I stayed for 2 months in Osaka kung fu school in Japan. Every morning started with internal Tai Chi, then breakfast, and then more training. In the morning and afternoon training we split into two groups, the shaolin Kung Fu and the wing chun group. I was part of the shaolin group. We trained forms, shaolin basics and quite a lot of sanda sparring. Our trainer was a very sympathic and energetic person who knew exactly how to push each student to go beyond what they thought were their limits.Also, he is very good at explaining how to do things, so I really enjoyed the training. Especially the form training, but also the power training, stretching, and the races we did as a team against time, to do the same exercises in less time. Although I didn't come for sanda, to my surprise, I also really enjoyed the sparring.
After morning Tai chi training, there were two training sessions of two hours for each. If you want to more progress in what you studied, it's very useful to also practice the things you want to focus on by yourself. And this takes time. Actually, the day would need to have a couple more hours to do it all. Because we trained a lot of different things all week long, and not everyone in the group has the same focus. Our coach also offered an additional self training in which he is present, which was very helpful.
Besides the Kung Fu training, I especially liked the onsen, a Japanese bath spring
which is close to the school. Actually, it's not just a bath, it has different
hot pools, a cold one, but also saunas and a restaurant. After a day of training with all muscles aching, it's
amazing!
