Melvin broke... :/

So, I went running this morning and went to karate and then I decided to go and find the next angry house a bit further away than the other one. As I get to the burned out Land Rover (a landmark for finding the agri house) Melvin feels funny. I'm not sure what's wrong at first but something doesn't feel right. I caustiously continued another km ish and he starts to feel all wobbly- something is definitely wrong. 

I stop and check him and there's a hole in the side of the back wheel- not sure what caused it but had I gone much further it probably would have burned out and made me fall off. Abunai yo. 

It wasn't worn down like a car tyre does- there was a hole in the side of it that doesn't touch the road so I don't really understand that. 

However I caught it and didn't die. I walked with Melvin back towards the main road a km or so - I didn't want to risk driving it.

I make it back to the burned out land rover and there's a bike shop. Lucky I can read bike in Japanese eh.

So right now- there's a nice Man putting a new tyre on Melvin and while we are here I asked him to do a oil change too as he is due one now I've done over 2000 km. 

it's costing a small fortune and is an expense I didn't need. 

My new pair of vibram shoes might have to wait a while but having Melvin in a safe condition is more important than a hole in my shoe. 

I'll get paid from gaigo next week so I'll be fine until then. I can run in tabi. 

Poor Melvin. 

On the plus side I filled my fridge with lots of fruits, vegetables, eggs and chicken for just over ¥1000. Bargain. 

Should be fine for a week now and the new house rule with all the running- of it doesn't come from a agri house I can't eat it. 

Right now, I'm roasting aubergine, peppers, green beans and two types of tomatoes. Oishee. 

Camping - part 2

So we leave the stone forest and go to a nearby beach... It was beatiful. 

We had lunch at a cafe right next to the beach. 

This is the view from the cafe window- stunning!

Then James and I grab a blanket and head down to the beach. It's about 2.30 now and we've been up since before 7 getting ready etc. most definitely nap time. 

It was perfect- beautiful beach and nice weather. 

Then we head to the camp site- Hisano and the children decide to sleep in the caravan and James, shun and I will be sleeping in the tent on the beach. 

First thing we do is make the fire! 

Then we get the kayak down off the roof and decide to have a quick swim in the sea before it gets dark. 

This is where we are now... 

Then we change and go back up to the campsite where we have a BBQ and some fabulous hot milk, baileys and Kaluha! 

James took his down to the beach and decided to toast his feet. 

Pretty cool way to spend a Saturday night, if you ask me! 

So, we go to sleep and about a hour in, it starts to rain- that's fine because we're all tucked up in the tent in sleeping bags and jumpers. 

However, it just carries on all night... So much so, that our plans are ruined the next day- the weather is nt good at all! 

Kari is also feeling unwell, so we decided to head back to Naha. 

This wasn't ideal but it was fun and it also means we just need to go again to do the things we didn't do. 

Next time- eating at kangaroo burger- kayak in the mangroves and explore higashi village! 

Camping!!

We are going to nago to go camping today! 

We're going to go to the stone forest - I haven't been there yet so I'm excited about that. 

It's pretty beautiful. 

They have walks you follow through it all- 

Can you see the 'horse'?! 

I was cold. 

There was the most beautiful views at the top. 

Can you see the 'turtle'? 

Then we made our way down the green trail which led us to the banyan tree forest- what an amazing place! 

Little cuties like pictures! 

Such incredible trees!

I don't think there was a way to take a picture to properly express the beauty and size of the trees. 

Then we finished the course and got back in the car to go and find some lunch and head to the camp site... 

New Year's Day visit to the beach...

So, it was such a beatiful day we decided we woul go to the beach. By the time we were all ready it was late afternoon. 

We caught the sun just as it started to set- it was beautiful. 

We discovered we could make silhouettes in the sun. Naturally we started doing cool things- Anchan did ballet. James did karate. 

Kusanku... 

Karate kid ;) 

Ballet...

This was cool. 

It's the 1st January here. I'm cold- but not freezing and we're out playing on the beach. 

はつもでーvisiting the temple with Sensei

Today we woke up to the most beautiful day. 

Just missed the sunrise but it was still early and coming up. 

We met Sensei at 11am but I went to the park earlier to wander around and take things in myself. It was busy but a good experience. 

Lots of people- lots of food stalls and games to play. 

We met Sensei and went into the shrine. We prayed and at the salt and drunk the awamori. Then we got the yearly omamori's. 

We got the ones for the dojo. I also got one for mum and dad. 

Sensei then took us to eat at one of the stalls. We ate corn, takoyaki, eka and yakiniku. 

It was really nice to spend some time with Sensei out of the dojo. 

Just a couple more days and it's back to training. 

No time for rest though we need to train for tokashiki and we are going camping! 

おみそか

Today is New Year's Eve. Here in Okinawa/ Japan it is a big day. Everyone has to eat soba with their families. The long noodles symbolise living a long life. 

It's a day where families Come together and spend time together.

I'm so lucky- Hisano and James invited me to thier families house.  Not family but they made me feel like it. They are so so kind here. 

James and I went running this morning. We went a longer route. It was tough. Tokashiki will be hard. I'm not sure if I will be able to do it in a hour. I will give it my best shot but I just don't know if i can run it fast enough!

Here's the soba that Hisano's mum made - was really good! 

She made all this food too- oishee! 

And then we even got home made cake! 

Then I facetimed everyone- Sensei, brothers, dad. 

Messaged the other people and got the cutest picture of this little boy. 

I am so so proud of him and so lucky to be able to say I'm his auntie. He is a very special little boy and I love him to the moon and back. 

He is my favourite elf on the planet. Obviously. 

Drinks are a go! 

Tonight is a naihanchi night. 

Tomorrow we are going to the shrine with Sensei and we are going to do karate. What better way to kick off 2016... 

My rescued flower

James and I went to a new 'angry house' the other day. 

It isn't actually called angry house, it's called 'agri- agricultural house' but because there was this one day where I was having a really bad day so I went to James' house and he suggests I ride my bike to agri house- to get a pineapple and to cheer up a bit. I so thought he was sending me to the angry house- for being angry and grumpy. Ever since then it's been angry house to us. 

At this angry house though I found a cauliflower - I love cauliflower cheese! And this poor looking Christmas cactus that had just one flower on it for ¥400. 

It was cheap, probably because it was all lonely and not the healthiest. So I rescued it. Now I need to take care of it and bring it back to life. 

I bought it a new pot and some stones to hold the water. Now it lives on the kitchen table in the warm and sun. Seems to like it because today we have more flowers! 

So far, so good. 

I've had a Christmas cactus in every home I've lived in now. Isn't that strange?!! 

Last karate training of the year...

Well, what can I say. 2015 has been a year I'll never forget. 

I've been happier than I've ever been but I've also felt sadness, fear and pain like never before. Good and bad come together but overall I am very very happy here. 

Training, my dojo mates and senpai have been there and I've had to go no matter the situation.

When happy we train, when sad we train, when we're in pain, we train. Simply- no excuses. Train. 

It helps. 

We clean the dojo together after every training but tonight, being the last session of the year we trained but then we all spent half an hour really cleaning the dojo. 

When I was cleaning it was kind of emotional, a lot has happened on that wooden floor this year. 

We trained for competitions, we had visitors, friends and family from all around the world train with us, I dislocated my thumb, we hurt- a lot! We sweated- a lot! we laughed - a lot!  

What I love about this cleaning we do- and all the cleaning we do- everyone helps. 

White belt, black belt, young or old- we all do it. Together. Happily. 

Then we all sit down and eat ice cream together. These people have become family. We're one big crazy, but happy family. 

2016 will be a good year, as long as we can keep doing what makes us happy. 

Boxing Day.

Today we have work. 

Before that though, it's Saturday and we have karate training. 

The strangest thing happened- I was only saying yesterday how it would be super cool to try the kusanku bunkai - recently we have been working on the shiro matsu no kon bo bunkai- that is very cool- albeit a little scary- we have come very close to hitting each other hard around the head with the bo!! 

So I go to training today and we are practicing everything and we did a bit of the bo. Then Sensei said he wanted us to do kusanku - 'hai Sensei'

Then he says kusanku bunkai- James looked a bit surprised too! 

How did Sensei know that that's what I wanted to do. It's all a bit creepy!! 

So after training we have laundry to do. Today is bedsheets and dogi. 

Jeff got thrown in too ;) 

I made ninjin shiri shiri too- one of my favourite champuru okinawan dishes. 'Ninjin' is a carrot and apparently 'shiri shiri' is the sound the grater makes when you grate the carrot! 

So basically it's grated carrot stir fried in sesame oil - sometimes with onions and other veg/ spam, salt, pepper and some 'hon dashi' which is powder stock. Then once it's cooked a bit you add eggs and let them cook too. Then tada, ninjin shiri shiri. 

Way more successful than my Goya champuru attempt. 

Tonight, one of our friends from miyako- jima brought us some omiyagi - it was purple potato cream break. So oishee! 

Coffee and purple bread for breakfast will get me up and running ;) 

Christmas!

 This was something I wasn't looking forward to. Christmas has never been the best time- usually stressful and tense or lonely and working. 

However this year that was going to change. 

The first good thing was that we decided to close the bar in the end because of the karate demonstration in the evening. Then James said we would do dinner at his house. He bought the chicken and veg and I bought all the accessories! 

We cooked everything at the bar in the morning and then ate at lunchtime. 

We even did Christmas crackers. It's the little things... 

James came back with the most amazing coffee for me from the man across the road that grinds and roasts it himself too. 

Then we all watched elf together followed by avengers and karate practice for the evening. 

The demonstration was fun. I so thought James was going to kick me in the head when we did the wood breaking part too! 

 We found Santa. Then went back to James' to do Christmas pudding and custard. I don't even like Christmas pudding but setting it on fire is traditional and who doesn't like custard?!

Got home and facetimed dad. 

Perfect end to a really great day. 

It was a relaxed happy time with good food, good company, great karate. Couldn't ask for more. 

Just when I was expecting a crap Christmas, the opposite happens. 

Not because incredible things happened because it was just a normal kind of day, but because the people I'm around here really care and that really shows. 

Turns out that mr grinch, really isn't such a grinch after all... 

:) 

Karate Masters Shoot!!

So Friday was the day that James, Chris, Yuki and I went and visited two Amazong Sensei on Okinawa to shoot them for the karate masters project. 

In the morning James and I went running at 6.30am- a early and cold but good start! 

Then I went home for a shower and then met James at the bar. From there we went south to go and visit Nobuko Oshiro- the highest ranking female karateka in Okinawa. She is a 8th Dan in Shorin Ryu karate and is simply incredible. She is so welcoming and kind and gives off the grandma feel! Yet she performed the most impressive kata I've seen a lady do, so far. 

She took us for lunch to a really great little herb cafe with all locally grown fruits and veg- really great and healthy food. after that we went with her and her husband back to the dojo where we photographed them together and then onto the sugar cane field to get some pictures for the 'beyond the dojo' part of the project. 

The dojo was beautiful and had everything any karateka could ever need or want to aid training. I could spend hours there having a great time. In particular I really liked the way they store their sai!! 

I really really like this lady- she is a different kind of karate inspiration to me. The guys are amazing but this is different. 

In the afternoon we went to see Takamiyagi Sensei. He does Chinese Kung fu and shuri te. He gave me mikan so we're friends!! 

We went for dinner to the Greek food place together- he had never been there so it was nice for him to try new foods, I think he liked it! (Or at least he pretended well!) 

Then we went to work. We were late but hey, I was with the boss so no worries! 

We're all getting a cold- was bound to happen eventually but one by one, everyone's sniffling and sneezing everywhere. Let's see what happens this week! 

Wakayama- day 3

Today we got up at 7.30, we went for breakfast at 8.30 and met Aya- San who sorted this whole trip for us, along with sensei's brother. 

They sorted such a brilliant trip for us, it was above and beyond. 

We had breakfast together and then we went to the largest waterfall in Japan. 'Nitchi falls'. It was beautiful- as was the shrine. Literally like something from a movie. 

After that we got to walk all the way down to the base of the falls. It's seen as a sacred place. 

They burn incense and wood. 

Lots of people pray here. 

And there is the most beautiful trees lining the path, it was stunning. 

After this we go for lunch together. I had tuna curry. Surprisingly tasty! 

After this we go to a onsen for your feet! 

Now we are making the long drive back to the airport. It has been a action packed three days with some memories I won't forget. 

I'll do another post with a link to my video when I make it and the pics off james' camera.

Really really amazing experience.