Tuesday August 7th

I had a poor enough sleep last night... I have a lot of disomfort in my right hip.  Because of this, I decided to leave training this morning and rest it up.  I went for a little adventure to Ginza district around mid-day.  "Ginza" means "silver place" and it is one of Tokyo's prime market places with an abundance of high end stores!  I took a wander around the Sony Store and did some "window shopping" outside places like Gucci and Armani!  Things are very very expensive here in Tokyo... when you consider the graph I posted last week!



Oustide the Sony Building



Some interesting architecture in this wealthy neighbourhood


Come evening time and after some stretching, I was all set to head off to the Hombu Dojo for training.  Matsue Sensei and Inada Sensei were teaching a kids class from 6-7pm when I arrived.  They were doing some fitness drills which involved a lot of short sprinting for the first 15 minutes.  They then went on to do about 20 minutes of kihon training.  Matsue Sensei was leading this.  He has a fantastic eye for detail and he has fantastic knowledge of all technical aspects of karate.  Every so often he would give the kids a one minute break.  He would crack a few jokes and the kids were rolling around the place in stitches... I'm not fully certain but I think one or two of the kids might have been on the wrong end of these jokes!  All of a sudden Matsue Sensei would get back to business and the kids would be switched on straight away.  They finished the last 10 minutes with some jiyu-kumite.  There was one kid in particular who seemed a little bit hyper... when jiyu-kumite and sparring mitts were mentioned, he was jumping around the place in excitement!  He was maybe 11 years old, a white belt and a little chubby... border line ADHD if you ask me!  He went hell for leather in the kumite (sparring)... nearly taking the head off his sparring partner...  Matsue Sensei and Inada Sensei seemed to let this go on for a couple of minutes... All of a sudden Matsue Sensei went over to the young lad and smacked him right across the face... You can't fly around the dojo and try and take peoples head off like that... BOY!  They finished the class with some competition style kumite where each pair were given the floor to get in a winning point!  This was great to watch...  Every so often Inada Sensei would call the kid who seemed to be struggling over and give them some advice on how to win the point.. He was very encouraging.. Great to see it!

Matsue Sensei took the 7-8pm class..  Seven of us training.  We started off with about 20 minutes of "muscle training"... Towels on the floor and away we go... 80 situps (straight off)... 80 inverted situps on our stomachs.... 30 oblique crunches (either side)... lots more abdominal exercises.. too many to explain!  We then did 80 pushups (straight off)... then 20 pushups and clap... and then we did many stability exercises from pushup position... All very hard but I was well able!

We then progressed on to Heian Shodan, Nidan and Sandan and also Junro Shodan, Nidan and Sandan... First to the count and second time around.. one count.  I was going well at this stage but I was feeling my hip at times and it was restricting me with some techniques.. We finished off the class with some very nice kumite drills and finally we did 10 minutes of jiyu-kumite (free sparring)... I was with Taka-san and Kasuya-san and then I finished up sparring with Matsue Sensei... Unlike Watanabe Sensei he didn't wish to take my head off thankfully!  It was a good relaxed fight.  On a couple of occasions Matsue Sensei tried to take my leg with ashi-barai... I was having none of it... I think he realised that he was no match for my size when he got inside me!  I was feeling sharp and felt well able to retreat, block and counter Matsue Sensei's techniques. 

When we finished training I went into the instructor's changing room and gave Inada Sensei a gift of a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey.  He seemed delighted with it and he told me that he wouldn't see me again as he is going away on a training camp until the middle of next week.  I gave Matue Sensei a box of Butler's Irish chocolates and that was it!  I stayed around in the dojo for about 20 minutes with the other student's.  I have been helping one student in particular with Heian Godan in the dojo over the last couple of weeks.  He's a white belt and seems to struggle with the last few moves in the kata!  In fact it is tradition in the dojo that the student's remain on the floor for about 20/30 minutes after training.... Helping each other with kata.. stretching.. hitting the punch bag or the makiwara.. They are a really dedicated group!  I'm pictured below with Inada Sensei and Matsue Sensei. 



Pictured after training with Inada Sensei (left) and Matsue Sensei (right)



By the way.... Come on Katie Taylor..!  I can't see any of the action here in Japan but I'm eagerly following Team Ireland's progress through Twitter etc.!