First training day

We got up  early, meditated and hit the shower, we wanted to make for noda and find some breakfast there. We bought some ‘Anman’ kind of bread with soya bean paste stuffing inside.
Not bad but not really substantial enough to last two trainings. That’s one of the factors that let us to decide we would skip the second training and go for some shopping and lunch closeby.

We came by the tabi shop and bought us some tabi-socks. They had all kind of sizes indoor and outdoor tabi, socks, kyahan, teko and paraphernalia. Then we let our stomach guide us and magically we suddenly found ourselves in front of soke’s old residence. He himself lives in the countryside now. As we walked on, we came to a little dining and we couldn’t figure out if it was closed or open, because there was only a sign in Kanji.

Don’t just walk in anywhere, because many shopowners will leave their door unlocked while they are actually taking a break. They won’t tell you they are closed but you’ll notice when you’re staring at the prularia and suddenly the lights go on and you realise that it indeed was kind of dark inside,… awkward to say the least.

While we tried to prevent another one of these mishaps, someone finallay came out so we could safely enter the dining and have some nice dish. I took noodlesoup like usual and Diana took a rice dish.

After a nice meal we headed back for the station and came across a little shop with a little older woman inside. She was on to us; when we looked in, she stood up and opened the door and invited us in. We couldn’t decline. We even felt obliged to buy a little something and we did. Then she revealed that she was actually a kunoichi by identifying us as students of Hatsumi. She explained that Budo is not only about the body but moreover about the kokoro (heart). This experience shows how intricate things are connected through and with and around the theme of the year, (Seinô, Tamashii, & Utsuwa)

Then we headed for the ryokan, but while transferring at Kashiwa station we decided to take a look around. This led us to the kashiwa hotel where I stayed last time. Then we wondered if our fellow buyu from Ghent would be interrested in going for a drink, since we didn’t see them on training. (they had a hangover)

After a short meeting in starbucks café at kashiwa plaza, we headed back to the ryokan and were planning on doing a laundry and visiting the sento hot-tub, but we underestimated the jet-lagging AGAIN and fell sound asleep and woke up at twelve,…

AGAIN we had to scramble for food in the stupid udon shop. Okay we did first search around for something better, but ended up asking for a vegetarian dish in “the pork shop”! So no more subtle little hints for us this late at night I guess. We where at the WRONG place, at the WRONG time. Hellooo! Could it get any more obvious than this!?

Hopefully there’s going to be a better devine intervention tomorrow. Concerning food as well as the sento. After a whole lot a hassle with uploading today’s photo’s onto flickr and writing this blog-entry; it’s five-thirty in the morning. We’re going to sleep now.