Weather and judo class with Yamashita

The weather in Japan is like a rollercoaster. Up one day, down the next. One day, we'll have beautiful summer-like temperature with the sun in the sky and a nice breeze. Then the next day, it'll rain for the entire day. Then, back again to the nice sunny day. Like today. It's so nice out today, neither too hot or too cold, just the way I like it. But then tomorrow, it might rain all day again... so I'll just enjoy today and not worry about tomorrow, because I don't have any control over the weather.

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On Saturdays, before our usual practice, we have a one-hour judo class. Yasuhiro Yamashita is in charge of teaching the 3rd-year students (that's me) so I get to be taught by him once every week. When you're at Tokai, being around judo legends and training with upcoming Olympic gold medallists is nothing out of the ordinary. But for a small-town Canadian girl like me, it's quite amazing : )

Today, Yamashita taught us osotogari, a technique that has won him many of his matches. Personally, before today, even though I like the technique and I find it spectacular to watch when it's done properly, it wasn't a technique I used very often. Shorter fighters don't usually tend to use it. It's preferred by tall and long-limbed fighters. But after today, it's now a technique I want to work on to add to my repertoire. I used to feel awkward doing it because I knew my technique wasn't exactly how it should be. But after our lesson with him today, after he pointed out the major points of the throw (ex. where to push, how to make all his weight shift to one leg, etc), I already feel much better practicing it. And I'm looking forward to next week's lesson. : )