Benkei was a legendary warrior monk, often depicted carrying multiple weapons. (And yes, Brent, the character in the For Honor video game is based on this guy). History and folklore aside, there's a challenge at the Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. When entering the main grounds of the temple complex, there are three heavy objects, the heaviest being an iron spear weighing about 200-300lbs. If one manages to lift all three, they will be blessed by Benkei and gain good fortune for all their life. This seemed like a fun sidequest to gain some momentum and burn off some extra calories. We tried. We failed. We tried again. We failed again. So we vowed to get it next time around. (Although Brent almost lifted the entire table at some point)

Karate works for self defense and combat sports on the highest level. Just don’t half-ss it. What you put in, you get out.

Today we planned to go hunting for Benkei's spear. Brent fell asleep in the morning. I fell asleep in the afternoon. We're going to earn Benkei's blessing for the fight tomorrow... Weight cut for today (for Brent): 400 grams The next days will be harder with water cuts to make weight. Each day he will have to lose 1kg of body mass. Jukuchou came up with this plan yesterday evening when we went to say hi and do a weight check. How will he lose 3.4kg in 5 days? By training with the heat on max. And depending on the results... By adding sauna time. We really thought it was going to be a hard battle, but jukuchou seemed rather assured yesterday evening that this was a good weight plan and nothing too exaggerated. Atsushi had to lose 5kg, another guy 4kg... And then Shuts came in... He said something we both interpreted the other way around. "I lost 7,5kg already" vs. "I still need to lose 7,5kg by Saturday. Turned out we were both right 💀

Rishinjuku 理心塾 on chest Tatsujin 達人(expert) and also name our competition system on back

After our long trip we saw our last stop: Customs. We were stopped and asked to open up our luggage. They saw boxing gloves, shin guards, and dougi. I said that we were there for karate. The agent was quite interested and in awe by our love for the martial art. "Osaka?" No, Hirakata. "Ahhh..." Obviously Brent then said "I have a fight coming up" instead of the tourist thing. I froze. What if we're getting sent back? All that money wasted. What if they don't like that we marked 'tourist' on our declaration form? Luckily. The guy said that it was ok to pass through. And then in a muffled voice after he thought we passed by, he said "Ganbatte!" P.S.: the police dogs are super cute compared to our shepherds breathing heavily to eat you up.