Sunday 13 April – Welcome to the CITY, (as opposed to ‘jungle’ Guns’n Roses anyone?) 

I had originally planned to go to Nagoya yesterday (Saturday) to attend a capoeira class but due to extremely crap weather I decided to go in today. It had cleared up nicely today and you could even say it was warm. So Kitee, Toby and I began our trek into the city. And boy was it a bit of a trek, well maybe I exaggerate because it only took a total of 1 hour to get to Nagoya which is the equivalent of getting from Penno Station (Pennant Hills) to the City. But I tell you what, I think I might have to sell my kidney on ebay to make up the cost spent on public transport – ok yet again a bit of an exaggeration, I won’t need to sell my organs. Getting to Nagoya was actually pretty simple, catch the bus from Gifu Uni to Gifu JR Station (30mins) and then Gifu to Nagoya (another 30mins). I’m very impressed with the trains here, I don’t think I had to wait for more than 5 minutes for a train and sometimes the train would be the one waiting for you as opposed to City Rail trains where on any given day you could be waiting for a day and a half and it still doesn’t show up.

 Getting out at Nagoya JR Station was mind blowing! There were hordes of people and SHOPS! LOTS OF SHOPS! LOTS OF CLOTHING SHOPS! Yes….that’s how long I’ve been out in the countryside hehe. Suddenly there was an air of familiarity, it was massive, I’d say it was even bigger than Sydney. Tall buildings, shops, people from all walks of Japanese life and a few gaijin’s (foreigners). What was really cool was the amount of freebies you got from walking along the street! At nearly every 2 metre intervals someone would be handing out some kind of freebie, be it packets of tissues, lollies, makeup, internet start-up kits…and I use to think that I scored big time in Sydney when the Hungry Jacks staff would hand out coupons for free fries on the corner of George and King Streets, the Japanese take freebie handing out to a whole new level! We explored the streets of Nagoya, taking a walk to Sakae, Nagoya’s shopping district. They also had a mini Central Park where today they had a bit of dancing – there was the man who thought he was a robot (you all know the robot dance), then there was a group of 3 girls and 1 guy dancing to Britney’s “Oops I did it again”, well what can I say it was more like “oops I did it again, I forgot to wear my padded bra today”.  One girl in particular was lacking in boobs and couldn’t fill out her costume – ok so I’m being bitchy and picking on the girl but who wears a red corset with D size cups, when you’re an A, they were practically empty! (waiting for lightning to strike again)

So we left – I was more intrigued by the 5 guys dressed in black skin tight pants, leather jackets, sporting Elvis inspired hair, dancing to rock and roll music. I don’t know whether they were trying to portray an image of toughness by dressing in bikey gear, but all that boogying pretty much quashed any of that. Hehhe though the guy with the 50cm Mohawk looked pretty cool.

 We also took a look at a newly built monument called the Oasis, I don’t quite know how to describe it. But it was pretty cool, down underground were heaps of shops and overhead you would climb up a few flight of stairs and at the top there was a glass fountain (???)

 5.30 came around, Kitee said goodbye and went off to partake in her favourite hobby, shopping whilst Toby and I headed off to check out this capoeira class. We hopped on the Nagoya subway – one of the most efficient in Japan to Higashiyama Koen. The class is held in the Chikusa Ku Sports Stadium and it’s huge and new. It has a pool, gym, and various halls. Walking towards the entrance of the hall, I could hear the berimbau….wow…it was amazing to be in Japan and hear the sound of that instrument. We arrived a tad early and only one other person was there, as soon as I walked in, with the lost/confused look on my face, he knew that I was Jolene, the girl from Australia that they had been expecting. Just to give you a bit of background on how I came across this class. I searched on the internet for a capoeira academy in Nagoya and came across ABADA Capoeira. I posted a message on their message board enquiring about class and for someone who spoke English to help me. I was contacted by two people Gen and Mayimi who I have been emailing about class details etc. They have been so helpful, they’ve even asked people in class who live in Gifu whether they could give me lifts to and from training. Once everyone started turning up and started to get ready, I changed into my Grupo Bahia Capoeira uniform and suddenly I was the novelty of the class. They were asking me heaps of questions and stuff, it was pretty cool! The class started and I all of a sudden felt nostalgic and started to think about classes back home, looking around the room, it was a different hall, the faces were different, the exercises we did were very different (ok so I’ll stop with the use of ‘different’) and there was no music to train to! It was all in silence and I kinda wondered whether they had forgotten to bring the CD player..? We had to do some pretty complex stuff and I found it quite difficult. Unfortunately I had to leave before they started the roda because we had to leave Nagoya in order to get back in time to catch the last bus (9.10pm) bus back to Gifu Uni. So I said a quick goodbye to my new class and left. I’ll be seeing them again…if I can afford to!