18/09/2006

Hello one and all!

Wow, so last week was an interesting, busy, depressing and incredibly frustrating week and after saying in my last email that ill be on the net pretty much everyday, some of you may be wondering where I went... God I have so much to tell you, I don't know where to begin...

Lets start from 2 Thursdays ago.... Yep, settle in guys, go to the toilet, grab a few beers and maybe a meal or 2, coz this ones gonna be a long one....

The Karate Story:
So, 2 Thursdays ago, I went back to karate after not training for a few weeks because of my trips to Kochi. While I was warming up, the sensei came over to me and asked would I be interested in taking a level up test? I said YES PLEASE!!! Im sick of white... its so colourless.... (I didn't say that part...) He said he would have to check with the Kancho, coz he was only an assistant sensei. On Friday I went back and the Kancho said to me that I hadn't done enough lessons because of my trip to Kochi, and even though my skill was ok, the rules said I couldn't. ARRGGGHHH!!!! So the next grading is October 1st, which I cant do, and the next one will not be until next February, they only have 2 a year, so I don't think I will be grading much in this club due to time....

So I will be on white belt until next February, which is incredibly depressing....

But on Friday, I learnt my first Kata! It was called Soshin! But is completely different to GKR Soshin, its basic, but still interesting. A lot more interesting than GKR first Kata.... (sorry Sensei James....) Then as the class progressed through the higher katas, the white belts stood back and watched, and for those of you who know my love of Kata and my love of performing Kata, would understand that I was just itching to get out there and do some, and it was killing me to have to stand and watch!! Lots of spinning kicks in the higher katas... very little punching... And when they teach you the Kata, they teach you the bunkai at the same time... which was really helpful. I discovered that part of the grading is also to perform a specific combination. Each belt level has a combination which they must learn and perfect, like a very small Kata. It starts off basic for white belt and gets harder as more moves get added for the higher belts. I have learnt my combination, its a good little combination.... nice elbow strike at the end...

So I was in a good karate mind for the better part of the week.... to be continued later.... :)

The Internet Story:
Saturday morning rolls around and before I headed off to work I noticed my Red Dwarf Season 1 had finished downloading and my internet had disconnected... I didn't think much of it until I got home in the evening and discovered it wouldn't connect back.... I got on the fone to Scott who's pretty good with computers and he said just wait and it should fix itself. I waited a day.... I waited 2 days.... Monday it still wasn't working.... so I called the Yahoo Unhelpful English Line and they said its a technical support problem and I had to call a different department who didn't speak English.... So I called Kida Sensei yet again and she called them, but coz of the whole privacy issue thing they wouldn't let her do anything... so we organised for her to come to my house on Wednesday morning. I thought, 2 days without internet... that's ok....

The Roommate Story:
Saturday afternoon when I got home from work, there was a new futon set sitting on my doorstep with my address and the name "Erin" written on it. I messaged Erin and asked if she was coming to stay, she said no. I figured that the futon was for this new girl from America and Nova had mixed up mine and Erin's names... as our boss keeps doing.... so I didn't think much of it... Sunday evening when I got home from work, my door was unlocked.... I opened it and saw a pair of shoes that were not mine in the entrance.... I freaked out and grabbed an umbrella from my umbrella stand, clutched it tight and yelled "Hello?"
A young girl stepped out from my lounge room and said, " You must be Lesley!"
I said "Yes, who are you?" She said "Im Erin."

Turns out she is a new teacher in Kochi and she was doing her training in Matsuyama and Nova had put her up in my apartment and hadn't told me. When I messaged Erin (my sister Erin) later on, apparently she knew and I didn't!! She was a very lovely girl though, and only stayed until Friday, so it was ok. She was from Vermont and loved gardens. We had five new teachers training at Matsuyama last week, it was an absolute mad house.... a guy from Adelaide too, who I was very excited to meet, when I did, he said he hasn't lived in Adelaide for about 3 years and he's actually from Strathalbyn.

Back to the Internet:
So it got to Wednesday and Kida Sensei came over to my house and spent nearly an hour on the phone to Yahoo, they did something down the phone line, very technical, and got it to work, but said that the modem is faulty and they would send a new one on Friday. So my internet was temporarily up and running, but I had to go to work and by the time I got home, it was off again. I figured, Friday is only 2 days away, I can wait that long....

So it got to Friday, a new modem was delivered to my house, I unpacked it, plugged it all in.... and it didn't work either. I called Kida Sensei, and she called Yahoo back and complained, but they couldn't do anything without my consent, and Kida Sensei was very busy and couldn't come over, so we arranged for her to come over this morning (Monday)... and I resigned myself to 3 more days without the internet...

Back to Karate (this is the really not so nice part of the week, non-karateka may want to skip this part):
On Thursday I went back to karate and got to practice my Kata again, with many compliments from the sensei! We also practiced some spinning kicks, which I very clearly sucked at big time and am hoping to improve in the coming year. Those 3 white belt women are still there, they're so lovely! I often talk with Sachie each week. The black belt lady hasn't been back, but there is a brown belt lady called Tamao who came over to chat with me too. She was quite tall and strong for a Japanese woman. That's when the class turned bad...

Me and a couple others stood out and watched the others spar, and I didn't like what I saw at all... Their style of sparring is really violent, defending kicks by kicking your opponents leg away, sweeping (not safely) and lots of grabbing. There were 2 black belt men sparring with 2 white belt teenagers and they absolutely beat the crap out of these white belts. I happened to be watching one pair when the black belt defended against a kick by thrusting a powerful front kick into the white belts inner thigh and sending his leg out sideways into the air and totally ripping his groin apart. The white belt when down straight away and was clearly in a lot of pain, no one went to help him and after about 3 minutes the sensei went over, yanked him up and told him to get back in the fight. I was horrified... completely horrified...

I turned my focus on another pair sparring, just in time to see a black belt trip a white belt over by kicking the side of his knee, and down when the second white belt... I couldn't believe my eyes... it was like id walked into the wrong club... I didn't know whether to run away screaming, walk out silently or just stand with this horrific expression on my face. I wanted to go over to this first guy who was in the corner unable to move and ask if he was ok, and try and administer some first aid, but my Japanese was just too limited, and I didn't know where to find an ice pack.... It was just.... I cant explain it.... when I had sparred every black belt, they were so nice to me.... smiling, helpful, barely attacking at all, and then, they just turned..... 4 people walked away limping after the last round. They only did it to the men, not the women, but I don't want to be part of a club that does that to anyone! So I left in a state of disbelief... and didn't go back on Friday, and now I don't really know what to do... I was having so much fun up until that point.... Please send me some words of advice! I need to hear from my karate friends!

Another story:
Saturday night was fun, a bunch of us went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, first Chinese food ive had in Japan and its no where near as greasy as it is in Australia! Then we went to see Xmen 3. I haven't seen xmen 1 or 2, so I was a little lost, but I guess it was a good movie.

The Typhoon story:
So that typhoon that I wrote about in my last email that was supposed to come changed direction and didn't hit us, but another one came last night, well kind of. For the last 3 days, all the students have been telling me, this ones gonna be big, its the biggest one we've had in years, it was given the name "13" and everyone was freaking out about it. It was supposed to last 2 or 3 days. On Saturday it had hit the bottom islands of Japan and was moving towards us quite slowly. It hit last night and brought absolutely ferocious winds that were really freaking me out. I closed up my whole apartment and locked everything, but it was so loud it sounded like thunder, the floor and the walls were all shaking and I had to bring in all my pegs from the washing line on the balcony coz they were all flying away... I spent a few sleepless hours messaging Katie, Scott and Erin before eventually drifting off and waking to a quiet, slightly windy, sunny day. I was really confused, I thought I had slept for 3 days... When my Japanese teacher came I asked what happened to the typhoon, she said "Oh its passed!"
No rain, thunderstorms or anything... very strange.
It had changed direction again and we just caught the edge of it. So now, everything is fine!

Bloody Japan weather....

I learnt last week that typhoons and hurricanes are actually the same thing. But if they are west of the international date line they are called typhoons, if they are east of the international date line they are called hurricanes. Strange huh?

Back to the Internet...
So this morning Kida Sensei came over AGAIN and spent another hour on the phone AGAIN to Yahoo and they got the internet working, but its unstable so most likely when I get back from work later, it will be off again. They said it might be a problem with the phone company lines coz apparently they are getting lots of people calling and complaining. But they are not sending anybody to fix it until NEXT MONDAY. So if my phone line goes out again, I wont be on the net til next Monday, but im writing you all this email now to let you know what's happening.

So, what I have learnt this week:

1. Japan is NOT the land of excellent technology 2. Japan is NOT the land of excellent customer service 3. My Japanese teacher is an absolute star 4. Typhoons are the same as hurricanes 5. Japanese people tend to freak out over nothing 6. My Japanese teacher is an absolute star 7. If you receive futons on your doorstep, you are getting a new roommate 8. Karate classes sometimes aren't what they appear to be 9. I cant live for a week without the internet - I am now officially a computer nerd 10. My Japanese teacher is an absolute star

Thank you so much for sitting through my novel, yet again...
If all goes well, I will get down to reading the 38 email messages I received in the last 9 days. I feel so loved! KEEP ON SENDING THEM!

Enjoy your beautiful sunny weather I hear you're getting, I hope you all had fun at the GKR tournament without me! Hers some trivia for you: That was the first GKR tournament I have missed since I was 12. (Im now 22....)

Good Luck in Karate!! Missing you all SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!

Love always,
Lesley xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo