Today's evening judo practice was very significant. As of today, I am now part of the Tokai judo team.
Normally, when we bow at the beginning and end of practice, the gaikokujin (foreigners) sit separately from the Tokai students. The students form a line and the foreigners sit perpendicular to the students. However, today I was told by one of the teachers that from now on, I am to sit among the Tokai students. I get to sit with the second-year students. I feel honored. It's not easy to enter the judo club's inner circle. My dad warned me that I might always be considered separate from the students even though I'm following the same regimen. But now, I've taken one step closer to being part of the team.
It really helps that I'm learning Japanese. Every day, I can speak a little more and understand a little more. Compared to the other foreigners who come to practice, I can interact with the judo girls. We talk after practice or I teach them how to do back handsprings. Slowly but surely, a sense of camaraderie has formed between me and the girls. They might not tell me everything and I don't understand everything yet, but they consider me their friend and fellow teammate.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
10 things I miss from Canada
1. My family
2. The friends and people I'm used to having in my daily life (teammates, classmates, trainers, coaches, etc)
3. Certain food products which I can't find in Japan (for example, oatmeal, sour cream, chocolate milk)
4. My mom's delicious cooking
5. My piano (the piano here is not tuned...)
6. Being able to take the car to go somewhere instead of having to bike or take crowded trains
7. Having everything handy in the pantry or fridge whenever I want to cook something
8. The space
9. Handpaper (about 99% of the time, there is no handpaper in washrooms in Japan)
10. Some free time (I used to think I didn't have any free time back in Canada but compared to now, I actually had plenty of spare time to draw, read, etc.)
2. The friends and people I'm used to having in my daily life (teammates, classmates, trainers, coaches, etc)
3. Certain food products which I can't find in Japan (for example, oatmeal, sour cream, chocolate milk)
4. My mom's delicious cooking
5. My piano (the piano here is not tuned...)
6. Being able to take the car to go somewhere instead of having to bike or take crowded trains
7. Having everything handy in the pantry or fridge whenever I want to cook something
8. The space
9. Handpaper (about 99% of the time, there is no handpaper in washrooms in Japan)
10. Some free time (I used to think I didn't have any free time back in Canada but compared to now, I actually had plenty of spare time to draw, read, etc.)
Kendo
The other day, all the international students had the opportunity to try either judo or kendo. Of course, since I do judo every day, I opted for kendo. The kendo club trains in the same place as judo so I often watch them practice and it's quite interesting to watch.
After watching the students practice a bit, we were taught how to hold the sword (shinai) correctly. Whether you're right or left-handed, the right hand is always the upper hand. Then we learned how to step and strike the head. I don't understand all the rules but from what I understood, there are four areas where you can strike to obtain points. Men (the top or sides of the head), Kote (the padding on the left or right wrist), Do (on the opponent's right or left side of the armour that protects their torso), and Tsuki (on the side of the neck).
Then, during third period, some of the students took it upon themselves to celebrate one our classmate's birthday. One of them went to the store and brought back some beverages and a cake. It was a bit funny because nobody had notified the teacher beforehand. And the teacher that day is the strictest one out of our teachers. But surprisingly she went with it. So we got to eat some cake and sing Happy Birthday in about four different languages.
After watching the students practice a bit, we were taught how to hold the sword (shinai) correctly. Whether you're right or left-handed, the right hand is always the upper hand. Then we learned how to step and strike the head. I don't understand all the rules but from what I understood, there are four areas where you can strike to obtain points. Men (the top or sides of the head), Kote (the padding on the left or right wrist), Do (on the opponent's right or left side of the armour that protects their torso), and Tsuki (on the side of the neck).
Then, during third period, some of the students took it upon themselves to celebrate one our classmate's birthday. One of them went to the store and brought back some beverages and a cake. It was a bit funny because nobody had notified the teacher beforehand. And the teacher that day is the strictest one out of our teachers. But surprisingly she went with it. So we got to eat some cake and sing Happy Birthday in about four different languages.
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| The birthday girl, Minji (from Korea) |
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.
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.
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.
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| Taking a little rest between matches : p |
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| 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.
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| My patch for Korea |
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
I'm back... back again
The only reason I'm able to write in my blog today is because tomorrow's test has been moved to Thursday. So even though I'll be studying tonight, I'm able to spare a little time to get you all up to date. : )
My trip to Korea was a really good experience. It's probably one of the shortest flights I've ever taken: a 2 hour and a half flight to Seoul, and then a 1 hour flight to Jeju Island. And it's the first trip I've done where I didn't need to adjust the time on my watch because Japan and Korea are in the same time zone. That's not to say the trip was easy. In Japan, nothing is really easy.
To get to the airport on Wednesday morning, I rode to the station on my bike, with my backpack in the front basket and my huge judo bag on my shoulders. From there, I took a train to Hon-Atsugi. I met my grandaunt at the platform and together we took a one hour bus ride to Haneda Airport.
Then, arriving in Seoul, Korea, I went to check in my baggage for my connecting flight only to be told I had to take a bus to get to the domestic terminal. In Winnipeg, there is only one terminal, and the one terminal we have is smaller than the domestic terminal in Seoul. Anyhow, thank goodness airport layouts are fairly the same in any country so I was able to find my gate without any problem.
I arrive in Jeju... and it's raining. In fact, it rained every day we were there.
The competition went well. I lost my first and only fight to Concepcion Bellorin from Spain, currently ranked 17th in the world. But I'm happy with my performance. Until the last 30 seconds of the fight, there was no score. In the last 30 seconds, she managed to throw for a yuko score and then pinned me for 25 seconds for the ippon.
In the past, at this level of competition, I usually felt a big difference in skill level between my opponents and me. This time however, I barely felt that. I felt like I belonged there. For sure, I still need to work a lot more on my gripping and my positioning to enter for throws. But I felt good out there. And I wasn't even tired! Since I've been in Japan, we've been doing rounds after rounds of randoris without any break in between so I feel like my stamina has really improved since my arrival here. So it definitely helped me in the fight because I didn't even have to think about being exhausted.
Korea is an interesting country. In many ways, I felt like I was in Japan. It rained every day. The ingredients used in their cuisine are quite similar to Japanese food. They have little convenience stores at almost every street corner. Lots of shop names are also written in Japanese characters. And of course, everyone has Asian facial features. But I found the Koreans to be a bit more rude than Japanese. When we landed in Korea, instead of waiting their turn to get off the plane, everyone just stood up and started shoving each other to exit the plane as quickly as possible. And for me, personally, I find Korean a bit hard on the ears. After listening to it for a while, my head hurts and I just want to cover my ears. I'm not sure why. Maybe because certain words have harsher pronunciations compared to Japanese where syllables seem to melt together.
Now I'm back in school and back into my routine. At Tokai University now, there are many athletes from other countries who are there to prepare for the upcoming tournament this weekend, Grand Slam. I'll be going to watch the tournament on Saturday and Sunday. My teachers aren't too impressed with me missing classes. They don't think judo is a valid enough reason. Well... too bad. I'm going to see the tournament anyways. How many times in my life will I get to go see a competition of this caliber?
At the end of the month, I'll get to have a short break from classes and judo. I'll be going to spend some time with my Japanese family in Kyoto. I'm looking forward to it. I just learned today that we have judo on December 25th!!! Christmas Day!!! I couldn't believe it! lol Christmas in Japan is pretty much nonexistent. New Years is what really counts here. So, not only will I be spending Christmas Day alone in Japan, I'll also be doing judo that day. Sounds like fun ; )
My trip to Korea was a really good experience. It's probably one of the shortest flights I've ever taken: a 2 hour and a half flight to Seoul, and then a 1 hour flight to Jeju Island. And it's the first trip I've done where I didn't need to adjust the time on my watch because Japan and Korea are in the same time zone. That's not to say the trip was easy. In Japan, nothing is really easy.
To get to the airport on Wednesday morning, I rode to the station on my bike, with my backpack in the front basket and my huge judo bag on my shoulders. From there, I took a train to Hon-Atsugi. I met my grandaunt at the platform and together we took a one hour bus ride to Haneda Airport.
Then, arriving in Seoul, Korea, I went to check in my baggage for my connecting flight only to be told I had to take a bus to get to the domestic terminal. In Winnipeg, there is only one terminal, and the one terminal we have is smaller than the domestic terminal in Seoul. Anyhow, thank goodness airport layouts are fairly the same in any country so I was able to find my gate without any problem.
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| Airport in Seoul |
I arrive in Jeju... and it's raining. In fact, it rained every day we were there.
The competition went well. I lost my first and only fight to Concepcion Bellorin from Spain, currently ranked 17th in the world. But I'm happy with my performance. Until the last 30 seconds of the fight, there was no score. In the last 30 seconds, she managed to throw for a yuko score and then pinned me for 25 seconds for the ippon.
In the past, at this level of competition, I usually felt a big difference in skill level between my opponents and me. This time however, I barely felt that. I felt like I belonged there. For sure, I still need to work a lot more on my gripping and my positioning to enter for throws. But I felt good out there. And I wasn't even tired! Since I've been in Japan, we've been doing rounds after rounds of randoris without any break in between so I feel like my stamina has really improved since my arrival here. So it definitely helped me in the fight because I didn't even have to think about being exhausted.
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| The tournament site |
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| The beautiful ceiling |
Korea is an interesting country. In many ways, I felt like I was in Japan. It rained every day. The ingredients used in their cuisine are quite similar to Japanese food. They have little convenience stores at almost every street corner. Lots of shop names are also written in Japanese characters. And of course, everyone has Asian facial features. But I found the Koreans to be a bit more rude than Japanese. When we landed in Korea, instead of waiting their turn to get off the plane, everyone just stood up and started shoving each other to exit the plane as quickly as possible. And for me, personally, I find Korean a bit hard on the ears. After listening to it for a while, my head hurts and I just want to cover my ears. I'm not sure why. Maybe because certain words have harsher pronunciations compared to Japanese where syllables seem to melt together.
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| The streets in front of our hotel |
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| A familiar landmark : p |
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| Our hotel |
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| Jeju: I was surprised by how commercial Jeju Island is. Along the streets, that's almost all there was, store after store, selling popular brand name products. |
Now I'm back in school and back into my routine. At Tokai University now, there are many athletes from other countries who are there to prepare for the upcoming tournament this weekend, Grand Slam. I'll be going to watch the tournament on Saturday and Sunday. My teachers aren't too impressed with me missing classes. They don't think judo is a valid enough reason. Well... too bad. I'm going to see the tournament anyways. How many times in my life will I get to go see a competition of this caliber?
At the end of the month, I'll get to have a short break from classes and judo. I'll be going to spend some time with my Japanese family in Kyoto. I'm looking forward to it. I just learned today that we have judo on December 25th!!! Christmas Day!!! I couldn't believe it! lol Christmas in Japan is pretty much nonexistent. New Years is what really counts here. So, not only will I be spending Christmas Day alone in Japan, I'll also be doing judo that day. Sounds like fun ; )
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Off to Korea
I'm flying to Korea tomorrow morning for a judo competition. The tournament will take place on Jeju island, located south of Korea. I'm going to meet my grandaunt at the train platform in Hon-Atsugi, and from there, we'll take the bus together to go to Haneda Airport.
I've just finished packing. I think this is the fastest I've ever packed! lol Maybe because instead of having all my things scattered around my house in Canada, they're all scattered in one room. So I'm all set to go.
My goal for Jeju is to fight to the best of my abilities. That may seem easy... but it's not. In judo, unlike a marathon, or a 100m sprint, where you're only fighting against yourself, you're fighting against an opponent. Therefore, you can't predict how a match will go. You have to have an open mind and be ready for whatever comes your way.
Lately, practices have been hard. I'm not throwing as much as I would like to. I'm not committing to throws and so I get countered easily, which doesn't help my confidence. Judo is really a hard sport. It's even harder here, away from all the coaches who usually help me out at practice, pointing out certain mistakes I'm doing or giving out advice.
But I still have some coaches who are helping me all the way from Canada. I'm sending out a special thanks to a couple of people (you know who you are) who have given me great advice. It's helped me a lot to stay focused and to keep going, even though I've taken I don't know how many falls already.
Time to go to sleep now. I'll post competition results and pictures from Korea as soon as I get the chance. Oyasumi!
I've just finished packing. I think this is the fastest I've ever packed! lol Maybe because instead of having all my things scattered around my house in Canada, they're all scattered in one room. So I'm all set to go.
My goal for Jeju is to fight to the best of my abilities. That may seem easy... but it's not. In judo, unlike a marathon, or a 100m sprint, where you're only fighting against yourself, you're fighting against an opponent. Therefore, you can't predict how a match will go. You have to have an open mind and be ready for whatever comes your way.
Lately, practices have been hard. I'm not throwing as much as I would like to. I'm not committing to throws and so I get countered easily, which doesn't help my confidence. Judo is really a hard sport. It's even harder here, away from all the coaches who usually help me out at practice, pointing out certain mistakes I'm doing or giving out advice.
But I still have some coaches who are helping me all the way from Canada. I'm sending out a special thanks to a couple of people (you know who you are) who have given me great advice. It's helped me a lot to stay focused and to keep going, even though I've taken I don't know how many falls already.
Time to go to sleep now. I'll post competition results and pictures from Korea as soon as I get the chance. Oyasumi!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
7A class pictures
Took some pictures of my Japanese class the other day... okay, in fact, it was a while ago but I haven't had time to upload them. Here they are.
It's so cold now in Japan. Everyone gasps in shock when I tell them that we get -45 degrees in Canada but personally, I feel just as cold in Japan's current 12 degree temperature. In class, I wear my parka and my tuque. I really look like a Canadian ; )
However, they also have some really warm spots as well. Yesterday, along with three other international students, we went to a sentou. It's pretty much exactly like an onsen (a hot spring) except that the sentou is not natural. I don't care if it's natural or not, it's great for relaxing muscles after training hard all week. And it's only about 10 minutes away from our residence so I'll be going quite often I think. : )
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| the girls of the class (representing Canada, Korea, Thailand and America) |
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| Two Libyans of our class (there are 6 in total): Youssef (left) and Mohamed |
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| Faraju and Isumairu (both from Libya) |
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| From left: Ahamedo (Libya), Ed (China), Busaisa (Libya) |
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| Our entire class (missing Youssef who is taking the picture I believe) |
However, they also have some really warm spots as well. Yesterday, along with three other international students, we went to a sentou. It's pretty much exactly like an onsen (a hot spring) except that the sentou is not natural. I don't care if it's natural or not, it's great for relaxing muscles after training hard all week. And it's only about 10 minutes away from our residence so I'll be going quite often I think. : )
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