Today was Wednesday, May 24th – my last day in Japan! I awoke early to finish packing the last of my stuff. Since there was class with Shiraishi sensei this morning, I had to leave some training items out and the things that I would need to clean up after training. Once the majority of my things were away, I readied for training and walked over to Honbu. Paul was there this morning and we worked together for the majority of the session. Shiraishi sensei was nice enough to let me get video of the class, so I captured most of it using my digital camera. I was quite happy when he seemed to give a nice “overview” of the things he had taught in the previous week’s time that I was in town as well as some additional points about walking. Once class was over, I took a few last minute photos of the doujou and bid my farewell to the people I had met and to the space itself.

I hurried back to the inn and quickly showered and packed away the last of my gear. After paying my bill and thanking the staff for their hospitality, I met up with Lauren and Roger to say my goodbyes. They walked me to the train station and soon I was headed back towards the airport.

I was a bit confused by some of the signs at Abiko station, but I managed to catch the express train to Narita with the help of one of the station attendants. These guys are great. They’ll actually run with you to the train if you don’t seem to understand their directions!

I really enjoyed the ride from Abiko to Narita. As I mentioned in my Day 1 description, the scenery was really beautiful. I wish I had gotten some photos, but much of my attention was drawn to the twelve or thirteen year old kid sitting a few seats down from me on the train.

There were maybe a dozen people in the car in which I was sitting. To my right was the kid I mentioned above and across from him was a woman in her early 30s or so. This kid, who I will henceforth refer to as “Sleepy”, was dressed in his school uniform and looked like he had pulled an all nighter or was just a very relaxed person. When I first noticed him, he was slowly “falling” to his left side. He got to the point that his head was quite literally hovering an inch or so away from the seat next to him. At this point, he awoke and jerked back upright. Adjusting his glasses, he looked around sleepily and then closed his eyes. Within a minute, he was slowly slumping in the other direction until his face was again just above the seat next to him. Wake up…look around…close eyes…slump forward this time…. This continued for almost the entire ride. About half way to Narita, Sleepy got up and moved to the seat next to the door so that he wasn’t slumping to his right anymore, but that didn’t stop him from falling to the other directions. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched this display. The woman across from him appeared to be entranced, too and we shared a laugh about the whole thing. On one hand, it was a funny thing to watch, but I felt a little sad, too. Maybe this kid had been up all night studying and was really struggling under the demands of his school work. Of course, it’s more likely that he was up all night playing video games or chatting with friends or “texting” on his [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_mobile_phone_culture]keitai[/url].

At Narita station, I hopped the local train to the airport and followed the signs to check-in. Things went quite smoothly from there and I was at the gate before I knew it with about 45 minutes to spare.

Most of the flight was quite unremarkable. I watched two of the Harry Potter films and a Japanese film about a group of high school girls who form a band to play in their school’s variety show. By the end of the flight, I was tired and my ass was killing me from sitting even though I had gotten up several times to walk around and hit the restroom. As we neared Newark and began our descent the air was a bit rough although the skies were perfectly clear, and I started to feel a little sick. A few passengers that I could see sitting towards the front of the cabin required their air sickness bags and I think that started a small chain reaction….

I didn’t throw up and we were soon safely on the ground. After claiming my baggage, I made my way through customs and the security checks and out to the passenger pickup area. It was good to be back where everyone was speaking English! Not long after, George and Drew showed up and we piled my luggage into the trunk and off we went.

Today was Tuesday, May 23rd. The day sawned a bit gray and surprisingly cooler than the previous few days. I got up and immediately went downstairs to shower. After drying off and getting dressed, I began to organize my clothes and luggage for my departure. I also decided that I should probably try to check my email, so I took my Palm T|X out for a little walk around the neighborhood to see if I could find any decent wi-fi signals. I was surprised as there were several networks available in the area, but most were encrypted. Continuing to search, I moved around the back of Azusa and down the street towards what I think was a middle-school. As I approached the school, I got a great signal and was able to connect and download my email.

I was happy to see that Rob and Danielle’s daughter had been born a day or two before. I also received an interesting email about Hayes’s “departure” from the Bujinkan from Hank. In addition, there were some normal messages from friends and one from Chris asking how my trip was going. As there was nothing overly important, I headed back to the inn and sat in the courtyard and wrote a few quick responses. While there, I talked for a while with one of the visitors from Croatia. Then it was back to the school to send my email!

I wanted to make one more trip to the tabi shop and maybe to search for the Sakura-gi temple that I had heard so much about. After picking up two more pair of tabi, I started walking down the west-east road towards Umesatou in hopes that I would see something that would indicate the temple was nearby. Seeing nothing after a while, I turned back towards Noda and followed the scent of soy sauce to what I would guess is the main shoyuu processing plant. There were huge warehouses and giant tanks and lots of trucks coming and going. The smell was…strong! Just around the corner, I glimpsed Noda train station. Having determined my location, I decided that it was better to just go back to the inn and see what Roger and Lauren were up to.

After putting my stuff away, Lauren and Roger were up and about and chatting with the two guys from Texas who were in town for the week. One of the guys (I am SO bad with names!) was very into natural foods and particularly in studying what people ate in Biblical times. I would later learn that he was also a minister and seemed to be very religious. The five of us decided to grab some lunch at Jusco and spend some more time browsing around the stores. I hadn’t rented a bicycle for the day, but I was told to just grab one and we all rode over to the store. I made a note of where my bike was so that I could find it on the way back.

We decided on the food court and I had a tasty curry tonkatsu over rice. After eating, we sat chatting for a while and then the Texas guys departed in order to prepare to go to Ayase, while we went upstairs to look around a bit. I decided on some gifts for my nephew and niece and picked up another “Totemo Happy” shirt to replace the one I had misplaced on Saturday. I’m not sure what I was thinking when checking out the size of these shirts. There was no way even the LL size was fitting me! Anyway, I also spent some time in the little hobby shop on the third floor. They had so much cool stuff! Tons of Studio Ghibli collectables and model firearms – very Japanese!

After a time, we lugged our loot back downstairs and Lauren and Roger bought some food. I didn’t purchase anything knowing that nothing would get through customs on Wednesday. On our way out, I couldn’t find the bike I had used to get to Jusco! We looked around, but couldn’t find any of the Azusa bikes – they’re marked with a little sticker on each. After searching for 10 minutes, we gave up and I just walked back to the inn figuring that someone would (or already had) return the bike to it’s rightful owners.

From there, we grabbed our training gear and walked to the station to get the train to Kashiwa and then on to Ayase. We didn’t have any problems getting there. I’m not sure if the trains have become more managable since my last trip (more English visible, etc) or if I was better able to look for the right [i]kanji[/i] and steer us in the right direction. In any case, we arrived in Ayase about an hour and a half before training. This was good, because the three of us wanted to stop at the “Budou shop” across the street from the [url=http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/Japan-2006/Japan%20_2006_045.jpg?offset=]Budoukan[/url]. Lauren and Roger were both looking for new belts, but I just wanted to see if they had anything cool!

It’s a good thing that we arrived early, as there was a line of black-clad Bujinkaners leading out the door of the shop! Once we finally got into the tight quarters, it was a challenge to find anything at all – the place was just wall-to-wall and piled high with all kinds of martial arts gear. People were coming in and out to pick up the embroidered belts that they had ordered and items were falling off of shelves and onto the floor. It was chaos!

Having had enough and found what we were looking for, we walked over to the Budoukan in the lightly falling rain and followed the signs to the bathrooms. I always feel so silly wearing those narrow little slippers that they provide, but I wouldn’t want to walk into the bathroom without them! After changing in the locker room and carrying my bag out to the training area, I sat down to stretch out a bit. I found myself sitting next to the guy from Jay’s group again. We chatted until class started. I was a little surprised at how many more people were at tonight’s class than at Noda. I guess some people don’t like the crowds at Honbu.

Hatsumi sensei arrived and soon we were all lining up to begin class. Tonight seemed to focus on seated techniques. Sensei spoke about sitting in different ways and moving naturally from these positions using gravity and one’s hands and arms to support the body. We also worked on a lot of kicks from seated postures. Hatsumi sensei seemed to be in a very philosophical mood and he talked at length about nature and the natural elements. It was very interesting and I wish I could remember more!

After training, I was introduced to Kenji, Pete R, Paul M, Liz S and a few others. It was good to see some of these folks again and meet others for the first time. On the way out, I said “hi” to [url=http://www.atlantabujinkan.com]Roy Wilkinson[/url] and his buddy Mike and we chatted for a bit as I waited for Lauren and Roger. The five of us decided to get some late dinner at Denny’s before going back “home”. We had many laughs and talked at length about training and what Hatsumi sensei is doing today that is different from what we were doing ten years ago. It was interesting to hear Roy’s take on these things.

The conversation continued on the trains back towards Noda until Mike and Roy got off in Kashiwa.

After arriving at Noda-shi [i]eki[/i], I called and spoke with Robyn for a while then got some drinks at the food mart by the station. This would be my last night in Japan for this trip, so I walked slowly back to the inn and enjoyed the night air while thinking over the experience. Once back in my room, I packed my luggage for the following day’s afternoon departure and went to bed.