…leave with memories not regrets…
I’ve not managed to make it home just yet, in a last ditch attempt to pretend that the holiday is not over, I’ve pulled into a quiet bar in Paddington and muster the last of my thoughts together. Looking back I guess it’s fair to say that the recent blog posts are pretty self-indulgent. They … Continue reading Day 1-Home
There simply hasn't been enough time to do all the things that I want to do here, so much so that I am running from one place to another and grabbing 20 minutes of sleep to keep going. By the end of the week I am able to leave the apartment at 13 minutes to … Continue reading Day 9 Being a tourist… and karate
There was a rumour at the Sayonara Party that Terauchi Sensei was going to take a class at 0900 the following morning. Now I've been observing dry January and so this was the first night that I'd had a drink in God knows how long so on the 'morning after' there was no way that … Continue reading Day 108
Authenticity requires vulnerability, transparency and integrity (JL Johnson) It's cliched to say you can find just about anything online now and if whatever you fancy is not on the 'normal' web, you can definitely find it on the dark web. There I've seen everything from your garden variety hitman to carrots made of LSD...that one … Continue reading Faking it…buy your distressed belt here!
By the time I got to the Kaiken this morning the weather had decided to become angry and spit on me. Along the way, each morning I pass the Naha Fire Station and every morning the various teams are lined up, there seems to be a lot of shouting and bowing and then they break rank … Continue reading Day 6- Drink in every moment
There is an inflection point in every natural process, OK so I might have read a few more work emails recently 🙂 . It is true though, I couldn’t help thinking that we had reached such a point today. The effects of training were very much in evidence as I set out for the karate … Continue reading Day 5- I am 11
No rain to greet me this morning,but that said it was far from warm. I hear it's in the low single figures back in Blighty, so I guess I should be grateful for the +10C temperatures here, but the wind makes it bloody cold. In any case I only managed a few hours sleep so … Continue reading Day 4. Don’t feel guilty
The rain woke me at 07:00, OK, so that's a bit of a lie. I was dozing from about 04:00 and sound of the rain on a metal roof near the apartment lead me to believe that we were being invaded by a possy of badly trained ninjas. This wasn't normal rain, no this was … Continue reading Day 3. Don’t give up
There is a beautiful familiarity to being in Okinawa, I was so excited about self training in the dojo that I woke at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Ah jet lag. By the time I did make it to the dojo, I had dragged myself out for a quick run to get rid … Continue reading Day 2. Finding the rhythm…
I am so tired. I sit on the third flight of the ‘day’, a day which started more than 24 ago and didn’t even get to hear the flight safety briefing before I was out cold. In Osaka airport I had regained access to the world of Facebook and the many updates from friends told … Continue reading Making memories
