O-high-yoh goza-i-masu (Good Morning)

After 12 hours on a very comfortable Flight with Japan Airlines I touched down in Tokyo, after a transfer to Tsurumi I entered my apartment (my home for the next 10 days), not bad satelitte TV, micro wave then oh my god wheres the bed? Yep I had a traditional bed of the Tatami mat and paper screens just like the movies. Now those of you who know me, I like to kiss the floor every now and then (Kumite!!!) but apart from a sheet and a pillow full of pebbles, it seemed ridiculus but actually it was very comfortable (honest).

My sightseeing included travelling to Kyoto by Bullet train which was very very quick; you can set your watch by the trains as they are always on time. I visited lots of Shrine's of which the best had to be the Heian Shrine (photo below). I also visited Mt Fuji and the Giant Buddha at Kamakura.

After a few days of sight seeing it was time for some training. The first task was to find Kanazawa Kancho's SKIF Honbu Dojo. I had a personal invitation From Murakami Sensei but the directions he gave were a little bit vague. Anyway after two hours I found the Dojo in the basement under a bakery in Kugahara near Tokyo. I was warmly welcomed and I introduced myself to Suzuki Sensei, 'Jiko shohkigh shtay-mo yoroshee des ka, watashi-wa Richard chan des'.

Fortunately there were a couple of good english speaking Japanese instructors to help me out. The dojo was quite small and traditional, wooden floor and mirrors at one end and makiwara and punch bags at the other. Training in Japan is no different from home really except that at the begining of the classes we got on our hands and knees to scrub the dojo floor and this was repeated at the end of each session. We also bowed to a Buddhist Shrine and Funakoshi's picture which was proudly displayed on the Dojo wall. My instructor was Suzuki Sensei, one of Kanazawa's senior and most famous instructors. He was a fantastic instructor and a real gentleman.

A typical class consisted of the odd lower grade and about 20 Dan grades from 1st to 7th dan, ages 18 - 70 believe it or not, oh and the odd gaijin (Me). The class is all taken in Japanese of course, but it was easy to pick up the techniques being required. We started with lots of Basics, then kumite and finally after two and half hours Kata. The lessons are hard but good and for me the hardest part was training in 29 degees heat with 85% humidity. On the Wednesday evening after training Sensei Taketo Nabekura 6th Dan who claimed to be 29 yrs old but was in fact 65! took me home and treated me to a traditional Japanese meal of Cold Noodles, Seaweed, Rice and something that looked like a slug and tasted awful. Sensei Nabekura has been training for 40 years but still got drunk on one beer so theres hope for me yet as it took 6 Japanese Kirin beers to get me trollied.

Whilst in Japan I was also very privileged to spend a couple of days with one the UK's Karate Legends (and one of my kumite Heroes), Sensei Chris Thompson 7th Dan thanks to an introduction by Sensei Nursey. I met Sensei Thompson at the world famous Nippon Budokan (The Octagon) for the 9th JKA World Shoto Cup World Championships and really enjoyed discussing his Kumite days and Karate in general. What can I say about the Championships; great place, great atmosphere, great competition but shame that no matter what the result was a Japanese Karateka always won, funny that! Quite seriously our boys John, Paul and Ringo would have easily won the Team Kata and cleaned the board in the individual Kata which was won by Odd Job out of the Bond film (Japanese again). The Kumite was superb, Shobu Ippon (1st full point wins).

There were some fantastic fights and even better knock outs which got the crowd going and the Winner Japan (getting the picture by now). On the final day by far the best part was the cutting down of Bamboo trees by two Iaido Swordsman who's display defied belief and control was incredible.

To top the trip off I went to a Sumo Basha which was fantastic. It's amazing just how fexible and fast the sumo guys are and the best fight of the day saw the grand champion Asasyoryu being beaten and the crowd going mad throwing cushions everywhere.

Overall I had a fanastic time in Japan and would Like to thank the SKIF, Sensei Chris Thompson and Sensei Nursey for making my trip so memorable and my wife Debbie for being mad enough to let me go.

Arigatoh goza-i-mashta

Scoot Chan