Wow! What a busy and eventful weekend we had.
Besides our usual sweaty Saturday and Sunday classes, the weekend was chock´a`block full of activities and action! 
Saturday 2nd July, 2005
Wake Up! 9.00am
I started my Saturday morning with a healthy bowl of muesli at 10am, kissed Cafune goodbye, and took off on her bicycle to the City Hall to book August’s capoeira classes. Using public facilities is great in Tokyo, the schools where we train in are modern, spacious, and come equipped with tumbling mats (ie. Judo mats), and crash mats ideal for learning mortals and other amazing acrobatics. I think even the location is a blessing in disguise, even though it is a bit of a walk from the station, it forces us to walk through scenic Inokashira Park to get a quick dose of nature in Tokyo’s concrete jungle. The only negative thing about using public schools is the out-dated booking process where for every class we must fill out a pink form in duplicate and pay for every booking separately. I guess they haven’t heard of the internet yet.
After booking the classes with reasonable ease, despite my lack of Japanese skills, I got back on the bicycle and rushed home to grab my backpack and head off to my next destination. The train took me to Omotesando Station in Tokyo’s upmarket, fashion area, dominated by glitzy brand name flagship stores and elegantly dressed shoppers.
Rehearsal. 12.30pm
I had planned to meet up with Rei from Cordao De Contas, Yuka and Naoki of Abada, and Frank who was organising an event at the Orbient Nightclub for his birthday. Frank is tri-lingual, hailing from Sao Paulo, but with a Japanese background. The theme for the event was Brazil, with displays of capoeira and soccer on the menu, club music mixed with samba, and sexy scenes from Brazil to be played over-head on the video screens. We all received a bag of goodies from Nike, including the new Nike “Capoeira” pants and singlet to show off in for our performance. We went over the plan for the night, rehearsed a few times, and then said our “see ya laters”.
Moving. 3.00pm
My next mission was to help out a capoeira friend move his furniture into his new apartment. Just the fridge, washing machine and a few other miscellaneous pieces needed to be packed into the moving truck and transported to the new building. On the way there we went down some side streets and found ourselves blocked by another moving van with the same idea as us. Being the 1st weekend of the month, Tokyo was full of people moving apartment. Anyway, we initiated a 3-point turn in order to go back the way we came. Suddenly this old Japanese lady appears out of nowhere, much like in the Ninja movies, but she seemed quite harmless… at first. 
We were driving into the empty parking space, when just as suddenly, the “obachan” steps into the path of the truck. She refuses to budge, even after the persistent pleading of our American and Japanese friends. The reason why she wouldn’t let us do our 3-point turn into “her” empty parking space was because we didn’t ask politely first!!! Meanwhile, the two of us not-so-linguistically gifted movers where absolutely losing it with laughter inside the truck! I regret not taking a photo with my mobile phone, but then who knows what the old battle axe might have produced from her ninja bag-o-tricks!?
Finally managing to reverse far enough to do a 2-point turn, we then went down a different side street, after removing the “do-not-enter” blockade from it. Once we got to the new apartment, we were met with another, professional moving van. These guys weren’t messing around. After we took more than one minute to get the stuff out of our truck, one of the movers jumped into the back and single handily removed the washing machine, told us to hurry up and gave us a disapproving look in the same breath.
Capoeira Class. 6.00pm – 9.00pm
Any way, my day was just beginning. My friends dropped me off at the station, and I made my way back to Inokashira to prepare for Saturday night’s class. With 30-mintues to spare, I shoved all the lyrics books, portable speakers and MP3 player into my backpack, grabbed the berimbaus and headed off to class.
We had a great time, one brand-new student turned up, and the more experienced students were able to work up a sweat as well. After the capoeira class, we practiced berimbau and then learnt the lyrics to “É só prestar atenção”. A great way to end the music class, and then made our way to our favourite Kaiten Sushi place in Kichijoji. That one was full, so we went to our 2nd favourite. 
To the club. 10.00pm
After scoffing down some delicious fresh sushi, and having a good ol’ chat, we said goodbye to our new student, and got onto the train to Shibuya, and then to Omotesando. We arrived at the nightclub at around 10pm and hung out for a while. Cafune met up with Fabio’s friends and checked out the dance floor with some other capoeira friends, while I rehearsed and warmed-up in the staff area with Fabio (Naçao Capoeira), Rei, Yuka, Naoki, and Frank (a truly mixed and international group of capoeiristas if I’ve ever met one). A quick run through in the car park was called for, where we noticed the soccer stunt team doing the same thing as us.
Back into the club, a few push ups to warm up the muscles and we made our way onto the dance floor. I was in charge of leading the way, and making space on the dance floor. We created a nice big circle right in the middle of the floor, the DJ started playing our CD, and away we went. The solos and jogos went exactly to plan without a hiccup. 
That was until we opened up the roda to all capoeiristas. Anyone who’s had a few drinks thinks he or she can do capoeira without any previous training. They are so wrong. Even the two beautiful ballerinas with their flexible, elastic legs couldn’t quite get the ginga, or keep their balance on the slippery dance floor. However, the other capoeiristas in the audience were welcomed into the roda to play a beautiful game and enjoy their night in true capoeira spirit.
Video: Nike Orbient Show
Please the play button to start the video. Click here if you don’t see the button.
Sunday 3rd July, 2005
Wake Up! 11.00am
Waking up was pretty hard after only 4 hours sleep (ie. We missed the last train by literally 5 seconds :roll:), but we managed to do it at 11am, quickly get ready, then make our way to Kichijoji Station to meet our capoeira friends. Cafune and I met up with Kanako, Dai, and Kotaro, and Tomoko.
Samba Carnaval. 1.00pm
From Kichijoji we headed into Ushigome Yunagicho to meet up with Jay, Mercedes, Espaguette and his wife Akiko. We enjoyed some traditional Japanese Tanabata Matsuri food such as Kakigori shaved ice, Yakitori chicken skewers, and Yakisoba fried noodles. To our surprise, the first half of the festival was dedicated to a totally realistic band of samurai shouting out death yells, and swinging their swords in the air. Some were even firing rifles into the air.
Off in the distance we could hear the sound of the drums, and carnival was getting closer! The King and Queen of the parade made their way towards us, followed by the samba dancers, live singing and cavaquinho. The batucada were next, dressed in their Tucan costumes, and playing the G.R.E.S. Liberdade Theme song.
We had a fantastic time dancing samba and mixing it up with the samba dancers themselves. I couldn’t help but get in on the action, and jumped from the sidewalk right into the middle of the parade. 
Video: Ushigome Samba
Please the play button to start the video. Click here if you don’t see the button.
Bye Bye 4.00pm
The time came to leave the festival and make our way back to Kichijoji. On the way one of our members left her ticket in the train station toilet and got stopped upon exiting the station ticket gates. Moral of the story: Don’t lose your ticket, or just be prepared to swallow your pride and pay the 170yen again! 
Capoeira Class. 6.30pm – 9.00pm
We had a great class, working on singing, basics, combos, and some floreios. It was lots of fun. After class, we returned to Kaiten Sushi, but this time our favourite place wasn’t as busy and we managed to secure 3 seats by the conveyor belt.
With the sad prospect of returning to work on Monday morning, we said our goodbyes at the station, and parted ways. That was until Tuesday’s class at least, and we’d sweat it out all over again!
Damm!
I am so surprised that a man can manage to do all that just in two days !
I should make my dayz more fruitful.
Kan