Konichiwa!!

We’ve had a brilliant ten days here in Japan! We are staying at the Japanese Olympic training centre, the facilities are excellent and there are loads of other sports teams here from canoeing to basketball to synchronised swimmers! Our day consists of three sessions, in the morning we do a run at the track (sprints, interval runs, or something equally tough!) Then in our second session we do shadow boxing or pads to work on our boxing technique, and in the third session we have sparring against the Japanese boxing team. After that we make use of the cold and hot water tubs to help our recovery (the hot pools are nice, the ice pools not so much!) The boxing gym here is really, really hot, so it’s very hard to train in and we’re all drenched after the sessions! But it is all great preparation for us.

The food has been nice, everything is labelled with nutritional information so it’s really tailor made for athletes. There have been some random things such as octopus and fried whale! But it’s always a buffet style lay out, so most of us just stick to chicken and the things we recognise!

Japan is a great country, the people are very polite and respectful, and it is extremely clean. There is no litter anywhere, and hand wash everywhere! Plus, they don’t steal in their culture; people leave their phones on a shelf whilst they go in the swimming pool! And at the bus stops they just have regular furniture style chairs for people to sit on, and even leave umbrellas at the bus stops for people to use in case it rains…and none of it gets stolen! And the toilets, well they are something else! They have buttons next to the seat where you can control the temperature of the seat, and where you can have a bidet wash after you’ve been to the toilet! It’s pretty cool.

On Sunday we had a rest day, and the Japanese boxing coaches took us into Tokyo for the day, it was great! We got to see the city and also buy some gifts from the little markets there. We bought allsorts of things and it was great to see some of the sights.

Anyway, it is now Tuesday, so this is our final day in Japan. We have three sessions today and then tomorrow we will be flying to Korea where the world championships is being held. The team are looking good and everyone is really confident and feeling great, our preparation has been excellent. I have included some photos from the trip so far, and if we have wi-fi in Korea I will update once we arrive and send some pics. There are tons of countries competing and the opening ceremony is on Sunday, so it will be exciting over the next few days as the tournament gets underway.

Hope everybody is well at school and that my PACE students are doing their best whilst I’m away! (You’d better be!!!).

See you all soon xx

Japanese Olympic training centre

  

At the track where we have our morning session

  

GB and Japanese boxing teams

The entrance to the markets in Tokyo City!

This smoke is thought to have powers to help wellbeing and bring good fortune if you breathe it in. The Japanese were all gathered around it wafting the smoke towards themselves to bring luck! Hopefully it brings us luck at the world championships!

 

Main street in Tokyo and famous red tower                 

 

Me and team mate Lisa Whiteside in Tokyo