Garth’s sex free Japan Trip

Garth’s sex free Japan Trip

Last year Sensei Rick promised me a paid Uni judo  scholarship to Kyoto and he made good on his promise.

The Uni judo paid for my return air fare 

Organised for my stay at the shimeikaikan judo hotel 

A fancy red bike

and Uni dojo to train at .

not included was girlfriends or beer vending machines.

[rick]

As one or two folks may still recall I went to Japan for a bunch of weeks over summer to brave midwinter Kyoto and do a bunch of Judo. I trained with a few clubs in a couple of places and the judo everywhere was great. The two main places I trained though were Kyoto University and Ritsumeikan University. During my stay, I also met up with our old club mainstay Yoshio every weekend and he showed me around to a few different clubs in Osaka.

The time I was there was a solid, solid learning experience for a few different reasons. I took a lot of solid landings, got solidly pinned, arm barred and occasionally choked and even managed to land some relatively solid techniques myself on occasion.

Kyoto university was a crazy curveball of a judo experience. Their standing work is not bad but as a kosen judo club their newaza was fantastic and in a lot of ways very reminiscent of BJJ training. I discovered that even very, very small kosen judoka can pin pretty much anyone to the mat if they feel like it. I trained here most days starting in about my second week in Japan as they were in the middle of an off period when I first arrived. The styles varied from masterful guard players to newaza gorillas. Randori always started standing and then continued once it hit the ground. There were no easy rounds. Awesome spot for any BJJ players or newaza specialist judoka.

Here are some pictures of the guys

Ritsumeikan University was the other main place of training for me. During my first week in Japan I managed to train with the girls team a grand total of twice and got thrown like the amateur I am. Even the smallest of the girls on the team had top notch skills and threw me a bunch. After the first week, the girls’ training changed up so they were doing various different sorts of training at various times and Kyoto Uni changed to morning trainings instead of the usual schedule that shows up on their website.

Around then I started training with the Ritsumeikan boys’ team so that I could work in two trainings a day. From about the second week on, provided my body could sustain it my average day involved getting mauled by Kyoto Uni, managing to lock up the occasional armbar or choke if I was particularly in form and then being thrown about endlessly by the team. All of the tachiwaza here was great, I don’t recall I time where I’ve had so much fun being outclassed every randori. There was the odd day where the sensei didn’t show up and the team would take the time to run through a technique with me until I did it to a standard they were happy with.

Outside of these I attended the odd training at one or two clubs that Yoshio showed me to in the weekends in Osaka and there was a club I forget the name of that James recommended and all of those were great. It was a great time of throwing and getting thrown by men, women and children of all ages. The only thing I would change is maybe the season I arrive in and I would definitely like to stay and train for longer whenever I next hit Japan.