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 💀

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.

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

It was a normal Wednesday night in Leuven, around 9 p.m. My three friends and I headed to the Oude Markt. One of them knew the owner of a small café there, so we grabbed a quiet table in the corner. It was the kind of spot that was hard to get out of quickly if things went south. We were just chilling. Drinking beer, talking about life, swapping old stories and laughing. Everything felt calm and good. Then a guy we call Jan showed up with his girlfriend. They seemed fine. But his friend Rick was a different story drunk and wired on coke. He’d just gotten out of jail, and everyone in Leuven knew his reputation: robbing people, threatening them, attacking them. Some said it was even worse. We tried to ignore him. That didn’t sit well with Rick. He stormed over to our table, slammed both hands down, and started acting tough, getting right in our faces. We stayed calm and kept ignoring him. That only made him angrier. He turned on one of my drunk friends and started threatening him. My other friend froze. Couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. I stood up and said calmly, “Yo, chill out.” Rick lost it. He grabbed me hard by the back of the neck. Without thinking, I shoved him off with my left arm while covering my head with my right. He flew backwards. He jumped up fast and reached into his pocket. Two of my friends were useless one too drunk, the other still frozen. Rick came at me again. That’s when a huge rush of adrenaline hit me. I planted my foot, twisted my hip, and landed a perfect front kick. He crashed hard onto the stone pavement. His head smacked the cobblestones with a loud crack. The second I saw the knife in his right hand, I flew straight at him. I slammed my body into his with a full body slam, landing in full mount on his chest. I immediately grabbed his right wrist with my right hand, slid my left hand under his elbow, and locked my left hand on top of my own right wrist. I started cranking hard ready to snap his arm if he didn’t drop the knife. Jan jumped in fast. He snatched the knife away from Rick and pulled us apart. My friend Jef wanted to call the police, but Jan begged us not to. “I’ll handle it,” he said. “He’ll leave.” Jan dragged everyone away and broke up the fight.

Next Sunday Brent of Rishinjuku Belgium will have his pro debut against Taiga Striker. Wish him the best of luck and safe travels. ✈️ OSU 💪