Long time, no update. I finally do, and it's going to be all about judo
Heya guys, long time no see. I hope everyone is doing well!
I've had a bit of a rough patch the last few weeks; my wallet was stolen about ten days ago. There was no money or credit cards in it, but unfortunately all of my identification (gaijin card, license, health insurance card, bank card, etc) was. Oh, and they also took the keys to my car and apartment. So getting all that renewed and changing the locks on my car and house (not to mention not being able to get INTO my car or house that night) was a majorly un-fun expense of money and time, and embarrassment, as I had to explain to my police-officer friends (long story) what happened (basically, I was really careless with my stuff). In the meantime, one of those same police-officer friends had something really horrible and life-changing happen, which I'm not really at liberty to discuss with The World but I can give you details on skype if you want them. Oh, and then two days after the wallet fiasco I took the GRE. It did not go as well as I had hoped. The night of the wallet fiasco I ended up sleeping on Nichole's floor, which was really nice of her but also not terribly comfortable, so I didn't sleep so well. And then of course Friday night, at my amazing hotel in Fukuoka, I couldn't sleep at all...or I did, but not well. I had a nightmare about Fuji getting routinely abducted by aliens and deciding to go in his stead to spare him the experience, which he said was horrible (dream-Kelly is pretty noble). Luckily I woke up before anything truly nightmarish happened, but it still wasn't the rest I was hoping for. And the test itself was...well, I don't have my scores yet but it wasn't amazing.
And then I caught a cold, which I still have.
But, this weekend was the fall kentai, or state competition, for judo. Saturday was dantaisen (five-on-five) and today was kojinsen (single-elimination weight divisions). We were really hoping to win dantaisen, but sadly we lost to kunisaki. I blame the coach, because his 'kumiai' was bad. To put it simply, he had a boy who is 80k but good at techniques fight a 100+k opponent, and a 90k boy who isn't as strong at techniques fight Kunisaki's waza machine, Sugishita, who is also 90k and choked Shohei out within the first minute of their match. Likewise, Abe tried hard but one of his attacks was countered and he took a yuko (the smallest point). Everyone else was a draw. If Abe fight Sugishita, and Shohei fights the big guy, we can win. On a different day. With better luck. Shohei cried a lot, poor kid.
After the match, I came back to Kitsuki and had a Halloween Party with some adorable kindergarteners. Then I went back to Oita for a big-people party, which was awesome. I hadn't been out in a long while. I hung out in Oita with Nichole, Yuki (one of my ex-judo boys, who is now 21!!haha), and Yuki's friend Masa until almost 3am. We danced and sang karaoke and had tons of fun, and Nichole got sick which was sad. Hopefully her stomach issues get worked out soon. And then I slept for maybe 3 hours before getting up again to go watch kojinsen.
Which went significantly better than dantaisen. Seiya, who is the weakest member of our team and everyone expected to lose immediately, made it to the final four. Go Seiya! Shota fought hard and came in third; he lost a close match to the champion in the semi-finals. Next time he has a good chance to win it all. Abe-kun won his division decisively, as did Iwanaga. Shohei made it to the championship but lost there, so he was second. Takagi, our little lolisho (that means he's a really, really small, pretty boy who likes sweets and acts like an eight-year-old girl), didn't have a good day. Both days, actually. He completely ran out of energy in dantaisen; his last match was a draw but he should have won. He has to lose 6k to fit in his weight division, and the weighing is right after dantaisen finishes. So he can't eat the night before or morning of the matches, and halfway through the match he just couldn't move anymore. But he managed not to lose, which was good. Anyway, in kojinsen his main rival is a boy named Matsunaga. The first time they met, Takagi lost to him by vote (3-2), and the next time they met, last summer, Takagi's goal in life was to beat him, and he did. And then he beat Yamanaka-kun, who was 2nd in the all-Japan championships, shocking everyone. This time he met Matsunaga, who is of course out for revenge, in the championships (Yamanaka is a third year, so retired). All day Takagi looked kind of sluggish, definitely not his usual self, so we were pretty worried. And in the first 40 seconds of his match with Matsunaga, he took a yuko, which is really not good. In his division, ippon (one-point wins) are pretty rare, and it's easier to protect yourself from being thrown than to throw an opponent. But he still had two minutes, and he gave it his all. Matsunaga did what he could, wasting time with newaza and whatnot, and we were all getting really nervous as the clock ticked down. It looked pretty hopeless with 25 seconds left, but then Takagi finally hit his stride and flipped Matsunaga over his head with a backwards-sacrifice technique (I call it the 'Takagi Special' because he always uses it on me...haha). Ippon. And the crowd goes WILD, because that kind of last-second dramatic win is something you usually only see in the movies. All in all, an amazing day for Kitsuki.
There were a few disappointments; Sato-kun lost in the first round, which was surprising. Both girls lost in the first round, although they both put up a good fight. And Fuji, after an impressive win over a boy who everyone thought would place third, was sadly thrown in his second match. He fought a boy from Hofu, who is pretty strong, but it was obvious from the onset that Fuji was stronger. He lost because he let his guard down; they left the ring but the ref hadn't said 'wait', and Fuji stopped fighting and was thrown. There was some discussion about whether it should count or not, but in the end it did. Fuji was really disappointed, but I remember big Shota did the same thing in his second match two years ago, and it's not a mistake Fuji will make again. Etou-kun was third in his division, and he's probably the most disappointed of all, because in the jun-kessho he lost to Yamada, who he has beaten before. He needs to gain weight, which is going to be tough for him. Maybe I can help. haha
Anyway, that was my weekend. Good times. I came home and went to bed at 6:30. I woke up a few minutes ago to type this entry, and now I'm going back to bed. Goodnight, all. Happy Halloween!
I've had a bit of a rough patch the last few weeks; my wallet was stolen about ten days ago. There was no money or credit cards in it, but unfortunately all of my identification (gaijin card, license, health insurance card, bank card, etc) was. Oh, and they also took the keys to my car and apartment. So getting all that renewed and changing the locks on my car and house (not to mention not being able to get INTO my car or house that night) was a majorly un-fun expense of money and time, and embarrassment, as I had to explain to my police-officer friends (long story) what happened (basically, I was really careless with my stuff). In the meantime, one of those same police-officer friends had something really horrible and life-changing happen, which I'm not really at liberty to discuss with The World but I can give you details on skype if you want them. Oh, and then two days after the wallet fiasco I took the GRE. It did not go as well as I had hoped. The night of the wallet fiasco I ended up sleeping on Nichole's floor, which was really nice of her but also not terribly comfortable, so I didn't sleep so well. And then of course Friday night, at my amazing hotel in Fukuoka, I couldn't sleep at all...or I did, but not well. I had a nightmare about Fuji getting routinely abducted by aliens and deciding to go in his stead to spare him the experience, which he said was horrible (dream-Kelly is pretty noble). Luckily I woke up before anything truly nightmarish happened, but it still wasn't the rest I was hoping for. And the test itself was...well, I don't have my scores yet but it wasn't amazing.
And then I caught a cold, which I still have.
But, this weekend was the fall kentai, or state competition, for judo. Saturday was dantaisen (five-on-five) and today was kojinsen (single-elimination weight divisions). We were really hoping to win dantaisen, but sadly we lost to kunisaki. I blame the coach, because his 'kumiai' was bad. To put it simply, he had a boy who is 80k but good at techniques fight a 100+k opponent, and a 90k boy who isn't as strong at techniques fight Kunisaki's waza machine, Sugishita, who is also 90k and choked Shohei out within the first minute of their match. Likewise, Abe tried hard but one of his attacks was countered and he took a yuko (the smallest point). Everyone else was a draw. If Abe fight Sugishita, and Shohei fights the big guy, we can win. On a different day. With better luck. Shohei cried a lot, poor kid.
After the match, I came back to Kitsuki and had a Halloween Party with some adorable kindergarteners. Then I went back to Oita for a big-people party, which was awesome. I hadn't been out in a long while. I hung out in Oita with Nichole, Yuki (one of my ex-judo boys, who is now 21!!haha), and Yuki's friend Masa until almost 3am. We danced and sang karaoke and had tons of fun, and Nichole got sick which was sad. Hopefully her stomach issues get worked out soon. And then I slept for maybe 3 hours before getting up again to go watch kojinsen.
Which went significantly better than dantaisen. Seiya, who is the weakest member of our team and everyone expected to lose immediately, made it to the final four. Go Seiya! Shota fought hard and came in third; he lost a close match to the champion in the semi-finals. Next time he has a good chance to win it all. Abe-kun won his division decisively, as did Iwanaga. Shohei made it to the championship but lost there, so he was second. Takagi, our little lolisho (that means he's a really, really small, pretty boy who likes sweets and acts like an eight-year-old girl), didn't have a good day. Both days, actually. He completely ran out of energy in dantaisen; his last match was a draw but he should have won. He has to lose 6k to fit in his weight division, and the weighing is right after dantaisen finishes. So he can't eat the night before or morning of the matches, and halfway through the match he just couldn't move anymore. But he managed not to lose, which was good. Anyway, in kojinsen his main rival is a boy named Matsunaga. The first time they met, Takagi lost to him by vote (3-2), and the next time they met, last summer, Takagi's goal in life was to beat him, and he did. And then he beat Yamanaka-kun, who was 2nd in the all-Japan championships, shocking everyone. This time he met Matsunaga, who is of course out for revenge, in the championships (Yamanaka is a third year, so retired). All day Takagi looked kind of sluggish, definitely not his usual self, so we were pretty worried. And in the first 40 seconds of his match with Matsunaga, he took a yuko, which is really not good. In his division, ippon (one-point wins) are pretty rare, and it's easier to protect yourself from being thrown than to throw an opponent. But he still had two minutes, and he gave it his all. Matsunaga did what he could, wasting time with newaza and whatnot, and we were all getting really nervous as the clock ticked down. It looked pretty hopeless with 25 seconds left, but then Takagi finally hit his stride and flipped Matsunaga over his head with a backwards-sacrifice technique (I call it the 'Takagi Special' because he always uses it on me...haha). Ippon. And the crowd goes WILD, because that kind of last-second dramatic win is something you usually only see in the movies. All in all, an amazing day for Kitsuki.
There were a few disappointments; Sato-kun lost in the first round, which was surprising. Both girls lost in the first round, although they both put up a good fight. And Fuji, after an impressive win over a boy who everyone thought would place third, was sadly thrown in his second match. He fought a boy from Hofu, who is pretty strong, but it was obvious from the onset that Fuji was stronger. He lost because he let his guard down; they left the ring but the ref hadn't said 'wait', and Fuji stopped fighting and was thrown. There was some discussion about whether it should count or not, but in the end it did. Fuji was really disappointed, but I remember big Shota did the same thing in his second match two years ago, and it's not a mistake Fuji will make again. Etou-kun was third in his division, and he's probably the most disappointed of all, because in the jun-kessho he lost to Yamada, who he has beaten before. He needs to gain weight, which is going to be tough for him. Maybe I can help. haha
Anyway, that was my weekend. Good times. I came home and went to bed at 6:30. I woke up a few minutes ago to type this entry, and now I'm going back to bed. Goodnight, all. Happy Halloween!