June - Karate Comps, Demos and Proms.

This month was my first experience of getting a fever. Not pretty. I made it home Wednesday and then had to crawl around the floor to get places. My world was spinning. To sleep I put my head on an icepack. Not sure if that's what I was supposed to do but it was the only thing to give me relief. I had to change my clothes about 3 times during the night as I would wake up wet. I think I lost 3kg or something. Obviously on the Thursday I couldn't do karate and lucky for me on the Sunday I had a karate competition. I slept and lay down before my fight. My warm up was only 1 minute long as I got too tired. My fight went pretty well I went 2x2 minute rounds with a black belt, and only lost because I weighed more. Not bad considering my condition.

Lucille, a friend from school, came and visited. Unfortunately I couldn't get off work but she travelled around a little. On the weekend (10th/11th) we went to Himeji and Kyoto. It was great seeing her again after such a long time. In Kyoto we went to Kinkakuji (my 3rd time) and to Fushimi Inari Shrine which has an uncountable amount of tori gates. It is very beautiful. The only bad thing about this visit was that I lost my wallet or had it stolen. Arrr! You all know how annoying it is... It's even worse in a foreign country.

On the Saturday 24th, we had a prom for the JETs returning to their countries.... but I went anyway. I was a fantastic night. Because I was doing a demonstration at a junior tournament the following day I didn't stay out late of drink.

My sensei picked me up and said something about breaking a bat after finishing my kata demonstration. I brushed it off as a joke, but it was not joke. Norimatsu Sensei did a demonstration of breaking the bat... and then proceeded to jump about shouting "Itai", which is "It hurts". Not impressed! The kata went well and I wasn't nervous about it at all as the bat was more concerning. I broke it first go, much to surprise of myself and many others especially when they found out it was my first time. I'm officially CRAZY!

I will try to add a video of the breaking. Matte kudasai!