New York City with Tomoko

My cousin from Japan decided to do a short trip with her family over to the East Coast this week.  Her first stop was to NYC and she asked me to join her.  She and her family does not speak much English so I am basically her translator.  I did book a flight to join them for the weekend though.  We all arrived at the hotel on Friday afternoon and started off with a tour around Central Park.  We planned for an early dinner and didn't have much time so they opted for the pedicab tour.  We initially thought about the horse and carriage, but I thought it would be better if we could get off and see a few spots.  The guides were good and pointed out a lot of things about the park, a lot of which was about film locations and where all the famous people live.  After the tour, we had a massive steak dinner at Empire Steakhouse.  Mmm mmm good.

9/11 Memorial

Saturday morning was another big meal at the hotel restaurant (Le Parker Meridien's NORMA's).  Then we caught the Staten Island Ferry for a view of the Statue of Liberty.  This was a first for me.  Then a quick walk around Wall St. and Trinity Church, followed by a visit to the 9/11 Memorial - another first.  Lunch was at Soba Nippon (their idea), and then we took a bit of a break in the afternoon before heading out to Times Square and then to the 8pm showing of Wicked.  It's been a while since I've seen a broadway show so I was glad they asked to see it.  I guess they cared more about the experience than understanding the story.

Sunday morning was escorting them for souvenir shopping.  I had to leave the city around noon to catch my flight, and they had a later flight to catch.  We were all headed to IAD and I am supposed to play tour guide in DC next couple of days.  Unfortunately though, the later flight that my family is on got cancelled and they won't make it in until tomorrow afternoon.  It's a bummer since they only had two full days here.  Weather in NYC isn't all that great tomorrow either, so hope there's no more delays or cancellations....

Tony Passos BJJ

I had been telling myself for a while now that I needed a hobby but kept making excuses.  Finally toward end of January though, I got the kick I needed to do something about it and decided to take up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu again.  I really enjoyed it when I was training under Kris Kim at the Herndon LA Boxing, but a bum knee followed by life getting in the way (i.e. getting married and moving to Alaska) caused me to give it up after only a few months.  During that time though, I was introduced to Kris's coach, Tony Passos.  I remembered he was in Sterling so I looked him up.  Turned out his school was only 10 minutes away.  I had no excuses. I tried out a class, loved it, and now I'm a member.  

I had a lot of concerns about committing myself to the sport initially.  First of all, there aren't too many who do this sport, much less women over 30.  The sport is hard on your body.  Not only do I walk away with scrapes and bruises that make me look like a domestic violence case, but it's just high impact over all.  The work out is great though, and I suspect I'll be able to better maintain my ideal weight while doing this.  My strength and endurance should improve too, which I hope will help with hiking.  Injury is always a concern in martial arts, but seems most of the students here have good control and use technique instead of muscling a submit out of me.  So, so far so good.  

I don't have any grandiose goals here for training.  I just want to have some fun and fill some void that I've felt for a while now.  Tony is a great instructor, classes are fun (despite it being hard), and all of the students are friendly and helpful.  Not much more to ask for here.  Perhaps in time I will be concerned about belt advancement or even consider competing (mmm... or not).  For now though, it's great to have something to be passionate about again.