Jukendo Training!

On Sunday Mr. Furukawa invited me to come and train with him and his friends in Jukendo. Jukendo is the Japanese martial art of fighting with bayonets. The techniques in Jukendo are like spear fighting. Each person has wooden bayonet and attempts to strike their opponent in the upper left chest region.

It was such a great experience. I learned the 4 main strikes of Jukendo (though I couldn’t really do them very well). I also got to spar. This is where I and another opponent battled to attempt to strike one another in the upper left chest region with our bayonets. It was so much fun. I tried very hard but it was easy for them to block my strikes because they are so experienced.

On the left is me sparring with an opponent!
After I trained in Jukendo we all went out to eat. We had noodles, Yakitori and many other delicious foods. When it came time to pay the bill they told me that they did not want me to pay. They said it was a present. I loved eating lunch with them because these were all true martial artists. There were many conversations about Samurai. They all are striving to be modern day samurai. They believe that Jukendo helps train them to be modern day samurai. One of the men told me he believed that I was "an American Samurai". I can imagine no greater compliment.




Experiences like this make me realize the limits of my own writing abilities. As I look at what I wrote I feel it does no justice to how wonderful an experience this was for me. I loved training in Jukendo. I loved eating the food. I loved being around these men. It was a great experience. I owe this wonderful experience to many people. I want to thank Mr. Furukawa and Masanao Hayashi especially. Masanao thank you for putting me in contact with Mr. Furukawa and all your priceless pieces of information prior to the trip and during the trip. Mr. Furukawa thank you for giving me an unforgettable experience. Your spirit and strength as a human being are an inspiration.

My last day in Shimonseki

On my last day in Shimonseki I went to an Onsen and had Roof Soba noodles. Taka, Mama and I went to an Onsen. Onsens are awesome. Every single one of them is different from the next. I think that the mineral water in onsens are very good for my skin. When we were at the Onsen there was a man with many tattoos. Taka said "did you notice the man with lots of tattoos?" I said "yeah" and he then explained to me that this man was a known gangster and that I should not make any eye contact with him. The guy had tattoos all over his body so it was hard not to look at him. But I am alive and healthy so I didn't mess up.

After the Onsen. We went and got soba noodles. I have realized that one way to make an onsen experience even more awesome is to have good food after the onsen. The noodles that we got are only made in Shimonoseki. I like to call the noodles "Shimonseki famous noodles". They were delicious. These noodles are cooked by heating up a roof tile and then the noodles cook on the roof tile. When they serve you the soba noodles they are on a roof tile. It is pretty cool. Below are a few pictures.

Mama and I eating Shimoseki Soba Noodles.

Famous Shimonoseki Soba Noodles.

My understanding is that these noodles used to be cooked by soldiers at war. When it was really hot out they would put the noodles on the roof's of their facilities and this would cook the noodles.

Japanese Barbeque with the Kawahara Family

On my last night in Shimonoseki the Kawahara family had an awesome barbeque. Papa made many different types of food. We had Yakitori, vegetables, beef, Craw, Miso soup, Udon and many other foods. We all hung out had some drinks and lit fireworks. It was very fun. At the end of the night they made a little sign for me on the cement portion of their outdoor patio.

The food was so good. One of the many stereotypes about Americans is that many of us are fat. Well, I can promise everyone that if I were to stay with the Kawaraha family I would likely become very fat because all of the food they cook and eat is very good.

Below are some pictures from the barbeque.

The food so far

Since I have been in Japan I have tried a variety of different foods. A lot of the time I am still unclear about what I am eating. On my way to Nagoya I got a small bento box from the subway station and it turned out to taste pretty bad. In most cases the writing is in Japanese so I can’t read it and the people that sell the food don’t speak English. So I basically go for what looks good. I also do try to eat foods that look foreign to me. I do this because if I know what a food is it means I can probably get it back in the states. So I try to be a little adventurous. A few of the different foods I have eaten are: beef buns (which are Chinese), Ramen noodles, udon noodles, soba noodles (cold and hot), yakitori, sushi, dumplings, Japanese pizza, rice balls, sweet rice dumplings, and some other things that I don’t know the names of. The pizza is interesting because they put lots of stuff on it that you just wouldn’t see in the states. I tasted a seafood pizza that had all sorts of fish on it. I would name all the fish but I don’t know what they were. I did have to remove a piece of squid though because I couldn’t eat that on the pizza. I really like the noodles. I have had cold noodles and hot noodles. I like them both it just depends on the day. The noodles are a very refreshing food to eat. The interesting thing is that they often put half of a partially boiled egg (the egg white is solid and the yoke is partially solid) in the hot soups. I’m not really a desert person at all but thus far I have been unimpressed by any of the desserts in Japan. There are sweet rice balls that seem to be popular but I don’t think they are good. I have found myself simply going to convenience stores and getting hagen dazz (is that how I spell it?)