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