icecream after lunch @ papageno


icecream after lunch @ papageno
Originally uploaded by renfield

3 hours

Things that 3 hours is:
  • Enough time to watch a movie
  • A good long workout in the dojo, including changing and smack-talking before and after
Things that 3 hours is not:
  • Enough sleep
After getting to bed at 4 and getting woken up by Ton just before 7, I stumbled through the day, did not even consider working out (though I managed to take my gear to work with me), met P for lunch (awesome shrimp heads!) and got a new cheap-ass watch band for my Seiko at the seriously old-school local watch and glasses shop down the street from P's office. Seriously. Old. School. The calendar on the counter was dated Showa 47 (1972) and the optometrist chair, ostensibly where you sit to get your eyes checked, was straight out of a 1950s Dentist Horror Slasher film.

shrimp and scallop lunch


shrimp and scallop lunch
Originally uploaded by renfield

Awesomeness at a little place near P's office.
Yet another reason I love Japan: fried shrimp heads with pink tar-tar sauce.

discipline

My discipline starts of great in the morning and goes downhill from there.
I get up every morning at 5am. First thing I do is sit on the cushion. No set time; sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 30. Just depends what kind of mood I am in.
Then I either go for a run (Mon/Wed/Fri) or grab the jump rope, turn on the NHK morning news, and jump for 15 minutes.
Back from the run (30-45 minutes, depending on distance) or after the jumps, the TV goes off and I exercise.
I try to do different muscle groups every morning and not hit the same group two days in a row. So this morning I did shoulders and back; lots of pull-ups and variations thereof, hand-stand push-ups (against a wall: I still cannot balance in a hand-stand. Yet!), etc.
Abs I do every day, usually 8 Minute Abs. Today I did a 2 minute plank just to warm up and remind myself how miserable planks are.
Yesterday was chest so I did dips and push-ups. Running and jumping takes care of my legs just fine, but maybe once a week I'll throw in some squats (100 or so) and some pistol squats just to keep myself honest.
Breakfast is 3-5 different veggies (today was red onion, garlic, tomato, Chinese cabbage, and eggplant) chopped up and tossed into a pan with a dash of sesame oil and heated a bit, crack in two eggs, cover, and let sit on low flame until the eggs are white with runny yokes.
As that cooks, put a carrot and whatever fruit there is (today was banana, passion fruit, peach, and blueberries) into the blender, dump in a bunch of cinnamon and a little honey, maybe some granola or nuts or cereal, and blend.
Lunch is whatever steamed veggies I put into the bento, plus whatever protein I had handy (natto, fake crab, tuna in water, etc.) and maybe something for fun like kimchee or leftover veggies that Hiroko made for dinner.
Dinner is same as lunch, just a bit less. Recently have not really been focused on carbs much. Will throw some in the blender in the morning, or maybe toast a bagel or something, but don't bother with carbs and lunch or dinner. No point in getting filled up on rice when there's veggies and protein to eat!
I snack on fruit, and if I am out of fruit I cruise up the street to the supermarket and load up. I eat lots of fruit. Lots. Monday I bought a bunch of bananas (five), four figs, three bunches of grapes, and four red apples. Gone by Wednesday.
No fruit on my desk today, and totally crushed my meat allocation this week by having yakiniku followed by Brazillian all-u-can-eat, so today I had not one but TWO fraps from bucks (new flavor: yuzu green tea!) and snacked on junk food at a small gathering to say farewell to a co-worker repatriating back to London.
Will finish off the day with some properly greasy Chinese food...and then get up tomorrow at five AM and do a nice big 7 kilo run. Which won't actually make up for all the debauchery, but is just enough to alleviate the extraneous guilt.

meat

My blog is aptly named, for once.
Been a veritable meat-fest here for the past couple days.
Yesterday I met Salty and we had yakiniku whilst discussing the deep and pressing issues our future in budo. Basic concept: do our own thing, at our own place. All in due time. More details later.
Then tonight I met Kobayashi for all-u-can-eat goodness at Barbacoa. It was a serious meat overload, but then again they have an amazing salad bar, so I loaded up on spinach leaf, grilled veggies, mushroom and onions, and of course grilled pineapple and finally some fried banana.

sesshin

Had our yearly sesshin at Tokei-in in Shizuoka this past weekend.
Small group this time, only 9 people. Was much quieter and a bit easier; fewer people to serve so the meals went quicker, and less cross-banter than we usually get with 20 people.
Saw some old faces and some new, and had a really zen moment:
Was drinking my tea out of my rice bowl at the end of dinner on Saturday, and I saw my reflection in the tea as I tilted the cup to take a drink.
"Aha!" I thought. "That is just a reflection of me...but I am just a reflection of it. We are both the real me. Dude, check me out I am ENLIGHTENED!"
And I was generally feeling quite full of myself for making such an intellectual connection with the universe and reality...and then I continued to tilt the bowl to sip the tea, and though I could still see myself reflected in the tea, as the bottom of the bowl came into view, I could see myself reflected there, too.
Now there were two reflections of me, plus me. That's three of me. Brain overload, Buddhist-ego crumbling, pre-conceived notions shattered, dominant paradigms subverted.
I almost cried...or at least got really, really scared and nervous for a second. Like I had just pulled that last thread holding the sweater together, and the whole thing just unravels.
But actually I just drank the tea, enjoying the warmth as is went down my throat, and got over it.