shoulder and felt really wretched for not being able to get fully into the training, but because it's only Monday none of the Kidotai (Riot Police Squad) were really going too hard anyway. Hopefully it clears up overnight with a good sleep flat on my back. Nobody has anything serious though, just a few niggles in our backs & shoulders.

Coming into the Riot Police Compound every morning for training is a pretty cool experience, as its run like a military unit we get greeted at the gates by a uniformed officer who holds us up and makes a call through to command who say they are expecting the Kiwi Judoka - now that most of the guards know us they just wave us through with a quick salut.

For the last 5 days it's been raining non stop, it's not the heaviest rain but after a few days of it the river is going insane outside.



River going hardout.




Smart homeless man builds his house higher up.




This homeless guy aint so smart "Oh no my house!!"




Stairs out of order, please use awesome waterslide - Kyoto City Council.

On Friday night we hosted the goodbye party for Rick & Yumico, also in attendance was Aoki San & his lovelly wife whos name escapes me at this moment. After spending 3 hours cleaning up, setting up & shopping for the snacks and drinks for the party our guests all arrived and we all got chatting about how we had found Japan so far. The general consensus was that the people are nice, the food is cheap if not allways filling, the training is awesome but the language is pretty tough. After a while an awkward silence emerged, because it would be rude for us to speak to each other non stop in fluent english, but we had run out of observations about japan/interesting facts about NZ/bad jokes (after the Geisha joke going astray I'm pretty carefull with humour)to tell our Japanese guests who have fairly limited English.

Suddenly we get sideswiped with a request for the Haka which after a small ammount of heckling we agree to do, so with no further adue we get up and perform like the fullblooded white boys we are. Aoki & his Wife found it pretty entertaining so we taught Aoki San the Haka and got him to perform it for Ricks camera, so it will inevitably end up on Judokong.com in the near future. After being warmed up by the Haka & a fair ammount of Lee's 42 Below Fejoa Voda, Aoki San just didnt want to stop singing so he got up and sang another. A few song later the wives hustled the men home so we could start cleaning up and get to bed. The cleaning didnt eventuate for a day or 2 when the smell in our bedroom became a bit too much.

Tomorow will hopefully be feeling fitter in my shoulder and be back to fullthrottle at training, especially as we are starting at Ritsumeikan on Wednesday I want to be 100%. Fingers crossed.

J

A new way of dealing with the guard

(Tim, lee & I with Sensei Rick & The Riot Police Sensei's)


Today I decided my current mop of a haircut was too sissy and definatly not tough enough for me. So, thinking along these lines I rode lee's pink bike to the local barber shop and requested the shortest cut possible. This was a slow process as I had to say no to each razor size from largest to smallest in that order until the correct one was produced. The haircut was cheap as, probably for good reason as the useless barber missed a spot that I had to correct upon checking it in the mirror back at Shimei Manor.

Training twice a day again today, currently in between sessions. Body is still holding up well even though I have to run to training and back due to the missing bike key dilemna, which will be resolved when sensei Rick leaves for NZ - then I can use his bikes. Yesterday training at Kyodai I decided I wanted to test their style of Judo which has not followed Olympic rule changes which have geared Judo towards 70 percent fighting standing up. These guys love to just drop to the ground on their buts and try and fight you there everytime(Very similar to BJJ/Brazilian Jits). Personally I love Newazza (ground fighting) with it being one of my strengths but enough was enough I wanted to throw people around. I saw their most notorious butt flopper battling Coosez the french player, doing his usual drag downs and dropping to the ground.

I waited right next to their fight for the timer to hit zero so I could request a randori with butt flopper #1 before anybody else. As soon as we both get a grip on each other he drops to the ground on his bum, and begins attempting to tangle me up. Ha, I came prepared with a stragety fool. Before the thud from his butt smacking the matt has finished resounding around the Dojo I lift him back to his feet using a strong grip and a power squat lift. He still dosnt get the idea after this and immediatly drops back onto his backside, so, I repeat this again...and again...and again. After this has happend about 4 or 5 times he seems to get the picture and stays standing, due to his lack of Tachiwaza practice( standing fighting ) his game is terrible and I throw him flat on his back pretty quickly his a simple foot sweep. He then decides hes had enough of this so goes back to his original strategem of dropping to his backside. Grrr. Stand up!! This time I enact some advice Lee gave me regarding these sort of situations and I let him drop, keep a strong grip and use him to mop the matts, dragging him back and forth, side to side around the Dojo. Tim & Coosez both watching found this really funny. Unfortunately before the I have time to clean the whole Dojo the timer hits zero and times up. No hard feelings between me and butt flopper #1, infact I think he rather enjoyed the new challenge. Perhaps by coincidence the technical training that day after Randori (Sparring) consisted of how to deal with people who stay standing when your on the ground & how to get them on the ground.


Training this morning with the Riot Police went better than last time, we still got roughed up. I had a couple of good fights with the muscle-man riot cop I saw on my first visit and he got me a couple of times but I also got him with 2 Seoi-Nage ( shoulder throw) and a Tai-Otoshi (Leg Drop, see picture in one of the earlier articles) One of the Senseis (Judo teachers) gave me a decent thrashing, he was having fun playing with me even pretending to karate chop my neck after throwing me on my back. One day I'll throw him and do the same...but not anytime soon.

Our competition in Osaka has been postponed for some reason or another until the 15th of next Month, little disapointed but no drama's as it's more time to prepare. If I win X amount of fights in a row I get my Blackbelt so heres hoping. Tomorow we need to spruce the place up & do a shop for Sensei Ricks going away party. Other than that no new news has emerged from the New Zealand/Shimei Manor, though there are rumours of more Kiwi's coming over to live & train with us or even possibly Brits.

J

The Beast of Shimei Hall

(Statue of a Fox at a Shinto Temple)


This morning, I feel like I have been beaten non-stop with a baseball bat for hours on end. In a way I have, as yesterday morning we trained with the Kyoto Riot Police Judo Squad.

These guys are tough. I was starting to think I was getting good a few days ago as we all threw a few of the guys at Kyoto Uni around + the french contingent, Lee threw the -90 Kilograms frenchie so hard that he didnt get back up for 5 minutes and to rub salt into it he choked another player unconscous (he didnt tap) I bombed a few guys (including Coosez the smaller frenchie) with my Tai otoshi and managed to submit a few of them on the floor aswell. So of course we were feeling a bit flashy. If only we knew what ashita (tomorow) had in store for us.

The next morning at 1030 we caught the underground to meet Sensei Rick at the Police Dojo, as we walked into the compound I realised this was going to be something else as a 6'4 Japanese Riot Cop got out a van, slung his Judo-Gi over his shoulder and walked in the dojo, this guy looked like monster with a shaved head and bodybuilder muscles. I was thinking, ah whatever...must be be local giant. 5 Minutes later after getting changed and entering the Dojo we saw that there were another 40 just like him, with many even bigger.
I'm not going to go into the next 2.5 hours in detail as its all a bit of a blurr, but we got a decent hammering, it was a good session though and I like to think I learned. So we will be going back on Thursday morning this week out for revenge, or another hiding. Either or, perseverence.


(Wolf or not, you be the judge)

After the training we went and saw a few temples in the near locale, I went upto a girl dressed as a Geisha and asked for a picture in Japanese only to hear her respond in a thick american accent " I dont speak Japanese! I speak enlish allright!!" it was a little but embarrassing but I got my picture. Also saw what I believe to be Wolf off the track, aparantly theres lots of wild animals around here: Boar, Fox's, Snake's, Badgers etc.

When we got back home after what felt like the longest train ride, made harder for my as I lost my bike keys and had to run the 5 K's from the train station to our house (wow crazy doing that after hours of Judo, have gotten so much fitter since getting here) we did a quick clean of the house as a mutual friend of Rick Sensei & I's Greg was coming to visit; Greg has lived in Kyoto for 8 years so is a great contact to have aswell as being a good guy. He has a few leads in helping to get me a bit of part time work (1 or 2 hours a week for 10,000 Yen an hour for group teaching) which works out to a couple of hundred NZ'ds!!! would make it easier for me to stay here a longer time as long as it dosnt mess with my Judo schedule - which comes first.
He was totally in awe of our place, hes coming over on friday for our BBQ/Ricks Farewell so that will be cool. Sensei Rick & Yumico also came over and brought us some crackers & half a bottle of wine. Thanks.




(Pocari Sweat, the power of 10 Powerades the ultimate in sports recovery)


After everybody left we all took a power nap to get some energy for that nights training at the local Dojo, we got there an hour early so had to join in with the kids class. When the olds eventually got there and seniors training started it wasnt so bad, especially compared to the hell we had went through that morning haha. We all got thrown a couple of times but we all got some decent throws back on them. The club is more relaxed in its attitude, allmost like the Uni Club back in Auckland.
After training Rick took us guys out to Ramen for dinner, it was really good; for some reason my one was bigger and had extra meat & eggs so I was stoked about that.
Finally dragged ourselves through the door sometime after 10, Lee & I immediatly took care of the bottle of wine which went down a treat.

A few days ago I had a bit of an experience while using our hose shower, this is the 100% honest version before the overly exagerated versions get out from the boys. While I was having my daily shower a HUGE Millapede/Centipede came hooning out of the drain at my feet, seriously this thing was about 25 centimetres long and had big pincers snapping open and shut loudly enough for me to hear the clicking. As brave a man as I am, I did not want to mess around with this thing as it was obviously deadly poisonous - anybody with a brain could tell that. I emmited a loud (Deep) roar, not out of fright but so to warn all the others in the vicinity of this potential threat. I then hastily made my way up stairs, in my haste forgetting my clothes & towel. I was in such a rush as I wished to get a stick to take care of this thing, not run away.


(The Beast of Shimei)

When I returned the beast had been dealt to by Lee who had been informed of the threat by my very vocal warning and so goes the tale of the beast of Shimei Hall.

Training is coming up soon, so time to get my gear together, hydrate and prepare to deal death to my enemies.


J

Ippon

This video shows Ten of the top Ippons between 03-04, good to watch for some of my followers who dont watch Judo - Ippon is an instant win (Submission or a big throw onto someones back)

Dealings with Samurai-Jin

I saw a Turtle in the pond by our place, everybody loves turtles.



As there are a few new faces lurking around in my Castle, introductions were required to the Shatcho & his vice president.

We were ordered to meet them at 1630 on Saturday, not wanting to scew this up and taking into account that the company's HQ is on the other side of time we left on our bikes a whole 40 minutes before we were due to meet our benefactors...Sometimes the world just conspires against you in these situations.

Not long after we had departed Shimei Castle, Lee and I heard a distant shout as we rode along the waterfront, Southwards towards Total Home HQ. Turning to investigate the source of this commotion I saw Tim 50 meters back furiously working on his bike. His bike donated second hand by the People of Kyoto (abandoned) felt this was a timely moment to introduce us to its broken chain.

The chain was shortly fixed but it managed to fall off every 5 minutes meaning we arrived at the bosses place 15 minutes late. While they were OK with this, we lost a bit of face and probably appear to be unrealiable. Hopefully Tim's gift of Red Wine from NZ & Kiwi Chocolate and Lee's present of Kiwifruit 42 Below Vodka & Kiwifruit Chocolate smoothed things over well.


That night we went to Rick's house warming party, we were told to come late to scavenge all the left over food & drinks which we did in a very smart fashion. One of the guests was Toyoda Sensei who is the coach for a High School Judo Team, he gave us all his Biz Card and invited us to come train with his squad on the 28th. Apparantly he has a few adolescent monsters training in his team so it will be good fun.

I'm the only single one living in the house right now, the guys like it when I wink at the girls to see their reactions. As they would get murdered by their respective girls back home for such an act.












We all did a day trip with Nakakuras daughters and a translating Mother-Inlaw to Nijo Castle on Sunday our day off. It was really cool, the Castle was really amazing (see the pics) the floors all wistle like a bird when you walk on them - this was so that Ninja could not sneak up on the Emporer when he was relaxing with the Geisha (Ancient Prostitutes) I made a joke in bad taste about the Emporer and the Geisha forgetting our gentle company, it did not go down so well.
Nijo Castle is where the Emporer took the power back from the Shogun Warlord after 300 Years of Military rule, as the Shoguns Administration was too corrupt.


We are doing 1 more week of training at Kyodai to harden up our bodies & minds before launching into Ritsumeikans fulltime programme next Monday. The reason we are not starting today is because they have a big competition this Saturday and don't want us to interfere with their final build up of their preparation programme which will be tapering off this week. Despite them being busy with this their Sensei Kasuga is coming to visit us with Rick Sensei tomorow at 1200 to meet us etc which is a very generous gesture. They currently have a Mongolian Champion living & training with them who was selected for the 2008 Olympics but did and injury - he is training with Rits in preparation for 2012 London so thats a testament to how good their training is. It works out best this way also as Tim & lee are both only just newly arrived and a week of training at Kyodai will be usefull for them to build up.
We are hitting 100 pushups & situps morning and night, we are lucky to have Lee in the house as he knows all about nutrition, weight training and stretching having worked in the gym and played the World Circuit for years.

We went over to Aokis for dinner last night where we got to join in the cooking of of Japanese Pizza/Pancakes which was fun. We made a shopping list in English for his daughters to test them & got stuck into mixing the bowls and making the food so it was nice and relaxed. Our different personalities work well in these sort of things as Tim is more of the silent type, Lee the natural entertainer and I'm somewhere in the middle ( more of less perfect) so theres no personality clashes. We invited Aoki & his family to our House Warming next week which is a Kiwi Themed BBQ, its also going to be Sensei Ricks farewell as he is back off to NZ next week. We have the mission ontop of Judo this week of getting Sausages, Steaks, etc for the event.
Lee asked Aoki what Japanese people like to be called, with NZ'ers being Kiwis as an example, Aoki was unsure as to what their collective name is other than Nihon-Jin(Japanese People) but said he would like it if they were to be called Samurai-Jin (Warrior-People) I thought that sounded cool enough so perhaps it will catch on.




Noooo!! You cant Choke out the Squirels Jordan!

General Status Update

For the last couple of days things have been going well, the house is starting to come together and the other two guys from NZ - Tim n Lee have both arrived ( with the later arriving outside our house at 2am last night unexpectedy), theyr both decent guys and train hard so no problems there.




Training is going better and better, starting to catch some of the guys that made mincemeat of me when I first arrived, even managed to sneakily catch Wailou once Yesterday with a Tai otoshi (Body drop throw - see pic for reference) Tonight was especially good, went full throttle - both the other guys from NZ also went hard and did well.

We have our first competition on the 6th of next month in Osaka City, so we will be training as hard as possible in preparation for that. Looking forward to having a competition and seeing how I go aswell as travelling to another city.
Last night at training there was a Batsugun for the team captain, who I think was getting a Dan promotion - he fought 10 members in a row winning all fights, then after training began as normal though slightly later & he still trained just as hard as everybody else for the next 3 hours. Never seen somebody that fit before, really impressive fighting spirit.

Our house dosnt have a shower so we have made do with this short nozzle in the laundry area that you can point at yourself, since the floor has decent drainage it seems to work. The universitys all have free showers we discovered today so will probably be using them from now on even when theres no training.

Due to it being a really busy last week I havnt really had much time to keep up with people back home, I havnt forgotten about anyone but just have been flat tack with Judo, Judo, working on the house, the guys arriving etc. I hear from reliable sources that I'm to be recieving a parcel early next week containing essentials like Coffee, chocolate, vogel, cheese, vegimite, some dvds and honey. I'm not a big muncher of honey usually but you cant get it for less than 2,500 Yen here so I really am looking forward to using some of that.

We got some pots and pans courtesy of Byan, who also provided us with a toater (thanks) which will be awesome so we can now make some scrambled eggs, being dying for that for the last week or so...

Tomorow we are training at Ritsumeikan University & Monday we are training with the RIOT POLICE(as there arent riots often all these guys do is Kendo/Judo/Karate all day long) which will hopefully be hardcore!Maybe now the picture at the start of this post makes a bit more sense. we also will be training with the normal police squad aswell. My body is a bit tender all over right now but holding up well with no injuries and not long to sunday when I do some serious recovery & start next week fresh.

It's time for me to nake a power nap for the evening then catch up with Iraklis as I havnt seen him in a bit.

J

Kiwi Judo's Kyoto Bastion

Here's a few pictures of the Bastion - Pre my DIY makeshift renovations.



-Above is our swanky lounge, featuring chinese machine crafted couches, Ministry of Education (JPN) standard issue carpets and interior room design courtesy of Kyoto Education Board.




-See the above hall, perhaps later we will see this metamorphis into a makeshift gym/dojo. Only time will tell.





- Now if you would care to view the above section of the Tatami Mat room that I personaly am in habitation of - prior to it's renovation.




- Ah, now allow me to direct you to the roof-top balcony. Weather not permitting it to be viewed in all it's glory, but it does not take great imagination to see a lively BBQ scene on a clear blue summers day.



One must also be aware of local pollution by-laws, as the drains in this particular locale are most sensitive as can be seen clearly from the look on this examples face.


A most vivid reminder of where not to take the kids to eat,that is unless you wish for them to move up a weight category or become Sumo wrestlers - in which case this an ideal eatery to frequent.

New week, New house

Picture: My new place from the outside.


Rolling my way through a new week, loving being over because I never get the midweek blues that I get while working in NZ.

Today I moved into the School building with the help of Aoki San, Sensei Rick advised it would be wise to gift them a case of top Japanese Beer, so we headed over there and I grabbed a case which they gift wrapped. They had a real struggle putting my name in the Hirigana on the box - interestingly my name roughly Translates to Jo-Dan, meaning joke. The place here is great, its so huge...looking forward to more kiwi Judoka getting over here and filling this place up.

Training is going great, coming into the new weeks training feeling on top form. Some players here try to avoid me, not because I'm that good but just because I'm the Gaijon (Foreigner) at the club, it's a two sided coin in that regard because theres another whole batch of guys who want to fight you non stop just because of this - these guys are usually the ones you want to be fighting anyway.
The long randori's and the length of the training is still a physical challenge but I never fall behind and get back up everytime and keep going at it. I'm really enjoying the intensity of the training, the tough training in itself is motivation for me. Learnt some really interesting new sweeps for Newazza (Ground Fighting) that have been working well additional to the new ways of passing guard I have been experimenting with which are having mixed success depending on who I'm fighting so will need to review these.

No circle of death after training over here, everyones way to burnt out to bother with pushups, squats and situps but I make sure I uphold this ritual from Auckland Uni Club in the mornings. What I'm really looking forward to is my first Shiaii (Competition) over here - if I win my way to Shodan over here maybe I dont have to do a shout for the boys at the club back home? Don't think theres any getting out of that ancient tradition though.

Tim from Gisborne is arriving tomorow which will be good, looking forward to it. Once he's here were going to head over to Sayaka's (from Auckland Uni Judo Club) University and start training there 6 days a week. Looking forward to it as they are said to be tougher than the guys at Kyodai, should be alot I can learn from them.

Money is going well, apart from shelling out on the wimpy coffee (see prev post) a few days ago and buying a case of beer for Aoki & Nakakura I have been spending loose change buying discounted fish and Bento, also picked up some bread, speads and yoghurt to stock my new fridge so I have some variety in diet. Yoghurt is really amazing for energy levels - a few days ago I started having some before training and feel a real difference in my output levels. But food aside , I'm on target to get to the end of the month with more than half my initial funds which will then become my emergancy money since I'll then be receiving my first Scholarship payment of 2,000 - this roughly converts to 128,000 Yen. This is easily enough for a month and If I continue to be prudent about it I can put some aside to extend my stay by another couple of months.

My sources in NZ have informed me reliably that the National Judo Training Camp in NZ will be open this year as long as you meet a minimum grade requirement. I really urge everyone that can to head over to this and see that they can learn and get some decent mat time. Strategicly it's also probably a good place to scope out your competition and get a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses ( this is a two way street though).


For the rest of the week I plan to continue training hard (of course) work on the house to get it nice and homely which will be a mission in itself as it's so damn big and perhaps go sight seeing on my bike time permitting - Iv had a tip off that the kind, generous people of Kyoto wish to donate us a few more bikes and that they will be left unlocked and rusting slowely at various locations including Kyodai, Sanjo Dori and Nijo Train Station so I suspect we will also follow this up.

J

Mon Ki Mountain in colour.

Back to School

After 6 days in a row of Judo I was of the belief I had survived to finally enjoy my rest day - Sunday. Unfortunatley the universe had other plans in motion, after training on Saturday I rushed back to my place to prepare my lesson for Aoki San as I was due to teach him an hour long English class in an hour. I allowed myself 10 minutes to zone out on my bed before I dived into the English text books to plan out a lesson.

After 45 minutes of this I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I would ramble on about and had some activities planned to break up the monotomy of the lesson, the lesson went relatively well with a small hiccup when I was asked what sarcasm meant, it is really difficult to explain the whole concept of it to someone who has no comparable concept in their own language/culture.

After the lesson Aoki San took me to dinner around the corner, to a restaurant that unsurprisingly his firm owns...I'm seriously starting to wonder what they don't own, on the way to dinner he pointed out numerous buildings his company owns. The dinner was nice, the food was Onikawa style (A Nihon island where Karate comes from) they have lots of pigs on the island so lots of the food is tong (pork) but it was really good, Aoki also treated me to a couple of Onikawa native cocktails which were like tequila & lime in taste but are made up of something else mixed with Sake - of course.


Before I continue I'm going to rewind around 12 hours.


Aoki had spoken to me in the morning of this day to tell me that he may have a place for the other Judo guys from Kiwi land to stay when they arrived in the next week and that I should get Rick Sensei to contact him soon about this. I passed on the message and went to Judo, which was really the hardest training yet as all my accumulated pains from the week were now in full force and I was really mentally at the end of the bridge, but the thought of chilling out tomorow (Sunday) reading my book and generally recovering gave me the strength to persevere and go 110%, Saturday is also tougher because a few alumni of Kyoto University come to train as its their day off, they are generally in their late 20's/early 30's and have a whole week of work ready to vent out on you. One of them came and asked me for a fight during Randori time, I was interested to see what he had. I found out somewhere between 10-20 seconds later when I was suddenly staring at the roof as he threw me with Seoi-Nage (A shoulder throw, where you literally throw someone over your shoulder) Heres a link to a video of a Seo-Nage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcZENFhcNtQ


I risked a hasty glance at the clock and saw that I have another 8 minutes with this guy so I decided to try and catch him off guard with something unconventional, so when we engaged next I kept my distance until he came after me, when he did I caught his arm and went for a rolling armbar, it didnt quite work out because I lost his arm as I rolled but He was now on his back so I pinned him untill he eventually gave up and tapped out. The next 6 minutes were mostly his but I was happy that I had caught him once and started to figure out his a game by the end of the round.

Ok, only another 9 to go...
9 Randoris(fullcontact sparring) later and I'm barely standing but now theres only 30 minutes of various drills left and I can jump on my flash silver bike and wizz home. The drills mostly concentrated on being on the offensive when someone has turtled up on the ground or has pulled guard on the ground while you are still standing. Learnt some interesting new things here that I'm looking forward to trying to apply. Maybe on my arch-nemisis Wailou, maybe.


Anyway after training I got a call from Rick Sensei who had some news regarding his chat with Aoki, it was big news. The place that they have offered us to stay in is actually a School, or was a School to be more correct, Japan has an aging population so quite a few schools are closing down as theres just no kids around to fill the classrooms. Taking advantage of this, the Company decided to purchase one in Town when it closed down recently. It's a 3 story building with about 4 classrooms on the bottom floor, a large kitchen, huge chill out living room furnished with couches & computer, a big formal dinning room and a Piano. On the second floor theres a big rec room which will be used for storage, a enormous room floored with tatami mats so we will use this for sleeping, another kitchen and a bathroom. The top floor was the school hall.

So to come back forward to after dinner, As we were walking away from the restaurant Aoki San advised me one of the houses in the locale they had recently purchased was to be demolished in a couple of days and that tomorow we are wellcome to take any furnishings from the place for our new pad at the school. I went to bed early and the next day (his day off) he helped Rick and I move chests of drawers, a fridge, microwave, hutch dressers, futon beds etc with a company truck to the school to furnish the place.

Some pictures and a article corresponding to this can soon be found on www.Judokong.com - also if your into Judo or grappling in general this is a good site to follow, courtesy of the Auckland University Judo Club.

Theres an idea floating around that we can use this place as a base for Kiwi Judoka in Japan, its a great place to base out of right in the centre of around 4 tough Judo universities, plus the Police Judo Club. As things can change in the blink of an eye I feel this will be on a play by ear approach so watch this space anyway.

After providing us this this place, furtiture and company truck it was only polite that the President of the company Nakakura treat US to an extensive lunch, this was contrary to Rick & I's plan to take Them out to lunch. But when the boss has made his mind up you do what he says. The food was great and he ordered me around 5 dishes while everyone else had 1 or 2, it was like a challenge to see just how much a young westerner can eat. I ate everything in front of me, so he decided to order me some more...Which I eventually managed to get through, so he ordered me some desert, which I managed to get through (with some timely help from Sensei Rick) Fortunatley everyone had other plans for the day so it was time to move out, with my stomach straining not to explode I slowely shambled along back home. As we walked back we passed a place called MOOSE BURGER which is like Japanese Burger Fuel, Shatcho Nakakura (Shatcho means the big boss) then queried if I could handle some of this. I finally gave in and conceded a defeat, I actually was having some pains in my stomach and trouble walking at this point. Japan 1, NZ 0.

Today I went to Starbucks, a sin in itself. Once there I purchased a 500 Yen Venti sized Coffee smothered in cream and caramel and everything else they could chuck in it to make the most wimpy, unmanly coffee imaginable. Whatever, I dont care I really needed that even though I'm skipping lunch to cover the cost of it. Totally worth it.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before or not, but Nihon-Jin (Japanese People) make TERRIBLE coffee, but they LOVE coffee, they charge you an arm and a leg for a cuppa because its that popular, yet they still make these bubbly, frothy, weak excuses for coffee. If I was a smart man & a rich man I would be in here with a couple of skilled Kiwi Barristers opening a good Cafe turning out the real deal, you would really make a huge killing and probably grab the whole market share for Kyoto within a week. Now for a reminder that this blog and all ideas expressed within it are the intellectual property of Jordan Reynolds and any use of such are criminal.

Some advise for anyone planning on coming over here: Do your shopping at the Supermarket after 1930, reason: All perishable foods are 50% cheaper. You can grab a 500 Yen Bento box of food for 250 or even less, fish for 50 yen etc. The only risk you run is rocking up all exited about the feast you can now have with your loose change and theres nothing left. This happened to me the other day after I finished training around 9. I wearily rode my bike round to the Supermarket, really looking forward to a decent, nourishing meal and what do I find? Nothing. The damn Japs had eaten everything. I had to settle on the only remaining item which consisted of raw squid flesh and a few tentacles. Didnt even fill me up either.


I have training in a couple of hours so I had best take a power nap to mildy compensate for not doing lunch today.

J

Mon Ki Mountain

A few days ago I traveled to Monkey Mountain which is in the South Of Kyoto, Monkey Mountain is basicly a researve for the Japanese Snow Monkey - on a mountain. After paying 500 Yen to enter I, along with Isao( Isao used to work for Rick at the martial art shop in NZ for a few years) & his wife headed up the hill. The researve is an open zoo, so you have to be carefull not to stare at the monkeys for they go bannanas and will try to destroy you, this is difficult as they look funny and its really hard not to stare at them...

When we reached the top of the mountain there was an incredible view back over Kyoto city, and a small shop were one can purchase monkey food to feed them with. I could not pass up such an opportunity, so I purchased a bag of Bannanas for 100 Yen (like 2 dollars) so began to hand feed my favourite monkeys. You can you feed them like you feed a horse with an open hand, otherwise they might pull your fingers off. It was kinda cute as they put their little monkey hand out and take the bannana and run away a few feet to peel it and munch it down as if theyv stolen it from you.

There was one big boss monkey that had a huge pile of dozen of bannana skins next to him who obviously was running they show, so to be polite and pay my respects I fed him a few bannanas. I got a few pictures of the Monkeys doing Monkey buisiness but I'm not sure how to post them on this site yet so check my facebook or ask for an email of them, they are seriously awesome monkeys.

After we had seen enough of the monkeys we walked back down the hill to the road where we had parked our bikes, at the same time as we reached the bottom I heard this big thundering roar, which by the second was getting louder. Out of nowhere a big Japanese motorbike gang came hooning around the corner over the bridge on these big Harley Davidsons, it was kinda comical as they looked exactly like a Western Biker Gang with their patches and leather vests etc so I had to laugh (behind my hand)

Yestday ( the day after the monkey experience) I headed over to the International Centre planning to do not much just chill out and email some people, but discovered upon my arrival that it was closed for the day for some strange reason. I was most disapointed by this turn in events, another guy was trying to get in aswell so we decided to go tramping in some nearby mountains instead, he's been here for about 6 Months on a working holiday visa from Greece so he sorta knew were to go which was cool. The mountains & forest were really tranquil and peacefull with lots of random shrines to various gods spread among the forest. I have to say the one let down was lots of litter around the place, I know its close to the city but still, it was a bit gross seeing it desecrating was would otherwise be a really nice nature trek. when we were about 20 minutes in we heard this russling and WAM out of nowhere there is this huge Snake! I was really suprised and confused - Japan has snakes?!?!? It was really large and within 2 meters of us so I was a little nervous as Iricles explained there are poisonous and non poisonous snakes in Japan and we were unsure which category this on fell into. After a few minutes of standing off with the serpant it got bored and hooned off at top speed into a creek and sorta surfed away.

Iricles told me that a few months ago he had been tramping nearby and wandered into a clearing that had a horde of Wild Japanese pigs with tusks and all snortling about and that he had to make a run for it. It seems every animal in Japan is really aggressive, especially if you stare at it. Maybe I shouldnt wish this upon myself, but I actually really do hope I see a wild Bear next time I head out, it would be pretty cool. I suppose I would have to be quite stealthy and sorta sneak up close to get a picture.

Apart from seeing various native animals I have been doing Judo at Kyodai (Kyoto Uni) everyday. The training here tough, going for 3 hours 6 times a week, my stamina and strength is getting better each day so perhaps in a few weeks I can start doing two of these a day. They all seem to have pretty bad cauliflower ear which im trying to avoid getting while I'm here, but when I try to defend a strangle/choke when doing randori (full contact sparring) they allways ram their hands and knuckles past my ears until I move my hand up to cover them. Then my neck is exposed and its lights out.

There is one Judoka (Judo Player) that trains here that I have started to call Warlou, as for some reason whenever he does anything he shouts WARLOUU!!! in a really deep voice. I have no idea what it means, or why he does it, but without fail whenever we do anything - pushups, Randori (sparring), warm ups I hear this booming WARLOUU intermittently every 20 or so seconds. Seriously, he was a bit late the other day and while I was training I heard this muffled WARRLOUU!! coming from the changing room, and sure enough he emerged in his Judo Gi (Judo Uniform) a few minutes later. I would find this funny and maybe imitate him if he wasnt one of the toughest players there, hes only 5'10 ish tall but hes about as wide as he is tall and built like a brick shithouse. I actually thought I had his neck for a strangle from behind with his face pushed into the tatami (mat) but then I heard this muffled WARLOU!!! from under me, a few seconds later he kinda exploded, flipped me around and got me in an Armbar.

While the training is really hard and exhausting I'm enjoying it heaps and know I made the right decision in coming over here. In a couple of days Lee & Tim will be arriving from NZ and then we will be heading over to Ritsumeikan University to train regularily which is tougher than Kyodai, it will be interesting to see how that goes..


J

Asian drivers are the best.

Coming from New Zealand, I have been exposed and accimilated to the stereotype that Asians make very poor drivers. Nothing could be further from the truth! During my first couple of days here in Kyoto I saw dozens of ALLMOST crashes, situations that in NZ would have definatly lead to a crash. At first I thought this was indeed proof that they are geneticaly disposed to be terrible drivers until I did the math; while I have seen many near misses, I have yet to see ONE accident - taking into consideration that these near accidents required some nerves of steel and skill to avoid it suddenly all made sense.

The Japanese are fantastic drivers, infact theyr actually too good, they drive in such an extreme way that we can't keep up with them in NZ thus resulting in an accident. Seriously, look at the world rally drivers ranking - the Japs are consistantly among the top group.


The place I have been staying is very nice, the family have been really helpfull in helping me settle in and get to know the area. It was a little uneasy at first as I dont speak Nihongo and they dont speak English, but with the help of a translating son in law who came over to help & one of those talking/translating Japanese calculators everything is going well now. In fact this morning I recieved a Japanese lesson from the younger daughter ( I can't remember her name, I think remembering all the names is the hardest thing) the lesson was pretty basic and just covered different greetings for different locations but it was still really helpfull.

The Shatcho (boss)/ head of family Nakakura has left with Aoki to Korea for around a week pretty much trusting me with the house, he advised me through his son in law that I may eat anything from the fridge etc but I have been buying Bento (pre packaged meals) from the supermarket as I feel they are allready doing enough for me. Bento is really cheap anyway, usually around 300-400 Yen for a good meal sized box with my daily budget sitting around 1500 yen, Iv managed to find enough cheap ways to eat that my daily expenditure is more like 900-1000 Yen now which I'm smug about.

I decided this morning to indulge myself to a bit of Kiwi nostelgia(spelling??) after talking to my Mum & Brother back home on Skype. I really miss good coffee, sure they drink coffee over here but its nothing like a decent flat white in Auckland. I managed to find a Starbucks, which while not the best place for it is the best I can find and ordered myself a Venti (humgunuss) sized Cappacino, I brough my laptop along so that I could sorta surf the web/do emails while I drank it but they didnt have Wifi (which is really rare over here ) so I just chatted to a couple of British girls who joined me. They were heading over to the Imperial gardens and wondered if I was keen to come along, I respectfully declined as neither of them were goodlooking & I have to visit the International Centre to check for cheapbikes etc on the noticeboard.

Which is where I am right now. Its basically a place for Gaijin to come, use free internet on their laptops, drink coffee from a cafe and look for jobs/bikes/apartments or just general advise from the staff and notice board.
I saw a few cheap apartments which I took details down for to pass to Rick, as the other guys coming over may need somewhere like that to stay when they arrive.

On the weekend I visited the Kyodai Judo Club(Kyoto University) but the times have changed from those advertised and I caught the end of the training session. I had a chat with the team captain, who said I can start training with them from the 4th at 0900(Tomorow) as until then they are taking a small holiday for golden week. they also were preparing for a competition they have annualy against Sangyo Uni which the captain believed they would lose as Sangyo is one of the toughest Uni's out.

Aoki also seemed to agree when I discussed this with him, his theory is that as Kyoto Uni is the 2nd best in Japan (out of literally 1000's of Uni's) it is predominantly made up of very very smart people and as a rule of thumb very smart people ( with exeptions of course) are not the biggest & tougest of characters. Wheras Sangyo Uni is a Industrual Uni (kinda like a Tech for Trades) and has alot of big Judo thugs training there.

The players at Kyoto Uni all seemed very tough & most were around my size/slightly bigger so I'm not too sure what to expect from Sangyo. I'm really looking forward to getting into the 6 day a week training schedule from tomorow. Tonight after helping Sensei Rick move into his new house I think we are going to a Dojo at Doisha which I trained at last time I was in Japan. Its a tough Judo dojo which is around 2 meters wide and 20 long (sort of bus shaped) and has imprints in the wall in the shape of human bodies from being being thrown into the walls. This is actually true, infact when I post my first bunch of pics tomorow I will include some of this dojo to prove it.


Yesterday I went for a big run around my region of Kyoto (Sanjo-dori/Horikawa Dori sort of area) which was tough because its so hott & humid, everyday its getting a bit hotter as summer is fast approaching.

J