(sent as an update to friends via email...yesterday??)
I'll be able to have a morning practice and get to work on time...
Almost missed my stop this morning... that would have been hell. Likely I would have had to get another ticket to get me back to hat one stop, as you pay for a pass based on the number of stops you're going, I barely avoided a commuting mess and being late when I looked up at the last minute as the doors were about to close... we had been idling at my stop for a little while... lucky. Today's commute time was 56 minutes. Timed from the lobby of the hotel, to the door of client's site... left right at 08:30.
Caution: YogaSpeak
I was at the shala right on time met Tarik, and had my first practice in a long while. Felt good. He seems to right on the mark as a mysore teacher, or at least seems to have a nice environment going at the space where he teaches. Some of the yoga students have very nice practices, and Tarik makes his way around the room spreading his attention pretty effectively.
I got up to JanuB and I think that's where I'll stay for this trip. I was dressing after doing closing sequence just about on time, about 07:50. I did waste some time at the start, as it looked as if the custom may have been to do the chant together, and then be on our merry mysore ways. So for a few minutes I was waiting... Turned out the 2 others present when I arrived, do a little warm up routine before they start, so there's no communal start protocol. Tomorrow I'll shave a few minutes off the routine. Though they did stop at one point to do the chant together... it was about 07:35 or so... I was just about finished JanuA right side when everybody sort of quickly shot up to standing. I have no idea what the trigger was. First time I did it short-winded, sort of a crash course on ashtanga pranayama!!
I also managed time for a nice breakfast at the hotel as well... This morning Mt Fuji was basking in morning sunshine and keeping watch over my shoulder while I ate. I can also see it for a stretch along the commute if I'm on the correct side of the train, it's quite stunning. As are the smaller mountains in that region, quite impressive in fact. I bet they don't get enough attention, with Fuji hanging out there in back.
The guys (my students) are good. They're polite, keen to learn and are putting up with some minor delays very well. I bring just short of 70GB of data to use during this course, and we've had to be creative with how we're making space on the client's machine.
I've just found the free green-tea machine, and a spare cup, so I'm set for a while and won't have to drop 70y a pop for tea/coffee in the vending machine anymore. Today, it's green tea and 85% dark chocolate for Desert, bought at the local 5th floor convenience store. A little reminder of home... I'll have to watch myself with that (the chocolate that is)!!
The guys are smokers, so after a quick lunch (today was another soup I think it was called Sho-Yu and a nice little cluster of seasoned rice, lightly sweet) I get a chance to come back to the lab and get some of this writing done.
Ran into our VP and the project manager this morning... looks like they didn't suffer the crowds on the JR or monorail lines. :-)