Tuesday 25th December - It's Christmas !!!!!

Christmas day in Tokyo - did not know what to expect to be honest !

It's a sunny day - 10 degrees and business as usual in Tokyo. People head off to work and school like any other day and I head off to the dojo to train with Inada Sensei!

Well after a three day break it was a difficult one to motivate myself to get back to the dojo and it felt weird training Xmas day. Normally I would be bugging the life out the family to get outta bed to open the pressie's, dad to make a few bacon rolls and crack open a beer whilst in my PJ' s rough from the night before.

Inada Sensei' s class started with 10 gyakizuki's slow then 30 to the count full speed both sides, then maigeri' s 10 slow then 30 to the count full speed both legs kizamizuki- gyakizuki 5 to count then 20 to the count full speed both sides and finally kizamimaegeri - Maigeri back again 10 slow then 20 full speed to the count each leg.
We then done khion up and down the dojo to the count of five followed by Gohon Kumite - jodan tsuki, chudan tsuki, maigeri and mawashegeri full speed with three different partners.
Okamoto Sensei then took the next part of the class where we did all the heian katas and tekki- shodan each one time to the count then one time full speed! Okomoto Sensei then asked me to choose any kata - I choose tekki- sandan and we done the kata 6 times to the count focusing on techniques and timing - great class to kick of the week.

Headed back to my apartment to open the Xmas pressies I had with me as most I had opened before I left at the end of November.




Xmas Cards and Pressies

Deceided to just chill out today and catch an extra session at the dojo so after some nice noodles for Christmas lunch/dinner then it was of to the dojo for the 6pm class.

Xmas Dinner

Matuse Sensei taught the 6pm class where we started with 40 gyakizukis each side then 40 mai geris each side followed by uraken to the left and right side alternating to the count of 50. We then moved on to focus on katas for the rest of the class doing all the heian katas to the count several times - Matsue Sensei asking the kids after each kata to explain the application to the parts of the katas. We then done all 5 Heian katas one after the other without stopping full speed. We finished the class with 50 push ups, 50 sit ups and then 50 back extensions.

The 7pm class was also taught by Matsue Sensei we started the class doing 10 slow followed by 30 full speed of each of the following techniques:

Elbow strikes up, then back then forward and to the side
Uraken strikes to the left and right side alternating
Shoto strikes forward
Hito strikes forward
Gyakuzi on the spot
Gyakizuki with rotating upper body

We then moved on to practice bassidai and bassisho where we done the katas to the count several times discussing the application of some parts of the katas.

We finished the class with gohon kumite - jodan tzuki, chudan tzuki, maigeri and mawashegeri then the same Jiyu kumite followed by any five hand attacks jodan, then chudan, then any five leg attacks chudan then jodan.

I headed back to my apartment to call home to the family and wish them a Merry Christmas !!