Aqua karate is for old ladies....

...old ladies who are ninjas!

So here's the scoop. Katie and I have been trying to go to the aqua karate class at our gym for about a month now. Several things have stood in our way: public holidays, notices written in japanese and, well, crapness. Tonight was the night though, so down we trotted and were even on time. Katie had mentioned that she'd seen a load of retired women walking up and down a swimming lane about the time of said class. Could that perchance be the karate? Maybe, but where were the high kicking ninja antics we'd been imagining? There must be another class.

It became apparent after we were joined in the designated lane by no less than six over sixtys that not only was this the right class, but we were probably engaging in something strictly reserved for the old or infirm. Much walking up and down of the lanes followed, with punching, kicking etc etc, and to begin with I thought it was all a bit half arsed. It was only during the first of my triple punch/kick combos that it dawned on me that I was frickin knackered, and moreover, the ninja grandmas were not. The class ended quickly and before we knew what was happening we appeared to have started another class involving long tubular floats and a lot of balancing (or, in my case, not). Before we knew it the instructor had changed and we were being given dumbells that you fill up with water for added resistence. More walking and shennanigans with said dumbells. Then instructor guy (who had been cracking us up with his efforts give the instructions in English, despite our assurances that nihongo was fine and good for us) says "three minute break and then massage". We crack up. They crack up. Everyone cracks up. These guys are well funny! Three minutes later, it became evident that massage is in fact a very real part of water aerobics here...

The moral of the story? Don't cuss out the old dears walking lengths of the swimming pool, they're hard as nails.