Habu Sensei, Sanshin Sensei and Pottery Sensei.

Tonight was very very cool. Habu Sensei, Matsuda Sensei and Soma Sensei came to the bar. They are just the best bunch of people. 

They are everything you expect okinawan Sensei to be and more. They are so kind and down to earth, probably the nicest people on the planet and yet amazing at karate, the art of learning to fight and kill with the goal of never needing to use it.

I don't think these people will ever truly need to use their karate - simply because of the kind of people they are, but maybe they are the people they are, because of karate. 

Nagamine Sensei hit the nail on the head with: 'have a devil's fist and a saint's heart'. 

Between them, they cover all aspects of okinawan culture- Habu sensei the Habu hunter, Matsuda Sensei the Sanshin maker and Soma Sensei the pottery master- they are each very skilled at their other things - and then they all train karate together. 

What with it being a karate bar, filled with karate people, James got beaten up -again. ;) 

Habu Sensei is just something else. 

He has really given me some incredible experiences in Okinawa and is someone I really look up to. He is so kind and would do anything for anyone- he see's the good in everyone and is a true gentleman -yet his karate and his kata is out of this world- sharp, snappy, powerful, precise and more than anything- incredibly fast. Even when he is drunk. 

He really is a very special Sensei. 

Oh, and he told me it was okay to have let the snake he gave us go. I couldn't kill and eat it like he suggested, he will probably have to catch it again when it comes out and scares people again but he was okay with that, he said I have a good heart, I think he would have done the same unless he really needed the snake. 

Recipes- England meets Okinawa...

Food is a tricky subject in my world.

I love it and hate it at the same time, I adore cooking with it and creating new dishes and despite appearances, I do like eating and trying new things. 

However the past couple of years have been completely focussed on losing weight and becoming smaller and healthier, and with that I have become so concerned about getting fat again that I have ended up with what I call 'safe food' and then there's everything else- that I just can't eat. 

Now I am 40kg smaller and healthier I want to rediscover what I love to do and what my most favorite person in the world taught me to do. Baking, cooking and eating good food. 

I am going to share my  favorite recipes I've made so far- and make more effort to experiment and enjoy the eating again as much as I love the cooking and the creation of it. 

I've been getting to grips with the food here and also trying to create foods that are familiar from home. 

This has resulted in me ending up with some fusion recipes where I've had to substitute ingredients or where I've liked something and wanted to mix it into something I already make. 

So fusion recipie number one is: 'Touganzuki Scones'.

Touganzuki is a traditional Okinawan sweet made using Tougan - which is an Okinawan melon -also used to make soup. 

The sweet it is still prepared in the same way as it was for the Ryukyu Royalty and so it truly a traditional Okinawan sweet. I think it has the texture of a fresh apple- crisp and juicy and it is incredibly sweet, it holds its shape as flavour when used in baking too- Hence, perfect for my recipie. 

'Touganzuki and Cinnamon Scones' 

Difficulty- Easy 

Prep time- 20 mins 

Baking - 20 mins 

Quantity - 8 (approx)

Ingredients: 

350g flour (+5g of baking powder)

80g butter 

60g sugar 

175ml milk (warm) 

10ml shiquasa (or lemon) juice

200g touganzuki 

15g cinnamon 

5g nutmeg 

5g salt

1 egg yolk (for glazing) 

Method: 

1- Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. 

2- Cut the butter into cubes and rub it into the flour until you have what looks like breadcrumbs. 

3- Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix. 

4- Chop the Touganzuki into small pieces, add to the bowl and gently mix. 

5- Add the lemon juice to the warm milk and add this to the dry ingredients. 

6- Fold the mixture together until it forms a lose dough, 

7- Place onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it comes together (not too much) 

8- Roll the dough to a 4-5cm thickness and use a cookie cutter to form the rounds (re- knead and roll as needed- less is better though!) 

9- Cut 8 scones and put them onto a baking tray and brush the top with beaten egg yolk.

10- Bake in the oven at 180c for 15-20 minutes until brown and risen. 

Scones are one of the first things I ever remember making- they are simple and easy as long as the recipe is followed! 

I enjoy baking these and of course- it goes well with a pot of tea! 

New menu, new shoes.

So recently we have been testing new recipes out for a new menu at the bar, 

I've been able to help design and test them which has been a really cool thing to do. 

One thing we hope to start doing is offering sharing plates for groups to have, we will offer three different ones which will look something like this (remember that this is prototype number 1 and things might change!)

Meat plate... 

Fish plate... 

Vegetarian plate... This one will change slightly- we were using a smaller board as we ran out of big ones and we may be adding Goya/ avocado chips/ edamame/ salad. 

This is a really fun project. Trying to create food that okinawans and visitors will like is a challenge. 

And I've got my new shoes. Haven't really had a chance to test them properly the last month or so because I've been really crazy busy and tired too- too tired to wake up early and go running! So they've been sitting by the door waiting for me to use them properly. Soon I will! 

Blueberry cake, Goya chips and Sensei

Tonight Maeshiro Sensei came to the bar. He is 84 years old and is probably the fittest 84 year old I've met in my life. 

He is the nicest man. He trained with Chibana  Sensei, whenever I've met a Sensei recently I've asked them to tell me about their Sensei. 

I've noticed all of their eyes light up- you can see that they all absolutely loved their Sensei and had the upmost respect and admiration for them. 

It's been the question that they all think about for a second and then you can see that they so fondly remember their Sensei, they all sound like incredible role models and I think they would be proud of their students. 

Maeshiro Sensei said that Chibana Sensei was strict when they were training and a true gentleman the rest of the time. 

He was a teacher in Okinawa- which I'm discovering a lot of the old Sensei were. 

It seems to be a natural part of their lives to love teaching and helping people with anything. 

This is a 84 year old that loves to cook and used to own a restaurant/ izakaya.  He is still lightening fast and incredibly powerful (demonstrated by hitting the bar, kote kite style- HARD!) and he has the most amazing memories and stories to tell about Okinawa and Japan. 

We gave him cake and Goya chips- he said my Goya chips reminded him of traditional okinawan food- such a compliment! Then again he also said there is not a single food he doesn't like. 

I could spend hours listening and learning about life from this Sensei. Like a wise old grandad- that is just incredibly fit, healthy and strong. 

Intensive training review

So, we did it. We made it through the entire week of training. Plus regular training and work. We only missed the Tuesday to go to Arakaki dojo and the Friday afternoon to prep for the party in the evening. 

I spent the entire week trying to hide from the film crews and they caught me on the last day. I'm not good at speaking to people, not new people with tv cameras anyways. 

It was so cool. Oyakawa Sensei taught us a lot. We did 4 kata, lots of bunkai and kote kite. Very cool. 

We did ananku, wanshu, seisan and tokumine no kon (bo kata).

Oyakawa's Sensei was Nakazato Sensei who was Chotoku Kyan's student. A very pure lineage. 

Most questions we asked Oyakawa Sensei he gave quite short and direct answers to, then i (James) asked him to tell us about his Sensei, and you could see him think about it for a second and then so many memories and stories came back to him. I really love the fact that you can see how much admiration and respect these Sensei have for their Sensei. 

he said he was a kind man who was very strict about timekeeping. 

He was really good at playing the sanchin and liked to drink awamori. He was a teacher/ worked in education (can't remember exactly). 

One day when I'm old, I'm going to be able to tell stories all about my time in Okinawa and the Sensei I've been able to meet and train with and learn from. 

I'm pretty sure that will be the thing that makes my eyes all sparkly and bright again too. 

A trip to the clinic..:

Today after day 2 of the seminar James and I went to the clinic. 

Most of you know I have asthma, it's never been something I like to talk about - people have always treated me different once they know and don't let me do everything like usual. 

It's been cold here recently and the last couple of months I've been taking my ventolin more alongside my other inhaler. 

My asthma has been okay- not good but not bad, some issues but easily controlled with the inhalers. It's like magic. 

When aunt penny came in October she restocked my basically empty supply of inhalers. I got steroid ones and about 4 ventolin. 

Between now and then I've ended up with one ventolin left. 

I actually have no idea where they've gone. I don't want to say lost- maybe misplaced and turned out to be a expensive misplacement at that! 

One of them I think I left camping, one I have but it's nearly empty hence why we went to the clinic. 

It's winter and flu season here and the last thing I want is to need it and not have anymore. 

They made everyone wear masks,  even James 😂

It's the scariest thing in the world to not be able to breathe and to feel it getting worse. Imagine breathing through a straw and then as it gets worse run up and down some stairs and still be breathing through just a straw- getting air in and out is hard, breathing becomes an unbelievable effort. Something you usually never think about and just happens becomes something that takes all the energy you have. 

Apparently there isn't ventolin as a brand on the island but he said what he gave me is the same. 

I had to pay the clinic fee and the prescription fee- with no insurance it cost me ¥5000, expensive but can't really complain if it ends up saving me from something more serious. 

On the plus side training was great again today- really challenging but great. 

We worked on the Shorinji Ryu bo kata- I can't remember the name now! So much to take in! 

We did seisan- the Uechi Ryu kata too. 

It's like being a white belt all over again. Fun, scary, overwhelming, exciting and new. 

The more you learn, the less you realise you know. 

This is worth it though. It's an amazing experience, I'm very lucky to be able to do this. Literally spending all day every day doing karate. 

AND I got new shoes! :D 

They are just the cutest aren't they... 

A BIG spider!!

Tonight I get home and take my shoes off ,I go to put my coat on the coat stand, come back to my room and see that there's a big spider sitting on the wall near my shoe. 

First thing is to freak out, however, this is the same day that Habu Sensei made me hold the snake! Hence I think I was feeling a bit braver than usual! 

I got a lunchbox and caught it against the wall, then I line up the shoes so it stays there. 

We don't want it to get out now- it will move fast. 

It's late and I want to go to bed. 

Miltos helped before I went to bed. He killed it with a tennis racket while trying to get it out the box and out the house. 

Never mind, now the spiders will know not to come in. 

Intensive Karate Seminar - day 1

Today was a really cool day! 

Difficult early start but it turned out to be so worth it. 

I did shorinji Ryu for the first time today. 

It's similar to what we do, but there are clear differences between the styles. I learnt a lot. 

We trained for 4 hours today and went right through basics, kata, a more formal bunkai and some free bunkai as well as kote kite. Really cool first day training. I'm still finding it difficult to keep up with some of the Japanese - so there's a LOT of learning by copying and trying to fill in the gaps. It's a new way of learning, that's for sure. 

I'm excited for the rest of the week. 

We can't train at the seminar tomorrow because we have training at the Arakaki dojo but it will be a good week I think! 

We are training with Oyakawa Sensei. He is a really nice guy. Very very strong! 

We learned Ananku and Wanshu Shorinji  Ryu style - SO hard to not keep going into Matsubayashi! 

Then I went home to catch up on a bit of sleep- really didn't get much the past few days and I was turning into a real grumpy zombie. I don't do lack of sleep well at all. 

The rest of the week shouldn't be quite so busy and I should be able to focus on learning all I can from this seminar. Some of the bunkai we did was really really cool too! 

Now we've discovered we are on Japanese news! 

RBC- 

http://www.rbc.co.jp/news_rbc/%E7%A9%BA%E6%89%8B%E3%83%BB%E5%8F%A4%E6%AD%A6%E9%81%93%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E3%82%BB%E3%83%9F%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%E9%96%8B%E5%B9%95/

OTKK- 

https://www.facebook.com/karateotkk/posts/1111048752261740

Rice cooker cake...

We've created a monster issue! 

So we worked out that things other than rice can be cooked in the rice cooker- mainly cake. 

We've been making rice cooker cakes-  and the more I do- the better they get! 

We started at James' house with a pineapple one- for this one we used pancake mix- James' idea. It worked well except needed a little longer Cooking or a bit less cake mix. It was the start of great things though!   

Then I got some Berries to make a crumble and had some left so made a berry one- this was good- proper sponge  cake recipe this time. More like a granny steamed pud :)  

Then today we went tropical with the peach and mikan cake. 

Everyone's going to get fat now we've discovered this. 

I'm wondering what else I can put in the rice cooker... 

This could be a fun experimental month! 

A snake day...

After karate with Mr Mike this morning we went to Yomitan to see Habu Sensei, he had caught a snake and wanted us to take it and eat it! 

I'm not so sure about the eating part! 

So, we got there and he has a snake in the box, pours it onto the floor and James picks it up. It's a Nishike Hebi- it isn't poisonous but can bite and it will hurt but it is naturally a constrictor. 

So, James is holding the snake, I'm not so sure about it- it looks like it wants to kill him. 

After a few minutes it calms down and Mr Mike takes the snake- it's cool. He liked it I think! 

Then they make me hold it. I did. It was okay. I preferred it when other people were holding it and I could look and touch - but get away fast if I needed to! 

It is actually quite a beautiful animal once you get up close. They have purple tongues. 

It's skin changes to stripy halfway down. 

Anyone remember the snake I found by the river a few months ago? 

Turns out we know what it is now!

They were both pretty big and habu Sensei thinks his was about 8 year old. 

We didn't take him home and kill it and eat it. We set him free. 

Goya Champuru

Today I had a lesson from Peachy on how to make Goya Champuru well. It's food I like here if it is cooked well- and it doesn't involve any raw fish!- it's healthy, filling and most restaurants have it. 

I'd like to know how to make it well though for those times you want it but don't want to, or have time to go out to eat. 

Peachy did a great job, I had a step by step guide on how it should be done and it was really tasty! 

We were cooking it at the bar together and once we were done I looked to see whether we had customers and Goju Ryu Taira sensei was there. 

We gave him some of our Champuru- he was very complementary! (Whether that was because he was just being nice, I'm not sure!) 

Then we got into karate talk (after the discussions about all the animals he has eaten- and how he killed and prepared them! I won't say any more!!) 

The karate talk led to demonstrations - on James... 

It looked quite painful.... I didn't ask more...! 

The bar is a fabulous place to be. You have no idea what will happen or who will come and how the night will unfold. 

Opening of the year ceremony at the Budokan

This morning was hard. We didn't finish work until 2.30 and then had to get up and go to the Budokan for 8.30 for the opening of the year ceremony. Tired was an unnderstatement- I felt like a zombie. 

Sensei demonstrated wankan, followed by Taira Sensei jnr, Arakaki Sensei jnr and Makishi Sensei doing wankan bunkai. 

It was great- they were perfect- snappy, sharp and precise. 

I feel Matsubayashi will have a great new generation if they continue and pass on what they have learnt. 

In the evening Sensei came over to the bar where he waited for Mr Mike to come- my friend is back for a week! :D 

I love this guy! 

We had a drink together and then Sensei went home. I think he was tired- it had been a very long but really good day!

Basic Life Support (C.P.R training)

Today after our run we went over to the fire station where we did some Basic Life Support training. Mainly this was because James needed the qualification but others could go along too, sounded like fun so off we went. 

Was a bit of a challenge in Japanese but I had a good idea from my nurse training what they were explaining and talking about. 

We did CPR, AED and choking basics. 

Then we went for lunch together- apparently we had the best burger in the world... 

It was a good burger. 

Then off to angri house and then to the bar for osoji and the staff meeting. 

My little garden

So recently We were talking about growing plants and James told me that he has lots of pots that he isn't using in his garden. 

He brought them over to our house where I've started a little project of making the balcony look nice and growing a few nice plants. 

Makes it feel more homey and worked out to be really cheap so far- free pots, 45kg soil from the local garden centre ¥700 and probably about ¥1500 on plants so far. Agri house sells plants really cheaply as does the local garden centre. 

It's a bit dark but here we have the sunny plants- they get a lot of sun in the day. Not sure what the first three are but they're pretty and green so hopefully they will be ahoy and grow. The closest to the camera is baby tomato plants. They're new and cute and hopefully they won't die! 

Then over here we have my baby herb garden. We have a giant pot with lavender, Rosemary, parsley and basil. 

Next to it is my aloe tree. I just need to get a baby mint plant for the bottom left hand corner of the big pot. 

I have two more bigger pots left. I plan on growing a mikan/ shiquasa tree and a baby chilli tree and then I'll stop buying plants and simply try to keep them all alive! 

First karate keiko of 2016...

So tonight was a busy night nearly everyone came to the first training of the year. The opening of the dojo for 2016. 

We trained for just under a hour together. 

Arakaki dojo - Monday 4th January 2016. 

Then sensei invited us all upstairs to have some food and drink with him. 

It was really fun and really relaxed. 

Mrs Arakaki made some tasty food and Sensei got out his sanchin and as tradition dictates we all do kata. First time in his actual house though- and everyone else had to do naihanchi shodan and for me sandan was chosen. 

Then we got some fish, baby bamboo, and cow tongue. Not really my cup of tea but I really appreciate Mrs Arakaki making it all for us. 

A really great first karate training session.