Summer Training Camp in Tsumagoi

I'm back from Tsumagoi! It was a long week of hard practices and everyone was quite tired by the end but it was a good week.

From Hiratsuka (where I live), it took about 6 hours by bus to Tsumagoi, located in the Gunma Prefecture. They hold the camp every year during the summer because it's so much cooler up in the mountains which makes training much more tolerable than in Tokyo where the humidity is insane.

Some people had told me the air would be thinner but I didn't feel a difference really. Either my respiratory system is in good shape or there just wasn't much of a difference.

Arriving in Tsumagoi

For the first half of the week, it was just Tokai University. We ran and practiced some footsweeps. Then, during the second half, athletes from Asahi University, Ritsumeikan University and Biwako Seikei Sports University came to practice with us.

There were a lot more athletes than this but a lot of them
left for a competition only a few days after their arrival

This was our daily schedule: Wake up around 6:45, stretching exercises at 7:10, breakfast at 7:30, judo practice from 9:00-12:00, shower, lunch at 12:30, nap, second judo practice from 3:00-5:00, running from 5:15-5:45, second shower, supper at 6:30 and then to bed.

It was a hard week. But going through it together (with the Tokai girls), and encouraging each other during the practices : Faito! Faito! (which means "Fight! Keep going!") was also a great experience. Like my dad says, it's also a unique experience for a foreigner in Japan to have. Normally, foreigners don't attend these training camps because foreigners are usually only in Japan for a short time. But I've been here for almost a year now and they've come to see me as part of the team so there was no hesitation when they invited me to participate in the training camp.

We stayed at the Tokai University Tsumagoi Kogen Training Center

Written in Japanese : Tokai University Tsumagoi Kogen Kenkyu Center

Eating supper

Tsumagoi is reknown for its cabbage: there were fields of cabbage everywhere!

A little friend I found by the side of the road

Celebrating the end of the camp: Picture taken right after the last running practice