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

Summer training camp

After a nice long break from judo, practice restarted on Thursday. And I'm already exhausted! In the mornings we practiced for 3 hours! And then another hour in the afternoon. My body is aching everywhere: my neck, my back, my thighs, my legs, ...you get the picture. You can see me dragging myself up the stairs after practice. When I come back to the residence to eat lunch after practice, the others are just waking up. lol.

And it's not over! Tomorrow, I'm going to Tsumagoi (in the Gunma prefecture, located directly west of the Tochigi prefecture) along with the Tokai judo girls for a week-long training camp. We'll be running and practicing judo everyday. One good thing is that since it's a mountainous area, it'll be a lot cooler than here. It's unbelievably hot when we practice at the dojo in Tokai during the summer.

However, because it's a mountainous area, the air will also be less dense, making it harder to breathe. But since I'll be climbing Mt. Fuji in about two weeks, it'll be good practice : )

I won't have access to a computer during the whole week so I'll update as soon as I get back.

Golden week: No rest for the wicked

It's currently "Golden Week" in Japan right now. Golden Week is a series of consecutive holidays, including Children's Day, Greenery Day, Constitutional Memorial Day, and a couple others. So this week, we only have school twice, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday, I went to Machida with Anzu. I was looking forward to being able to maybe relax a bit, catch up on some sleep and get around to tidying up my room on Thursday to Sunday. But instead, along with the women's judo club, I'm going to a training camp at the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces Camp Asaka in Tokyo. We'll only be there from the 2nd (Wed) till the 5th (Sat), but we'll be training 3 times a day and the caliber of athletes will be pretty high, including athletes who will be fighting at the Olympics in a few months.

Normally, because it's part of Japan's military forces, foreigners are strictly prohibited. But, because I have a Japanese surname (Shiokawa), I've been given the permission to come as well. But I'm scared that if I open my mouth, they might realize right away that I'm not Japanese... so I'm planning not to speak at all during the next few days. lol. Just kidding, we'll see how it goes.

I probably won't be allowed to take any pictures but I'll stil be able to write about my experiences there. It's exciting because I'm entering unknown terrain where no other foreigners have gone before.

Japan: The final frontier
These are the voyages of Sayuri France Blais-Shiokawa
Its 1 year mission
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilizations
To boldly go where no man has gone before