Random coincidences

Weird one today.

Got up, little stiff from yesterday, and the plan was to meet with Rodney and head on over to Kokusai dori for some souvenir shopping; he rings up sick, however.  Okay, fine.  I ring Mike to confirm for Friday night's big bash and he tells me about these summer kimonos for sale in San-A (which is sort of like Tesco's).  Okay, I think, sounds good, will check that when I get back from Kokusai Dori.  So I get myself ready, after doing my usual dilly-dallying and get on ol' Betsy and-

-and chuga-chuga-chuk!  No start!

Arrgh.

Okay, fine, no worries.  I'll just go to San-A down the way, pick up some sake and maybe have a look for a kimono.  So off I trot, walking.

I get there, I buy a can of coffee, I drink it slow and wander.  I go to the top floor to look for a kimono, but there's none so I decide to head on down to the food court.  And at the point I see two Americans looking lost with a map out trying to get directions from the Japanese shop assistants who speak no English.  The man (they're a middle aged couple) asks me if I speak English and I end up finding out that they want to go to a pottery museum off Kokusai Dori.

Now, Kokusai Dori is a fair way from the San-A and a bitch for directions though Tomishiro's winding streets.  They'd been staying up in the middle of Okinawa visiting their son on base and had come down for a day trip, taking the motor way down, getting lost and pulling off and asking for directions in a place that looked like people maybe spoke English.

So, randomly, through a series of coincidences and chance occurrences, there I was in the right place at the right time.  The map they had was useless so I said that I'd ride with them and off we went.

I ended up hanging with them for an hour and a half after I'd gotten them to Kokusai Dori, they bought me lunch as a thank you and I showed them some of the sights.  They were impressed that I knew my way round and could get by in Japanese.  I guess I have picked up some of the damn stuff.

It was...

It was a good experience.  It felt like closing the circle, if you know what I mean?  I showed them stuff that I'd been shown when I first got here.  I helped them like I'd been helped.  It felt good and, I dunno, has made me feel better about going.

S' funny how things work out?  You'd almost think there was a plan to it all or something.

Anyway, I spent the next 5 hours wandering up and down Kokusai Dori and the streets around it, exploring and getting into things.  I found a sort of funky mall for hip young things (Hisano later told me that she hung out there all the time when she was younger); I had a massage (super cheap and good); I played in arcades; I checked out pachinko (still no idea what to do); I bought things for people in the UK and I generally trundled along looking at stuff and taking pictures, being touristy and thinking about my time here.

I then walked home.  So all in all I had about 6 and a 1/2 hours walking, save a massage and a sit down to play Street Fighter 4.  My legs were stiff by the time I got back home and ate curry.  Mmm, curry.

Went to Karate tonight and did kata practice.  My Nihanshi Shodan is getting fairly okay and I'm finding it easier to generate power in the karate way.  Sensei also showed us two more informal bunkai, which looked short, brutal and effective, as opposed to the formal bunkai that we do for gradings.  It's an interesting thing, the formal bunkai, they are just a watered down dance, clearly created when the Japanese took Karate, took out all the nasty bits and put it into their school system as a callisthenics exercise programme.  The informal bunkai is clearly all the nasty secret stuff the Okinawans held close to their hearts.

Anyway, bed is calling so night night.