Wednesday, November 12
I woke up at about 8 AM, which has become normal these days. In the morning, I had nothing special to do, so I spent time reading and studying French. For lunch, the host’s wife invited me to a Japanese lunch spot she had found. The restaurant was an authentic Japanese place, and it was delicious. It turned out that the owner was Japanese, which we learned through a conversation with a Japanese female server. I spoke with her in Japanese, and when I saw her speaking French, I felt inspired to improve my French as well.
In the afternoon, I visited a different dojo to practice and teach Judo. The dojo was located inside a large stadium complex that also had football, rugby, and other sports courts. When I arrived, some younger kids were leaving the building. When I entered, there were about 25 kids around 10–13 years old. As soon as they saw me, all of them stared at me and started talking among themselves. I think the teacher had already told them that a Japanese judoka would join the class.
After changing into my Judo uniform, I began watching the class. About 5 minutes later, all the electricity went out. Most of the kids panicked a bit, but some of them reacted like it was normal, so I thought it had happened before. But the teacher told me it had never happened before, so they had to stop the practice and leave the building.
Before that, for about 30 minutes, the teacher gave the kids time to ask me anything. They literally asked anything. Most of the questions had nothing to do with Judo—like “What’s your favorite color?”—but I enjoyed interacting with the kids who were curious about me. Some of them even tried asking questions in English. French kids are so friendly and so curious. I wish I could have practiced Judo with them.
Anyway, I heard that the power outage affected the whole city. Because of that, we decided to go to a restaurant with some of the students instead of practicing. We ended up going to a place filled with rugby pictures. As soon as we walked in, I saw a server bringing hamburgers to nearly every table, so I realized that hamburgers were the restaurant’s specialty. I haven’t had a hamburger since I left the U.S., so I was excited to try a French one. I ordered whatever the server recommended.
Our group had about 10 people. We sat on high chairs and talked while waiting for the meal. About 15 minutes later, the food came out. The plate included a hamburger, French fries, and salad. The cheese tasted very different from U.S.-style burgers—I think they used a special French cheese. It was delicious.
We left the restaurant around 9:30 PM, and I came back home.
Thursday, November 13
In the morning, I went to the main dojo to teach and practice Judo with people who are older than the students who train in the evening. After practice, I went to a ramen restaurant that one of the students had recommended to me. It was only 10 minutes away from the dojo by bike, so I decided to go. When I arrived, there was a line of people in front of the restaurant, so I had to wait. In Japan, it is common for people to wait in line for good food, so it reminded me a little bit of Japan. I didn’t really experience that in the US, though. I waited for about 20–30 minutes, and finally I could enter the restaurant.
There were many customers eating alone. The inside of the restaurant was tiny, with a counter and a couple of tables for two. I sat at the counter. They had tsukemen (noodles with dipping soup), maze-soba (brothless ramen), and classic ramen. I was excited to try either of the first two since they are hard to find in the US. I ended up ordering maze-soba and rice. When the ramen was served, I was surprised that the noodles were thin. In Japan, I got used to eating maze-soba with thick noodles. The taste was good, but I still felt that the maze-soba I had in Japan was much better.
After leaving the restaurant, I relaxed for a while. In the evening, I left for another Judo practice in a different dojo. Because of traffic, it took about 30 minutes to get there. When I arrived, I was surprised by how big the dojo was. The kids’ class had already finished. Right before the adult class began, one of the parents started talking to me and told me that she was Japanese. We had a short conversation in Japanese. She was the second Japanese parent whose child practices Judo.
In the adult class, there were more than 30 people, ranging in age from teenagers to people in their 50s. I taught a technique and practiced with them. After practice, the representative of the dojo gave me a dojo T-shirt. Some of the younger people also asked me for my autograph and to take photos. I really appreciated that. The passion for Judo in France is something I have never experienced before. It is always fantastic to meet different people in different countries and cities.
After coming back, the host and I had dinner—omelets (absolutely delicious)—while watching TV coverage of a terrorist attack in Paris that happened 10 years ago. It was terrible. The host told me that in the same year, a terrorist attack also happened in Toulouse. It was terrifying to hear.
I went to bed after dinner.
