Karate training in Osaka & Tokyo

Again two weeks over, so time's flying! Especially when you're doing Karate training almost every day, and then it's also a little bit tiring ;-) But me and my friends, we all have really enjoyed our time with our Japanese senseis, wheras each one of them had their very own way of teaching us the fundamentals and their understandings of Karate. And Karate of course is not only a kind of sport, but even more a way of living, with a long time history and (family) tradition, and it all comes with a colorful bunch of experience of life, wisdom, stories & images. So every now and then we could enjoy the telling of our Japanese senseis and most of the time following their words, lively demonstrations and mimics was absolutely sufficient in order to understand the meanings of what they were saying. And in case it wasn't too clear for everybody what the point exactly was, we got help from our sensei Roland, who not only acted as an interpreter in between but who also took care of our group very considerately during the whole two weeks - thanks a lot for this :-)

In these two weeks we were also quite lucky to get two days off from training, so one day we could enjoy a river cruise near Kyoto and we also had the chance to visit a very traditional Japanese house with a splendid Japanese garden (it takes apparently three generations to form it that way!) and the short version of a tea ceremony. Of course we also enjoyed a lot of Japanese food and I liked the very traditional form of being served by the beautifully dressed personnel, as well as the more modern way, where you are given a touch screen tablet with all kinds of food pics on which you just have to put your finger and then press 'order' before it's being served by some friendly staff right at your table. Ha, I really liked this thing and wished, I had something like this at home too :-). Yes and the second day off I made a little trip on my own to see Fujisan, which was quite a nice experience too.

Sadly, our time in Japan was overshadowed by the death of one of our colleagues brother back home in Switzerland. This sad news struck us all quite a lot, and at the same time gave our group a special kind of common spirit for the remaining days. For my colleague and his family I wish all the best and a lot of energy in this very difficult time they are going through.

So yesterday it again was a day of saying goodbye and I walked my friends to the bus which brought them to the airport and to the plane back home. I now have one more night in Tokyo before I leave for Osaka, Bangkok and Kathmandu on Sunday evening/midnight. I am very much looking forward to this new country, to a different culture, to the Himalayas and to meeting up with my friend Sabine, who will accompany me for the next 4 weeks. Thanks very much Japan, it was a pleasure seeing you again and maybe we'll meet each once more some time, for a winter holiday and downhill ride on my snowboard maybe, would be nice :-)