Perks of being in Japan

There are a lot of perks to living in Japan. It's the best place to be for learning Japanese. I get to train with some of the country's possible future Olympians. And I get the chance to go watch high caliber tournaments in Japan, such as the Tokyo Grand Slam last weekend.

It was great to be there. Judo is really a spectacular sport to watch. Even though I've seen so many fights in my life, judo never ceases to amaze me. It was also great to be able to put faces to some of the people in my division. I've seen their names written on the world ranking list but until now, I didn't really have a clue who they were. I also got to talk with some fellow Canadian athletes. Seeing a familiar face is always comforting when you're living alone in a foreign country.

The tournament was long however, going till about 7 o'clock both Saturday and Sunday. I had to commute every day, which took about one hour and a half one-way. So it was tiring but definitely worth it. It's not every day you get the chance to watch a tournament of this caliber.

Taking a little rest between matches : p

The judo trainers

When I got back to school on Monday, I found out my voice had pretty much deserted me, the result of 1) my allergies (they really act up when the seasons are changing) 2) a cold and 3) cheering on the fighters during the weekend. It's something I knew I would have to deal with eventually. Getting sick in a foreign country can be difficult. My mom isn't here to take care of me. I can't just skip class and sleep during the day. And the medicine here isn't the same as in Canada. There's no Benylin or any of the other familiar cold medicines I normally take when I'm sick.

I'm feeling better now. My voice is slowly coming back. I'm trying to speak as little as possible because I'm supposed to go to kareoke on the weekend... so I need my voice in top shape for that ; )

Since I'm in Japan, I've also had the chance to buy some new gis. I needed new gis for the competition in Korea. Because of the new rules, all judogis must now have the "IJF approved logo" on them and can only be made by certain companies such as Mizuno and GreenHill. And since I'm in Japan, I was able to get my name written in Japanese on both of my gis and on my new belt as well. See for yourself. It reads "Blais-Shokawa" in Japanese characters.

My patch for Korea