Irasshai: June 2007

these anti smoking ads crack me up

well, it's been a bit of a stressful week, what can i say. after 3 great years with my BOE the whole staff has changed this year and they really haven't got a clue. which makes the leaving process rather difficult. and it's a little difficult and frustrating to iron out the wrinkles of certain (very important!) issues with such a language barrier. anyway.
other than that things are good. i've been taking the afternoon's off a lot when i don't have classes. i've also been fairly busy at school as well which means not a lot of days spent gazing at the pc screen at my desk.
i booked my flight home and that was a bit of a wake up call. it suddenly seems slightly more real now that i have a count down. my apartment is looking more and more bare as i strip the walls and pack stuff away.
i'm back kickboxing at full throttle, also trying to go on tuesday nights (as well as thursdays and saturdays) if i can. i've realized that it is the one thing in japan that i am going to miss the most (besides my friends of course...). it's the one thing i've done by myself for myself. i love everyone at the gym so much and i enjoy working out there so much...and i worry about finding a good gym in toronto. i kinda feel that in canada kickboxing is more about a cardio aerobic workout than it is a martial art...and i don't want to go to some gym where it's like a tae-bo class.

yokoyama san is a pro brazillian jiu jitsu fighter

shushu fight in niigata

last night i went to a shushu club fight at a seedy night club in the city. shushu is kind of like a mixed martial arts events and there were a couple of guys competing from my kboxing gym, as well as lots of guys from there going to watch so i went to check it out. it was really really fun - the crowd sat around the dance floor where they had mats spread out. it was done really pro-style with a scare announcer, refs, tv screens showcasing the fighters etc. the fighting was very crowd-pleasing, including a 2-against 2 tag-team, and break dancers during the intermission to keep the crowd happy.

that looks a little painful

after the last fight

me, yuusuke and kazeta (my instructor)

giant priest

it's impossible even with photos

to accurately portray the massive size of this giant priest.

apparently a farmer had it built to keep watch and bless his crops. from the beach you can see it for miles and miles. in the summer time it's open for people to go inside and up to the head and look out on the rice fields and ocean.

the transformation...

bike ride yesterday afternoon...

bbq at masa's

so sunday masa had invited us over for a bbq at his place. i knew he lived in asahi mura but i didn't really know anything beyond that. he met us at the jusco in murakami (me, jon, kazuya, miho, minako, kat, kate, anna) and we followed him into and through asahi mura. we drove through the tall cedars until we got to a suspension bridge over a big river/gorge. across the bridge was his house - a log house built by his father! it was amazing! and behind the house were rice fields and mountains and tall cedar trees. it was sooo beautiful and the coolest house i've seen in japan! his parents were wonderful and had all this food for us to grill on the fire out back. his friend nori even came with fresh oysters he had caught that morning from sasagawa nara (sp?) beach. after we sat around eating for a few hours, his dad brought us around to the other side of the river and showed us how to chop firewood (jon was a star..). you should have seen the looks we got from the people driving past as a large group of gaigins were chopping wood in asahi mura! after we went down to the river and had stone-skimming competitions - and kaz went for a "swim".

niigata sunsets...i'll miss you.

bbq pics

inside the house

coming across the bridge to the house

ottosan grilling oysters

under the bridge to the house

chopping wood

saturday night

after we got back from awashima on saturday we went to a shrine in murakami which is right beside the ocean and when the tide comes in the path gets submerged and you get stuck out there.