Visible from the heights..

私はまだ時差ぼけに苦しんでいます。

Perhaps Japan is the only country where you can buy cucumbers, kimchi and condoms and not get bombarded with weird looks and asked never to come back to the store you are purchasing the said items from.

The cucumbers I am using with the kimchi for culturing… quick pickle (haha) the cucumbers with salt, a pinch of sugar and a pinch of seasoning. Slice the cucumbers up, put them and seasoning in a ziplock bag. Shake like Ali. After a few hours there should be a lot of water in the bag, drain and repeat. After about two days, you have psuedo-pickled cucumbers. (Theory is the salt pulls the water out and helps dry.. and of course, this doesn’t take a month or two like normal japanese pickling.)

Mix with the kimchi and let it sit for another day, and a bit of ponzu or vinegar to aid in flavor. Pretty delicious and easy to make. Supposed to be fairly healthy also… Just have to wait now..

Since I wasn’t enjoying(learning much at) honbu, I decided to expand my budo knowledge. I have visited a local K1-Pride brazilian jujutsu dojo, and the guys and training were fabulous. But, the cost was 150$ a month plus a 200$ registration fee.

Since I am not a serious fighter and am doing this more for my own personal development, I decided to check out the roots of brazilian jujutsu, judo. Being the home for Judo is in Tokyo, I thought what a great chance it would be… wrong. Kodokan’s classes are from 5:30 to 7:00. Who the hell can make that? How farkin’ stupid.

Anyways, it turns out that there is a Judo dojo about 15 minutes by bike from my apartment, in Koenji. It also turns out this dojo is 70 years old and the founder taught judo to O’Sensei. Win-Win.  Yet even better, one of the ranking teachers speaks english and coached the olympic team in both america and italy a few years ago. Even better classes start at 8. Only down side is, one night is friday.

I had to listen to a spiel about how mediocre aikido was etc etc and how much the ukemi is weak and waza etc etc. On the second day of class, I was doing the judo ukemi and throwing them around, so I started rondori practice. That is quite fun, and it is great to be thrown when you think you are in control of the situation.

So, two days a week I am doing judo and two days a weeks I am doing aikido.
Fun so far, cannot wait to do some newaza.

小降り 【こぶり】 (n) light rain; drizzle
渋い 【しぶい】 (adj) (1) tasteful (clothing); cool; an aura of refined masculinity; (2) astringent; sullen; bitter (taste)
残念無念 【ざんねんむねん】 (n,adj-na) bitter disappointment
* like with friends
労力 【ろうりょく】 (n) labour; labor; effort; toil; trouble