Judo, cellphone, classes

Okay, a lot has happened since I last wrote. I think I went a day without writing anything!!! *gasp*! To let you know, it will more often be that way once classes start because I won't have time to update everyday, like I've been doing so far.

So I had my first judo practice today at 9 in the morning. The dojo is really just a 5 minute walk from my dorm which is really convenient. I introduced myself in front of the whole class, speaking the little sentences I had memorized. Then time to practice. It went well. It wasn't as tough as I expected it to be. Now it's only been one day. I might say differently after doing six days in a row with two trainings per day, but for this first practice, I really enjoyed it. It's comforting to see how some things do not change. Judo is judo and no matter what country you're in, the structure of a practice is pretty similar. Very useful, especially since I don't yet understand what the sensei is telling us to do. During practice, I waited to see what the others were doing. Sometimes, a girl would grab me and bring me to where I was supposed to be.

We warmed up first, running and then some fast running on the spot. Then we did some uchikomi. Then 12 x 5 min of tachi waza randoris. At first I thought we had to do all of them. After my first 3 in a row, someone told me I was only supposed to go every two... Ahh.... I threw one girl and got thrown a lot with foot sweeps. They are very good at those. After, we did some newaza. At which, once again, they are very good. But I'm not that far away and I hope this year in Japan will really help me improve. After newaza, we did some throwing and that was it. Then some stretching and talking with other athletes. I think all of them are curious but some are less shy than others and came to see me to try to communicate. Try = me speaking the Japanese I know and them speaking the English they know. Which works to a certain degree.

After practice, ate some delicious curry... :) YUM. If you ever go to Japan, make sure to eat some curry. Then, off to the supermarket to buy some things and get a cellphone. The road to the supermarket is a large winding slope downwards. Riding my bike (without braking) all the way down is a thrilling but equally dangerous experience. I have the same feeling when I snowboard. Snowboarding downward at high speed and feeling the wind blowing past makes you feel invincible. But at a certain point, you have to start breaking or you might have a rough finish at the bottom of the hill.

Here are a couple of pictures I wanted to upload, though they don't really tie in to any particular text in this post:

The supermarket I like the most because it has everything: food (1st floor), clothes and appliances (2nd floor) and a dollar store that has everything in itself

Two friends: Haruka from Japan and Giyo (not sure of the spelling...) from Korea



Giyo and me



A nice picture of my Japanese mother, Reiko : )

I bought my cellphone today! Thankfully the guy working at the cellphone store spoke relatively good English so I was able to purchase and set up my phone without much difficulty. Here are some pictures though my camera really doesn't take great close-ups.

I had the option of getting an iphone but I opted for the prepaid because the iphone contract is for 2 years and I don't really want to have to tamper with the phone to have it work in Canada when I return. I would have liked a pink or gold phone but they said this was the only color they had. The first thing I did when I got my cellphone : change the display language to English ; ) So now I know exactly what's on my phone. What's neat is that I can now text in both English and Japanese characters. And I can email people from anywhere in the world.

I have had two requests for a postal address so here it is:

SAYURI FRANCE BLAIS-SHIOKAWA (LS303B)
TOKAI UNIVERSITY RYUGAKUSEIKAIKAN (L-KAN)
4-1-2 KITAKANAME, HIRATSUKA-SHI, KANAGAWA-KEN
259-1201, JAPAN

My classes start tomorrow already. On a Saturday!!! lol I've bought the six required textbooks: main textbook, listening practice, grammar, grammar explanations translated in English (most useful book out of all of them : p), kanji book, and intermediate book for later. I'm excited to start learning but it will be hard work. Especially with the judo practices. Here is what my daily schedule will look like starting next week: training in the morning at 7, breakfast and shower, classes from 9 - 12, lunch break, classes from 1 - 3, judo practice, supper, shower, study, sleep. And then restart it all over again the next day.. and the next... At least one thing I'm no worried about: falling asleep. I'll be dead tired once I get to bed. What I'm worried about is the hours of sleep I'll be able to get. I guess everything in its own time, I'll figure out something if a problem arises.

Ate supper and reheated some things I cooked the other day. I'm having fun cooking on my own now. Normally I cook desserts and only cooked meat maybe once or twice back in Canada. So the other day, I cooked up some chicken, made some rice in my new little rice cooker, added some kimchi and ginger, made a salad, and this was the result:



Not bad eh? : p and very good :)



That's it for today. Tomorrow, I have two classes and then I'm joining the judo team for weight training. I'm curious to see what they do in terms of weight training. It's great to be here and to be able to see exactly what their training regimen is like. I'll report back tomorrow about the weight training : ) Jaane! (See you!)