Sparring and biking

On saturday, which was the fourth day for me to practice at the Kyokushin Dojo of Seoul, I was told to come around 1 o' clock.  I had miscalculated the time it should take me to get there, so I had to run from the station to the dojo. Arriving there, I heard that the time was changed to 2 o' clock, so the running had been unnecesairy. I was happy to hear that today was going to be sparring day! After three days of hard training (and soccer) , I finally got what I had been waiting for! During the week, most of the students here are high-school kids (and  monsters), but this day the majority was in their 20's or 30's. The sparring started with one rotation with all of us. Most people here fight very closely, and try not to give me any space to use kicks, which can be pretty annoying for a fighter like me. What surprised me though, was that most of the fighters got tired pretty fast, despite all of the hard training they do in the week-days. After the first rotation, I had to face all of the students on a row, 2 minutes each. My first opponent was my senior Jong Seok, who has been practicing Kyokushin for over 20 years. He had a very balanced fighting style, and it was hard to see his kicks because his upper body remains straight while he kicks.

After having faced all of my opponents, the training was over. We took some pictures and had a talk. One guy that spoke very good English invited me to come and have lunch with him one day in the district he works at.

Jong Seok asked me if I would like to go for a drive on his motor-cycle. Ofcourse I did! We first had lunch together in a self-service all you can eat style restaurant, while talking about fameous Kyokushin fighters. Talking about favorite soccer players you can do with pretty much anyone, but when it comes to Kyokushin, you really have to search for someone to talk with.

He was a very relaxed, open minded person and spoke really good English since he has lived in New Zealand for one year and has also been the body-guard of the boss of an foreign company here in Korea.

His bike was a Kawasaki, but had the looks of a Harley Davidson. We drove through the business districts of Seoul filled with skyscrapers. Seoul has not so many really tall buildings compared to Tokyo or New York, but many buildings have unique and stylefull desings. Sometimes, Jong Seok drove pretty fast with his bike, and then I would grap the back of the motor cycle with all of my strength. At the end of the day, Jong Seok brought me back to a near station, and said goodbye. I was glad to have made a new friend in this city where I hardly know anyone.