It’s Saturday, the start of a long weekend here in Kumamoto, so I enjoyed a nice sleep in and a relaxed breakfast this morning and took a little bit of time to organise my suitcase and all the gifts I have bought etc…It might all fit! Minowa Sensei came to pick us up at 9.30 to go to a local shopping centre where we got a few more presents and looked around the shops for awhile. While we were there we were also lucky enough to run into one of Minowa Sensei’s daughters with her family.

Hmmm... what to buy.. a whole shop full of junk food!

When we had finished shopping we went to pick up Tomika San for lunch. Today for lunch we went to a Yakiniku restaurant. There is an all you can eat salad and drink bar and then you order your meat and grill it at the table yourself on a gas grill. It was very good and I ate way too much! I thought that was it, I had fruit and jelly from the salad bar for desert but then on the way home we stopped for ice cream! Good Old Baskin and Robbins are even in Japan! I have been very well fed by Minowa Sensei and Tomika san!

Sandra enjoying lunch

Minowas Sensei and Tomika at Yakiniku restaurant

Eating Jelly with chopsticks! Minowa Sensei admitted even Japanese people think it's too hard and just use fingers!

By the time we got back to the dojo Marc Waterfield Sensei was already here with his daughter Reina preparing for the afternoon kids class. Sensei Sandra had a bit of fun chasing reina about the dojo before she and Marc Sensei did some Kumi bo practice before class.

Sensei's training before the kids class

As people started to arrive we got the mats out and put them together for the class. It was a great fun class, It is interesting to me to note that I could follow most of what Marc Sensei was saying to the kids and what he wanted us to do just by watching. After the first section we had a drink break and Sandra Sensei took a stretching segment.

After that we did some Gyaku Zuki training where I partnered up with one of the older boys in the class, he was a great student and responded instantly to any feedback. All of the kids in the class were pretty awesome really! Heaps of fun and there were some real cuties! Sandra Sensei finished of the class with some more kihons and some Ukemi practice and we all packed up the mats together… packing up and cleaning up is always so much fun here, the kids are encouraged to do the job but they aren’t stopped from playing while they do it either which is great fun to watch. I think sometimes we ( or maybe I should say I) get too caught up in getting the job done right away now, and forget to enjoy the process.

Teamwork

Ok.. that's enough carrying... stacks on!

This evening Minowa Sensei and Tomika san picked us up again to go out to a local observatory. We saw saturn and Mars through a big telescope up in the observatory and the saw the Andromeda Galaxy through another telescope out on the deck. We also met up with Minowa Sensei’s daughters and grand children while we were there, what a beautiful family they were.

checking out Saturn through the telescope

Back at the dojo again now and I am once again marvelling at the welcome we have had and at how lovely everyone has been. I think tomorrow morning will be a quiet one around the dojo, do some cleaning and try to somehow give back a little of what we have been given.

The Sohonbu from the street. A beautiful place to be