Projekt Label

Final Day!

Today is my last day here along with the final installment of “The Road To Japan”. First off, I have to thank all the readers who actually had an interest in reading about my experiences and allow me to share them with you. This trip has been more than words can explain. I will come back to LA with a whole new level of motivation and drive. I can’t wait. I also have to thank Projekt Label and Inspirit Clothing for without you none of this could have been possible. Lastly I have to thank Rumina, Taiki and everyone at Roots gym for the unbelievable hospitality that you have given me. I truly felt apart of your family. I hope I can return the favor and give you the same. That being said. Lets conclude this journey.

The Final Day.

Today I woke up around 9am really feeling banged up from last nights party. Lucky for me at 11 Shooto Champion Lion Takeshi and his student were coming down to Roots for 1 last day of hard training before I left. YIPEE…
I got a little coffee and a small bite to eat attempting to soak up the alcohol from last night. Of course that didn’t work. We started out with a little warm up and then right into some grappling. I actually felt ok at this point. I did about 4-5, 5 minute rounds and actually felt descent. No strength, but descent. Then Lion wanted to put on the gloves and do a some MMA sparring. I knew this wasnt going to go well. We geared up and went through our 1st round. At the end of the 5 minutes I felt like I was gonna pop. My stomach was wrecked. Nothing like trying to push an intensive workout in while slightly hung over. Not the best idea. We pushed through the second round, but that was it. It was time to reverse the process of last night. I rushed to the restroom and praised the porcelain god (sorry for the horrible pun). After my short break I came back into the gym only for Lion to say…”1 more..last in Japan”. Of course I had to say yes. I geared back up and had another round. This round I put all my eggs in 1 basket and actually was the best round of the day.

We showered up and were off to eat. Rumina took us out for lunch at this really small restaurant that I guess is really hard to get a seat at. Once inside and seated, the guys all had some stuff I couldn’t swing. Salmon eggs, full shrimp, mackral..not my cup a tea. Instead, I had some mixed sashimi, rice and miso soup. Again, amazing. It’s crazy how all the food in Japan has been unreal. I wish the states were like that!
After lunch Rumina wanted to grab some sweets famous to Odawara. Apparently people travel from all over Japan for these deserts. I forget what it was called but was basically homemade bread filled with this cream that was made from scratch. OH MY LORD it was good. We finished up the delicious goodness and Lion headed home. I now had a few hours to relax before my final training here tonight with Mamaru.

Around 7pm we started Mamaru’s Muay Thai. Thank god I felt way better than this morning. We did about 60 mins of drills, 30 mins of sparring and I felt great. Class ended as did the final training session of my stay.
After class, I said more goodbyes to a bunch of the team and packed up all my stuff from the gym. We closed it up at 10 so Taiki and I ould head for Dinner with Katsuya his girl friend.

Tonight we ate back at the spot owned by one of the gym members. He served us some incredible dishes. Oconominyaki (sorry if I killed the name of it), Soba and this battered chicken dishes. I’m not gonna lie. This could have been the best meal of the trip.
On are way home from dinner the guys wanted to me to end the trip on a fun note. So we stopped off at a Japanese adult store and browsed around. Yes its the same as ours .
We arrived back to the house so I could finish packing and get this right up before I head out in the morning.

This road may have come to end. But the journey has just began. Thank you for being a part of it!
Tomorrow I will post a collection of photos from the trip. I hope you enjoy.

END

Chad “SAVAGE” George

Day 12:
Today we were supposed to wake up early and head to Ground Slam gym for our morning training. unfortunately last night Taiki ended up getting sick so we did not go. Instead we slept in so he could try to feel better. It actually worked out better for me since they were throwing me a going away party tonight.
We finally got out of the house around noon and headed over to Anake’s shop to hang out until we had to open the gym at 2. I had some fun trying on some of the cool glasses he had for sale.
Back at the gym I finally had some time to catch up on emails and some other things I needed to take care of before heading back home.
Around 6pm students starting filling the gym for Ruminas MMA class at 7. The class was packed. Around 8 my friend Yoshi made it back down for a little training and then the party. The class ended and it was time to roll. Students mopped and cleaned the mats, we stretched, and then it was about 90 minutes of good hard rolling. Yoshi, Rumina and myself all got some good rounds in together along with some really good technical tips that Yoshi taught. It was a good night of training. Now it was time to let loose.

We left the gym around 10:30 and met about 15 of the gym members/fighters at a restaurant for dinner and drinks. It’s amazing how welcoming they were to letting me into their circle. I really felt as if I was leaving my family. We spent the majority of the night laughing, drinking, taking photos and just having a good time.
Dinner was served and all kinds of different foods were brought out. fish Sashimi, horse Sashimi…yes..horse sashima, it was amazing!! Natto, Natto in disguise (I’m not a fan of this stuff and got tricked into eating it. For those of you are unsure what natto is…is basically fermented soy beans…), and a whole bunch of other small snack stuff that were really ridiculous. After dinner and the celebration we finally headed home about 3am.

Tomorrow is my last day in Japan and will therefor also be the last installment of the blog! I hope I having been able to share this experience with everyone that has taken time out of their busy lives to read my rants. We have one more day!

Chad “SAVAGE” George