slowly but surely

YAYE high fives all around I made it to Kyoto in April this year. It took 6 years since my first job application which I never got, 2 years in Ibaraki-ken the least charming prefecture in the whole of Japan and many many many great nights good experiences made many good friends who were hard to leave. Everytime I tried to say goodbye something would work its way into my eye and make it seem like I was crying (which is ridiculous). I passed my JLPT level 2 and am aiming for level 1. I have started teaching Kizomba here dancing more salsa and bachata which is great. I have danced more in the last 2 months than I did in the entire 2 years I was in Ibaraki.  My new school is great, co worker is great bosses are cool. What else?  Oh I just peered over at our cat "shinobi" I say we as  I am in a we situation. So there is a kitten he is very cute when he wants to be and then a nuisance to my feet at like 5 in the morning.
Slowly but surely things are moving in the right direction.

Ariyo

Legally beat them

When I told her what I was going to do I thought she would have an objection, but she told me she was interested to hear that I was going to take part in a Judo PE lesson with her form class and even came and took pictures.

I had wanted to join in training with the Judo club but for some reason or another I hadn't made it. Kawara the Judo Sensei told me I should join the first years for a lesson and that he would bring in his own Judo gi for me. He stressed the length of the arms and legs may be short and this was no exaggeration. It was also a bright blue one which contrasted heavily with all the various shades of white gis the students had. You could tell which students had hand me down gis as theirs were bordering on a creamy yellow colour.  

I walked to the Dojo with a nike pro t-shirt so all my students were in double shock first reaction "Ariyo da!!!" - It's Ariyo. followed by "wow, sugoi(great), tsuyoi (strong), macho baby" etc. They were all excited that I joined in. I was surprised to see two other teachers with their black belts. I never even knew they did Judo.

Kawara sensei passed me the blue gi and Akurai sensei helped me get the obi (belt) on. Orai sensei lead the class through the introductions and I joined in ,as Orai sensei put it, as a foreign exchange student. We warmed up and practiced Ukemi which are breakfalls which I picked up after a while. We practiced a few pin techniques, only Kawara sensei and one of the giant first years( a member of the Judo team) managed to escape my hold.

Finally we had a challenge type sparring round. I was surprised at how many students were willing to fight me. I'm a big guy in Japan and according to my JHS first years I'm a titan. I kicked all of the kids asses, some were easier than others but they all went down. I had a try with one of the teachers and that was a stalemate. I really enjoyed it, might be something to learn ( get my first black belt not from H&M ).At the end of the class all the students bowed and thanked me for coming.

On leaving the gym the class from which I have students that cause me a problem came in. How I wish I had them during judo would loved to have thrown some of those guys around.

Child's pose

So the Elementary school that I teach at is the challenge for me, In this school I am the English teacher the class is run by me but I follow a plan that I receive from somewhere after it has been translated losing all its flavour.

 Problem is, when the plan has holes in it I do not have opportunity to discuss any ambiguities. So today I could only fill in the gaps in the plan during the class, so I was a s nervous as can be in the build up.

So low and behold when I am taking off my onesie before I get in the shower I pull something . This is my first onesie related injury but something tells me it wont be the last. I have to get into child's pose  ( i learnt this from INSANITY which allows you to recover when you are mash up).

Anyway this injury just made things worse. Not only was I not clear on how to run the class but now I couldn't defend against Kanchos and other child like attacks. woe, woe, woe.

Well getting to school all the kids were excited and remembered my name and I did manage to defend against reverse Kanchos deliver 3 kick ass lessons and end my string of lessons by dunking on them 10 year olds in the playground. They just wanted dunks and yeah my back hurt but the kids cheers acted as a kind of painkiller which wore off as soon as I got back to the teachers room.

(Funny though this kid asked me why I was so sun tanned all over, the same kid that invited me to play Basketball  and I know he wasn't trying to make a joke he had just never seen a Black person in his life)

Also got to have lunch with the kids which was cute as you can imagine and a lot of the kids were really charming and helped me clean the board and with my stuff and seemed genuinely happy to see me, which is worth the stress of not knowing what is going on. This will get better I had words which I'll probably get in trouble for but I apologised enough that I hope it doesn't happen

Anyway back to child's pose

It's really happening

Just running a bath so I can only take a few minutes here, usually at home I have showers or bucket baths in the morn but now I'm here I'm doing the whole Japanese shower and soak in the evening.

It's crazy how things change, I took a run to the Ocean today it's only 20 minutes away, I  used to only see the Ocean when I was on holiday but now it is in my own back garden.

I've dreamt and dreamt and hoped and prayed for years that I would be here in Japan and finally after so long it's true, I'm yet to start teaching here but that will soon come and the nervousness I have now will soon hopefully die away. Right now is the hard stage the lonely stage I have few new friends and the only close friend I have in the country is too far away to even try and reach. This freedom across the seas ironically is its own prison, it's along time till payday and the costs of moving abroad  and the lack of local knowledge confine me to the only place I can say is mine and mine alone, no communal kitchens or showers, it's all me.

Being alone you start to worry there are an unlimited amount of scenarios you can run through but I guess that's natural for anyone living on their own without another family member in the whole continent.

Checked the bath it's hot but not full yet.

I plan to explore the area I live in and then the capital city of the prefecture possibly on the weekend with the new friends I met who are all in the same boat. As I do have some shy Japanese ability I am in someways better equipped  than others the dark skin does make me stand out no matter how much Japanese I can deliver and it's a fact that I will always and forever be an outsider and you can feel that, funny  enough it is part of the charm.  I am an exotic creature in this land and I choose to enjoy the fact that I am being watched, pretend to not see the obvious photo takers the pointers and pretend to not understand the little kids who say "Look Daddy there is a Black man".

Baths full now so :D I'll be back soon