Here I am again, I have a fair amount to say here so no promises on this post being short but Ill try if I can.
Last saturday, after work (yes, work... on a saturday - what is this madness?) we went to Shibuya with a bunch of people for a meal in The Lock Up. The only thing I'd heard about The Lock Up before going was that it was a restaurant themed around a prison, but in all fairness that doesnt really prepare you at all for what its like in there. After going around a haunted house style passageway to get to the actual restaurant we were sat down while we waited for our table, and when the waitress came to take us to the table one of us was handcuffed (yup, me) and dragged by a chain to our table - fairly interesting so far. Then about 5 minutes after being seated, the lights go off, a siren starts blaring and men dressed in hockey masks and the like jump into your 'cell' and scare the living hell out of you. This we werent expecting, and although it sounds like a cheap halloween trick it was terrifying (especially since the door to the 'cell' is a large metal sliding prison door which makes one hell of a noise when these guys crash it open to dive in). And it wasnt a bad price either, about £17.50 per person, all you can drink and a decent amount of food. So a pretty amazing night out.
And the fun of the weekend didnt end there, on sunday Steve and Mai took us to the scottish festival in Makuhari (about an hour away from Oji by train). I didnt really have my hopes up for anything amazing but tbh a day of drinking beer and whiskey, watching huge scotsmen throw heavy logs and weights, and laughing at men in skirts is a pretty good way to spend your time. I saw a fair amount at the festival like bagpipe playing, highland dancing, the aforementioned throwing of the heavy objects (the highland games was great fun to watch to be honest) and aload of grown men (huuuge grown men) losing to kids at tug of war. Success.
[Quick disclaimer, The skirt wearing comment was a joke intended towards a specific person. No offence was intended... except towards Steve. The Scottish festival was great fun, and I laughed at no men in kilts... except Steve. Thank you.]
I'm now about a week into Shorinji Kempo and Im still really enjoying it, although every day I do it it makes me miss karate more and more. The worst thing is that I spent the past year getting used to being in strong, wide stances, learning certain moves and katas; and now I have to forget all of that and learn something completely different. I mean, I dont want to stop doing Shorinji because of that... but itd be good if the higher ups in whatever the Shorinji organisation is could just... well... forget everything and start teaching everyone Shotokan Karate. Possibly a wee bit too much to ask? Oh and when I said that that was the worst thing, I lied. A worse thing by far is in the warming up when they make you travel across the hall... by way of pressups. Thats right, it kills - you do a press up, move one arm forward, do another press up and so on until youre across, and its a pretty big hall. But again there is something far worse... forward and backward rolls over your shoulder. I cant do them which is embarassing and as much as they try to help me to do it right it kills my knee and back to do them (which is odd because you wouldve thought the gammy collar bone wouldve been the worst bit... but if anyone who might worry is reading *cough*Auntie Susan or me mam*cough*, I dont use that shoulder, its fine).
On a positive note, my dogi (my white suit, not a pet) should be coming on friday and it has the kanji for my name on it, I believe its: 舞華流 for Maikeru, I could be wrong because thats just going from what I can remember of the kanji although Im pretty sure the first two are right - if any kanji experts read this please correct me. The kanji mean (or they should if theyre the right ones) dance, flower and flow. Conjures up a pretty image doesnt it - which is sad because the kanji I wanted to use were: 魔育 which mean (I think... the second one doesnt quite look like the kanji I know for iku) demon and grow - so growing demon... sounds a bit better than dancing flower flow, jesus. But yeah, apparently its bad luck to have a sign for satan in your name. Who'd have thought?
Anyway, I've babbled for far more than enough this post, so laters.
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment