SATURDAY: BOXING DAY

KEIO BOXING TEAM

     This Saturday was special. It was the first day I was going to attend boxing practice at Keio University Boxing Gym. The training was scheduled for 11:00. I arrived at the place 10 to. Everyone seemed to be really exited to see a gaijin there, but positively exited. 

     When everyone gather, we all got in a circle and the captain said, that " there are new among us, let's introduce ourselves". New among us meant Antony. So I introduced myself in Japanese and bowed, everyone bowed back. Then each team member introduced himself and bowed, everyone bowed back. 

      There were around 20 guys that day at training session. And 2 little cute Japanese girls - they are managers. Managers keep the time, give water and other drinks to boxers, dry out boxing gear after practices, wash boxing equipment and take care of everything around. It is so great to have them to be honest! 

      Out of the whole team not everyone spoke English, so to say only 3 people spoke English, others knew some words but were willing to communicate. Today's training was based on sparing. First warm up, of course. They were explaining to me every exercise, even though I said that I will just follow and do what they all are doing. It wasn't that difficult. The most difficult thing was the weather, very humid and heavy air, not like in Vienna. Additionally, a storm was heading to Tokyo that night, that made the air even heavier. 

     After warming up,  guys started sparing: 10 rounds with rotation. There were a few newbies and me. They explained that sparing was too dangerous and I needed to look the first time. Even though I explained that it wasn't my first time, they asked me not to participate today. 

     The boxing gym by itself is awesome! It is subsidized by Keio university, so participants only pay 500 yen a month (4 euro). There is everything you can think about in this gym - you don't need any equipment. Gloves, bandages, other gear, even shoes to borrow. Managers serve some powdered drink with ice during training. This is a heaven for a boxer! They even gave me a pair of shoes for running outside. 

     Another interesting thing is about the boxers themselves. I was one of the oldest (few guys of my age), some were from Keio High School (16-17 y.o.). And I was one of the biggest with my 65 kilos. LOL. The heaviest guy in the gym is 68, others are smaller. This is such a big difference with Europe: there in the gym I am one of the smallest. 

      The training was approximately 3 hours. Seems like Japanese people enjoyed talking some English and discovering a new culture. They told me they knew something from Russia: Matreshka, pirozki and borsh (tool me a while to figure out what those things were in Japanese pronunciation). 

      After the training they invited me to a restaurant. I had no money with me so I called Ondrej to join us and bring me money. We ate at some spaghetti place, had great time and nice talks. In the end the team said they would pay the lunch, not only mine, but also Ondrej's. I tried to resist that but couldn't. This is real Japanese hospitality. Great nation and great people. We exchanged contacts in LINE (mobile social network that all Japanese are using) and emails (they use emails instead of sms). 

TAIFUN

     During the day we have received a number of warning from school that a severe storm was to hit Tokyo this Saturday night. There was a possibility that Monday classes would be cancelled. 

     At night it was raining a lot, with strong wind; but nothing special. We had a dinner with some guys from the dorm at Kyohei's room (some Japanese specialties again) and decided to stay in the dorm and simply hang out with people.