Monday February 21st

After contacting family and friends at home, it was almost 2am by the time I got to bed last night...  I had been up almost 24 hours so I was wrecked!  Had a sleep in this morning for a bit and I was still tired when I got up.  So I decided that I would take a break today from training.  As usual it's going to be a hard week of training again this week and I think its important to have that day of rest!

Shortly, I will come to a crossroads in my career and I will have some pretty big decisions... I may go to the U.S.A. to do post-doctoral research, go teaching at second level in Ireland or maybe see what opportunities arise in third level in the U.K. or maybe even Australia...  Over the last three years I have built up relationships with people in all of these places who have told me to contact them when I'm almost finished my PhD.  So today I spent time updating some stuff and I contacted one of the leading people in the world in graphics education at Purdue University to let him know that I'll be available shortly... all going well!  I'll leave all the options open anyway.

I want to clarify something from yesterday's blog... I said something along the lines of that I was a little nervous of getting injured in kumite which could prematurely end my stay here in Tokyo... I was speaking to my Aunt (Christina) on Skype earlier and she thought that I was saying that if I injure somebody that I would be deported from Japan!  So for those of you who thought the same... I meant that if I got injured myself!  Although let me say that even though the kumite at yesterdays competition was fast and furious... Nobody was injured all day and I didn't see the medics on the floor once all day... Although, saying that I do recall seeing the guy who won the male senior kumite, checking his teeth after the final and it appeared that he had a loose tooth... He was missing his two front teeth (central incisors) before the start of the tournament!!

I meant to say in yesterdays blog why I was nervous at the competition... Hardly nobody there knew me so there was no real expectations... But for me I was nervous because the Sensei's from the dojo were there officiating... Yamaguchi Sensei and Kai Sensei were judging in the area where I was competing and I just had a feeling about me that I didn't want to let them down... But I tried hard (probably too hard because I ended up feeling a little stiff in the shoulders etc.!) and I also tried to make sure that I did every single thing like the Japanese... treating everything and everybody with the highest respect.  I think they appreciate this.

Looking forward to training tomorrow.  Inada Sensei should be teaching.  I will get him a gift (box of chocolates or something) tomorrow morning to thank him for inviting me to the competition and for making sure that I was looked after all day.  I'll get Kai Sensei something as well because he did the driving!