Karate

Today met with friend of the teacher of my Japanese lessons. Got to see their house/soba restaurant plus their nice kids(3 of them!). Spent some quality time chatting with the parents and even little bit with the kids(though one of the girls seemed bit intimidated by it! Wonder if this was first time she talked with non-Japanese person?). Talking with kids is fun and this was first time got to say more than "hello"(and that's been just with two kids) with kids here in Japan.

Later got to even see Karate practice which I found interesting. Kids were probably feeling bit intimidated by being watched but I was impressed by how well they were training(now during breaks it was what you can expect from kids :D). At the start of the session they all went to the traditional Japanese sitting pose and bowed several times. Tried the sitting pose myself but started to hurt quite fast. During one break asked them how they manage to make it look so easy and demonstrated myself doing it with end result of getting cramp to leg making me jump up and jump around one feet(much to amusement of the kids which made me jump couple jump longer than needed :D). Later after son finished his block-punch training and girl took her turn I asked the boy to punch me once to stomach. Well he sure gave stronger punch than I expected though I doubt he was using full strength. For a while was without breath.

Sure was fun evening. This much Japanese talking haven't yet done(compared to previous meetings this wasn't conversation exchange meeting so didn't feel obligated to use English as well and not even sure how fluent they were in English so I kept to using Japanese) and the kids were nice to meet as well. Also got suggestion for mountain to climb so maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I'll go for another mountain climbing experience(assuming I can de-crypt the kanji's of the route guide and mountain name I received :D)

One thing I got to experience as well was proper procedure in the Shrine. So first up wash your hands(first left, then right) and then with left hand mouth as well. Then to the temple, throw in coin(50 yen at least this time), then bow twice, clap hands together twice and another bow and then you go.