Day 13 – The end of our days
As last night I wrote until deep in the morning, we had already decided we wouldn’t go to Shiraishi’s class. Since our traveltime is 70 min to the Honbu and his training starts at nine, we would have to get up at six in the morning. This meant one hour of sleep for me. Not a good idear.
Woke up at eleven, left at one for Nagato’s class at two thirty. We enjoyed our very last training with him, but didn’t ask for a picture. I could go on for a while longer, but Diana’s back and knees, and arm and head and nose and toes are disintegrating.
So after class we went to buy some stuff for you folks back home, which will be for sale on the webshop. There is going to be a little surprize this friday so make sure you are ALL there to be a part of it.
After Coco’s dinner (again), we are really fed up with the pizza’s, the noodles, the sushi’s and we really long for a good PAKSKE FRIET MET WARME CURRY EN MAYONAISE !!!!
Back in the ryokan, we’re packing our bags and I’m writing the last blog post of this exiting trip. Here a few words of thanks are certainly apropriate! I thank you all for the support and comments. A special thanks goes to lady Dee; because if it wouldn’t have been with her, I would have probably been running around Japan like a chicken without a head.
Diana Dhont & Tamouree Jordan, signing off.
Impressions on Video
Don’t copy me! Because you guys probably will get busted !!!
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutionsFor crying out loud: who on earth has a waterfall on their wall? ONLY the Japanese !!!
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutionsThe Shibuya crossing is one of Tokyo’s calmest crossings, here at least, you can still see the zebra path, or maybe not,….
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutionsDay 12 – Last training with Soke
We woke up very late and ate a pasta and a pizza as breakfast. By the time we were finished it was already shimering. We took the train to Ayase and went by the budoshop to buy some belts and to have them embroidered with our names. I’m not very satisfied with the result on my belt, but it’s the best they could do for a reasonable price. We were the firsts to enter the shop before the rest came in fifteen minutes later,…to embroider their belts. Lucky us, because it takes about 20 minutes per belt.
When we walked towards Ayase, we noticed some stray cats sitting in the evening light on a raised plateau, we have some footage of it, check it out. We went in and prepared for training.
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutions
As said, a lot of your experience in Japan, depends on whom you train with. Every time you go to Japan, you meet old friends, and make new ones. Two days ago, when we went to Coco’s dinner, we met some intresting people and we had a nice chat. One of them was Ricardo, from Spain. Today I saw Ricardo again, so we trained together.
This was a nice experience, it’s always a joy to train with people who know how they aproximately would react in a real fight. So I got a lot of good training again.
Diana trained with Shiraishi Sensei for a while, until Dino would be there, he came in a while later so she changed partner and trained with Nadine, Dino’s girlfriend.
Darren had chosen ten people on Soke’s command to show the technique which we were practicing. Ricardo and me got to show our’s. It’s always an honor to perform in front of Soke. I can really feel that I am hyperfocused and then again also super-relaxed.
Trainings come to an end, sometimes too soon. The ones with Soke end always too soon. As he closed the class, he spoke his grace towards us, who made the bujinkan grow and encouraged us to keep on training and to continue on the same path.
After class we politely asked for a last picture. This was actually our only chance to say goodbye to him. It’s probably going to be a while before we see him again. But we got a whole lot of transmissions from him and those will last our whole lives.
Day 11 – Strange Days
Last night after Sokes class, we went to the Onsen again. There’s a huge difference between an onsen and a sento. A sento is more of a bath house where people come to wash themselves. The water is just tapwater that gets recycled all the time, sometimes with some ingredients added. An Onsen however is the real thing: this is pumped up water from a source deep down in the earth, full of rich natural minerals and the hot temperature is because it stems from deep under the ground.
It’s important to let your body have the necesary rest. If you don’t do this, the chances of ending up injured raise consideberaly. It’s important to keep your mind fresh. So sleep enough if you can. Some people take a few days off training and than instead of relaxing, they go hiking through the whole country instead. We just had a long sleep and when we finally got up, we finally did our laundry. I was looking forward to a fresh t-shirt and my raincoat was reeking so much that even the Japanese on the train got up to sit somewhere else,.. so it was time indeed. After, we went to Asakusa again. We had nice conveyer belt sushi in the evening and then left for the ryokan.
In Japan, you see all kinds of ingenious inventions applicated in real life. This makes Japanese society very unique in a way. Who else has a waterfall on the sidewall of a hotel? Who else has mirrors in the front of their cars? Who else has a green line on the floor to wait behind it in line on the next train? Or left on the stairways is just standing, and rigth the passing through and upholds those rules? Who else has a GPS for pedestrians on their cellphone? Who else wears mouth masks to protect others from their germs. (The germs will escape on the sides of the mask anyway, but hey: it’s the gesture that counts I guess?) Who else has an umbrella parking where you can lock it until you need it again? Or what about a heated toilet seat with a build in bidet (with different options) and even a sound button for covering up your toilet sounds with flushing sounds. These are just a few of the miriad things that make your experience of the Japanese society very strange.
The Japanese are a strange kind of people indeed. We could never begin to imagine that people could have jobs like singnaling oncoming pedestrians. Or calling the train that leaves and arives, or the liftlady that explains in a few words what you can buy on every floor. In EVERY metro and trainstation, there are people employed to sell tickets, to check tickets, to be there for the travellers if they need any assistance. We saw workers on the street buzy with fixing a fence that wasn’t broken in the first place, okay; I always give both people and things the benefit of the doubt, but the next two days we saw the same worker sitting in fudosa on the street, ocasionally hammering the fence once or twice. Most of these street workers are old men, you’d think they are retired but apparently not,…
Despite all these efforts, there are still numerous people living their lives out on the streets. They gather together in the evening (I guess it’s for safety and comfort) to put up their cartboard boxes. In there they spend the nights. To see people having difficult lives is always hard to see and we can only be greatfull for all the chances that we got and opportunities that we took. Opportunists as we are. Where we see openings we hit the right spot. Even here you can draw parallels to your taijutsu. It’s a lifesaver!
Day 10 – Judgement day
If you go to Japan, you have a chance to train with other people. Unless you are injured and need to rest your body, it’s best if you train with your partner whom you can trust because he/she knows you very well. But If you’re not tired and feel fine, if your are not sick or injured then train with other people when you’re abroad! Preferably, you should try and train with a higher grade (level) than you. (in as far as grade reflects level but that’s an entirely other story), or at least someone who has the same level. I tend towards the higher ranking grades, because they’ll progress you faster and point out your mistakes sooner.
Today I trained with Darren Horvath, he is huge! When he steps on your toki, you feel your foot getting crushed and then he’s still only using his big toe, hehehe! I really like the difficult partners. You can’t use brute strenght on them, because that will only beget you more violence than you wish for. So you have to be smart and adapt to their body’s in the best way possible. But adapting to someone is not always possible because your two body’s are just not compatible nor complementary sometimes.
This is where things like technique and skill will come in play. Also distance, balance, timing, rythm and the way of when and how you apply them (strategy). But there’s also a limit to this. Strenght, speed and precision, are also important factors. Together with technique and skill (experience through training and/or real fights) will make someone invincible. If you increase one of these factors, it balances out one of the others. The odds of meeting someone who has all traits in huge abundance are relatively small. But in a dojo, the chances of this are radically higher when you train with higher grades. At this level, it’s hard to adapt even for a skilled warrior like me! There is always room for improvement, no matter at wich level you are. Chance comes into play, and one must make his own fortune, but that’s another story.
After Oguri sensei’s class, there was Soke’s class. I trained with Diana and we even got chosen to show our technique to class. That’s always exciting and exhilirating, but it has not always been this way. In the past I used to freeze up when there were people watching, but I came a long way and learned how to relax and just to be in the moment of ‘now’. The word ‘zanchin’ comes to mind. Generally, people have a short attention span, typically not exceeding ninety minutes, but you should train this to last longer: it has been known about Takamatsu sensei that he once fought for a few days in a row! Imagine yourself!
Soke said a whole lot of things, which are too many to touch upon in this post, but I’ll give you my interpretation of class. What we learn contains a whole range of other things. A technique contains many different layers and many possibilities are the outcome. You might even have hidden weapons or not, all depending on how much kyôjutsu you apply. Strategy is a very important aspect of ninjutsu. If this sounds vague, then know that the Japanese language is a very rich one, which encompasses many meanings with the same words. Even those with a thorough knowlegde of Japanese are often looking for comparisons that don’t exist.
Given this and the fact that Soke is not always so clearly ‘showing’ what just happened (when his uke is already down on the ground, suffering in pain and agony) it must become increasingly clear to you, that ‘transmission’ is not always a clearly outlined and structured path for you to copy and paste. Which by the way he doesn’t encourage because he always says: don’t try to copy me, try to remember the feeling of it.
At this point you should know that there is a funny thing about the human brain: it will tend to fill in the gaps itself. So in fact these gaps are your unique experience of the technique, and because everybody will have a differing understanding; every-body is behaving and moving in a different way. Although similar in a way, but not the same.
So it’s not only the physical part that I’m speaking about. I myself tend to lend scientific explanations and couple them with philosofical ones to draw paralelles between the physical and the metaphysical: It’s like the body is like a root. The more ‘techniques’ and ‘experience’ you have, the more you can adapt to the circumstances (environment) in wich you are planted. Your brain is like the top part of the plant that’s sticking out of the ground. The spirit is more like the interaction that the plant does, as this is the way of the plant: he has a role and it’s a part of a bigger cycle and ecosystem in which everything is connected. In return the plant gets what it needs to survive and thrive, depending on the quality of the soil (the basics), the amount of sunlight and water (your nurishment; the training). If there’s a slight windy gusp (an attack), you don’t get pulled out by it imediately because of your thorough rooting.
But words and actions are not sufficient enough to completely convey the exact thoughts and feelings that you have. Together they give an idear but nothing more.
Feelings tend to be hollistic, thoughts are rather rational. Together they form the make-up of your mind. But where do your thoughts and feelings stemm from? They stemm from something else. Some awareness that surpasses thought or consciousness. It’s this that is a challenging thought for people. Because here we are on the quantum level of thought where thinking conciously about something will change reality and in turn the way you act on it.
At this stage it’s a funny thing to know, that we have more nerves leading from the brain towards our senses than from our senses towards the brain. This means that we are conceptually designed in such a way that we actually have concious control over what information we want to percieve (choice) from our senses. That’s why we easely tend to pass judgement on wether we like the things we see or hear. We continiously conceptualize reality by rationalising it and passing judgment. So it’s your own interpretation and perception that interacts with your conciousness. But this is not per definition reality as it is.
The trick is not to think, not to think to perceive, stop rationalising, let things be, become peacefull and calm inside and project nothing. you’re like a dark mirror: the light shines in, but does not reflect. To put it in taijutsu: Uke acts, and because of this you have choices, but you don’t fall into the trap of his choises, instead you leave all options open and because of this you can move freely. Could this be ninpô?
Day 9 – Take your mind off things
The days have not been passing by indifferently. At home two weeks would have been over a long time ago, but not here. Here, day after day, you are bombarded with a continuous stream of new impressions with which to cope. Today I got my share again.
We ate early and took the train to Noda. Today the stationary shop was open so we finally could buy some scrolls there. I trained with Dino, from Germany. So training was very good and fluid. Diana however got an injury from her partner because she was thrown badly and fell with her knee on her elbow. Her whole arm got bruised and according to Oguri sensei it was the bone.
Due to this we had to skip the second training with Oguri sensei, but we both needed the neccesary break: my knees were hurting. So instead of training physically, we deciphered a Japanese stone that said: “this is the end of the world and the beginning of another” (lit: this signpost marks the boundary between the land and the waterway) Well done! Two hours of brain training on the side of the road, in the mellow springtime sun.
Japanese language is really a puzzle. There are levels, keys, hidden meanings, combinations and treasures to be found. I’m surprized that there still hasn’t been made a 3D strategy game to learn the language. My understanding of it is nihil, but with the help of a small pocketbook and a palmtop dictionary (which is a dinosaur compared to the level of today’s pocket computing) you will get by pretty well.
After dinner (sushi again) we finally went to an onsen we were looking for since a few days. Diana had looked one up on the internet that was not too far off. On the way, we stopped by the Shibuya station. There stands the statue of Hachiko the dog. It’s very famous because it was erected in honnor of Hachiko, a dog who’s loyalty streched beyound the life of it’s master. Together they would walk up the station where Hachiko would linger and wait the whole day until his master returned from his job. Then he would pick him up and walk his master home. One day his master did not return. Even after his death, Hachiko would fatefully walk up to the station and wait for him even in the badest of all weather conditions. After Hachiko’s death, they laid him beside his master.
Every man has his breaking point, you and I have them. Well, I had reached mine. I cried and tears biggled down my cheeks as I thought about my own dog and how much I missed him and how much he must miss me. Every one leaves something behind, but to return home, we can only go forward. I can only hope that after the initial burst of happiness, I can explain my dog that I was not death, just on a long journey and still then: that he doesn’t remain wrathful too long for the feelings that he had to endure.
The onsen turned out to be a good choice; they had multiple baths, a jaccuzi and even a sauna. Outside there was a mixed bath, but there you would have to wear swimsuits. The Japanese handle explicit things like sex and erotica in a very strange way. The girls walk around in enticing and attracting mini-skirts, some even complete with jackboots (kaplaarzen). It’s very tempting, but don’t touch!
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutionsAt the onsen, you would think it’s just like a mixed sauna, where no one is paying attention to the natural nakedness of the body, because your mind is not at the least bussy with these thoughts. But it’s not natural. Even here people can’t be themselves and they have to play along in the hyped up specialness of being naked, so you have to wear a bathing suit.
It’s like the Japanese are stuck in a victorian age. But hey, no offence: I guess that’s their way of keeping a calm and a clear mind you know. Persides: my knowledge about those subjects is far from determinded. And since I’m not fatalistic or deterministic I doubt wether I will ever come to a ‘final’ or ‘complete’ understanding of things.
Day 8 – Second training with Soke
The pile of laundry is still growing on us, we are nearly through our fresh tee-sha-tsu’s. If it weren’t for the exhaustion, we would simply wake up early, go to the laundry and then to basics training with Noguchi. But we didn’t, apparently. What we did instead was planning to go to the laundry instead of Noguchi’s, but we ended up, writing a post. These things also take up a lot of time. Especially in the nights.
If we would want to buy some kakejiku’s (hanging scrolls) and still make it to Soke’s class, we would have to leave early enough so that the shops would still be open in Noda. We got there on time and searched for the shop. We had both asked different people where the shop was and then combined our intel together: how about that for ninjutsu, ha!
We finally located the shop,….it was closed however. Luckily we had somewhat foreseen this when we were in Asakusa and had bought us some A3 drawingpaper. So the shop was closed, fine, how about some food instead? We looked around for some other place and eventually found a nice restaurant where we could eat a nice soup with meat. Only problem here: we are veggy’s! So we ended up in Coco’s again. There we met up with some of the other buyu’s from all around the globe. We ordered pizza again and in the meanwhile we witnessed the signs of an ongrowing epidemic of the stomach flu; as many of the buyu’s crawld by in agony with their hands on their stomach and flailing their tongues and eyes. The toilet was a mess, even considering european standards.
Off to Soke’s class! Excitement sets in as the crowd gathers and they were many! (There are always a lot of people coming to soke’s class, so I guess we are one of the fewer people who actually try and train with some shihan too. We skipped some classes yeah,…too early for us meak body’s. The flesh is weak at seven in the morning sodesne? (especially when you write posts in the night, while you should be asleep).
Finally Soke come’s in and starts class. He spoke about a lot of things and concepts like that we have to learn how to lose and learn how to fight in a tight environment (like a battlefield, or just remember the ‘oh sooory’ shuriken in ninja’s head!) I could tell you what Soke said, but that doesn’t mean I can convey his meaning: that is what kuden is all about; oral transmission. You have to look at it from the right perspective: “out of first hand” so that the context is right for you. So remember when I speak about things that soke said; it’s always my own interpretation of it.
Soke’s trainings are more mental than physical. One of the factors is ofcourse that there are a lot of people training in the dojo. But in itself it’s just what he was stressing: you should not be affected by this. For myself it’s like the prime example of Buffu Ikan; the martial wind: When I’m training with a lot of people, it’s like there’s a typhoon going on and I am in the midst of it, in the eye of the storm. Yes, it’s a nice sensation, but don’t get carried away, sometimes you will bumb in to eachother at some time or another. So remember: when there’s no room to roll: then rock! (like on a ship)
After training we went straight home and fell asleep.
Day 7 – Kamakura Day
Three trainings in a row does make you tired. We had a good night sleep and I dreamed well. Although we took a long time to leave, we were not specifically in a hurry. It was a sightseeing day not a training day, sodesne?
After an hour on the train we arrived at Kamakura temple complex. When you travel with your pasmo card, you pay per distance. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a Tokyo Free Kippu (ticket), this will get you anywhere on the Tokyo metro, JR lines and subway. For the rest, pay cash or pasmo.
On the train you’re not suppose to use your phone and you have to turn the silent mode on. In the proximity of the curtesy seats you even have to switch it off! We figured that the Japanese at least acknowlegde the dangers of their network for comuters with baby’s and old people with pacemakers. For the rest of the train, silent mode: you nearly see every Japanese sms’ing or chatting so imagine what a noisy chaos it would become if they all would talk and try to raise above the chaos of the other people also shouting on their phone in such a close environment!
At the entrance of the temple we bought some good fortune and figured out that we should wash our hands before we would go up the stairs.
I must say, it’s really impressive the beauty of it all. It’s kind of amazing to think that it was just a few hundred years ago that these temples were build. They are in such good shape that you can easely imagine that you’re way back into time. These temple complexes close at four o’clock so it’s nearly impossible to see them all; I guess we’ll have to come back sometime!
It was quite a change to be out of the the buzzy center town of Tokyo and to breath in fresh air. Just being amongst the trees and the bamboo brought a kind of inner rest and de-stresses the body. But not as good as an Onsen!
As we went on for the other temples in the neighbourhood we noticed a little shop on the other side of the village road. We went in with curiosity and came out with some nice things. We think we made a bargain, for those prices, you would wish that you had brought more money to spend on real nice stuff like these. I can’t understand why people buy plastic fake rubbish. It’s like buying a plastic toysword to practice kenjutsu with. There’s no authenticity in that.
Satisfied we walked down the street, took the train home. We went for a pizza and I ordered a big beer; I had failed to notice that a ‘pitcher’ (thats what they call them because Japanese love baseball) is a remarkable 1800cc ! Remarkable because the Japanese are notorious for being bad drinkers: they usually can’t take more than one good pint and they’re drunk. I didn’t expect to have such a Tamou beer but hey, it came in my size. The Japanese looked over their shoulders to see how a westerner bolsters this kind of exhiliration. They were visually surprized when I walked out straight and not zig-zagging.
We see drunk youth all the time. Often with their head preliminary and precausiously stuck in a plastic bag. You know: they might vomid and hoooo, then the street would get all messed up. We see that too, all dried up but it doesn’t stay long there, usually the next day, the street is clean again. We first tought that those kids were sniffing glue or something: but they’ll just overact: because that’s their culture. (Ofcourse: if you play sick, it doesn’t take long before your dinner is on the street sodesne?!) But when I first saw it, I was ready to jump in, and start a resucitation.
After we got home, unpacked our stuff, admired it and fell sound asleep.
Day 6 – Stepping Outside of Time
Today we got up very early, determinded to make up for some self induced bad experience. Early breakfast with some leftover bread, cheese,…then straight on to noda.
Relaxed by a good night’s sleep we entered the dojo. The first training was given by Shiraishi sensei. He is really stressing basics and the way in which he teaches is that he lets you show the technique again and again, each time taking another uke from the crowd. He explains a lot of the underlining principles and actually makes you feel like there really is nothing special to it. That it is really possible for anyone to learn good taijutsu which is just the ability to move naturally. I made a lot of notes.
After this training we went to eat in the little restaurant and although we tried to ask for a rice dish we ended up with exactly the same food we had had the first time: ramen (noodle soup). Still no scrolls though (kakejiku).
Back to Honbu for another training. Nagato Sensei this time. He picked a few people to show a technique and then let us perform it. Then he added some improvements and variations. After training we met up with my friend from Germany; Cavin. He invited us for dinner at Coco’s: this is a nice place where you can get european food, like pizza, french fries, spagetti and risotto. For a unit price you can drink as much as you like from the drink bar, where you can order soda, coke, fruitjuices, coffee or thee.
Then back for the third training with Noguchi Sensei. We really enjoyed this training. It was a sweaty one and went by very fast because we were not concious of time anymore and I really also have to thank Cavin for that. Training with another uke is really important for your devellopment. And quite frankly; you don’t come all the way to Japan just to train with your regular companion, do you? Although it can be safer sometimes, (because you won’t kill eachother), to have a soft training when your muscles are sore.
This day really was a fruitfull one. We forgot about time and yesterday’s experiences were forgotten in the midst of so many good tidings. Tired but satisfied we came home and fell into a deeeeeep and looooong sleeeeeeeeep!
Day 5 – Lost in Time
How ironic, I went to sleep with the impression that we’d adapted our biorythm. But we both woke up very LATE, with a headache and I had had a bad dream on top of it. Our plan was to go to Asakusa, so we did, but we first had a LATE breakfast.
We where going to the station and came upon the luminous idear to go by the one hundred yen shop. Because a visit to Japan is not complete without a visit to the one hundred yen shop and there is one very close by, at the station square right across the main street from where we are staying in the ryokan. So we lost some time here too.
When we bought our ticket we couldn’t enter the metro with it, so we went back to the ticket office. There we waited in a suddenly sprouted meandering line in front of the desk for ten minutes, before we realised that it was not the ticket that was the problem but we had tried to enter the wrong metro.
In Asakusa itself, we first had a snack,… My advice for you: NEVER go to eat in a Kentucky Fried Chiken (KFC), for you’ll get a measy little portion with the cheapest quality of ingredients for way too many yens! I was disapointed a little that I had made a bad judgement. Tamou, Tamou, you know the advertisement pictures are bollocks! I’m beginning to feel like Obelix who thinks with his stomach instead of his head, hahaha!
The temple complex itself is not hard to find, but we didn’t find it instantly, it takes some time before you can orientate yourself. Best is to do this before you walk down a street. When we arived at the Temple, there’s a whole alley towards the entrance that is literally paved with shops. All very close next to eachother. These shops are stuffed to the sealing with prullaria and paraphernalia of every kind. It seemed to me they had not thousands but millions of items all arranged in a way that you can see them. T-shirts, kimono’s, fake and qitch stuff like medals and statues, little keychains and sweets to name just a few.
Don’t get tempted too much. Because you’ll linger the whole hundred yards and be LATE for the temple, like us. Most temples close at four, that’s something we learned the hard way. The only thing still open were the drawers on the both sides of the entrance compound. You should take a waiver out of one of these drawers (after you deposited 100 yen in a box) and it’ll tell you wheter you have bad luck or good luck. If you have bad luck, you must fold the waiver and bind it to a rack next to the drawers, so that your bad luck can get blown away by the wind. We asked someone to transLATE our waivers and apparently we had the BEST OF LUCK you can draw from these boxes.
After some lingering and taking pictures of the surrounding statues we headed back for the busy streets. Determined on finding empty Kakejiku (for which we are searching for a few days now) we went into the information office. The two ladies there put soo much effort into it that they came up with not only one, but three different adresses where we could buy them. Time eliminated our choises as only the shopping center was still open. We got to the seventh floor but after asking it turned out that they didn’t sell any, we bought some paper instead.
Hunger was setting in so we decided on having a quick go in between in a conveyor belt sushi shop. Japanese style fast food. We took the next train and were running LATE, first we thought ten minutes, but it turned out to be a half an hour. We didn’t want to make a bad impression by being LATE for a training with Soke, so we regretfully and shamefully decided to turn around when we were suppose to transfer in Kashiwa.
We felt the full weight of gravity when we were fully realising that we had been running LATE the whole day. What an irony, even with the best of luck we could only blame ourselves for this lost day.
Day 4 – Recovery day & Training with Senou Sensei
Today we had planned to pay a visit to the town of Kamakura and training with Senou Sensei, but we were so tired that we slept very long and didn’t get up until noon. Thanks to that however I’m feeling a bit better and my system is beginning to adjust. We took a shower and had sushi for breakfast.
Then we headed for Suidobashi instead. There, we heared, were a couple of good martial arts shops. Well, we found two of them. In the first I bought a straigth bokken, in the second there were a lot of other nice things which we couldn’t afford, hehehe.
It’s really easy to underestimate the time you are underway in Tokyo, as we found out when we tried to make it to Duncan’s on sunday. So this time we really calculated more traveling time to get somewhere.
We left Suidobashi at around half past four to make it all the way to Kita-Matsudo. When we arrived at the station it was quarter past six. So we thought we had plenty of time to search for Senou’s dojo. We stopped by a supermarket to buy something to drink and we went straight onto the main road and looked for any markers that where advertised on the little map. We had a map with the dojo on it but apparently we still had difficulties with locating it. We went way past the street where we were suppose to turn in and ended up some two kilometers uphill in a strange parking lot and cosy Japanese homes around it.
In a spur of anger and frustration we headed back to the station. Ofcourse still searching for the right street to take. We eventually found it pretty close by the station and we were still on time to enjoy a nice training.
Training went on until nine and one minute. We left for home at around nine twenty and got there around half past eleven. So you see, don’t underestimate the traveling time if you have to find your way. Once you know your way, it takes a little bit less, but still.
We crashed instead of eating something, but we weren’t actually hungry.
Day 3 – Training with Soke!
We got up too late (eight thirty) and had to skip breakfast because of it. The first train would leave at nine thirteen and we had to hurry to make it to the training on time. We were running late and we missed the first train. Because of this we had some six minutes to get our transfer in Kashiwa, we used this time to search for a bakery and boy oh boy, what wonders will a little Japanese do for you! It’s actually very simple if you know the very basic structure of asking a question.: “ …….. wa dokko desu ka?” fill in anything you’re looking for and you’ll get a simple answer to a simple question: “bakery where is?” no, this is not a typo, this is the simple Japanese grammatical structure. The bakery in question is a big chain of shops and they sell all kinds of sweets, bread and nearly any other imaginable eatable thing that is made with flower.
Don’t eat on the train, actually, don’t eat anywhere in public! It’s considered rude,…but we had no choise. My stomach was already aching and my system drained from minerals and fluids after many visits to the little room, so it was time we had a decent breakfast, so we did. In Belgium we have this nice saying: “nood breekt wet” which translates aproximately like: in war and love, anything is allowed. If you keep it clean, nobody will notice but if you make a mess, people will eyeball you to death!
The dojo is not very far away from the station, so we made a little run for it. This was going to be a fat training, Soke was coming! There already were about sixty or seventy people inside, so we had to squise in a little bit. But the real fun here starts when they’re beginning to swing around with swords and bo’s!!!
When you go to train in Japan, you get to train with the very best shihan. These shihan are very good and skilled people. Not only that, they are evolved enough to get you to a higher level at a fast pace. It’s helpfull to ask yourself some basic questions and to reflect upon your experiences. This will improve your training and keep you grounded (in the sense of being in touch with common sense or you’ll get too carried away) It will change the way you percieve the teachings. Because we’re not studying merely techniques, these thechniques are just a means to get to the core of our existence.
As he transmits his kuden, Soke brings you in contact with this higher realm; the unspeakable and unexplainable. You are there in honbu, but at the same time, you’re somewhere else, at least: I am. Soke’s words are striking a chord with my thoughts. It’s a kind of being in synch with the universe. Distance, timing and rythm fall into place and you are moving like zero.
We have to learn how to forget, learn to get rid of things. You could think of yourself as a rocket, the more fuel you burn the more velocity you get and ultimatly being empty, reaching heaven where you are free of up or down, and left or right does not exist and is all a matter of interpretation what (your) direction is. But what goes up, can come down and that’s why basics are so important, before flying, you should first learn how to rol and breakfalling properly, hehehe
After a wonderfull experience with Soke, we had the honour of watching a vistior perform his arts of the ‘flying top’, as usual a picture is worth a thousand words, so imagine what this following video is worth!
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After training we roamed the neighbourhood and enjoyed the rest of our croissants and sweets in the afternoon sun. It kind of struck us how aware Japanese people are of their environment. The lids of manholes (sewer) are beautifully decorated with various nature themes, concrete buildings and steel structures blend in with nature without surpressing it. The streets are generally very clean and we even saw someone vacuuming the street. You don’t find any garbage bins however. The vendingmachines have a recycling bin next to it, but these are specifically meant for can’s.
After a long journey back, we realised we were not going to make it to Duncan Stewart’s training. We did make it to the sento however! A surprise awaited us when we got ‘home’. Mama San gave us two free tickets for the sento right down the street and her husband gave us a good tip on where to eat sushi! How about that for devine intervention?! 
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.
Settling in and finding our first meal
After an exhausting trip we finally made it to the ryokan, that’s a traditional Japanese ‘inn’. We made this choise very consciously because we really wanted to save some money and we both don’t like big hotels with lots of rooms that are too small to turn your arse.
Persides; a hotel has some very fundamental drawbacks with which you must recon, like there is a closing of the doors after a certain hour. Our ryokan doesn’t, which makes it perfect for the jetlagging experiences.
At a ryokan the ‘rules’ are basicly like they are at a family home. At the entrance hall you will find shoes at the side and on the higher leveled floor, house slippers. When you are welcomed by the lady of the house, please be nice and don’t turn your back to her while you take off your shoes. After you’ve put on some slippers you will be led to your room to be explained about the workings of the house.
Basic things to remember are; be carefull with your luggage when moving about; most walls are finished with paper which makes them easily damaged by hard things like your luggage or wet hands etc. In your room the floor is made out of tatami, which means you will need to leave your house slippers outside your door and don’t drag any luggage over the tatami.
First thing we did when we settled in at two a’clock, was sleeping. We planned to go to the sunto later on but we woke up at nine, too late to go out and search for one. Bummer!
We hit the shower and finally left for some food rampage at half past eleven. We found a little noodle-bar on the main street that was still open. They have a machine with all kinds of choices but since we’re veggy we didn’t want to take any chances and asked politely if there was any NIKU in it. (meat)
It’s sure a VERY neccesary thing to at least know some hiragana, this will allow you to read some basic information that can heed you from disaster.
There is also a special thing called the syncronous flow of alternate energy information wich you can pick up with your internal radar. You can call it intuition, coïncidence, god’s favors or whatever you like, but it comes down to be open enough to allow for it to guide you and you don’t have to ask yourself too much questions about it. Just being aware of this flow of things brings you the things you need when they are required or when they are bound to happen.
These experiences can range from anything like finding your way trough the city or stumbling on the right kind of cable for the adapter which is hidden away in a cupbord under the tv set. Thanks to this we could charge the computer so we could post to our blog.
Then we went to sleep for the first night on a futon.
The Arrival
About an hour before landing you get some papers to fill out on the plane. These are for customs so make sure you fill them out totally and correctly. In order to do this keep at close hand the address where you will be staying during your trip, your passport (you will need the number which is writtin on the first page; usually starting with EE or EG), you flight info; both coming and going.
When you’ve done this correctly you’ll have no problem going through both check points. First you’ll have to show everything to an immigration officer who will ask you to put your 2 index fingers on a scanner and pose for a picture which will ingeniously be cross checked with the digital version of your (chipped) passport.
After that you can go to the luggage pick up point to wait for your bags. Then you need the pass the last control point; customs. Kindly present your passport and filled in papers and put your bag on the table. Don’t start trying out your Japanese just yet, because they’ll start asking questions in Japanese to you! Your bags are likely to be searched, but just lightly. And you’ll have to answer to some regullar questions. Don’t mention Bujinkan if possible, it’s a not needed attention! If you bring soft weapons and they ask what they are for; stick to popular answers like Kendo or so, just to avoid suspicion.
Coming out the controlled area, you’ll find closeby a bank where you can still change cash if you want. Then it’s straight on to transportation.
Busses are right outside and an escalator will bring you to a lower level for trains.
You’ll find several ticketing machines there, go to the lovely pink one for a pasmo card! Click Pasmo card, then English, and go for the nameless card. Choose the amount you wish to credit it with, (start out with 10.000 yen for instance) it will deduct 500 yen as a deposit (which you will receive back when you deliver back the card). The card you get can be used on most lines (JR Lines, Tokyo metro, private rail roads and more) AND it can be used like a proton, for buying things in little shops like drinks and the paper or whatever. When you top of the card entering, transfering and exiting, the machine will show you the amount deducted and left on your card (you can always check it on the machines too), when your credit is low, you can easily add credit on the machines).
Okay ready to go now; tap your card on the blue area saying Pasmo/Suica (Don’t try to put it IN the machine like a credit card unless you wish to be the laughing stock of the controller! hehehe) and you can go through to the trains.
Off you are to the center of Tokyo. The Keisei line (which is a private rail road) will bring you to Nippori and Ueno, which are stops on the circle line of central Tokyo, the Yamanote line. Don’t wurry about the language here, above the doors there’s a display saying at which station the train will stop next, and the conductor will also regularly pronounce it in English, expecially for the majour stops like Nippori and Ueno.
When you need to transfer to another line, be sure to tap your card at the transfer gates to have the right amount calculated for you! If this doesn’t work, hand your card over to the controller at a desk at the gates and he will make the transfer work for you! Don’t just go through or exit and re-enter, as this will result in wrong calculations of your total trip fee, which will not be for the benefit of you.
Smartest thing is to just go to your hotel/ryokan and check in, have an easy rest and shower and then go out to eat something in the neighbourhood. But don’t sleep too long, so your biorythm can adjust properly AND so there will still be places open for you to go eat.
The Carrousel
open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutionsThis is what you hear when a train is approaching. Trains arrive at intervals of about one minute or less.
The flight
When everything is set and done there’s nothing left but leaving. But leaving everything behind is not always a pleasant thing to do. And also for the ones you leave behind, even though they know you’re coming back it seems as it is going to be forever. Which it isn’t.
You have to make sure that you’ve had a decent meal the night before and enough sleep so you can start this journey fresh. If you can, then it would be wise to have a warm breakfast. This will give you enough energy and you will last longer against the stress of traveling.
And believe me, you will need it because first you’ll be spending an hour and a half on the TGV. Wich is pretty fast. Threehundred kilometers an hour approximately. After that you’ll need to get to the check-in counter and through customs, this takes not so long if your luggage is not too heavy or doesn’t contain a bomb.
Now those not having had a decent breakfast will be getting hungry at this point and you might spend a lot of money on sandwiches that cost you a fortune because you’re still an hour or two away from your first meal on the plane!
The flight itself goes fast forward. We’re flying against the sun so it’s rapidly going dark. This night is swiftly folllowed up by day after four hours more. You have a range of movies and games to choose from the menu and I’ve just finished watching the film Largo Winch,… what a watered down plot from the story in the comic book.
After a visit to the toilet you must try to sleep a bit, because it will be morning when you land in Tokyo. Ofcourse this only applies when your flight leaves Paris around noon. Ofcourse, if you’re like me, you don’t get to sleep. It just won’t happen even if you have earplugs and an eye mask.
If you plan on taking a sleeping pill, then don’t eat! Because your meal has to be digested and your system is shut down by that pill, so if you do eat you will get sick from food that is laying on your stomach. So eat well before or after you have slept. Then as you wake up, you’ll be starving for food, without the possibility to eat right up until you reach your hotel and have stuffed away your luggage, which is still a half a day away, hehehe,…
So I was smart not to sleep, this will only upset your internal biorithm but that is less of an inconvenience I think.
Meals on the plane are ok, you have a choise between meat, fish or veggy. You make this choice when you book your ticket. Attention!: the noodles soup contains chicken bouillon, so those are not veggy unfortunately. You’ll be getting a second meal (breakfast) but this won’t be elaborate so don’t get your hopes up.
Keep the water from your meals even if you don’t drink it imediatly, because it’s good to hydrate your body with fluids.
Don’t get bored, talk to your neighbour or watch a movie. Also take short pauzes in wich you stroll around in the pathway; this will ease your muscle-aches and prevent your blood from clogging. In an extreme case this could lead to a trombosis, even wéll after the flight.