Japan - the beginnings

First of all let me jump back to Friday night. After training we returned to T. guesthouse, where K., S's girl welcomed us on the balcony all frightened by a crazy dying cicada (these are really huge monsters in Japan).
S. took all his bravery and entered their apartment, while James and me entered ours.
After the successful cicada-hunting (we guess) S. and K. were kind enough to invite poor starving us for dinner at their place.
As soon as we finished the dinner my long-awaited dream came true: S. and K. took us to a karaoke bar nearby. Well, K. has a really beautiful voice and S. has no reason to feel ashamed about his, either! I tried singing but I reeeaally sucked. James probably had some kind of self-knowledge so he did not even try :-).
After the one hour was over we went back home and hit the beds.

Aug 5. - Saturday

James kicked me out of the bed - it was about time for preparing and leaving for S's trainging in Toride. We met S. at the stairs and left for the train station quickly. Hit Strabucks for a quick breakfast (hey I really liked that place - too bad, they're not in Hungary) and then went for the sportscenter for training. I've been sweating like a horse there, it was soooo humid. But the training itself was great, kind of energizing. I managed to get some training with some Japanese guys too, and I could whop a bit JG's ass as well (well, it was rather a kind of mutual thing). I was surprised to see how quickly the training ended (2 hours).
Then we went for some lunch - finding the right place required an hour of marching - it seemed to me at least. S. meanwhile shot himself out for home to help K. preparing for the evening BBQ party, while we headed to Sh. sensei's training in Kasukabe.

That was a huge sports complex, with great tatami halls. Again - killer heat and humidity.
Anyway, Sh. sensei was waving to us with a huge smile from the other side of the hall, so we quickly changed to our (still sweaty) gi and joined them on the mat.
I liked his trainings very much.
He always started with some light "play around" as a warmup - kind of went through the last techniques shown by Soke. He always demonstrated diffferent nasty, err... sorry.. "sneaky" techniques :-) and tricks (like pinches, twsits, grabbing methods, small but significant movements to play with balance), and he graciously allowed each one of us to feel it on our own skin.
After the first half an hour training went more intensive. First some ukemi training. Lotsa-lotsa ukemi :) I really like his ukemi - it is so continuous, like a flow, and the whole body is under control even during the roll. First just slowly, from a static position, then from moving. I loved it. There was one guy (Duke) whose ukemi I especially liked - he did it very well I think.
After the ukemi part was over we skipped through to the stuff we did last night with Soke. Some throws.
Interesting... I remember rather the feeling than the techniques we did. It was all about softness and balance, if I was not mistaken.
In the middle of the training there was a "tea & cookie" break (this time without tea). Sh. sensei brought a lot of strange cookies: one side was salty, while the other one was sweet, but it was nice. Then some training again and after cleaning up the tatami we went to change back. I was so grateful to fate for being able to have a nice shower afterwards - it was better than ever before.

After leaving the sportscenter our group of about 8-10 aimed Abiko to attend the BBQ party, where S. so irresponsibily invited us to.
Arriving to Abiko we split up to two groups, and I took 2 Finnish and 2 Japanese guys with me to help shopping as a contribution to the party.
After we got back to the apartment I took over S's kitchen and made Goulash Soup (Gulyás Leves) for 25 guests. I think it turned out very well and by the time the party-mood reached its top, the soup was ready and served - needless to say it was a great success :-) I am afraid I drunk a bit too much as I remember receiving some evil smiles from the guys.

After the last guests left after 22 pm and I got somewhat sober again, the "S&K Duo", one Finnish guy, JG, 2 Japanese guys, Saar and me decided to go for karaoke. We found a cool place at the other end of Abiko and spent there nearly 5 hours or more. Saar left pretty early as he did not really like karaoke, at least not the way JG and the Fins did it :-) Well, he's a real artist, with a very sensitive hearing I think :))) At the end we stumbled home around 6.30 am, which along with my terrible hangover made it impossible for me to attend the Sunday classes.
I can't remember ever having such a crazy party-night before :-)

Soooo... as you see I was not bored on the first few days.

The upcoming days will not be described in such detailes, probably cos I went back to "normal" and those were more balanced times with heaps of trainings and conversations with other buyus every day.
So the next entry will be focused more on the "professional" experiences - but I found this social-life aspect also a very important part of being a member of the Boojie community.

Stay tuned!

Japan - arrival day

Okay, back, after a semi-long break.
So you wanna hear something about my trip to Japan? Do you really want to? Okay, here it is.
I will write about it in more parts to keep you interested and also to avoid endless entries on this blog page.

All in all, I can say that it's been a kind of "wake-up trip" for me; it opened my eyes on many ways, mostly training-wise.

Aug 3.
After packing up everything in the morning and having a good breakfast I left for the airport by walk (I live nearby).
I was lucky to arrive early enough to be the 3rd person in the check-in queue, which is really an issue if you have to take two flights in 24 hours, and the second one is a 11 hours long flight. I told to the lady at the check-in desk to gimme a seat next to a corridor and as far from the window as possible. Also, no wings please. So I had to swallow the thoughts which came to my mind when after boarding I realized that I am sitting just next to a window, and if I want to stand up a bit, I have to crawl over two people. Anyway, I told my neighbours (a Jap guy and a British girl) to be prepared for that I'll be moving a lot. They did not have any objection against it (I am wondering if I was way too explicit :-) )
The flight to Amsterdam was veeery shaky due to the bad weather above all Europe - they even stopped servicing. Arriving to Amsterdam "Shithole" I realized that I had only 10 minutes to get over to the other end of the airport for checking in for the plane to Tokyo, so I was running like a madman. Luckilly there were too many passengers waiting there so I arrived in time.
That flight was very good, although I almost tore up the tapestry from the chair - I was so nervous. I won't ever be able to get used to flying. I flew KLM, it was very convenient (even with my wrong seat), time went by with watching movies, playing a bit on the built-in computer and fighting for a little sleep, which I could not make despite taking some tranquilizers.

Aug 4.
Arrived to Narita in the morning, a few minutes before the due time. That airport looked completely abandoned - not a single spirit floating around, except for us. At the customs section the lady asked for my letter of invitation. I was kind of surprised and told her I did not have any - I came for Budo training. She nodded and had let me go. (Did she get scared?)
After leaving the airport I tried to find the train line I was supposed to take to Abiko. Found it pretty easily and took the trains.

I arrived to Abiko around 1 pm and called S. to ask whether or not I should wait for his lift. When I heard his sleepy voice I thought "sh...t, I woke him up again - he'll kill me". I could not really hear what he was trying to say because of the noise at the railway station, so I told him I go and find the guesthouse alone. Probably he felt relieved and after telling me to call him in case I got lost, he passed out again :-)

Thanks to the great itinerary photos and descriptions, I found the guesthouse very easily, in about 15 minutes. I knocked on the door and I was allowed in by a guy who called himself James. He seemed to be a bit lost as he saw me there (probably I was too straightforward again?) but after a quick introduction I threw out everything from my backpack and prepared my training gear necessary for the evening Hombu training. Meanwhile I have learnt that there's another guy here from Israel, SH, in the other room with the airconditioner. However no sign of that guy yet.

I was thinking about going upstairs to let S. know that I am here and safe and alive, but I dared not to risk waking him up again - I thought if he was really so much concerned about my safety he would come down and check if I was here (ah, men - I am still living in a dreamland :-) )
So I decided to quickly take over the top section of the bunk bed in James' room and passed out for an hour or two.
James was kind enough to wake me up before leaving for the dojo. I just only started to come to life again when S. entered the apartment. I dunno which one of us were more surprised. He rebuked me for not calling him and he was complaining about waking up in every hour worrying where on earth I might be. Hmmm... I am not lucky with this guy. No matter how hard I try to avoid - I keep being the cause of his insomnia :-D (meow ;-)))))) ) hehe

Anyway, meanwhile I met SH too, but only for a few minutes as he did not join us that evening, so James, S and me left for Hombu at last.
The trip to there was about one hour with switching trains, which was still a bit too much for my newly-arrived woman-brain to remember, so I was quite confident that James would later on remember the way to get to Hombu.
After arriving to Hombu and entering the dojo I had to realize that there were way more foreigners there than I previously expected - there were about 70 people in that small room. I still dunno how we could fit in.
I quickly moved to a small changing room and I had to be very quick cos Soke was supposed to change there as soon as he'd arrive.
When I finished and enetered the mat area I was stopped by some unknown people who asked me if I was E. I was a bit worried about how the hell they know me while I dunno who they were. Well, forums can make you really popular :-). I went for meeting JG who looked a bit surprised when I told him who I was. I also met some other Kutaki creatures and introduced myself to DH too.

Then Soke arrived and training started. Since there were many of us there that night, we had to work on a very small place. Training itself was very relaxed and light, and full of fun. Soke was in a great mood I think. I was surprised to see how lightly and naturally we were supposed to do the techniques. Something I have really been waiting for, for long long times already, but never had the chance to practice this way. I enjoyed every single minute of the training.
In half-time there was a break and Soke started painting calligraphies. I was just watching - it was beautiful. The way he played with the brush - it was dancing in his hands. A real virtuoso. This is really an art - now I saw it. I was a bit sorry that I did not have a paper to ask for some nice writing. In that moment someone tapped my shoulder. It was Sh. sensei and told me to go and ask for a calligraphy. I told him that unfortunately I had no paper. Then he rushed into the stockroom, appeared again and put a HUGE white paper in my hands and said "go".
I could not say a word from the sudden surprise just smiled like a pumpkin - I thanked and went to Soke to ask for a calligraphy for my old dojo in my hometown.

After the break was over all the brushes, papaers and paints disappeared from the tatami and we continued training. The end of the training was approaching so Soke asked if anyone wanted to take the "Big Swing". Some guys (2 or 3) wanted so we all sat down and watched them doing it. I think they passed or maybe one of them failed.
After this training was over, we changed back to normal clothes and left.
I don't have too many memories about what happened afterwards but I guess we did not go out as we were supposed to go to attend S's trainnig next morning and Sh. sensei's afterwards.
So if my memory serves well we went back to the guesthouse and passed out. At least I did :-)

Later more... stay tuned ;-)

Twisted

Well guys, I am back.

The trip to Japan was hillarious! As I say in Hungarian: "unconsciously cool".
Sorry for not writing about my days but I'd been extremely busy with surviving and digesting all the things that I saw and learnt there.

Maybe I will write about my general experiences during this weekend. Until then I need some time to get back to my everyday workaholic life and to wait until things settle down in me.

Many things happened in Japan which turned my life upside down and put a huge amount of responsibility on me - it will probably twist things in my near environment, so now I have this "homework" to try to balance out these things. Well sometimes I think things are just happening to you irrespective of whether you go for them or not; and then you have to work with what you get in your face. You have to take the control over something which has not been under your control before. Not easy to do. Especially if it draws some socially delicate outcome after itself. I hope I won't fail - but it's time to grow up - from every aspect.

Anyhow, until I put down my experiences, try to stay cool.
Especially you, Gem of All Kungfu Masters ;-) that Sweat-Rap was coooool :-) err... hot.... errr.... whatever :-)

Off for Japan

Hi Guys,

Since I have not been able to send an e-mail to many of you before my departure, I thought I put down here a few words. It will be a very quick one as I have to leaveion an hour and I still want to have some nice Hungarian-style breakfast.

So I am off in an hour, and supposed to arrive at Narita on the 4th of August, at 9.40 a.m. local time.
Back on the 18th, and arrive to Ferihegy 2A on the 18th of August, at 22.30 p.m. local time.

I can't promise that I'll be able to check my mailbox or update this blog regularly, but I try my best.

Toshi-san, let's try to make an appointment for that Ramen lunch - more in email.

D. - Thank you very much for all the advice and support you gave me, it was a great help for planning the whole trip. If you happen to still need anything from Japan, let me know please and I bring it to Hungary and send it to you with the guys when they go to Z. for seminar again.

Mark, sorry for not writing, I've been buzzing again, just like always, you know :) Anyhow, I got the cards thanks a lot!! They are very special!! :) I'll write about them when I return :)

Take care all and have fun.

In case we could not meet again: it was a pleasure to be your friend :-)

E.