liamyokoyama's personal blog

We focused on abdominals today because we didn't want to really fatigue the arms but we did some bicep curls and tricep exercises.
John did some light benching but i didn't really want to do any.Was an OK day but not the best

Training was different today for warm ups we got into teams again and we did a relay kinda race we started of with monkey running twice around the mats and you would give your band to the next person(i was the second in line )
2.can can each foot once around
3.arm crawls once around
4.running on your hands and knees twice around
5. crab walk forward and backwards once around each direction
6. running backwards twice around
7. and just pure sprinting around twice
we lost by 2/6 (Fail.. lol )
At the end we played papers,scissors,rock the first person of each team would battle , then the winner would go on and vs the next person.We won and it only took me and the first person to win,the team that lost had to do sprinting on the spot and then push ups then sprinting on the spot then sit ups etc.Afterwords we did uchi comi 10 then throw
At around 9 10 the adults did not come so it was kinda weird , it was just pure high school kids class which was good because it gave us some room for lots of randori.

It was quite nice today the sun was out and every thing but as soon as the wind hit us it was like ouch.
We started on the treadmill to warm up,we were on it for 12 minutes i did about 4k walking for about 4 minutes and then 10k jogging for 5-6 minutes but once it hit the 10 minute mark i went all out at 15k, last minute i bumped up the speed to 18k it was painful and hard but in the long run it will be well worth it. My goal is to be able to run full speed at 20k for at lease 5 minutes before we leave.We used 2 of the machines that targets your shoulders and upper back. We would use both machines and then do 10 sets and then swap machines,We also played around with the 5kg weight like before for 30 minutes it hurt a lot lol.
We did some squats 15 reps 4 sets we started off with 40kg then at around the second set we went up to 60kg the legs were a little fatigue and hurt because of the treadmill.

Just when we hoped for another ne-waza night because our arms and upper body where hurting and all fatigued we had tachi waza practice is int it ironic! We dreaded when the time came for pull ups, you had to hang off your partners lapel and hold your self up for about 1 minute and then swap,you did this twice after that u had to do 50 pull ups Ouch!
Suzuki gave me some pointers on my technique and things when we did uchi comi and nagi comi it really helped me a lot.
At 8 40 we started randori except it was a bit different tonight instead of picking your partner all the junior high school and 2 adults all lined up and we would get split up into 2 groups. One group would defend and the other group would attack,when some one threw some one for at lease a yuko the group thats on the offense would win a point then the next guy would come from the defenders side.We would take turns in defending and attacking.
Was really a hard night after the gym but it will be worth it in the long run.

We did not go to the gym today because it was still freeing cold and snowing lol.. we snuggled up in our beds and watched some t.v and used the internet.lol

When it started to come close for me to head to the Kodokan, the snow was just about all melted away.(=( no fun lol )
But it was still dam cold ! John didn't feel like going any where today so he just stayed home and relaxed, he also had to do uni work so
he was occupied. It was so good to hit the 4th floor of The Kodokan just because it was heated hehe.
We headed to the main dojo at around 6 30,we did uchi Komi and san nin uchi komi till 7. At 7 we did randori untill 7 30. Today was the best day i have had since I've been here because Komura sensei approached me and we did randori together ....He was left handed so it was like whhaa
but it was good for me to learn how to fight left handed,When his uchi mata came in lighting fast it was a big surprise but i got off.. he nearly had me but i did like a one handed round off kart wheel.. lol.. lucky save he was like oohh i was surprised my self lol.
I got him with an unexpected de ash to the right foot but soon as he hit the ground he had already had an arm bar on it was unbelievable how good he was at getting the arm bar and his ground work. wooow He also showed me how to get out of a choke which really was handy.
My class did ne-waza randori till 7 30 to 8 the Adults and other guys finished at 7 30. all in all a great night @ the Kodokan.....!!!

Gym today was not as hard and crazy as last week lol we did the usual routine treadmill to warm up we did 15 minutes running at 10k and last 2 minutes at 15k.John did some benching , i did a little but not to much, we did the abb machine and obliques also the triceps and bicep machines with like 39kg 20 reps about 10 times last 2 we did 56kg for 10 reps Ouch !

Training was cold today probably because it was snowing.. Yes SNOWING It WAS EPIC ! I walked out the door and the first thing i did was nearly slip and do the splits it was funny and awesome at the same time,john was walking down stairs with a shirt lol.
It was so unexpected and it was at lease 3 inch thick.Training was the usual but awesome Ne-waza drilz and uchi komi then ne waza randroi last 40 minutes would be tachi waza randroi thats when the adults came.

Today was our usual routine, went to the gym and Started off with 5 minutes power walking on the treadmill and then 5 minutes fast jogging last 2 minutes was sprinting.
John and I got 5kg plates and did circular motions around our head 30 times each way next was straight arm and lifting up and down 30 each arm and then holding with both arms lifting up and down 30 times.. John also got us doing pushing up and down above our head and pushing straight forwards 30 times, we did this for about 15 minutes it was so painful at the end.
At the end we got onto the squats and dead lifts 40kg on the bar.

Training tonight was about the same as the past week, the main focus was on ne-waza dillz and uchi comi.Would love to do some tachi waza tho it be really helpful for Suzuki to strip the bad habits out of my technique,cant complain tho my ne-waza is improving a lot.
Best part of the night was when randori started, it was fun getting rag dolled around by the adults,because thats how u improve and learn, you make a mistake and you learn to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Gym was not that hectic as the past days, I only did some jogging on the treadmill for 10 minutes i didn't wanna burn my self out before the shiai. I worked on my abs with an obliques machine and a crunch machine also my lower back, 20 reps 4 sets.John did more upper body weights it was not an all out session, but i was still sore from the other days.

Shiai was at 5 30 i bowed onto the main dojo at 5, it gave me about 40 minutes to warm up and prepare.Their was not many people here today because all the kids that are in my class and i fight are all ready black belt. I was the 8th person on the chart their were 16 all up in our pool.The first person i fought i threw them with a ashi waza technique left side de ashi, the second person i threw with a hiza garuma for waza ri and i nearly held them down i scored another waza ri with a ashi waza technique. I lost the next fight by a yuko at the last couple of seconds.
Me and John got in time for the training down stairs. The drilz where the same as before very focused on ne waza.
For some reason i was pumped for randori i dont think i missed a fight.
i was sore but it didn't really worry me
John was going hard at it but the guys here are all left handed so its so hard to adapt.
Johns big toe and heel are bruised lol
, Niko headbutted him and gave him a black eye.

Gym took it out of me even more today we focused on cardio because i didn't want to fatigue my shoulders, we did 10minutes on the tredmill
and then did 35 sit ups on the incline board then we did 2 min tredmill
40 sit ups 2 min treadmill
35 sit ups 2min treadmill
30 sit ups 2min treadmill
35 sit ups 2min treadmill
40 sit ups 2min treadmill
45 sit ups 2min treadmill
50 sit ups 2min treadmill
50 sit ups 2min treadmill
So by the end of this we were buggered we relaxed and sat down for 10 minutes to catch our breath.John did some bench press and i did therabands.After wards we headed upstairs to go hit the sauna and showers, john was in their for 15minutes and i was in their for 10
it was really hot but the showers where the best to cool down. They provide shampoo and body wash at the gym, they where on every shelf of each shower. The gym was fully kited out from the weights to the showers, they even had blow dryers to dry your hair after you took a shower lol.

Training tonight was at the Kodokan on the main dojo (7th floor) We started of with uchi komi single and then sannin uchi komi (3 people)
At 7 we took turns to rotate with our partners (3 to a group) But around 7 15 it was free randori you could pair up with any body.
At 7 40 we did ne-waza randori till 8.

We arrived at 10 30 at the Gym today, it was hard. We warmed up on the treadmill for 12minutes at 5% incline going at 12.k , their was machines that targeted various muscle groups.We did a circuit of all the machines twice 15 reps afterwards we did 12 minutes more on the treadmill but this time a lot faster.We moved onto free weights John did bench press and i did the therabands, we also did sit ups on a board with incline and we jumped on a machine that worked on our lower backs it was different.
We did some more cardio on mountain climb now that was hard work really hard but so awesome we finished at 1pm . Me and John headed for the swimming pool but the guy stopped us because i needed a swimming cap and gogles lol so we decided to head down stairs and hit the sauna john was in their for about 10 minutes and i only lasted 5 lol epic fail.
We hit the spa and took a shower we got dressed and out of the gym at around 2-2.30

Judo tonight was painful after the gym, we started off with normal drilz and warm ups
and more ne-waza training i still cant understand why we are not doing any tachi-waza oh well my ne-waza is improving so i am happy
Randori was even more painful but the usual 5 minutes randori.
It was amazing to sit down and relax after training but futons are'nt the best thing to sit on(OUCH)

We had to buy some more meat and veggies today, but we didn't really find any bargains except for some chicken.
I got onto the 4th floor and singed into the Kodokan at around 6pm, we didn't start till 6 :10 so it gave me some time to get ready and say hi to every 1.
Today's class was the junior high school and primary kids joined together; we started off with ne-waza uchi komi and ne-waza drilz
and then heaps of push ups. Then we started with tachi-waza drilz uchi komi and nage komi then we did about 1hours worth of randori 2 minutes ne-waza and then 4 minutes tachi-waza, we were in groups of 5, so last guy would swap with the odd 1 out.
At 8pm we went to the top floor for free randori, we finished at 8 30 lol.
but that wasn't the end of it, we had to run up the kodokan stairs… 4th floor to the 8th floor .. 8 times and then hop on one foot up two times 1 on each foot. Lastly we had to get some one to hold our legs and walk on our hands up the stairs once, it was hard work but very good for cardio.
I did not get home till 9 30 and it was painful to walk 2-3 km back home from the station.

Today was interesting we went with suzuki and his little boy and his sons friend in his car to ikibukoro, the roads were so confusing but we got there.We parked under neath a huge mall called sunshine plaza we parked underground 3 floors and we caught a elevator to the first floor.It was so busy and crowded me and John nearly got lost lol, We headed for the Adidas shop the main street was full of people it was like Tokyo drift hahah. The Adidas shop was not that big but still kool and very expensive we had a browse of the clothes and stuff the jackets were kool, but there was no judo gi's so we left in like 15mintues.Next we went to a massive arcade me and his son played this shooting game it was pretty kool then we got bored and went up stairs to this casino place where you bought tokens and you could like play games and win more tokens.Their was a masive board and it had a mini replica of a horse track and it had horses you could bet on it was random but still awesome, their was loads of other machines that we never seen before.We tried our luck on a slot machine we had tokens that suzuki generously gave us we soon got bored of losing so we moved onto this game where you had to put your tokens on a slot and it would shoot it at a moving platform full of coins and if you threw your tokens right it would pile up and coins that are on the edge will fall down and you win some tokens.John and I slowly lost all our tokens but suzuki was on a role he doubled his cup in no time he was a pro lol.
We all eventually ran out of tokens and we headed for the car park it was a fair walk away and it was a bit chilly.

Training at the kodokan was not that special i kinda got their late because instead of starting at 6 it was 5 30 on Saturday's so i missed 30minutes of drillz.DAM
I got onto the 6th floor and joined the class when they were doing tachi-waza randori every one was so surprised when i came in and bowed to the sensei it was quit funny.I joined in and started randoring with the old guys i knew i noticed some of them got black belts to it was kool, the last 30 mintues we did ne-waza randori then ne-waza drillz.We finished at 7 30 and I went home.

Today was like yesterday just relaxing on our uncomfortable futons.

Tonight there were a lot more junior high school judoka and me and John noticed Nobu got his kuro obi.. it was very nice it had gold kanji on it.
Warm up was the same ebi,revers ebi etc for some reason we are mainly focusing on ne-waza and not any tachi waza
we have been doing loads of ne-waza drilz and uchi komi but no tachi waza what so ever.
Its a bit weird but my ne-waza is improving a lot so im not complaining lol.
I did randori with Nobu up standing and his drop seio nage is unbelievably fast, he caught me off guard with it twice, he is ranked 24 in all Tokyo.

We just relaxed today, it was pretty boring.
It was exiting when the time came for training even tho we were battered and sore we toughened up and went all the way .
From 7.30 till 8.30 was the usual warm ups still no junior high school kids except one, their was a couple more adults that come to train today.
I randoried with the other junior high school kid, he was fast and agile but i still dominated.
I also fought an older judoka who had the hardest and strongest grip i ever came across it was nearly impossible for me to brake them or move under neath for a technique.
At the end i fought a judoka who had a Japanese flag on his chest, he was fast and strong i knew he was only playing with me but I made it so that he knew if he was not careful i would throw him.He was very helpful he whould practice his English at some point and tell me to pull harder or do this, he was really funny to at one point in the fight i was in a perfect position for uchi mata and he told me uchi mata uchi mata but i looked at him as if saying uchi mata ? lol i wish

All in all good night enjoying my stay here even more day after day... cant wait for the gym to start !

We had to sign up for the Gym today, the gym was only 5 minutes walk away its above a food shop kinda like Colles.
And on the second floor their was a clothes shop called Uni Clo and also a chemist, i bought some whey protein for the gym.
We headed for the front desk for the gym on the 5th floor the woman knew a little bit of English enough to sign us up.
it cost me and john about 11 thousand each for next month and thats every day all day gym access .
Theirs a fully kited out gym on the 4th floor and a pool and sauna on the 5th, its a pretty good setup me and john will have lots of fun their but after training were gonna be soo sore.

Me and john headed for the Kodokan, john decide not to get on tonight maybe next Wednesday.
on the 4th floor i signed up at the front desk for the shiai next Thursday, On the 8th floor their still weren't any junior high school students just all uni students. I said hello to Mukai sensei and Dave, i randoried with some guys because their was also french judokas training tonight. I fought against one and on one technique he tried to throw me and i went down onto my knee i dont know what happned but it started hurting might of just rolled it or something.
I talked with him and he said he was 20 and they weren't the french team but just a Club training in japan for 2 weeks, he was a pretty nice guy.
I enjoyed training a lot tonight

We went for a walk to itabashi honcho to check out some electronic shops DAMM their stuff is expensive,we were mainly just browsing and looking for a nice cheap rice cooker lol.
We found the perfect one and it was in English and all ...but the problem was it was unbelievable expensive about 6 thousand yen... So we left them alone.
We just looked around alot of walking an site seeing it was good, I am glad that john was with me he was like my gps he knew where to go because he walked around here before.
We really did not find any thing that was worth buying, John bought an awesome pair of green headphones.

Getting into a routine to stretch my shoulders before training, they aren't getting as sore as before and my elbows not giving me much trouble now. Their still isn't any high school kids training it seems quiet but I train with the adults so its all right
We did the usual warm ups included some ebbies revers ebbies and ne-waza uchi komi me and john practiced what suzuki sensei taught us the other day. We practiced spider guard closed guard and stuff like that again. the best way to get better at something is repetition

We did some ne-waza randori and tachi waza randori for the last 40 mintues.

Stretch My shoulder before going down for training tonight because it fatigued really easily on previous nights.
Exams were on so there wasn't any high school students training tonight except for one.
We practiced a lot of ne-waza tonight, we practicing stuff that we previously learned the other night
like turtle, spider guard and closed guard combining them together.
we did some ne-waza and tachi-waza randori for the last half hour, Suzuki was very helpful with grips and gaining dominance in tachi-waza he would stop me and show me some technical pointers on grips ect
Overall it was a good night compared to last week.