Slept well again last night. Did some laundry this morning. Great service here where I have the free use of washing machines and tumble dryers. Did some grocery shopping and I brought a dictionary that Scott Sensei gave me the loan of and I was able to ask in Japanese about different products.
Met with Angelo and Michiko at the Swiss Chalet restaurant for lunch. They are really good to me and I really enjoy their company. I learn lots about the Japanese culture from both of them. They have invited me to their house tomorrow evening for dinner.
I went to the Hombu Dojo for training from 4-6pm. There is also training from 11-1pm but I decided to stick with the two hours for this week. Makita Sensei took the first session. There were a good few kids training but this did not take away from the intensity of the class. First 10 minutes were spent doing warmup exercises with partners... jumping around the place etc. Very hard but enjoyable. We did a lot of kihon up and down the dojo. I tend to open my preparation hand when doing soto-uke and uchi-uke. I need to stop doing this and Makita Sensei pointed this out to me. Did lots of gohon kumite... Kodan, Chudan and Mae-Geri. Makita Sensei was stressing the importance of the attacking side driving in with their technique. Finished the session with jiyu-kumite. I was absolutely spent at the end of this session and was doubting my ability to train in the 5-6pm class...
Once we bowed out of the class with Makita Sensei there was literally a 5 second break and then we bowed in for the next session which was taken by Nagaki Sensei. We put on our mitts straight away and the majority of the class was spent doing kumite drills. One of the main things that Nagaki Sensei was stressing was the importance of the defensive side in taking a direct line of attack. For example; when the attacking side is attacking mawashi-geri it is important that the defensive side go directly in to counterattack and not move off center. We did a lot of jiyu kumite where we had to stop once a wazari was scored. This was difficult but everybody was wrecked at this stage. We finished the class with Tokui kata. I did Jion. Nagaki Sensei helped me out with a couple of things.. In particular the hiki-ash for my mae-geri's near the beginning needs to be quicker and more defined. It has been obvious over the last couple of days that some Sensei's allow you to perform a Tokui (Choice) kata during class. I think I might decide to take one kata weekly and see how I get on. So, I'll take Jion for the next week. I have a few things to work on in this kata.
I was glad when the class concluded as I was absolutely shattered at this stage. Straight in to the toilet after Osoji Owari Mas (cleaning the floor) to hoover up as much water as I could from the tap. Spent about 15 minutes with some other students stretching after class. Got the train back to Nippori. Went straight to a local restaurant for my dinner as I was starving. Back to apartment and staright into shower. Ready for bed now. My body needs rest. No training tomorrow as Sunday is a day off!
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