It’s probably because I am old, but there are not many circumstances where I would get home from training, wash, and then head out… albeit only as far as the café but all the same. At home, if I get home it’s shower and generally fall asleep on the couch, or straight to bed. Not here. But then a lot of things are different here. It’s day 5 and the population in the dojo has swelled from 6 people a few days ago, to now 6 rows of 6 people. The morning class was similarly busy, greetings and pleasantries were exchanged, then it was back to work with people working on all sorts of training points.

The extra bodies made the dojo even warmer, however, a bit like Sheldons’ “spot” from the Big Bang Theory, there is a place in the dojo, right in the middle of the breeze from the door and the window and that’s where I placed myself this morning. With so many people, efficiency of movement and care of ones neighbour (ie. don’t hit them with a chi-ishi) adds to the skill level required.

My building manager has now become used to me and my return demeanour after training. To the point that he now seems to wait with his staff at the door around the time that I get back, there is much bowing and mentioning of Higaonna Sensei… I am curious to know what they are thinking..?

There must be the equivalent of a bank holiday here as the post office was closed and to my horror, the ATM wasn’t working either. ATMs here don’t tend to work on a Sunday for some reason but there are the odd few that do work and so my impending cash flow disaster was averted.

With all the faffing around I didn’t actually make lunch and so, chatting later in the day, in a post training high I suddenly started to realise that there were only a few hours to training again and in my current state I was not likely to survive even Jumbi Undo!

Now my favourite food in Okinawa is Goya Champuru and today I found a great spot for lunch… the locals tend to be somewhat surprised when you order it as many find it very bitter, but I absolutely love it! The exact same thing happened today, then, when it arrived, the waiter went on to tell me how much of a superfood it was! I didn’t need any convincing… 

If I could have licked the plate I would have… and to be honest, I did think of it! I have got to find a source of goya in London…which got me thinking… many of my friends come home from holiday and ad mit that they have pushed the boat out, drank too much, etc etc… whereas here, it’s completely the opposite… the food and lifestyle is just stunning.

Food on board and a quick snooze later I was heading to the dojo. I was rather early and yet the dojo was pretty full and still more and more people arrived! This reminded me of budosai days! We trained for about an hour and a half tonight and covered Kihon, Kata, and Sanchin! It is amazing even with limited space how much karate can be done… 🙂