Hike, Bike and Kiai!

After two months of limbo in Perth, Kept Ninja and Karate Kate were welcomed back to Japan with open arms! We'd have been grateful if there were a few more ‘open doors’ as it took a day and a few drops of Nil Odour to sort out our apartment!

We flew back with Singapore Airlines, which was swish – I was giving up alcohol this week until I saw Bollinger on the top of the menu – what can you do? Kept Ninja and I are engaging in a ‘no alcohol on school nights’ policy, which so far has been successful, as has our banning of chocolate in the apartment… I had the shakes for a few days, but we’re tougher for it now!

Hmmm yum - Pocari Sweat

Few things we’ve discovered since our return:      

• Japanese advertising only gets better with time – check out this bottled water brand, which is delightfully called “Pocari Sweat”… nice.
• Speaking of sweat  - the humidity is around 75% in the morning, which makes for a nice walk to work… I need to invest in a hanky!
• Turning the TV on cuts out the internet – a strange phenomenon that Kept Ninja discovered this morning – that’s his department though :)
• The stovetop needs a heavy saucepan on it to switch on, this was discovered the hard way, and after eating dinner at 9:30pm on the first night… again Ninja’s department.



Costco loot

• Costco is a slice of heaven… we spent 2 hrs there yesterday… in the trolley were: 13kg slab of steak, 8kg of chicken breast, enough toilet rolls to last a year, same for tissues, 6months worth of cranberry and soda, and a Ralph Lauren shirt… ha ha. Would you believe the 150kg of groceries cost $25 to deliver – heaven! The part of this story that I’m leaving out was the 2km hike to the store from a little local train station through suburban Kawasaki - don't think they see many Geijins around their area… so after two hours of shopping we opted for the $13 taxi back to the main station :)

As a means of self-improvement, I’ve engaged in the following endeavours:

1. I went for a run on Thursday morning – the park in front of our apartment is luscious and green, and there is a lovely boardwalk to run along next to the water… let's hope I keep this up!
2. I’ve sussed out Japanese lessons for Kept Ninja and I – we’ll do 2hrs on a Monday night – the instructor comes to the apartment to teach us – thank you Woodside. We should start in 1-2 weeks time.
3. I signed up for my first “beginners” karate class!!! … kind of a necessity given my code name! Imagine my surprise when I rocked up to see 13 Japanese women – all fit as fiddles and most wearing brown belts!!! Oh dear! Sensei Hishiki was a fan of tough love and compliments were hard to come by. We started with warm up exercises, went through some of the punches, blocks and kicks at a rapid speed… it’s been 5 years since my last ballet class, but I remember my coordination being better than it was! We then split into our belt groups to learn the Kata (series of movements for grading)… oh to be a fly on the wall… bet Kept Ninja would have loved it! For the last 30mins (1.5hr classes), Sensei had me repeating front kicks and punches into the mirror to improve on my technique… there is a lot to think about! I came away from the class in awe of the other girls, rather sore, but engaged. My aim this week is to learn counting to ten, so I say ”kiai” at the right time, and to get the ends of my belt as long as the other girls (i.e. slim the waist line)!
4. The final effort this week to leading a health, balanced life has been to purchase a bike… I love the traditional bikes here – big wheels, bent handle bars, just like I had when I was young, and a basket in front :) I’m leaning towards the “Mini” pictured here. Kept Ninja is undecided between the Hummer, ridiculous clown bike and a Ferrari… any thoughts viewers?

The Hummer

Clown bike

my baby - the Mini

The Ferrari

Next weekend should include a baseball game (GO BAYSTARS!), more Karate and a trip to Disneyland! Stay tuned!

Xoxo

Karate Kate