Journal of Japan

Well its coming down to the last days in Himeji, this has been a first class journey and very , very wonderful experience. The day after the show I woke up at 5am ate my first meal then went to go train legs. Kick ass workout. Finally getting use to the heat and humidity.After i showered and got ready we had a luncheon at a fine steak house with Himeji politicians and sponsors. We were treated to Filet Mignon. Damn it was soooo good. I was also invited to take a cruise around the bay on a yacht with some of the sponsors but I declined because I wanted to go inside the castle to take pictures. Its funny how you find out things. This is where my family crest came from i knew I was descendant from samurai but damn to be this up close and personal and inside where they lived and so forth was a once in a lifetime experience. Like I said you were not allowed to take pictures inside but the politicians pulled some strings and everything was cool for me to take pictures but only in certain areas within the castle. After a 1 and 1/2 hour hike to the top of the castle is was quite breath taking on our return the only thing I could think about was eating. So once we got down we decided to stop at a resturant to eat. Do you think I splurged a little.? hmmm.. Hell NOOOOO. I ate about seems like a ton of sashimi, in case you dont know what that is raw fish and alot of ass veggies. It was off the hook. I was in heaven. Damn I love being Half Japanese. So finally I returned home and it brings me to my last blog of Himeji. In all it was a great trip and the hospitality was treamendous. Thank you very much to the Minoru Nishikawa Family for being such generous hosts. It was a great honor and pleasure to stay with you and your family. Thank you to the all the people of Himeji for your support. Until I return again Gambate!!!! Now off to Guest Pose in Mexico

More of Japan Blog

Well after a hectic two days, Saturday was nothing but posing and I trained triceps and a 20minute cardio session and met with members from the gym American Health Club, met some very important people. After my first two days of jet lag I am now use to waking up at 430, 5am. and I only have one more day to be here damn going back so soon. On Sunday was the day of the competiton. I will tell you I felt like a king, we left for the competiton which was 5 minutes away in a good size theater and the accomidations were perfect, I had my own dressing room and my own get this personal assistant. Damn. Everywhere I went he followed making sure everything was good. The night started off great as soon as I arrived I saw my cousin from Osaka that came down, in which I havent seen for 3 years and I can tell you wow what a three difference it made for her. She just a beautiful girl all grown up and her brother which I found out goes to school in the same town Himeji where I am at plays for the University soccer team and is one of the top players for there university, in which he has a game today in which I will go watch.

Well after getting settled I got to meet with many participants from the competition, just like the united states some were in shape some were not. In my eyes the older competitiors were in better shape I mean 40, 50 and 60s. They were pretty ripped and in great condition. Also I got to meet Mr.Taiwan (Mr.Asia) you can catch him on getbig.com after many great performances it was finally my turn. Was I nervous? Very much so being in Japan in front of my family and everyone else my stomach was turning. As soon as the music started i said a prayerand went out and it was like clock work The Japanese people were very pleased and we had a great time went down into the crowd took pictures with kids, babies everyone that wanted to take pictures I did not deny them I think I shook just about everyones hand out there. lol.I had a great time.

Some people have already asked how I looked well lets just say this I had a couple people evaluate me while I was on stage that are from the states and know bodybuilding along with a IFBB Japan judge, and also Mr. Taiwan they all said my condition right now is comparable to the Team Universe of last year and look alot thicker. Thats with only dropping oneday of water and with a little more than one month to goI still have a lot of work to do in my eyes. I dont want to match last yeasrs conditioning I want to be 10 times better than last yea. Like I said to many already I want to look ridiculous!!! Well its monday morning here in Japan exactly 7am, already had one meal now its time to go train legs. then I have a lunch party then to the soccer game then some shopping and we will see what the rest of the day turns out be the last bblog of japan will be tomorrow morning.

Well I arrived in Japan after a long 12 hour flight starting from San Diego, even while landing in japan we took a 2 hour bus ride to Himeji City. So far the experience has been very good. The people are very hospitable. Now I have to make my transition from US time to Japanese time. Right now its thursday morning here in japan and I already lost days of training. Diet wise its been an experience. Believe it or not my food was taken away in Los Angeles. So i was stuck eating airplane food, which actually wasnt that bad. Being an asian airline I was offered fish and rice or beef and potatos. I choose the fish. The good thing is the stewardess brought me 2 plates. Which was very kind. The second meal was an omeltte, which i declined so they brought me out left over fish which i had no problem with eating. As some of you may know when flying your body seems to retain water. In my case the opposite is true I become very dehydrated. So the whole 11 hour flight I was consuming water and going to the restroom many times.





Upon arriving at the airport I was greeted by the promoter and gym owner of American Health Club,　Minoru Nishikawa. Where he had a box of grilled chicken breasts and green beans and broccoli and my favorite japanses white rice with green tea. Once we arrived in Himeji I was greeted with a warn welcome from his wife, where right away she began to cook chicken, broccoli, green beans and japanese white rice with green tea. After we ate, Minoru and I went to his gym. This is an old style bodybuilding gym, not your fancy La Fitness or 24 hour fitness. This gym is catered towards bodybuilders. Upon first walking in you can see the bodybuilders that have been there before Arron Baker, Lou Ferrigno, Rodney StCloud are just to name a few. I was so happy to see this type of gym, cause this is where I will be busting my butt for the next week. While I am here I will be giving out pointers and get in a good training session with whomever willing. After taking pictures at the gym we left for the supermarket to pick up fish (sashimi, raw tuna one of my favorites when dieting) eggs and many other things. I try to keep reminding myself that the portions are smaller here in Japan. By the time we got back to the house I was totally exhuasted. Si I called it a night.



Here we are thursday morning at 5am, good night sleep and ready to go hit the gym for cardio and my first training session. After I get a meal in first.



Wow what a morning training session. Talk about humidity,　damn its hot here in Japan. My morning training session really kicked my ass. I trained back but it seemed like my back was training me. lol I dont know how they do it down there in Texas or here in japan, but i still finifshed the session even though it kicked my butt. I finished off with a 15 minute posing session and some tanning. Going back tonight to hit some bis and some mo cardio, only 20 minutes on the bike. Then pose a little more. Tomoorow will be different. I will make sure I hydrate myself tonight for tomorrow. I refuse to go out like that.

Here it is friday morning at 5am, started off the day with a small photo shoot in front of Himeji Castle. This castle was built in the time of the shogun samurai era. Beautiful castle and damn big. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes just to get to the castle itself maybe longer. There are certain areas and parts where you are not allowed totake picturesor video but on monday IMgoingback totake some pics. About
to hit the gym in one hour chest, abs、cardio posing tanning

55 days and counting til Team Universe

I have been on no carbs for the past 4 days. Just because I go through an early run to see how my body will react to the carb depletion and carbing up phase. So I am pretty flat right now. But my body seems to be reacting the way I want it too through the carb depletion.

My training sessons seem to actually getting better. With 8 weeks left I will actually be losing two weeks in my books of serious training. I will be leaving for Japan on the 15th to guest pose and be back on the 22nd, then guest pose again in Mexico on Thursday then off to Vegas for a photo shoot during the USA's friday and saturday. So that would leave me with 6 weeks left til Team Universe. Right now everything is going as planned. The dieting is actually getting really easy since I started so early. Here are some pics

9 weeks, more to me 59 days

Here are some pics I took this past friday. I will take some more either today ot tomorrow.