Tuesday

Hot here. Real hot. Day went from being hot to real hot to hot and then real hot. Humid too.

Went for a walk, maybe three miles, sweated buckets.

Had lunch at the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. amazing and massive food. Will supply pictures tomorrow.

Helped James start on kids' tree house, sweated loads doing that.

Made spaghetti for dinner, made my own sauce. Pace of life here is such that I can get back into enjoying cooking as opposed to putting together whatever to satisfy need for food and time demands.

Traditional Karate tonight, and such heat in the dojo. My legs were aching anyway and sitting in horse stance punching away, then a different stance for kicks... arrrrrgh. Learning new Kata, very close range Kata, I can certainly see the applications.

Shoulder is getting gradually better, lack of stress means it heals up so much faster...

Monday training

Training

Cycled to Budo-camp

Squats

Mobility warm up

Bar @ 10 reps normal, then 5 overheads

3 sets

70kg x 5, 70kg x 5, 90kg x 5, 90kg x 5, 100kg x 5

Went for depth and good technique.

Triceps - Behind head, 6,5,4 @17.5 kg

The cycled home, real killer. Couldn't get up the hill in the bike.

Budo-camp great place. Two hours training in massive gym for 160 Yen (about £1.10!)

Will post pictures of the place.

Humm...

I've decided that I should post each day, so I'm going to try to, rather than post every so often. Also going to try and write what I'm learning about Japanese culture.

So, training.

Friday

Beach training:

Run

Resisted running

Black belt phys

Pad work (punching, kicking)

Drinking that night, drinking too much...

Saturday

Off

Went up island with James and family. Went seaweed collecting, then snorkling in some little out of the way beach. Wonderful.

Should playing up a little.

Sunday

Beach training

Run with press ups

Following circuit x4

1 minute each station, 30 seconds rest

Bicep burpee @30kg

Sit up-stand up

Turkish get up @ 10kg

Nabe run

Sled drag, then push @30kg

Good.

Then DIY at the family shop.

Then steak :)

My favourite pictures taken so far...

Training

So....

Monday
5 pull ups
Bike ride, walk

JuJitsu at night (sooooo hot)

Tuesday
6 mile walk

Lunch

2 mile jog

Weights

Pull ups
Me: 6,6,3
James: 8, 4.5, 2.5

Bench
Me: (30k x 10) x 2
James: (30k x 10) x 2

Me: 60k x 3, 60k x 3, 100k x 2
James: 60k x 3, 60k x 3, 60k x 2

Burpee bicep
Me: 30k x 10, 60k x 8, 60k x 5
James: 30k x 10, 60k x 6, 30k x 10

Bo kata

At night, went to traditional Okinawan Dojo. Very different experience. Small place on top of a house, had that dojo smell. Far more relaxed than I expected. Okinawan Karate is relaxed, Japanese Karate is formal, it seems.
Kata based, not especially physically demanding, but the mental focus required as each part of the kata is broken down. Learnt the basics last night of a kata, will now practice as some parts of it do not come naturally to me.

Wednesday

Got up at 6, went to beach with James and Shin.

Jogged, interspersed with plyometric push ups with slow returns.

Then resisted running.

Lunges

Turning lunges

Plyometric press ups down stairs then fireman's carry up stairs x 3

Sit up pyramid

Movement drills.

Found the resisted running a real killer in terms of having me blowing out my arse.

The Press ups down stairs was difficult and hard on the wrists.

The movement drills were tricky, but I slowly got the hang of them.

Review

Doing a lot of leg work, got Jujitsu tonight, which should be a little cooler. Then Traditional Karate tomorrow. Will rest tomorrow as legs so tired... well, sort of tired. Hard to describe. My calves are taking a battering from these shoes I borrowed from James, shoes with toes. Weird but effective. Change how you run and everything.

Nearly a week in...

Well, nearly a week in and Japan is sure amazing. I mean, full on, utterly so, amazing.

Okinawa is incredibly cool and probably the most relaxed place in Japan. So hot too.

James' house is on a hill and running up the damn thing is hard: there's two basic ways, the not so steep way and the very steep way. I tried running the very steep way two days ago and it killed me.

Fitness Goal: Run the whole damn hill!

James has also leant me some funky trainers that have toes. They change how you walk and run and really get to your calves. I can feel the good work they've done after only two days though (I say that, I can also feel a great deal of pain!).

So, training:

Saturday
1 mile run warm up (including that hill!)

Following circuit - 1 minute each station, 30 seconds rest between

Sledgehammers to tyre x2
Sledgehammer round the world x 2
Step ups (Tyre)
Step ups (two tyre)
Jump ups (two tyre)
Tyre flips
10 plyometric press up/10 burpee, repeat
Person press up

4 minute rest, then repeat (save pressup/burpee)

Person press up was easiest thanks to all that benching

Sunday

1/2 mile run at beach with 2 x 20 plyometric press ups

Following circuit - 1 minute each station, 30 seconds rest between. All two man drills

Tyre flips
Sprawl & bag charge (1 chargeing, holding, then change)
Fireman's lift shuttle run (1 carrying, 1 load, then change)
Sled pull, then jog with sled for 2nd minute
Band pulls ( 1 holding, 1 doing six point pull, then change)
Sledgehammers to tyre x2

Two circuits, then dip in sea.

The home for BBQ!

Japan, Day 1

Okay, been quiet on the blog front recently, mostly because work and organising getting here has been utterly utterly manic. Ain't been on facebookm aib't done anything with my mafia wars game... dreadful.
Anyway, Japan.

Getting here was funky: thought I was flying Virgin, but they shifted my flight to some other carier, ANA. Go to their desk and it was a case of, 'We're full, but we'll stick you in business class.'

Result.

Good job too, as the seat reclined and I got good service and generally milked it. I even managed 5 hours sleep during the flight.

So, we land, through customs and then hauling my heavily laden arse across Tokyo to get to my hostel. Not too bad a place. so tired that I forked out extra cash for a single room, and am I not worth it?

Have just gotten back from a trip to mcdonald's and then a wander aroudn the area.

Things I've noted:

1) mcdonalds is different. different taste to auce and fries, different ordering system, different type of shakes.

2) there's no litter anywhere!

3) People are surprised and smile a lot when you say domo and bow.

4) lots of push bikes, and no one chains them to anything.

5) lots of vending machines.

That's it.

Oh, and this place smells different.

Right, tomorrow's game plan is simple: get to tokyo station, book ticket on bullet train (whay cool), dump stuff in locker, then head off for a trip through Tokyo!

Then kyoto!

Catch ya later,

E!