A little about training, most about Nara.

From now on I'll be writing in English, since I have friends in many places over the world and most will understand. 

I spent my Saturday  with Nick walking around in Yoyogi koen, a little in Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku. Got to try my billiard skills again, it was really some time since my last try! It was great fun! Got some good tips of how to play, but that was first after Nick had won the second game. Next time I'll take you down! ;)

 On Sunday I went to the airport and met up with Erik, Fredrik and Kathi. Not much done on Sunday, since both Erik and I was really tired after sleeping too little. 

Went to training with Nagato sensei this Monday, great as usually! For you who don't train you can skip to the next part if you want to. He again spoke about the importance of not trying to win, just no to loose, about the importance to persevere. The only thing that can make you better is to keep training. Sounds like common sense, doesn't it? And still some people try to take short cuts. 

Nagato sensei also talked about the importance of having the right heart in training, that even if you lack the skills in Taijutsu, having the right heart will be enough. I interpreted that as also having the patience, not to give up, to keep going. There will most probably always be someone better than you in training, so just keep on going and do your best, that's enough.

Today me and Erik arrived at Nara, took a while to get here though. Started out well with the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, but then the rapid train for Nara “disappeared” and we had to take the local one that was almost 50 minutes late. Could have something to do with the extremely strong winds and the heavy rain. Almost typhoon-like. So when we finally arrived Nara it was already late, most of the attractions, like the hall with the great buddha was closed, and the cold winds drew right through your clothes. The lust for sightseeing was down to zero, especially when we walked under the big pine trees, and things came blowing down... scary. 

Tabi!

 Haven't done so much walking around, but Nara seems to be quite a nice little town, with and air of old Japan in it. Found a cool tabi shop, with many models of daily wear tabi shoes! I became really fond of the blue ones, with kind of a sports shoe sole! Really cool! I'll be going there again, and probably end up buying a pair. :)

For you who aren't training, jika-tabi is a kind of traditional shoe, with the big toe separated from the others. In training we use indoor tabi, kind of a thicker sock with the big toe separated, and outdoors we use the jika-tabi. Workers in Japan (like carpenters and cleaning staff) use these at work.

I really like them, because I'm a Bujinkan nerd! :)

After trying to walk around in the icing cold we went looking for a Restaurant and accidentally stumbled upon a place with a small booths separated from each other. A little stream running through the restaurant, making a comforting bakground noice and really good food! Felt like walking into old Nippon!
We had some Nara style roast beef and Korean style wok with Kimchi, tasted great! I tried to ask for a sake that would taste good with the food, but my Japanese and the staffs English didn't go well together, so I just pointed my finger at one of the pictures.

Stream running through the restaurant.

Ended up with a small sake glass in a masu (the wooden box on the picture), the waitress started poring sake into it, at first slowly. When the glass was almost full she put up the speed and the sake run over into the wooden box, she stopped when the box was almost full. To my suprise! (You should have seen my face...) Anyhow, it tasted great! A sweet, a bit of mellow taste, went great with the roast beef!

In the restaurant, in our booth.

My overfilld sake-cup

In my Yukata at the hotel.

At the moment relaxing in my Yukata (a cotton wardrobe) at the hotel room. The yukata is kind of a obligatory when staying at a hotel or ryokan in Japan. Glad to be inside. Tomorrow Nanten-en awaits me. A traditional Ryokan lying between Nara and Osaka. Will be really interesting to visit! I really look forward soking my self in a hot spring!