Category: Motivation

A Little Something To Help The Journey…

As I’ve written in previous posts, I recently started practicing Shotokan karate. I was lucky enough to find a school in Regina and it’s quite traditional and shares many of the same values I was raised on, from a karate perspective. I officially registered with their school this month, making it the first time in over a decade that I’ve been a registered student in any dojo. I missed the majority of classes last week due to other obligations, a problem I didn’t have in my teens and 20’s, and I’ll be missing today by virtue of it being my eye injection appointment.

But it’s been fun and exciting. I’ve already learned some new forms and ways of doing techniques I’ve been using for decades. Learning something new is always a good thing and for me, the stagnation that’s come from training by myself for the past ten years has made me realize I have a long road ahead of me if I expect to regain some of the lost skill I used to have. Recent classes have shown that I lack muscle tone, flexibility and skill in certain areas where I used to shine. Ali used to say that it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe. Well, I have a lot of little pebbles…

One of the biggest things about karate is that it isn’t a “one and done” where you go to your scheduled classes every week then call it a day. A practitioner needs to focus on lessons outside the class, practicing what they’ve learned and honing it on their own, using class time as a means of obtaining correction and guidance to keep growing further. Otherwise, a 10-year journey will easily turn into a 20-year one. That’s why it’s important to have some tools to help you along your training. For most modern, western dojos, students won’t have access to their instructors outside of class hours. Depending on the style you’re studying, you can be lucky enough to find videos on YouTube that will demonstrate your techniques and katas so that you can practice them and obtain correction. In my day, we had do something different; we used books.

The first book on Shotokan karate I purchased years ago…

I can hear Mr. Miyagi’s voice in my head from the original Karate Kid movie, when he walks into Daniel Larusso’s apartment to fix the sink. “Learn karate from book?” The heavy accent and curiosity made the question seem as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And with good reason. Book are a fantastic way to supplement one’s training and can contain material that’s valuable to a student’s progression in karate. But it’s important to note that a supplement is all that it is, and that nothing substitutes being in class learning from your counterparts and instructors. But I digress…

The book pictured above is one that I purchased almost five years ago. I was out at a book store and even though I am primarily a Uechi-Ryu practitioner, I was drawn by the book and chose to buy it. In all honesty, I never understood why and with all the material I read in the course of a year, combined with work, my kids and writing, I never gave it more than a cursory glance. Fast forward to this year, where bI’ve coincidentally joined a school of Shotokan. Most people are divided on the concept of all things happening for a reason but there’s something to be said for the fact I purchased a book on a different style of karate, years before I would consider joining one of their schools.

In an effort to try and get a leg up (karate pun fully intended) in my new learnings, I cracked this bad boy open and started using it to learn my first form. Learning from a book can be difficult if you’ve never seen the form done in person, since even if the illustrations are clear you could potentially err in such aspects as what direction to turn and how to place your footing. That’s one of the reasons that I suggest that being in-class and learning first is important, even if you’re practicing at home.

My most recent purchase…

Since I’d been training with Shotokan for a couple of weeks, I decided to get pro-active and look into whether they had some sort of primer of book that would relate directly to the founder of the style. This is where I came across the book pictured above. Some years ago, I came across the book entitled “Uechi Ryu Karate,” by George Mattson. Although written by an American, this book contained all the materials of my style from start to finish and all the illustrations included Master Uechi himself. It’s been an incredible aid in maintaining my katas and techniques, especially since I don’t have Sensei here to correct me.

“Karate-Do Kyohan” is similar in its content in that as far as I can tell, it contains all the pertinent material for Shotokan that covers all levels of training. I was pretty pleased to have found a second-hand edition of the book that someone was wiling to part with. The amount of material is immense and the illustrations clear in such a way that I will be able to get ahead of the curve on learning this new-to-me style of karate.Considering some of the differences in how they stand and their approaches to certain techniques, it will also help me to acclimate to this new environment as I learn one of the more popular styles of karate.

Karate is a life-long commitment. Unless you’ve completely given up on yourself it never goes away, even if you haven’t been in the dojo in years. And with that commitment comes the requirement to work hard and practice OUTSIDE THE DOJO. If all you do is attend class two or three times a week, do your hour then head home… Sure, you may get some fitness and some cardio in. As long as you pay attention and participate, you’ll even learn a thing or two. But if you want to become proficient, you have train outside of class. Take a couple of evenings to contribute an hour to your training. It’ll make all the difference and will help with your proficiency and overall karate journey. ☯️

If Only I Could Bottle That Stuff…

Kids provide an incredible insight to where we’ve BEEN, recognizing the youth and energy of life that we gradually lose as the weight and responsibility of adulthood begins to bear down on one’s shoulders. That may seem like a bit of a morose perspective, but an accurate one. Time creeps up on us all, and very few of us have watched a children at play without acknowledging that we wish we still had their level of energy, enthusiasm and flexibility. Personally, I tend to feel a tinge of jealousy at how my son Nathan is viewing and experiencing most things in his life for the first time.

Yesterday morning was atypical for me, considering my pump had only interrupted me once during the night and I was able to ACTUALLY sleep until almost 9 a.m. What was more typical was Nathan’s behaviour. As soon as my eyes opened, he was at the bedroom door asking me how my sleep was. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think he was sitting outside the door waiting for me to wake up. I responded that it had been decent and he immediately started into a tirade of verbal diarrhea, most of which I didn’t understand. Since the baby’s room was right next to ours, I warned him about waking him and shooed him off.

I was barely able make my way out of bed and to the kitchen to grab some caffeine before Nathan was excitedly asking me if he could wear a particular shirt. I sleepily replied that it was fine, even though it was a short-sleeve shirt and we’re still in the depth of winter. He ran off and it took me a full minute to realize that it was first thing in the morning (relatively speaking) and he appeared to be getting dressed for the day. This isn’t typical for him, with a growing battle ensuing every time I try to get him dressed to go somewhere.

Then it struck me… We had a reasonable snowfall last night and our next door neighbour was kindly using his snowblower on our entire driveway. Nathan is usually a fan of being outside while snow is being cleared. After all, what kid doesn’t like to see a white jet of powdered snow being shot everywhere, right? Plus, our neighbour has a friendly dog, which appeals to any kid. He was dressed and out the door within minutes, which was more than I could say for myself. I made a quick shake of blueberries and spinach and alternated between that and my caffeine, trying to shake off the last vestiges of sleep. I wish I had his energy…

I’ve always had the belief that life brings movement, movement brings energy and energy brings life… Wash, rinse and repeat. But I would be lying if I said that eventually, one’s energy gets allocated to different things in life. It can be a shame, since the prospect of going outside and clearing snow weighs on me and frustrates me, while my son is fascinated and loves the aspect. It’s this difference in perspective that we lose as we get older and this also affects our energy. ☯️

A Question Of Perspective…

I recently reconnected on Facebook with an old friend that I graduated high school with. It’s one of the few and far between benefits of social media. For the past twenty years, I’ve had no idea where he ended up or what he was doing with his life. It was good to reconnect and see a little bit about his life. He frequently posts motivational and inspirational quotes and I wanted to share this one with y’all because it spoke to me. Plus, it keeps y’all from having to read one of my long-winded explanations of something on your Saturday morning. Enjoy, this one resonates…☯️

A Little Monday Motivation…

There’s no denying that the past few years have been extremely challenging for most people and even more so for some. I know that for myself, life had turned into a churning tempest of chaos well over a year before COVID-19 sunk it’s miserable talons into everything. Despite the pandemic still having a solid hold on society (some feel we’re reaching the end of it, but I believe it’s a “remains to be seen” kind of thing), life has become significantly better for my household and I. And since today is not only a Monday, notoriously known for being disliked by most adults AND it happens to be the last day of the first month of 2022, I think a little motivation is a good thing.

Sometime during the whole mess, I adopted a practice of visualizing some inspirational words. I did this by taping up something inspirational or motivational on the wall next to my desk so that I could turn and read it when I’d be working. Although I changed up the quotes and sheets I used a few times over a couple of years, the habit of visually seeing the words and reading them aloud became common for me and helped me at times when I was struggling. Being as that my workspace was located in a small nook under my stairs, the last sheet of paper was undisturbed and left alone when renovations took place and are still there.

To be honest, I don’t know who wrote this quote. I’ve used some famous ones that were easily identifiable, sure. But I can’t recall where this one came from or even who penned it. And I can’t be bothered to look. But the words are sound and I thought it would be a good idea to share it with all of you:

“Will Emerge From This Nightmare
Like The Powerful, Beautiful, Resilient Person That You Are.
It Can Be Hard To Remember This When You
Feel Like A Shell Of The Person You Once Were,
But Trust Me: You Are Capable Of Overcoming
So Much More Than You Think.”

The words still speak to me and resonate, especially during the times when things seem to get rough or difficult. As I always say, life doesn’t care about your plan. You can plan things, set up goals and do your best at working towards them but ultimately, life will decide what kind of speed bumps you encounter along the way. After all, it’s like one of my favourite characters, Jean-Luc Picard once said, “It’s possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.” Food for thought…☯️

Just For Laughs…

I found some Diabetes-related memes online and they made me laugh, so I thought I’d share them and see if they make y’all laugh as well. Enjoy… ☯️

This first one is “ironically” funny. I can relate to this. I hate when my blood sugars spike and I seem to bolus a huge amount every hour and it doesn’t seem to come down.

Yup, at least three or four times a night.

Your Comfort Zone Is A Horrible Place To Die…

When all is said and done, you’ll really only get as much out of life as you put into it. Want to lose weight? Eat right and exercise. It won’t happen on its own if you’re sitting on the couch scarfing potato chips and doing fuck all. Wanna learn a new skill? Buckle up and settle in to study, train and develop yourself. Wanna learn karate? It ain’t a knitting circle so you need to be prepared for the blood, sweat and tears that will ensue over the next decade or more to become proficient. Notice that I say “proficient” and not “master,” as karate is a lifelong journey that you’re never really done studying.

An important lesson I’ve learned recently is just how little I actually know. I’ve been studying Uechi Ryu for over three decades at this point, with one third of that time being on my own by virtue of living 3,400 kilometres away from my Sensei. The passage of time and lack of travel ability has brought me to my current state where I made the decision to transition to a new style. Still karate, of course. But I recently joined a Shotokan school and it’s already been quite the ride…

Besides the fact that I’ve become older, slower and thicker (not in the complimentary way), the challenge is significantly different for me, this time around. Add to that the fact that I’m an old dog, teaching me new tricks is not without challenge. My hat’s off to the team of instructors in my new dojo that has to deal with the skilled, unknown black belt gracing their dojo yet doing everything just a LITTLE bit different than how they do.

And this is where the relevance of the title comes in… The past couple of weeks have certainly taken me out of my comfort zone. I’ve started learning different stances, different ways of doing the techniques that ARE familiar, as well as being exposed to a plethora of new forms and katas. I’m definitely enjoying learning new things but it’s been a humbling experience to acknowledge that even though I’ve grown proficient in my style, I’ve also grown comfortable and complacent, which is a horrible state to be in. Complacency leads to loss of proficiency in a terrible “chicken or the egg’ scenario, when it comes to one’s training.

I’m glad that I’ve been able to hammer on and start learning again. Despite how long I’ve at this and the realization that I don’t quite have the same amount of piss and vinegar that I used to, it’s humbling to recognize that there’s still a lot to learn, still a long road to travel and still some exciting surprises for me in the world of karate. I attended my second class of the week last night and my legs are definitely feeling it, with the last class of the week scheduled for tonight. Between work and other obligations, I’m hoping I can keep the circulation going and hammer through tonight’s class efficiently.

Find something you’re passionate about. I think that’s my main message. It’s important to have goals to achieve, but it shouldn’t be torturous and you shouldn’t come out of it feeling as though it was a chore. It’s okay to acknowledge that it was hard; anything worth your time will be. But hard and torturous are two entirely different things. Karate started out as a way to save my life. That’s why I started training. But it’s become a part of me and something I love. I’m blessed to have found a new path on this journey and would encourage all of you to find the path that’s right for you. ☯️

The Bystander Effect…

Ah, bystanders… If you’ve ever been present during a fight in school, you know that there’s usually ALWAYS a group of looky-loos who will stand around and watch things play out. Even if one of the combatants happen to be a bully and seems to be overwhelming the other, people will usually just stand and watch as opposed to stepping in and helping or breaking them up.

This phenomenon is known as the Bystander Effct, and in simple terms it refers to a social theory where people likely won’t help someone (even if they need it) if there are other people there with them. Part of the concept is that most people are likely to believe that someone else will step in, making them hesitate to step in and help, themselves. These days, the big problem is that the majority of people are obsessed with whipping out their fucking cell phones and filming what they see in the interest of posting it on the internet as opposed to helping their fellow man/woman.

According to an article I found posted by Psychology Today, “the bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault or other crime. The greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is for any one of them to provide help to a person in distress. People are more likely to take action in a crisis when there are few or no other witnesses present.”

The article goes on to explain the perception of diffusion of responsibility and what influence society has on a person. Also, some people may choose not to react in response to fear, believing that intervening could lead to an increased level of danger against themselves. Depending on where you live, some people also have the fear of liability if they intervene, with the prospect of getting sued, buzzing at the back of their minds. While many places in North America have no legal obligation for someone to step in and help, there are places that have adopted “duty-to-rescue” laws, making it illegal to simply sit and watch if someone is in distress.

Last but not least, as I mentioned earlier, we live in world of social media and the internet. This has had an increased impact on the Bystander Effect, since most people are more likely to whip out their phones and record an incident than get involved. Another aspect is many people will avoid getting involved BECAUSE they fear it being documented on the internet. Chicken and the egg. But I if you Google “bystander effect,” you’ll find tons of examples where someone has been in distress and even in mortal danger, where others have simply recorded with their phones or sat back and done nothing.

So, how does one break this spell? Well, the ideal thing is to assume you’ll be the only one to do something. Then do it. Even if that only means using verbal intervention and yelling at the aggressor. As I always say, anything is something more than nothing. But from strictly a moral standpoint, it’s important for one to consider that if one was stuck in the same situation as they’re witnessing, they would likely appreciated someone helping out. Could there be legal ramifications? Yes, there could. But at the end of the day, if it means everyone gets to go home to their loved ones, any other challenge can be overcome. Food for thought… ☯️

A Stroll Down The Dojo Memory Lane…

I was communicating with one of my readers and fellow bloggers yesterday (you know who you are) when I was reminded of my old dojo. Not “my old dojo” as in, where I used to train. No, I mean “my old dojo” as in, where I used to TEACH. That’s right, most of you know I practice karate by virtue of mentioning it in almost every post (did y’all know I practice karate?). But many of you may not have known that for a short time, I actually had my own dojo open. Some may assume that having practiced martial arts for over three decades, it would only make sense that I had a school open. But the reality is that teaching is a very particular beast and one that not every practitioner undertakes. In fact, I’ve known some fellow black belts who have been studying as long or longer than I have and have never taught. It happens.

At some point, a couple of years before I joined the Force, Sensei received an influx of requests for children to join the club. Although we accepted anyone who wished to learn, our teachings were a bit strict and rough for some younger children and Sensei thought that opening a second, separate dojo would be a good idea. With three current black belts (besides Sensei) currently training in the main dojo, it was agreed that I would undertake the project and take in these new students. I would come to understand years later that it might have been more productive to have a younger practitioner attend to the kids’ dojo, since they would “potentially” be more in tune with their students needs. But I was being offered a chance to open my own dojo and I leapt at the chance.

I was pretty excited to get to the dojo that night and even more excited to see how many students I would have coming in the door. More than a dozen children of varying ages were waiting for me with their parents nearby. It was a pretty slow first night, considering I had to cover off the basics and discuss dojo etiquette, as well as get all the kids registered through their parents and get certain forms filed out, etc… I still felt it went well and I was looking forward to the next class. Honestly, that first week flew by without too much difficulty and I thought I had found a niche in the form of teaching these young students. I would discover soon after that I was wrong…

You see, there’s a HUGE difference between the concept of teaching adults and teaching children. I’ve taught adults a LOT in my three decades of karate. For the most part, when an adult walks into a dojo they’re choosing to be there. I mean, I suppose it COULD happen that an adult would join karate because they’re being told to do so but I’ve never seen it. One can also expect that they’ll join for a number fo specific reasons relating to their health, weight-loss, wanting to learn a new skill or defend themselves. With children, they usually fall under two categories: they asked to be join or they are being MADE to be there by their parents. The unfortunate reality is that the majority fall under the latter category.

Another issue that I’ve noticed is that when you get an adult who joins and wants to learn, they’ll usually do everything and anything that’s required of them, even if they consider it boring or stale. Children don’t jive with that concept. In fact, for the majority of kids the curriculum needs to be kept dynamic and exciting. It needs to be fun or their eyes will start glazing over and you’ll “lose the crowd.” This is especially true of those kids whose parents have forced them to join and didn’t want to be there in the first place. It wasn’t my cup of tea but I could have learned and adjusted to this concept, given enough time. It turned out to be the parents who did me in…

After the dojo had been open for a period of time, some of my students were ready to start grading for their yellow stripes. For any non-practitioners out there, my style carries a yellow belt but for most students, the yellow belt is reserved for children and young practitioners who need room on their belt for growth over a number fo years more than their adult counterparts. Long story short, since I had never issued grading before, this was done under the supervision of my Sensei. Unlike many other schools out there, our students don’t have the luxury of testing simply by virtue of the amount of time they’ve been with the dojo. It needs to be a combination of how long you’ve been training, attendance and actual proficiency in the required techniques.

By virtue of this, not all of my newly-acquired white belts were tested for their first yellow stripe that night. While Sensei assisted in grading the students, I kept the ones who wouldn’t be testing busy. I know had a ranking system within my dojo, which should have been a good thing. Seniority can be an important aspect of karate, especially when taught in the Western world. This is because it gives the other students someone to lean on and aspire to besides the Sensei. I thought things were going significantly well for the next couple of weeks despite the fact that I certainly wasn’t made for “having fun” in the dojo. I had fun training, learning karate was fun in and of itself, but playing games and having a loud, boisterous class was weighing on me as it didn’t fit into the neat, compartmentalized image of karate that I had developed in my head.

Then, a cauldron of resentment and jealousy began to rear its ugly head as the parents of a few select students caught me before the start of class to discuss why their child hadn’t received a yellow stripe like many of the others had. I made the mistake of indicating that it was because they hadn’t been tested, which I thought would explain things. Much like a doctor who will explain something medical with the plain idea that it would explain everything, I assumed that provided an adequate answer. Instead, it added fuel to the fire in the form that the parents demanded to know WHY their children hadn’t been tested. Letting them know that they hadn’t yet acquired the level of skill required to grade for their stripe did nothing to assuage their concerns.

Within the next couple of weeks, I had a number of parents basically threaten to remove their child from the dojo if I didn’t give them a yellow stripe. This is actually a phenomenon that happens among child and adult practitioners. Some adults are pretty good at becoming petty and failing to realize that just because one has been training as long as a counterpart, it doesn’t mean you’re ENTITLED to the same belt. I had always made a silent promise to myself that a student would never receive a grading unless they’d earned it. I’m proud to say I’ve kept that promise, but it came at a cost. Once I explained that a student would not be tested for any grading until they had developed skill that would justify the rank, I began losing students. Within the next calendar month, the number of students I held and their dwindling attendance became almost non-existent.

Once it became abundantly clear that it was beginning to cost me more to run the dojo than I was making, I had to make the difficult decision to close my doors. Sensei was understandably not happy with this, but I didn’t feel I could bring myself to compromise my values and the value of the art I practiced JUST to satisfy the parents belief that “I’m paying, so you work for me,” or the jealousy their children may have felt at seeing their peers receive rank where they didn’t. I think it speaks to an ever-increasing concept of self-entitlement that the world has been developing for decades. In traditional karate, there are no participation trophies. You don’t get rewarded JUST for showing up. You want the belt, you gotta do the work.

Ultimately, I closed the doors of my dojo and we were able to absorb some of the kids into the main dojo (the ones who wanted to stick it out to learn and grow). Back then, I had often juggled with whether it was a good experience or a bad one, a good choice or a terrible one. The decision I finally came to was that there really aren’t any BAD experiences; it’s all in how we interpret them and what we learn from them. But I’ve come to learn that this is the direction the world has taken. People feel they’re entitled as opposed to working towards earning. And although I’ll be the first to admit that you gotta show up, you also gotta do the work. I would never attempt or continue to teach someone otherwise.

I never opened another dojo, after that. It was a combination of how the first one had gone down, mixed with the fact that once I joined the Force, I was transferring every few years, which I felt would be unfair to any practitioner who walked into my dojo. How bad would it suck to have someone commit themselves to my style, only to have me say, “Sorry, guys. Duty calls and I’m moving away…” only a few years into their training? That wouldn’t be fair to someone who genuinely wants to learn a style. But it also serves an important lesson to anyone looking to get into karate. If you walk into a dojo and the focus is money and EVERYBODY grades and passes when there’s testing, it may not be the school for you. I prefer to have closed my dojo than teach a watered-down version of my art to accommodate the ones who feel entitled. This is how an art remains true and pure. Food for thought… ☯️

An Interesting Perspective…

I found the above illustration a short while ago and it spoke to me. I like how the illustrations shows the giant carrying everything material on his back and is attempting to scoop up pieces of nature to keep “feeding the machine.” At least, that how I’M interpreting it… And if you look closely enough, you’ll see a person, presumably human, stand beneath the giant firing an arrow up at it, suggesting that not all people are the same as what this short message indicates.

I don’t believe myself to be perfect in any way, shape or form and I can honestly say that I see myself in some of the things I write about. But i see some of the truth in this illustration with how one need only to step out their front doors to see everyone who isn’t actively behind the wheel of a car (and a few who are) with their faces firmly buried in the screen of a smart device. People associate success with the accumulation of things, instead of the accumulation of memories and experiences, which is a shame since life has far more to contribute than how big your house is, or how expensive your car is. Food for thought… ☯️

An Empire State Of Mind

Despite the fact that I make a real effort to have something posted every day (I’m close to 700 consecutive posts), finding material to post about can sometimes be a bit challenging. I can only bitch about the pitfalls and difficulties surrounding Diabetes so much, otherwise y’all would likely be of the opinion that I’m only ever negative. Which is not the case, by the way.

So today, I thought I’d keep things simple and simply write about something fun. Telling stories is as much a part of blogging as providing information, after all. In 2001, I had the opportunity to o travel to Japan and Okinawa with Sensei and a few other members of our dojo. It was the trip of a lifetime and even though I make a point of never living with regrets, I can honestly admit that I always wished I could have gone back, considering Sensei has been back almost a dozen times in the past twenty years.

Although I could fill a book with all the little details surrounding that trip, I wanted to focus on the aspect of our first stop on the way to the land of the rising sun: New York. The trip started in the very wee hours of the morning, with a drive into Quebec where we took a short-term flight from Mont-Joli to Quebec City. From there, we travelled to Montreal and then New York. All the bunny-hopping apparently made the overall trip less expensive.

Despite how tired and sleepy I was, I couldn’t contain the absolute excitement I felt at landing in New York. Besides the locals boasting being the greatest city in the world, I had spent most of my life seeing the city featured in television, movies and just about everything else. I had to seriously convince myself that Japan was the destination and that I couldn’t STAY in New York. We booked into a nice hotel in Manhattan and took to the streets.

Never one to pay for anything he didn’t need to, Sensei had us walk to a local neighbourhood that served traditional Japanese food. It was absolutely delicious and Sensei’s thinking was that it would start getting us into the groove for where we were headed. Then, we walked to the Empire State Building. Considering that up to that point, I had spent the entirety of my life in Northern New Brunswick and never travelled much past the Province of Quebec, I was on sensory overload and about as giddy as a teen girl who just won the cheer competition.

We purchased tickets to access the building and took an elevator ride that felt like forever. When we stepped out onto the observation deck, I was taken aback at how high I was and the amazing view that was spread out before me. The sun had just about set, and there was just a thin sliver of light on the horizon. Then, another site caught my eyes… I looked southward and saw a massive cloud of dust, lit up by powerful spotlights.

It was mid-October of 2001 and what I was looking at was the former site of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. Even a month after their collapse, a heavy cloud of dust was still hanging in the air and could be visibly seen from two dozen miles away. It snapped me back to reality in the sense that it was my first time witnessing something terrible that I had only heard about through the media.

But I was talking about how I’m not always negative in the opening paragraph, so let’s get back to the trip as a whole, shall we? I stepped up to the protective fencing around the edge of the building and looked down. Big mistake. I was hit by a sense of vertigo that I can’t really explain. I’m not afraid of heights, but the height I was standing at made it look like I was staring straight down ABOVE the street, which obviously doesn’t make sense. But the perspective was freaky,

Once I was done trying to induce vomiting, we left the building and decided to hop a bus to get back to our hotel. Like something out of a bad comedy movie, we somehow took a bus in the wrong direction and ended up in Harlem. Some friendly and helpful locals were nice enough to direct us to the correct bus line and we were on our way. Despite doing the lost tourist thing, we made it back to our hotel in one piece.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the hotel’s pool area. It would have been nice to explore Manhattan a bit more, see the Statue of Liberty, Central Park or one of many world-renowned museums located within the district. But after along day of flights and our adventures throughout the earlier hours, it felt nice to kick back and relax. The next day would see us board a 14-hour flight to Japan. Sleep was welcomed, especially in light of the adventures to come. ☯️