JAPAN TRAINING 2015 - Day 1

Sunday, July 18, 2015
Omagari, Akita Prefecture

I'm sitting in my room at Shihan Fujiwara's ryokan as I write this, drinking a can of cold Boss Coffee, more or less recovering from a marathon travel day yesterday that felt a little like Bill Murray's movie
Groundhog Day...in other words, it just kept on going and going and going.  Big John Dean from LA, one of my travel companions said very succinctly, "Time travel is very strange."

I left Austin at 0720 Friday for LAX.  Met up with Vassie Naidoo  Shihan and John Dean there and we flew on to Tokyo Narita, leaving at 1150 LA time and 12.5 hours later arrived, which was about 1530 the next day here.  We had decided to fly from Tokyo to Akita rather than taking the train as we always do, but to do that we had to take a bus from Narita to Haneda airport, another hour and a half, but a good way to see some of Tokyo.  Then we took a Japan Airlines flight to Akita, leaving right into an awesome gold sunset, and watched a beautiful lingering red band of sunset floating above an ocean of continuous puffy dark clouds.  The sliver of new moon and two bright planets were a very auspicious sign. Then we descended into the clouds for a turbulent landing in the rainy Akita night.  We were honored to be met by Fujiwara Shihan himself and drove with him the 30 minutes to Omagari.  Compared to much of Japan, this is a rural area and it was nice how dark it was and how sparse the traffic.  I felt like I was out in the Texas Hill Country.  Except we were driving on the left side of the road, all signs were in kanji, and we were listening to a baseball game in Japanese. Ha!

We arrived at the Ryokan about 2100 and Shihan had three trays of the most amazing, most scrumptious food awaiting us weary travelers.  Ohara Ryokan is locally famous for their food, and this meal was no exception.  Fresh sashimi, pickles, sukiyaki, gohan, a piece of grilled pork, salad, grilled asparagus, miso soup, and a cold mug of beer.  You cannot buy Japanese food like that in the best restaurant in Austin.  Unbelievably good.  Leo Lipenski joined us for conversation and sake.  Very good to catch up and all sharing karate insights and anecdotes.

I finally dragged my weary and slightly buzzed self down to the baths and cleaned up and soaked in the ofuro, which was so hot I was afraid to move, because moving makes you feel the heat more.  Then finally to my futon and blissful sleep.  I really have no idea how long I had been awake since leaving Austin.  Weeks?  Seemed so.  Well, I think I slept maybe two hours on the flight to Tokyo.
Woke this morning thinking I'd slept late only to discover it was 0615.  Grrrr.  I've already been to the convenience store for canned coffee and a breakfast croissant, did my morning yoga and meditation, and did another bath.  Feeling human again.  Mr. Fujiwara is taking several of us sightseeing in an adjoining prefecture at 1300.  He says they have the best aquarium in Japan.  I'll definitely take photos.   Great to be here.