On sunday, Sam and I used our day off to travel to Mt Fuji, joined by our new travelling companion, the easy-going Jànos of Switzerland. We headed off early to get the most out of the day as the trip was 6 hours return. UNFORTUNATELY, Sam's intimate connection with peach flavoured coca cola held us up, resulting in missing the hourly departing train..... .... ...
Eventually we arrived and it was as magnificent as is photographed. Mid-winter, there was plenty of fresh powder around for snow fights and some spectacular temples to explore. The path to the peak is only open during the summer, however being an 8 hour journey from base to summit, it would be best to stay overnight at Mt Fuji to allow enough daylight. Well worth the journey!
I've picked up a partially inflamed AC shoulder injury (the good one this time), so I took a few days off randori (free practice fighting) to nurse it better and am now back to fighting and the shoulder is recovering rapidly. I'm starting to see some progress with the training, being more competitive with the gripping and catching the occasional throw. I'm deeply grateful to have Sam along to help with brainstorming how to deal with some of the challenges faced along the way. Getting past the Japanese's experience in grip fighting is currently the biggest roadblock. Have a look at some of the footage from one of the tournaments we got the pleasure of watching Toin compete in, here.
Cristyn from Auckland has also joined our troop and we got to celebrate her birthday with some western style burgers and chips to catch a break from the rice. Happy birthday Cristyn!
Most days we are based at the english village at Toin University, where we help with teaching english to the university/high school students. The staff are lovely and have come from around the world to teach english in Japan. The level's of english ability are highly varied between groups, but they're all keen to learn and engage. This Sunday will likely be spent visiting Kamakura, a surf town south of tokyo to catch some sea breeze. I'll let you know next time whether we're game enough for a wid-winter swim!