I have been back in a Australia now for a bit over half a week and have been catching up on some much needed sleep. Now it’s time to catch up on the last few days of my Japan trip. The day after the grading, kakedameshi, as week ago today…
Like the day of the grading we got to have a bit of a sleep in, until about 6:30am. Having packed my bag the night before as I do whenever I compete, this gave me enough time to slowly wake up, get dressed and head downstairs to the dinning room for breakfast. Fortunately I got downstairs quite early as the hotel lobby was a hive of activity, as there were many other people there with the same idea. By the look of things, a high school sporting team, baseball I think, and there were also a lot of people staying there for the Kumamoto Castle Festival that was cooinciding with our Chito-Ryu Budosai (Martial Arts Festival). Fortunately I got towards the head of the line and got in early. There were a few others who got down there at 7:00am, which was breakfast start time and didn’t even get into the dinning room until after I was completely finished my breakfast.
Breakfast done, I once again jumped in a taxi with a few others and headed towards the sohonbu dojo. Because the venue for the Kakedameshi was a little out of the way, all of the international visitors and competitors had been asked to get to the sohonbu by 8:00am in order to get rides from some of the local instructors. From memory it was only about 20 minutes drive from the sohonbu, but it would have been a nightmare to try to get there by public transport or even taxi, so I for one was very greatful for the ride.
There was still plenty of time when we got there before things were due to start, so we could take it easy. Preliminary rounds were not due to start until 10:00am, so we could enjoy a bit of a rest while those who weren’t competing could take part in a trial jo lesson with Miyase Sensei. When I had lived in Japan 10 years ago, I had the opportunity to do some training with Miyase Sensei, just myself and Tanaka Sensei. I look back very fondly on that time and in some ways wish that I had been able to continue my training once I had returned to Australia. Miyase Sensei lives in Fukuoka and is 6th Dan and Shihan in Chito-Ryu, and also one of the top jodo instructors in Japan. I am not actually sure what level he is, but he is exceptionally tallented. As I was entered in the kakedameshi, I only really got the chance to watch a little bit of the jo lesson and did not participate. But later, when I spoke to a few people who did participate, they re-affirmed what I had experienced preivously, an incredible sense of calmness and a feeling of being very centred.
I also caught up with Inazuka Sensei, who 10 years ago had arranged a summer job for me while I was in Japan at a pet cemetary. Inazuka Sensei is one of only 2 living 9th Dans in Chito-Ryu. I really wish that I had the Japanese skills to be able to talk to him as he seems to be an absoultely fascinating man. Over the years, since I first met him he always takes the time to come and say hello. He has got such a gentle nature and a lovely calm energy about him. I have never seen him train, at most gatherings you’ll find him with a camera in his hand, and this is mostly what he did on the day of the kakedameshi. In fact I must thank him for that, as that’s where these photos have come from.
Here is a photo of Inazuka Sensei and myself.
During this time, competitors had been weighed in (light weights), entries finalised and waivers signed. Hopefully it was just a standard waiver, as it was all in Japanese and I couldn’t really read it… But then again, neither could any of the other foreign competitors. Prior to the start of competition, all competitors marched in to the ring, one by one. I was last to enter, as you can see in the photo below.
The heavy weight division was only small, 6 competitors in total. Two Japanese, two Canadians and two Australians. The light weight division was much larger, but still only 13 competitors, all but one Australian were Japanese. The preliminary rounds were to find the top 4 competitors in each division. I had a bye as did one of the Candians, Mitchell German, so we had the morning off, which gave us the opportunity to get a feel for this style of competition and reflect on the meaning of kakedameshi.
First fight was Shane Ker, the lone Aussie in the light wweight division, versus a Japanese opponent. Although we had all seen a short video clip of the previous year’s kakedameshi a few days earlier, we were all kind of going in blind, not really knowing what to expect. Unfortunately Shane did not progress to the next round, but gained some valuable experience and is really keen to enter again another time. After watchhing a few more matches it quickly became apparent that it was going to be very difficult to score a point. Unlike other tournaments that I had entered before, this was going to be the closest thing to a real fight. In order to score a point, techniques had to have the ability to stop your opponent. Just hitting them with correct distance and timing was not enough, if it was not strong enough or technique was poor, you got instant feedback, your opponent would try to take your head off.
I had always heard stories that O Sensei was very famous in old style kakedameshi. In fact he gained the nicname “Challenging Chinen” because it is said that he was prepared to take on anyone at anytime. Back in the days before tournaments, this is how students of the martial arts would test their skills. Fights would be fierce, anything goes, until someone submitted or was unconscious. In an attempt to bring competition to the masses, WKF sports karate style competition evolved, rules became more and more refined, which encouraged competitors to be faster and more strategic. Back in 1994 & 96 I was very fotunate to be selected on the Australian national team to compete at the WKF World Championships in Malaysia and South Africa. At the time, I thought it doesn’t get much better than this. Although I did not place, I got the fight the eventual winner in 1994 event and he was a hard man, very powerful and an incredible athlete.
As a student of Chito-Ryu I have also competed in many bogu tournaments over the years, including a number of Soke Cup events in both junior and adult divisions. The rules are a little different to the WKF and the contact can be a bit harder, but essentially it was still a game designed for the masses. With bogu (body gear and head gear), competitors can feel what it was like to make solid contact, without any serious injury. I have been fortunate over the years to compete at the highest level in the WKF and Chito-Ryu so I feel like I have enough experience to say that, while both WKF and Chito-Ryu bogu tournaments are great fun sports, they are still fall a long way short of a realistic test of fighting ability.
The kakedameshi was starting to shape up into something that I had been looking for, for quite some time. As I got to watch more of the preliminary rounds of the I started to a completely different range of techniques being thrown that just don’t work in a game of speed, but are very practical in this style of fighting. It became clear even before I fought, that the training I had been doing had only partially prepared me for what was to come. There were a lot of leg kicks, and a lot of very solid punches to the head when people forgot about their distance. One of the most creative to watch was what I can only describe as a jumping, spining, scissor take down. I swear, it was like something you might expect to see in a movie. In mid air, after spinning and jumping, the competitor wrapped one leg around his opponent’s head and the other around the other side of his body and took him down… Unbeleivable! And the really cool thing was, he did it more than once!
In between all of the action, I slipped into the warm up area for a brief nap, to catch up on some sleep that I so desperately needed. First up in the heavy weight preliminaries, was another of the Aussie hopefuls, Craig Cox. Unfortunately Craig too did not progress to the finals, so I was left as the only Aussie to fly the flag. The top 4 in the light weights were all Japanese, but when it came to time for the finals, one had to pull out due to injuries sustained in the preliminaries. In the heavy weight division, it was myself, Justin Rybie Sensei (also from Canada), who I was due to fight, Mitchell German Sensei (from Canada), and Hirose Sensei (who trains at the Sohonbu dojo).
After lunch, Soke Sensei arrived at the venue and we had the official opening. Once again all competitors were introduced and marched into the competition area one by one. The perpetual trophy was handed back by the previous year’s winner of the light weight devision. Following the opening ceremony we had a number of demonstrations:
Kusarigama techniques defending against a sword, demonstrated by Miyase Sensei and one of his students. Kusarigama is a sickle with a ball and chain attached. For demonstration puposes, it was a wooded version of the weapon with rope rather than chain. This is the first time I have ever seen this and it is quite intesting how inventive the Okinawan and Japanese were with the use of everyday implements as weapons.
Shuriken demonstration - throwing knives. Although made famous by ninja, shuriken I am told were also used by samurai, as was depicted in this demonstration, one hand held a sword, drawn and ready, while the other hand threw the knives. In this case towards a target about 6-7m away.
A demonstration of Nitenitchi-ryu - the school or swordsmanship developed by Miyamoto Musashi. The demonstration was performed by the 21st Soke of this style. It was interesting to hear comments about the demonstration later. Many people didn’t really seem to understand what it was all about. For a style that emplys the use of both short and long sword simultaneously, it was surprisingly inactive. I always had the impression that Musashi was wild and dynamic, but perhaps he was really a master of kamae and spirit, which in turn made him a master swordsman. As a side note, Kumamoto carries a lot of signifigance in the story of Miyamoto Musashi. In his later years, Musashi wrote his famous book Go Rin no Sho, the Book of Five Rings in a cave where he lived for a period of about a year. The cave is called reigando and is situated just outside of Kumamoto City on the other side of Mt Kimpo. While I did not go there this trip, I have been a few times before. It is a place with an incredible amount of energy and I can see why he chose to reside there while writing his life’s work.
Finally was the demonstration for Soke Sensei - performing a section of Ganfu no Kata. This is the family kata which is said to be some 45 minutes long. It was interesting to see him perform this kata again, as I have some footage of him performing the same section from the 1989 Soke Cup (my first Soke Cup). It is incredible to see how much his karate has grown and developed over the last 19 years. It just leaves me wondering how on earth it is possible to become so good at anything, let alone something as so incredibly complex as Chito-Ryu.
The demonstrations complete, the finals began. I didn’t really watch the light weight finals as I wanted to focus on what I was doing. Eventually I was up. To be honest I can’t really remember very much of what I did except that there were some very solid punches at both ends. I quickly learned that chudan mawashi geri is not a good idea, as it is very easy to catch even if you manage to make good contact. At the end of normal time, neither of us had scored. So we went into extra time. We were both getting tired, but still we fought on, there was some very heavy contact but neither of us would take a step back. At the end of extra time, still no score. Normally this would mean a decision would be made, but not in kakedameshi, 2nd extra time. Somehow we were both still standing, just. The fight continued, not quite as many techniques were being thrown, but we still had to be careful. In the end, still no points scored, this time it went to hantei and the referees had to decide the winner. I was fortunate to get through to the final.
Before the final, Justin Rybie Sensei and Hirose Sensei fought for 3rd place. After the epic battle with me, Justin did well to get back up again so quickly. In the earlier rounds, Hirose Sensei let go some very powerful leg quicks, which I heard that he had been training by breaking baseball bats with his shin. In his fight for 3rd place he didn’t let any of these go, not that I saw anyway. In extra time he decided to change it up a bit and let one go to the head, which was one of the best techniques of the tournament. With that, the fight was over and I was up against Mitchell German Sensei.
It’s kind of funny how we both ended up in the final, given that our competition history is so similar. He too has competed at WKF world championships and several Soke Cups and now we meet in the kakedameshi, both of us for the first time competing in this style of competition. At first we were both very hesitant to move, I found that he had a very good sense of distance and he moved very well, which made it difficult for me to line up a good attack. After normal time, we again went into sudden death over time. Early on in extra time I slipped in a head kick which seemed to rattle him a bit, but it wasn’t enough to score. A little further along, we both punched, very solidly, almost simultaneously. I thought I was in first and so did one of the referees, but the head referee saw differently. Mitchell Sensei was awarded the point and the match was over. Hare are a few random photos.
While it would have been nice to win, I had a ball. Not having competed since the 2004 Soke Cup, it was great to get back into it, especially in a tournament like this. Much like me, Justin Sensei was also grinning from ear to ear loving every moment.
This being the final match, all competitors once again marched out onto the mat for the presentations. In the light weight division, last year’s winner had backed up to win again. This was the first time in the 10 year history of the kakedameshi that the event had been one by the same person in back to back events. First, second and third place were each awarded medals and huge trophies, and first place also received a huge cup. Following presentations, were photos. I don’t have any copies of them yet, but here are a few photos from the presentations.
Then it was all over, the tournament venue was packed up in record time and we were out the door. We got a ride back to the hotel with a little bit of time to shower and change ready for the celebration dinner that evening.
With the festivities going on at Kumamoto Castle, the city was very lively, with people everywhere. The venue for the dinner was on the 5th floor of a building, looking up towards the Castle. It was quite a dark night, but the candles on the river bank and the moonlight on the castle made a beautiful backdrop. Dinner was a very traditional Japanese meal, lots of fish and various other dishes brought out one ofter another. Dinner was great, speaches were a little long winded, but everyone was recognised for the efforts including those who had organised the event, visiting intructors from overseas and everyone who had passed gradings the day before.
Throughout the night, I got the chance to speak with Keiichiro Oda Sensei. A young man who had come to the Sunshine Coast 3 years earlier when our daughter Sam was born to help assist with teaching. He had entered in the kakedameshi, but was knocked out in the first round. His younger brother was the winner of the light weight division. After the dinner a few of the Aussies went back to the Ten Gallon Izakaya, a Japanese style bar with a country and western theme, owned by Keiichiro’s uncle. Fortunately it was a quite night at the bar, because we took over and enjoyed catch up with Keiichiro and his family. I don’t normally drink but I relaxed with a few glasses of shochu. After a bit more of a feed we wandedered back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
If I remember correctly, it was about 1:00am by the time I got back to the hotel but I switched the computer on, on the off chance that Sandra was still awake. Fortunately she was, as I was really missing her along with Sam and Steven. After about an hour or so of Skype, I eventually made it to bed. Fortunately the next day had a later start, with the international clinic scheduled after lunch from 1:00-5:00pm. Even though it was a late start, I still needed sleep. Once I finally got to bed, it didn’t take long to crash.
I’ve been a bit slow keeping up with my journal as the days have been very full. I am currently sitting at Fukuoka ariport waiting for my plane. My last update was very late on Friday night, or perhaps better described as very earlly Saturday morning, so I’d like to rewind a few days back to Saturday… grading day.
After missing breakfast at the hotel on Friday due to morning training it was nice to have a bit of a sleep in until 6.30am. Breakfast was a good simple Japanese style buffet breakfast. I still can’t belive that the hotel provides this kind of breakfast included in the price of just 4990JPY. Although with the AU$ falling in value so much that works out to be about AU$75, rather than AU$50 that it would have been just 2 months ago.
After breakfast, the growing number of foreigners staying at the Super Hotel jumped into the procession of taxis to the sohonbu dojo. Everyone started arriving around 8am, which gave us a good bit of time for final grading preparations, as gradings were officially set to start at 9am. As we got closer and closer to the start time, the dojo was nearly full of grading candidates, 18 people grading in total. Due to the large number of people grading and the small amount of time, everyone had much less to do for teaching licences than is the normal practice, but that meant it was even more important to do a good performance.
As warm up time drew to a close, the testing panel entered the dojo. If my memory serves me correctly, the panel consisted of Soke Sensei, Kugizaki Sensei (9th Dan, Kyoshi), Oyama Sensei (8th Dan, Kyoshi), Imamura Sensei (8th Dan, Kyoshi) and Nakashima Sensei (8th Dan, Kyoshi). Tanaka Sensei (6th Dan, Renshi) was also present in an organisational capacity, but not actually part of the testing panel, at least I don’t think he was. For those who don’t know who they are, more information about the kyoshi can be found at the sohonbu website.
By the time we got started, I was really nervous. Normally I don’t get so nervous with things like this, but this time was an exception. To say the least it was a little intimidating to have to get up in front of Soke Sensei and the Kyoshi on testing panel, with all eyes looking at your every move.
The gradings started with the teaching titles from most junior to most senior, followed by dan ranks from most junior to most senior. For those candidated grading for both titles and dan ranks that meant they had to get up twice. After the testing panel entered the dojo, everyone was sent out of the dojo and we were called in one by one.
First to test was Adam McDonald from Lithgow dojo, testing for Jun-Shidoin (assistant instructor). Followed by Justin Rybie from Canada, who was challening for Shidoin, and then everyone who was challenging for Shihan, 6 people in total, including Mark Snow Sensei and myself from Australia, Hirose Sensei and Mark Waterfield Sensei who both train at the Sohonbu dojo in Japan, and finally Mitchell German and Milton Bourque from Canada.
Because there were so many people grading for shihan, our grading started in pairs, first up was the Japanese duo, then the Aussies, then the Canadians. For the first part of the grading, we were asked to perform Sanshiryu in pairs as a compulsory kata, which is also the 4th dan grading kata. Following that one of the pair was sent out of the room and the other would be asked to perform another kata of our choice. After performing the free choice kata, the first candidate would be sent out and the other candidate would perform their free choice kata. Then both were asked to come back in and perform the bo kata, Sukugawa no Kon.
When Mark Snow Sensei and I were up, Sanshiryu went well. I was nervous before I started, but once I got up and got started I started to settle pretty well except for my breathing. Mark Sensei was first up for his free kata, as I left the dojo, I let out a bit of a sigh of relief. I must have looked as nervous as I felt as even Noonan Sensei commented with surprise saying that he had never seen me nervous like this before. When Mark Sensei came out a little while later I went in to perform my free choice kata, I chose bassai. I had been given a few pointers from Soke Sensei on Thursday, which I think I managed to work with and did what felt like a good performance.
Then Sakugawa no Kon. Both Mark Sensei and myself came into the dojo and positioned ourselves so that we had adequate room as Sakugawa no Kon uses quite a bit of space and the Sohonbu dojo is not really that big, only about 8m from front to back and testing panel were using the first 1.5m seated behind a long low table taking notes. The funny thing was, that Tanaka Sensei asked us both to move back a few steps, he must have thought we were going to run into the Kyoshi. Of course we stepped back but we both knew that it was going to make the space a little tight as there is one section of the kata in particular where you step back in shiko dachi striking kirikaeshi to the knee. Throughout the kata I had to adjust the size of my step little by little because I knew if I didn’t I would definitely run out of space, and I had a stack of tournament mats right behind me for the kakedameshi. In the end I think I got it just about right, as the tip of my bo ended up about 5-10cm from the stack of mats. Mark Sensei didn’t adjust, instead, he made use of the open sliding door behind him, ending up half out of the dojo.
After us, the Canadian duo were up to do the same kind of thing, then the Japenese and Aussie Shihan candidates were asked back in to perform a set of self defence techniques, either Henshuho or Nage no Kata. We all chose to do Nage no Kata, which is a set of 15 different throwing techniques. I was Mark Sensei’s partner and he got to perform first. Back on the Sunshine Coast, we train on tournament mats, but for the grading Nage no Kata was performed on wooden floor, so our breakfalling technique had to be spot on. There were a few times when I hit the floor pretty hard, but that’s the nature of the game. When it was my turn, I got started and thought I was doing pretty well, but about half way through, the Kyoshi suggested that I should be finishing off my partner after throwing, I was just focusing on the throw. Of course that made me a bit more nervous, so on one of the next techniques that nervous energy came out as a punch to Mark Sensei’s ribs after I had thrown him to the floor. Of course I didn’t mean to make contact as hard as I did, but after a few very deep breaths he got up and we continued. It was not the best Nage no Kata that I have ever done, but in the end it was OK.
Once we had our part done, it was interesting to sit back and watch the various reactions of people as stepped into and out of the dojo with their turn to perform.
Surpisingly, the last person finished about 12:15, to be honest I thought it would have taken longer than that even with the condensed format. Then everyone was asked to re-enter the dojo while the grading panel went into the tatami room to discuss what they had seen. While this was going on, everyone who graded got together for some photos. I didn’t take any, but when I get a hold of some I’ll post them.
Around 12:30, they came out, everyone lined up and they announced the results. All Australians who had stepped up to grade had passed, including me, so it was a very good result for Australian Chito-Ryu.
Adam McDonald Sensei graded Jun-Shidoin
Shane Ker Sensei graded to 3rd Dan
Mark Snow Sensei and I graded to Shihan
Mike Noonan Sensei graded to Renshi and 6th Dan
All around nearly everyone graded to new levels, there were just a few exceptions with candidates that required a bit more work.
Following the grading we had about an hour break in which time we went across the main road from the sohonbu for lunch at the local Ajisen Ramen resturant, which also happened to be one of the sponsors for the Kakedameshi tournament.
Following lunch, there was an ICKF international meeting. This is the first one that I have attended, as it was for many of the people who were there. It was quite a formal meeting in that everyone was dressed in official uniform in a large meeting room. While it’s perhaps not appropriate to discuss the content of the meeting in detail in this medium, a very large part of the meeting was devoted to getting to know everyone in order to start building stronger relationships between countries.
Here are a few photos from the meeting , courtesy of Inazuka Sensei.
R-L: Fraser Clarke Sensei & Christina Clarke Sensei (Scotland), myself and Mike Noonan Sensei (Australia).
Towards the end of the meeting, Soke Sensei shared some old 8mm video footage of O Sensei, which also featured quite a bit of Kugizaki Sensei and also Inazuka Sensei, taken about 50 years ago. In recent years, there have been many old foreign instructors who have claimed to be experts in Chito-Ryu because they have trained with O Sensei, and perhaps feel that they know better than the current Soke. While it may have been true that they did train with O Sensei, Kugizaki Sensei made it very clear that Soke Sensei is THE authority on Chito-Ryu and has clearly followed in his father’s direction capturing the essence of Chito-Ryu unlike anyone else has been able to do. Kugizaki Sensei also made it clear that he felt he had authority to speak on this topic, due to the fact that as a young man, he had left his position in the Japanese Self Defence Force to live near the Sohonbu and trained every morning and night with O Sensei for the next 10 years.
This was the first time that I had seen any of this video footage and there is said to be loads more that was made especially for Soke Sensei so that he could continue to study and capture the essence of O Sensei’s technique even after he had passed away. We were also told that some parts of this footage will be made publicly available in the near future, which I personally am very excited about, as there is very little footage around of O Sensei that is publicly available.
The meeting went over-time and eventually finished about 5:30pm. From there we caught a taxi back to the hotel got changed quickly into some more comforatble clothes and most of the foreign deligates got together for dinner at a great Japanese style resturant. Dinner was great, company was great, and most had a relatively early night, as there were a couple of us who were ented in the Kakedameshi the next day. I got back to the hotel about 10pm, but still had a few things to do: washing, onsen while I was waiting for washing, mould my new mouthguard and pack my bag ready for the next day.
Here are a few photos from the dinner:
Christina and Fraser Clark (Scotland)
Heyton Tze and Emily Wong (Hong Kong)
L-R: Milton Bourque, Mitchell German and John Show (Canada)
L-R: Milton Bourque, Mitchell German, John Show and Soke Sensei
Following this I caught up with Sandra and the kids via skype. Even though it had only been a few days I was missing them all so much! So much for an early night, I ended up getting to bed about 1.30am…
Another full on day, but really good. Weather has been warm and muggy, not much different than Sunshine Coast, maybe just a little higher humidity and we have had a bit of rain this evening.
The day started early about 5.30am wake up, 6.00am taxi to the sohonbu, then morning training started at 6.30am. As is usual form, we started with half and hour of seiza and mokuso. It just reminded me how much I miss doing that, it’s something that I really enjoy and just don’t make the time for usually. The dojo was pretty full, with all the Aussies, a few Canadians and several Japanese. Given that the gradings are tomorrow morning, I think Soke Sensei took it a little easy, although we did most of the usual kihon routine, but not speed training that he usually enjoys to do in the mornings. Followed by all kihon kata and kata.
The seniors were in the front line, then 4th dan instructors in the second line and everyone else in the third line. I was very fortunate to be positioned right behind Tanaka Sensei, he’s just got such great energy, especially during morning training. For the first time ever I forgot a kata half way through, not a good thing to do the day before a grading. But in my defence, it’s a kata that I haven’t really been putting a lot of time into practicing lately as it is the 6th dan grading kata (Ryusan) a few steps beyond my current level. After all kata were complete, Soke Sensei gave everyone a few minutes break, expect me, I had to redo Ryusan kata. In the end it worked out to be a good thing, because I got a few special points to work on that haven’t been pointed out before.
After everyone else got a break, we did partner training for nearly all of the remainder of the class. I got to work on Nage no Kata with Snow Sensei. Given the distance between dojos in Australia, we don’t get to train together that often, so it was great to train together in this context. We had a few good breakthroughs and enjoyed working with each other. After training was complete, it was time for soji. Cleaning the floor, with with small, wet towels, pushed up and down the dojo by hand. It’s good to have so many people in to do this job as it goes quite quickly.
It brought back memories for me. During my year in Japan the Sohonbu was very quiet, often just Tanaka Sensei and myself for morning training at that time. I think out of the year, there would have been maybe 100 times that I cleaned the whole dojo by myself after very tough physical training, now that’s shugyo. While it’s very tough physically and mentally to do at times, it’s also a very humbling experience and a pleasure to do. If nothing else than a small thank you for the time that Soke Sensei so freely gives.
After that, breakfast, hotel, change of clothes, wash gi and back out to the Kamitori via the bank. Now to say the least the exchange rate it not that amazing right now, and every day it seems to be dropping. Just 2 months ago, AU$1 would buy 102JPY, this morning it was down to 64JPY, I think it’s going to be a bit of an expensive trip this time.
We had lunch Japanese style at a nice little restaurant, simple lunch, but good. When you walk in the front door, there is a vending maching, where you select a meal and pay then find a spare table. Then staff come to collect tickets and about 5 minutes later out comes the food.
After lunch we continued up the kamitori to a photo booth, where we all had to get passport sized photos to goo with our grading applications. The locals must have thought we were carzy, one at a time we went into this tiny booth, obviously built for the locals… Once inside, we’d change into a gi top as that is what’s recommended for the photos as one will go on grading certificate if successful. After many bumped elbows and so on, we all managed to get it done.
Next mission, was to get to the sports store, as I needed to get a mouthguard and groin guard for the kakedameshi. That morning Tanaka Sensei had showed us the bogu (head gear, body gear and gloves) that all entrants are to use. It looks good, very light weight body gear, just enough to stop any major internal damage, but I think that broken ribs are still a possibility… not for me though, that’s not part of my plan.
After shopping, I ran into Noonan Sensei who I spent the next few hours with catching up sharing ideas about various things, then back to the sohonbu dojo.
We got there in time for the kids class. Chris Taneda Sensei had arrrived a little earlier and was talking with Soke Sensei. I was asked to join Tatsumi Takatsu Sensei teach the kids class. It had been a while since I last taught any kids in Japan, but it was interesting. My Japanese has slipped quite a lot so my confidence in teaching the kids was not that great, but I tried to give them something different that they might not normally receive. Most of the kids were just in awe of my size, by Australian standards I’m tall, but not out of place at 194cm, but in Japan with Primary School aged kids it’s a bit of a novelty.
For evening classes nearly everyone was back again from the morning class, plus a few more people that had arrived that day. Again training was very similar to the morning class, and tuaght by Soke Sensei once again. After training, 7.30-9.00pm, Tanaka Sensei sat everyone down to explain the schedule in more detail for the next few days. Tomorrow’s grading is going to be very big, 18 people grading in total, some for dan grading, some for teaching titles, some for both. Given the size of the grading, what we have been asked to do is a condensed version, if everyone was to do the full grading requirements it had been calculated at nearly 6 hours just to check, plus feedback time. Unfortunately we only have 3 hours allocated for grading so given that we have less to do, it is going to be even more important that everything is correct.
Following explanation of the schedule, Tanaka Sensei invited everyone back to his house, across the road from the Sohonbu dojo for some snacks, pizza and drinks. I think everyone was quite tired, especially those who had arrived that day, but it was nice to sit down for a while and catch up. It always impresses me how hospitable Tanaka Sensei is with everyone. I just hope that next time he’s on the Sunshine Coast, we can return the favour again.
Then finally back to the hotel, wash gi, hotel onsen while I was waiting and back to writing this entry. I hope that everyone enjoys reading about my adventures as much as I am having them. it just makes me realise how nice it is to be able to train at the sohonbu. I will certainly be encouraging all Sunshine Coast members to get to the Sohonbu dojo to train once they have graded to black belt. I think it’s something that everyone should do at least once. Soke Sensei’s growth in technique just continues to amaze me, we are so lucky to be a part of the ICKF and have direct access to a true master of karate-do.
I’m going to call it a night, it now after 1am and I need to be up around 6.30am to pack my bag. Breakfast downstairs at 7.00am, then taxi to the Sohonbu dojo at about 7.30am for final grading preparations. I guess I’ll get a sleep when I get home, maybe.
I still didn’t get any photos today, maybe tomorrow…
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