Chiroprac without the Crack!

In all started in early 2010 when I went to my fav beautician in Perth for a back massage and she informed me that my back was severely misaligned – great. I trotted off to the chiro in Karratha hoping for a quick fix. 10mins later I was realigned and feeling good. I went back every 6 weeks for a “tune up” and all was well…

After 4 months of no “tune up” I googled “chiropractor, Yokohama” and found the Ligare Chiropractic Centre just near Yokohama station – winner! When I arrived on Thursday night, I slipped off my shoes and put on the guest slippers and sat in the entrance for a while inhaling the incense-scented steam they had chuffing around. Yuki-san then emerged with “I speak not much English, but…” ok… great… what could go wrong?

I changed into their pants and shirt they had in the room (thankfully I must have got a man’s outfit, as it fit me), and then we talked about my tight neck and stiff lower back. He asked what treatment I’d had before and was horrified to hear that I was realigned without massage… oops. He was also shocked that a 10min session cost $50 (that’s Karratha buddy!). Anyway he got to work… apparently my left hip was incorrectly rotated and my right shoulder was significantly higher than my left… delightful – fix it! He did not crack my lower back once but did about 20mins of butt stretches, rotations, thigh stretches whilst digging into pressure points… I was having flashbacks to my childhood of monthly visits to the Sport OT where he’d stretch you until you cried (happy dancing memories). Anyway I stood up at the end of and wahla – loose as a goose!

The next target was my tight neck, which had been subject to excessive backpack use in Kyoto and on the weekly runs home from work. I thought I’d get a nice neck massage to grind out the knots… not so – he dug his thumb into my armpit and pressed soooo hard in there for 10mins on each arm whilst he flipped my arm around, rotating it and stretching it in different directions. I was close to tears but animated but his commentary “oh dear”, “you very tight”, “not good”… Once I regained motor functions I stood up to find that I was a big pile of jelly – awesome! He did then crack my neck which was misaligned but not before doing some more pressure point work.

The torture, I mean, session, lasted 1 hour and was 5,500 Yen ($65… fully reimbursable with our overseas healthcare). The only downside was I was the release of toxins gave me a headache all of Friday :( I’m sending Kept Ninja for treatment next week… he might have to take his own change of clothes :)

The next day we met up with Rod and some of his workmates in Ebisu for drinks and a few nibbles. We passed a summer parade, which had about 50x 50yr old ladies doing a traditional Japanese dance under the lantern stage to the music of the drum and some flutes.

Summer Celebrations in Ebisu

We’re conserving energy for the rest of the weekend – might head into Tokyo to look at some kitchen appliances – but otherwise we are prepping for the arrival of Louise next Saturday – bring – it – on! :)

Xoxo

Karate Kate

Bruised and Battered

I write this blog whilst sitting on a padded cushion. This is the result of a 26km ride on my mammachari. Whilst it is a funky, short-distance shopping bike, it is not well suited for cross-country cycling! Let me be clear here – it was Kept Ninja who thought a cycle to Costco would be a great weekend activity… not me. We did however, have a successful Costco trip and are now starving whilst waiting for our bagels… I mean produce, to arrive this morning :)

Resident Team and families

The big highlight of our quiet weekend was Friday night. I work in an area called Tsurumi, at a company called Chiyoda (they are one of the joint venture partners doing the design for Woodside). Anyway, they are a very large company and sponsor a summer parade each year, called “O-mikoshi”. We were each given a traditional Japanese sash called a “Tenugui”… there was some conjecture as to where it should be worn, but we were assured it was not a suitable Sumo diaper and that around the forehead or neck, is preferable.

The parade started with an address by the Chiyoda President and then a shot of sake – my first shot of sake – it was much sweeter than expected but way too strong! 

The O-mikoshi Parade commences

The wooden flutes and drums then serenaded the troops to pick up the O-mikoshi and carry it to the first pitstop – there seemed to be an abundance of volunteers to carry the thing so the Woodsider’s just looked on and drank some beer at the first pitstop. The second leg was the women’s leg – fortunately again, surplus volunteers meant there was no need for me to break my back! The final leg was short of good men, so Ninja, Steve Clearwater and Kui Lee stepped up to the plate! Steve and Kui had an unfortunate location of being in the front, middle of the O-mikoshi – nowhere to escape and maximum impact.

Steve and Kui smiling through the pain

 Ninja was positioned on the side of the float. I let my guard down for one minute and next thing you know a middle-aged Indian fellow was softly caressing Ninja’s back as he fought with the other volunteers to raise the height of the float and preserve his shoulder. Rather perturbed by the sight, I couldn’t help but roll in fits of laughter as Ninja did a ‘haka’-like dance in an effort to lay low. In the absence of video footage, pictures speak volumes :)

Want some lotion with that buddy?

Is he carrying the float at all?

The money shot

At the end of the third leg there were more beers and some photo ops with the O-mikoshi – I didn’t get all of the big group shots on Ninja's camera, but hopefully some surface tomorrow at work. 

Almost there... stay on target...

Refreshments at the end

Chiyoda then hosted a party in the canteen with drinks and nibbles. We escaped early and tried the French Restaurant near work, which had a delicious boeuf bourguignon.

Very quiet Sunday ahead of us today with two bruised tushes and one bruised shoulder (it's a few shades of green with blood blisters thrown in for good measure!). Time to do some uni work!

Xoxo

Karate Kate

KYOTO SWOT!

We had a long weekend in Japan – Marine Day on Monday – it’s suppose to be a summer holiday to head to the sea and celebrate all the ocean has to offer… instead we headed inland to Kyoto!

Kyoto is a much smaller city than Tokyo (1.5 million peeps), and was previously the Imperial Capital of Japan. In order to give you a proper analysis, I’ll present my findings in a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) analysis J

STRENGTHS:

·       There are 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto – we saw a fair few of them!!!

Kinkaku-ji - Golden Pavilion

·       Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) – This was our first stop on Saturday – we took the bus from Kyoto Station up to the northern part of Kyoto and started our journey. The pictures speak for themselves – it was lovely. I can’t help but feel that I was wearing pooh-coloured glasses the whole weekend as we were constantly dripping with sweat and burning in the sun. But, on reflection, it was a lovely sight J We then walked a few kms through the Ryoan-ji and Ninnaji Temples – see “opportunities”!

Mango Juice... with Green tea :( 

·       Arashiyama area – We caught SEVERAL private trains to get the western side of Kyoto – the Arashiyama area. It was rather pretty. We were starving and finally settled on an overpriced café where we got two mango juices… unfortunately, we didn’t suspect they’d come with green tea in them! The quicker we learn to read Japanese menus, the better! 

Arashiyama area

Tenryuji Temple

We hiked through the Tenryuji Temple … we were temple’d out at this stage – the most exciting part was seeing how big the koi fish are in the ponds at a temples! 

The winner

We grabbed an ice-cream and sat on a bench near the Oi River and soaked it all in. Ninja eyed off the Ninja shoes on the rickshaw caddies.

Rickshaw caddy wearing Ninja shoes

Nijo Castle

·       Nijo Castle – The Castle where the Shogun lived. We walked through the various rooms in the “castle” – it’s one storey with high ceilings and covers a large area (could be similar to our Wembley Downs house we’re designing :P)… we couldn’t take photos but it was nice to walk around the on the nightingale floor boards with our shoes off (the squeak alerts the bodyguards when people are approaching). The walls were decorated with paintings of trees, flowers, etc, in gold.

·       Yamaboko Float – this is the pinnacle of the Gion Matsuri summer festival and involves 32 floats. We watched with thousands of others from one street corner. It was crazy – people everywhere – certainly a time to reflect on how nice it is to be tall J

Yamaboko Float

One of the 32 floats

·       Kyoto Tower – This was just near Kyoto Station – it was good to get a perspective on the size of the city and where some points of interest were. We saw a rooftop pool which we longed to swim in, but alas, it was closed!

View from Kyoto Tower

Kyoto Tower

WEAKNESSES:

·       Public transport – in Tokyo you can reach any destination by taking two trains (max) – Kyoto was another story! I bought us sightseeing Day 2 passes which were suppose to give us access to buses and trains inclusive… we later found out it gave us access to buses and two solitary subway lines. The other private railways, JR lines and trains were extra!

·       Kyoto Imperial Palace – silly us for thinking that since the Imperial Palace is now in Tokyo, they’d let the public in to the abandoned palace in Kyoto! Shame, shame, shame. Instead we walked several kms around the outside of the Palace wall, through a forest area, which was rather dull and super hot… ah dear! The highlight was seeing families picnic in the park, and a young boy caught a yabbie in the drainage stream, he was dead chuffed with himself!

Yabbie fishing

OPPORTUNITIES:

·       Ryoan-ji Temple – Ok, so Zen rock art is apparently Japan’s greatest artistic achievement… I sure hope not! We joined everyone else and sat down and stared at the few rocks, but I must say it was more to have a drink’s break, than to enjoy the “art”! This could have been more impressive, Kyoto – next time, add a few more rocks, maybe make the garden bigger… bit more effort required here!

Resting our feet at Ryoan-ji Temple

·       Ninnaji Temple – Few nice buildings, the pagoda was cool… but spread way too far away from each other – took ages to get through it; it had minimal shade; and I really feel that some water mist sprays wouldn’t go a stray here – damn it was hot!

Pagoda at Ninnaji Temple

·       The Shinkansen (bullet train) could go faster – I wasn’t that impressed with it. Leg room was tight (with a suitcase in front of you) and it didn’t feel like we were travelling 240-300km/hr… I expected more!

Shinkansen

THREATS:

·       Heat stroke- The deadly 37 degree heat meant that we were lathered in sunscreen, sweating profusely, drinking 5 litres per day without a toilet break, and juggling a sweat towel, umbrella, fan and water bottle! Go in cherry blossom season (March – April) or in Autumn when it’s orange and milder climate. Some Aussies from Karratha might say that 37C is nothing, but commonly if you are spending 6-8hrs a day trekking in Australia’s North-west, you are rewarded with a swim of some description – not the case in Kyoto.

·       Blink-and-you-miss-the Geisha - On our last day we headed to Gion, the suburb where Geisha’s are prevalent. It was pouring with rain, which I understand can’t be good for their make-up… we walked through the historical area and only spotted one dishevelled Geisha heading to the Gion Corner – she must have been in training, cos her hair-do was not up to scratch. Suspect that Geisha’s are like leopards in a game park… you see a few ‘rock Geisha’s’ before you see a real one on the move!

Gion area - Geisha hunting

 xoxo

Karate Kate

JAN - KEN – PON

Whilst our weekend wasn’t the best for blogging purposes, it sure was relaxing! 

On Saturday I did the obligatory house clean, followed by a soul-cleansing 5km run along the wharf… after losing 2 litres in sweat, I rehydrated and rested the mind with a new John Grisham. We then headed to Tokyo – to Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium to watch Samoa take on Japan. Kept Ninja has the rights to blog about sporting events, so I’ll let him describe the event, blow by blow!

Samoa Vs Japan

On Sunday we continued our health-kick trend with a Gillian Michael’s DVD, and then turned our bathroom into a barber shop where I performed my first hair cut on Kept Ninja. There was no blood shed. No tears. Some sweating. But overall a success…shame about the bathroom floor though! Thank you Youtube for your guidance!

At lunchtime we cycled to Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse for a bite. The warehouse has lots of funky, arty shops – bit like the Freo markets, but more upmarket. We had some ramen in the food section – next time we’re trying the omelette and rice dish that everyone else was eating… it looked tasty! 

Lunch at Red Brick Warehouse

Again, 2 litre down from the exposure to the elements (humidity is deadly!), we replenished before heading out to the movies. Fortunately for us, the cinema’s are only 800m from our doorstep, unfortunately they are quite pricey (~$22 per ticket) – we saw Xmen: First Class, which I enjoyed. I’ve been sadly removed from my ‘rom-com-drama’ collection for 8 months now, and Ninja’s movie collection on his computer is more of the action/sci-fi genres… hopefully there are no prolonged side-effects from this sort of exposure.

Our health-halo’s were banished by the irresistible Haagen Daas icecream at the movies… damn their convincing advertising!

Tonight we had our second language class… the refresher session at the beginning proved that a little bit of practice is advisable… note this for next week! We learnt some more conversation starters and how to count to 100 – this then led to a game of Bingo. To see who goes first we played “Jan – Ken – Pon”… Ninja lost out quickly in both games of this, whilst I was narrowly defeated by Tanabe-sensei… she must be a good Shinto and be at one with the nature… particularly rock, paper and scissors! No need to describe the Bingo games, as I lost both … let’s just remember, there is no skill to Bingo!

We plan to venture out next weekend, hopefully I have more photos to share!

Xoxo

Karate Kate