Our Training Adventure in Tokyo So we arrived in Tokyo on March 29. We were with a group from our dojo and the Stockton dojo, among others. We all stayed in a traditional Japanese ryokan, and our room was very cool, with futons and tatami mats and so on. After we dropped off our stuff, we all headed to Ueno Park. We walked along the path in the park and came to a flea market. For around $23, Brian scored a print of a kabuki actor fighting a ninja, which we later found out was over 100 years old. So it's maybe worth closer to three times that much. Not that he will sell it ever. Here I am posing in front of a wacky building in Ueno Park. The park is very large, and has many monuments and shrines. In that last picture, people are waving smoke into their hair for luck. People also drank water from this dragon fountain. Brian and I posed for a couple of funny pictures in the park, too. I liked riding the subway, though it did take about four days to figure it all out. There are three systems, and they are privately owned. This makes them pretty expensive and complicated, but they also always run on time and often. The Tokyo Subway was about as good as the London Underground, in my opinion, though the language barrier was a big hindrance at first. But the subway workers were always helpful and extremely professional. The Japanese people were often seen wearing these masks. One might think that it was some kind of germ-paranoia, at least that is what an American like me might think at first. On the contrary. They are worn by people who are already sick, to protect others around them. I think this one thing said so much about Japanese culture, so simply. Anyway we had some free days before training started. We saw drag queens at a large temple in Asakusa. We walked around in little streets there. Saw posters with pictures of doggies. Walked past a carnival that had a ride of houses hanging from a crane. We stopped at a kissaten (cafÈ) for some coffee. Another day we went to Harajuku, one of the many shopping districts. None of the shops were open yet though, so we ended up looking at a shrine instead. There was a pair of lions in front. And out front under the sakura, wishes made of paper and wood that could be bought for 100 yen ($1). Outside the shrine was a park with a koi pond. Brian looked all cool by the pond. There was this little boy there on the rocks, trying to fish or something. Tokyo has many street cats, wonder if they get any koi. Harajuku also had lots of these huge signs telling people how to smoke correctly and basically to be considerate. What a country! In the same area I saw these crumbling old houses. The night before training started, Brian and I hung out in Kashiwa a while. They had a Starbucks with a western toilet, yay! With a heated seat! Weird. That round building behind Brian has a rotating restaurant, just like the Space Needle! I liked Kashiwa. Just walking around. We found a store full of nothing but photo booths. We found at least three Colonel Sanders statues. Hello Mr. American Chicken Store!. And so many bikes everywhere. Tokyo is a bike riding city, much like Amsterdam. So the next day, April 1, Tai Kai started. We headed to Tokyo Budokan by 9am. I got a chance to take pictures during breaks. Here's Clayton. Here's a picture of me and Noah, Patrick's son, with Brian in the background. Here's Brian helping a guy from Michigan to stretch. During on lunch break we all went to an Indian restaurant, which was pretty good. And this is what we got to see on our walk to and from Tai Kai. After day one, myself and some others in our group trained with Shireishi sensei. It was a good class and it was nice to have more mat space since Tai Kai was extremely crowded at all times. After his class ended we got to walk back to the train station, through probably the least touristy part of Tokyo that I got a chance to see. Regular, residential streets. On the second night of Tai Kai, Brian, Mariko, Patrick, Noah and I went to a Turkish-Persian place near our hotel called Zakuro. Lots of food, a very energetic multilingual owner/waiter, enforced costume-wearing and dancing... it was really fun. A strange and perhaps uniquely Japanese experience, believe it or not. They even had hookah (apple-flavored, and very benign). And finally on our last night in Tokyo, there was a banquet to honor Hatsumi soke's teacher Takamatsu, who passed away 33 years ago. It was fun to see everyone all dressed up, and to relax a bit. And be hammy for the camera. As usual. I took a few pics of friends all gussied up, like Rebecca and her Aussie friend, Kurt (who passed the godan test) and Brian, Jack, Dave, and Kurt (all promoted at Tai Kai! woo!), and Dave and Patrick. I learned how turning off the flash can make a huge difference in people's skin-quality in pictures. So on our last morning in Tokyo, a bunch of us went to Electric Town, or Akihabara. We stopped at this huge video game arcade, and the boys played this huge amazing battle game complete with big flat screen. I ate an ice cream cone and just marveled at the place, which seemed to be girl-less except for me. It also seemed to be for adults, since each video game had an ashtray on it. Heh. Outside the arcade there was some kind of manga comic table on the sidewalk, and a girl in a cute costume. Brian and I went to Ginza after that and bought beautiful washi paper at a gigantic stationery store. But then we went back to the ryokan, and then walked to the train station. Photographed a puppy. Here's the last picture I took in Tokyo, the staircase leading down to the main shopping street around the corner from our hotel. It was a really nice area and I hope that the next time we go to Tokyo we can stay in the same place. The end!