Day Four

Day four…Lots of aikido, great food and Air Force One hookers

I will spare you the meticulous details I submitted all in Day 1, 2 and 3. J

Day four again started with the free breakfast buffet. Filipino breakfasts ROCK! One must be careful though with the rice intake if you are not accustomed to rice on a daily and am ritual for it will clog you terribly. Luckily, I my internal organs were working rather well this Asian trip unlike Japan when I wished I had a portable enema set traveling with me.

The day was again 3 to 4 hours of aikido breaking for lunch. I got a better impression of the Filipino aikido practice then expected. I heard they were quite unorganized both organizationally and in training. Not so in training, the only real difference I noticed was that there ranking did not measure up to our ranking. Chicago especially, has a very tough grading curve and in order to be of a certain rank Chicago tends to have the chops. Basically if I was working with someone of my rank it was quite noticeable that I had a lot more practice investment than my partner, even working with ranks considered higher. Blah, blah, blah.

We broke for a long lunch which enabled us to get a short nap in but then it was back to class for tests. I hemmed and hawed whether I should “dress” meaning whether I should observe tests in my gi or not. It was suggested I do because I may be used as uke (attacker for the tests incase no one has a designated uke) so I did to be on the safe side. Luckily I did because the first two shodan (first degree black belt) tests needed additional ukes for the “randori” portion (5 attackers at one time). Theses testers were not expecting ME. Randori is something Chicago emphasizes when testing so we give it our all. I came out like a greyhound on steroids going art the testers. The idea is that all ukes line up at one end and the nage (tester) is at the other end. Once nage bows to us we should run at it and attack. The first nage bowed and no one but me ran at him. At first I thought I did not hear sesei corrdctly when he said go but it was because the other ukes had no idea how to do this. The poor nage froze when I went at him. Sensei yelled at the others to “go, go, go”. The second nage had a better idea what to expect but still was not prepared.

When it came down to the next pair of shodan tests, sensei stopped the test after a minute and called me up to replace one guy’s uke. Poor chap, he could not handle it/me. I was taking it easy with him too because it is not necessarily my job to punish him of make him look bad, only to give him clean attacks so he can show his technique. I thought he was going to have a heart attack with me. Again, I did his and 3 other shodan randori tests. Next was two sandan (3rd degree) and one yondan (fourth degree) tests. I also did uked for those tests. I thought by the end I was going to die but it certainly made my dojo and I look in a good light in sensei’s eyes. After the tests were over I had many people come up to me and compliment me on my ukeni (taking falls) and some referred to me as sensei which was weird. I do teach at our dojo occasionally but I am not a sensei in our tradition of the word.

We had another decent break before a banquet dinner was planned for us by the organization. A needed shower was in order and it was time for me to wear a nice shirt and tie. (I love to dress up.)

Filipino hospitality is unbelievable. We were treated so well. The dinner was decent, hotel banquet food, certainly not the real deal but okay. I of course started to have a few drinks. After the dinner we were treated to an hour of entertainment by The National Philippine Folk Company who has performed all over the world include Rockefeller Center. What a treat. At the end of their performance one performer grabbed me and asked me to try and do this stick dance called Tinikling which is a pair of long sticks laid on the floor slapping against each other as a dancer or dancers hop-scotch like between them. I did pretty well until my glasses fell off during it.

After the party the gang wanted to go to Air force One; another KTV place but only upscale. I was in, what the hell. John arrived back from Mindanao and he was psyched to go! It took us over almost 2 hours to get there which if in Chicago would have been 20 minutes that’s how bad the traffic was. Thank goodness for hired drivers and a van, I was able to snooze a bit. Air Force One looked like a Vegas casino with the gambling. Once we met our host she escorted us past the bar, mega stage and private like booths to the room of chicks. Again like the first place, we were able to look at a gaggle of girls through a thin long window. These girls were far prettier then the first KTV place we saw. She explained that there were 3 levels of girls. The low level was thre GRO. The second level was called something I do not recall. The highest was called a Centerfold. John immediately picked out his girl; a centerfold. She was pricey. Rocky was kind of undecided but I had my eye on two girls with their heads on each other’s shoulders. If I was only straight, they looked like a straight guy’s fantasy. Funny, Rocky ended up choosing one of the “twins”. The escort asked me which one I was going to choose but I declined. We were then escorted into our private room titled “Grover Cleveland”. The GRO Rocky had, showed interest in me and why I did not get a girl. It was explained that I was gay. Clearly she was confused. After 45 minutes of karaoke and weak ass drinks and decided to leave them alone since John was practically groping the Centerfold so I ponied up to the bar and watched pathetic runway like modeling and some hip hop dancing troupe that at least had guys in it.

(Okay so I am not sparing you with details, I am on my fourth glass of wine, deal with it. J)

I milked my beer at the bar making sure the guys had a better time not worrying about my presence. The GRO walked past me and wanted me to join them. OK, she’s a whore and was told I was gay but she certainly was giving me the eye. After about 20 minutes I returned to sing a song and then I passed out in the room. There were only two couches in there so Rocky and the GRO shared a passed out Guy on the smaller couch while John and his centerfold had the larger couch. The GRO prodded me a few times during my rest but I was so fine hanging half off the sofa after the drinks and aikido. When I woke up, the GRO was in intense fascination with my hairy forearms. She was stroking them and certainly was giving me more attention then she ever gave Rocky. She started to look down my shirt to see my chest and yes, her hand reached down my shirt to rub my hairy (but man-scaped) chest. Clearly I was the only white guy in the room and possibly her ticket out of GRO status. On the ride home John said that he tried to get the Centerfold to do “more” in the other room (bathroom or hotel) but she said she did not do that. We all knew she did but her price would have been high but she said the GRO is always looking to do “extra”. LOL

Day Five: Last day of aikido, seeing Mom again, party in the Hamptoms