Road to Japan day 7: A friendly face

Day 7: Today I was finally back to normal. I woke up around 10 and went for my own walk around town. It’s actually really cool to wonder the streets alone. Making my way through the small country town (which was still set up like the big cities with all the shops crammed together) I Bought some breakfast, coffee, did some sight-seeing then headed over to ROOTS gym member Anake’s clothing store which was near by. We hung out while talking about hip hop and American fast food. It was an awesome conversation. He really wants to eat Taco Bell!

Around 2 I finally made my way over to the gym and met Taiki who had just opened up shop. We spent about an hour watching some good ol NCAA wrestling videos on you tube. He had never seen that level of wrestling and was amazed at what he saw!
As the gym members started to come in, they one by one started asking me to roll spar with them. I think I must have done 1 hour straight with a cycle of maybe 4 guys that kept rotating on me. Exhusting…but was a lot fun. I took a rest on the mats since my training was coming up. About 25 mins into my nap I was asked again to spar. This time standing. How could I say no. This is what came a here for right? As soon as the timer beeped, my timing felt like normal! My jet lag was finally over..I was ecstatic. I think it showed by the way I started moving. This wrestler was back to normal. Power doubles, lateral throws, high crotch transitions and my submissions were on point. For the 1st time this trip my grappling felt right. Was a great feeling.

After training again, I now only had about 35 mins to relax until it was time for the GI Jiu Jitsu class. Just before class started my friend Yoshi from the states showed up to train. Yoshi is an outstanding black belt who used to live in LA and now lives about 30 minutes from ROOTS. It was so cool to see a familiar face while in Japan. Now it was time for some GI.
We learned some awesome gi sweeps and then had a nice long spar session. I started with Yoshi and made my way around the room. The rounds seemed like 4 minute rounds that we must have done 10 of. I was spent.
After class Yoshi and I took of the GI’s and he showed me some really cool modified submissions to stuff that I already do. They were awesome yet simple changes. The moves even caught Ruminas attention. He even eventually made his way over and we all drilled together.
Training was finally over. It was time to shower and go eat. When I walked off the mats I guess one of the kids who train at ROOTS mother had cooked me some food since she heard I loved the food in Japan. That was so nice. It was a squid dish, with sides of beans, roots and potato salad. It’s crazy how kind the people have been. Yoshi went home as did we. Today was an overall great day.

Tomorrow is back on the train at 6:30am to the giant city of Yokohama to train again with Shooto champion Katsumura and Takeya Mizugaki.
Sorry if todays writing is horribly written. Its been a long day..The photos will be up later today. The blog site is having issues again with uploads.

Chad “SAVAGE” George

Road to Japan day 5: Training and Party

Today was rough. We woke up at 6:30 in order to be at the train by 7 and in Yokohama for training at 9 (mind you we got bed last night around 2). Today We traveled to Train with Shooto 135 pound Champion Shu Katsumura (Famous Ninja choke) and WEC fighter Takeya Mizugaki.
Once we arrived in Yokohama it was rush hour at the train station. Floods and Floods of people were running and pouring from every direction you looked. Its was insanity. Even on the train people were crammed together like sardines. Luckily we only had to be in the madness for a few minutes.
Outside of the train station it was immediately calm. Almost fitting the saying “calm before the storm”, which is exactly what it was when we arrived at the Ground Slam Gym.
Training was great! We MMA sparred for 1 hour straight. Bell to bell. The session was short but aggressive and to the point. Each round was with a new guy and everyone out of this gym where beasts. When me and Katsumura went at it everyone stopped to watch. We went back and forth until I landed a deep takedown. unfortunately was not a great idea. From the ground he worked and worked for his famous set up and eventually caught me in his “Ninja Choke”. Man that thing is nasty. The setup for it was amazing and so fast.
After training, we all took a bunch of photos and then Taiki and I headed back to Odawara for lunch and some rest before our evening training along with Ruminas celebration party.
I took about a 2 hour nap at Roots gym and then went for a massage before Ruminas MMA class at 7 (My body is already beat up). We did a bunch of crazy warm up exercises and then it was into technique for about 90 mins. Rumina had me teach a part of it. After the class it was sparring time. The armature and pro fighters always get together for some sort of sparring after the technique classes. Tonight we grappled for 90 mins then hit the showers and headed to Ruminas party.
We met Rumina and bunch of his students and friends at the 1st spot for dinner and a few drinks. Sashimi, Kabobs, Tempura. It was delicious. After dinner it was off to the 2nd spot for more drinks (I rarely drink so you can say the American was a little drunk). The group reduced in size by about half as we approached the 2nd restaurant and it was already about midnight. Everyone was having a great time. Laughing, joking, Drinks were passed around and passed around until it was about 2am. I think most of the night was spent with us teaching each other horrible slang english and Japanese. Needless to say. We were all pretty smashed by the time we left. On the way home we left as a group and someone suggested a light snack. So we stopped at this rice beef bowl place that was open all night. Yes that ment more drinking. I think we finally left around 4 and made it home about 4:30. I was a super tired and needed to sleep. The good news is, I think I might have drank my jet lag away.
(Sorry my camera died at ROOTS gym so unfortunately I only got a few photos from the party on my phone. I will upload them later today).

Chad “SAVAGE” George

Road to Japan Day 4: Shooto

Sorry for the delay in the blog. The days have been running so close togeather. But here we go….
Today was Ruminas big fight against Shooto icon 18-1 Ryoto Matsune. Taiki and myself met Rumina at Roots gym and then left Odawara around 11am heading to the Arena in Tokyo. On the way Rumina wanted to eat lunch, so we stopped at this really cool market/food stop off the freeway and ate some Udon and Octopus. (Like a rest stop but very high class..it was so cool). After Lunch it was a 90 minute straight shot to the JBC Hall Arena.
Once we arrived at the arena Rumina was swarmed with fans wanting photos and autographs. I tried to focus on Rumina but the Arena was so overwhelming. Roller Coasters, rides, thousands of people in costume (There was some kind of event going on that had to do with famous Japanese characters) That really had me pulling in different directions. But once inside the arena it was a different story. We took Rumina backstage and chilled out until it was time to get warmed up for the fight. It was amazing having so much talent in our locker room. We had the current 145 pound champ Lion Takeshi (who was defending his title this night), Shooto 135 pound champion Shu Katsumura, X champion Mamoru Yamaguchi and Champion Taiki Tsuchiya all in Ruminas room. I felt honored being allowed in his locker room with his team. Rumina wrapped his hands, warmed up and now it was time to fight. I couldn’t believe how relaxed Rumina was through the whole process. He looked as if he was just going for coffee through the entire thing. It was amazing to watch how comfortable he is in the element of fight. As we walked Rumina down to the tunnel you heard nothing but the screams of the 4-5000 fans in the audience. “RUMINA..RUMINA..RUMINA!!” Once the fight started the crowd went silent. The only time they made a noise was when a punch landed or a defense from a takedown. I love how educated the Japanese fans are. The 1st round saw much of a feeling out period between the two veterans. The second round was a different story. Matsune attacked to the body and Rumina landed a beautiful knee to the chin knocking him out cold. Just for good measure Rumina followed up with 2 solid shots before the ref could pull him off. The crowd went nuts as did we in his corner. It was a huge victory for Rumina and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it. After Ruminas fight, gym mate and Champion Lion Takeshi was ready to go. The fight was a back a forth slug fest. It was by far one of the best fights ive seen to date. Both men put there entire hearts on the line. Unfortunetly Lion ended up dropping a decision loss to the new champion Hioki.
Once the event was over we drove 2 hours back to Odawara and had mini celebration dinner with Rumina and some of the ROOTS gym members. The actually party will be tomorrow.
Tonight was an amazing night of fights and an experience I will not forget. But for now its time to go to bed as we have to wake up at 6:30am to travel to Yokohama’s ground slam gym for training at 10am with Shooto Champion Shu Katsumura and WEC fighter Takeya Mizugaki.

Chad “SAVAGE” George

Road to Japan Day 3: DREAM

Day 3: DREAM
Today we woke around 8:30 so we could get to ROOTS gym by 9 for sprint day. Every Saturday and Wednesday the fighters do this run. It’s a basically a 5 mile jog with stair sprints in the middle. (Stair way was 5 sets of stairs ran 5x) Followed by push ups at the top. When we jogged back to the gym it was time for more push up and pull ups. My legs were shot but I still felt really good. After training I had to rush into a shower and then it was off to watch DREAM!
We started off with a short train ride and then were picked up by another gym mate for the remainder of the 2 hour travel to the arena.
Once at the venue we met up with one of my sponsors from INSPIRIT (Hata) and went into the show. The event was amazing. Fireworks, lights, fire, it was insane. The crowed was unbelievably educated and I only heard 1 boo the entire night. Of course it was from an American yelling “Cmon fight!! BOOO BOOO…DO SOMETHING…”I wanted to go over and choke the shit out of him.
Aside from the production of the show the fights were awesome. Some brutal KO’s, slick submissions and overall great fights. I think the strangest part of the night was when we were leaving somehow someone knew who I was and asked for an autograph and then also ended up doing an interview with a camera man from DREAM. Kinda cool.

After the fights it was back on the train and back to Odawara. We were a little hungry so we went and ate Soba at the same restaurant as the other night. This time the chef came out and gave me a Japanese Soba chefs outfit!! So cool.
Tomorrow we head to Tokyo for SHOOTO. Ruminas fight against Ryoto Matsune. WAR RUMINA!!

Chad “SAVAGE” George

Road to Japan Day 2: Odawara and Jet Lag

Day 2:
Who would have ever thought sleeping on a thin roll up matress in the kitchen of a small apartment would give you such a full fulling rest. Well it sure did the job. This morning I woke up at around 8am (my body just woke up and couldnt go back to sleep) and decided to go for a little walk around town until Taiki was awake. After I made it back, Taiki and I went for some good ol American coffee and then roamed the town a bit until we met up with Rumina and a few of his friends at their clothing shop Flowstyle (The owner Anake learned all his English from American Hip Hop..AWESOME!!). Once we all gathered togeather it was time to eat. We had this delicious Japanese Curry they called it “Master Curry” I think because of the size of the dish. This thing was big but I think there was 1 more that was actually 2x the size.
By this point I was still feeling preaty good without any major sides of the jet lag….or so I thought. As soon as we left the restraunt and opened up Roots gym I started feeling like a Zombie. My vision started blurring, my eyes were burning. It was time for a nap. WRONG. couldnt sleep. So instead I just layed down for a while and tried to build my energy for training tonight.
Around 7pm Shooto and KOTC Champion Mamaru Yamaguchi showed up to teach his Muay Thai class which ment it was time to train. Aside from my horendous jet lag. It turns out my Muay Thai needs more work than I thought. Mamaru’s stand up is NASTY!! Nothing more humbling than a guy much smaller than you tossing you around.
He showed me some really good tips that I think are really going to change my game. Got lots to work on and thats what I came here for. After Muay Thai we all took our gloves off and grappled for about 90 mins. So in all we trained about 3 hours tonight.
After training it was time to eat. Had a little Calamari and a BLT sandwhich. And now its time for bed. Ive got sprints and running at 8am and then its off to Yokohama for DREAM!

Chad “Savage” George

Road to Japan Day 1: Enter Japan

Today is my official 1st installment of The Road to Japan. So here we go!!

Today started off the way any other chaotic adventure is supposed to. As soon as I pulled up to the airport at LAX I get a phone call from my girl asking if I left a bag. Of course I did. So out of the kindess of his heart my boy Louie AKA the Boss rushed down to my house to get the bag and bring it to me. Lucky for me I had to wait in this rediculously long line just to check my bags in. By the time Louie had brought the bag back I had just finished checking in and was ready for the security check. Oh wait…not before the hour long line that was there also.

So by the time I finally boarded ive been through over 2 hours of lines, a little drama but at least it was time to head out and depart for JAPAN.

Of course by the way the day had already gone I knew the way the flight was going to be. Here it was. 12 hour flight stuck in between 2 completely non social people, 1 screen for all TV that only played bullshit chick flicks the whole flight and wasnt able to sleep. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Now i finally make it to Tokyo.

Headed through customs and actually met up with an old gym member from PKG who now lives near by. She was a great help with getting my currency changed over and purchasing my bus ticket to ODAWARA. Yes a bus ticket. Now I had to take a 3 hour bus ride to the west city and reach my destination.

Once I got into Odawara I finally felt relieved. My friend Taiki Tsychiya (who im staying with) met me at the bus station and took my to ROOTS gym where I met up with Rumina Sato and a few of his students. Rumina had just finished a work out for his SHOOTO fight this Sunday. Now it was time to eat. We all rolled together to a gym members restaurant and shot the shit about MMA and American Hip Hop while eating Soba, Sashimi and a few other dishes. Man this was a long day. Its 8am LA time and Ive got to get some sleep before the long day ahead of me. I cant wait!

Will post photos later today. Sorry I added this blog last night but for some reason it posted to this blog..you can check out the photos right here! http://savage135.wordpress.com/