Day 16 - double training

So I’m still suffering from a combination of my running adventure on Monday morning and the Takagi Sensei training last night. I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed, get showered and ready for the morning adult class at Shiramizu. I was on the verge of throwing one of my legendary hissy fits when I realised that the wife had let her cleaning duties slip, I had no clean and dry boxer shorts! She’s obviously broken, but I don’t say anything, I’m still half asleep, and it’s far too early and far too hot outside to be starting world war 3! I just pick a random pair, and yes, I put on damp boxer shorts. Which to be fair, made no difference whatsoever because as soon as I stepped outside I was soaked through with sweat.

We (Amy and I) had a gentle walk to the dojo, which is only a 10 minute walk away from our home, along the banks of the river which incidentally, also forms the border between Sugito town (where we live) and Miyashiro town.

We get to the dojo nice and early, Yamazaki Sensei is already there, vacuuming the dojo floor as we arrive. We say the normal greeting ‘onaigashimasu’ as we bow into the dojo, and remove our shoes before we step onto the hardwood floor. I don't think Onaigashimasu has really got a direct translation into English, but the Japanese people say it a lot. It’s basically a greeting.

The dojo was very hot, just think about stepping off an air conditioned plane onto an Egyptian airstrip, were the heat just smacks you in the face! We got changed in the small permanently air conditioned office / trophy room. Once ready, we braced ourselves and re-entered the dojo to start stretching.

The attendance was a lot lower than last week, with some of the usual faces missing. Despite this, the class started on time with running for a few minutes, and then various exercises to get everything working. We then moved onto line work. The usual techniques were performed for about 30 minutes and then we had a break.

During the break, I had a chat with one of the students, who despite being at an age when many would be hanging up their walking boots, has only recently started Karate and loves it. He was intrigued by the H20 pack in my backpack; I explained that I use it when I walk up mountains. He looked surprised and said ‘I thought England was flat, I didn’t think there were any mountains there’, I smiled and explained the Pennine area; the Lake District; Snowdonia and of course the Scottish highlands. We then got onto talking about the temperature in England, how it is a lot milder than Russia and Canada, despite being on the same latitude. He asked if it was due to the effect of the Gulf Stream, I said it was, but I explained the problem of the melting ice caps, they are forcing the cold arctic water south, thus interfering with the course of the Gulf Stream. We both agreed that England would be a lot colder place to live if we ever lost it. I told him that we were staying in Japan anyway, so the colder British weather won't affect us!

After the break, Sensei split us up, Yamazaki Sensei took us through the Pinan Kata’s from Shodan upwards. This was a wise move, because although Hartlepool Wadokai and Shiramizu are from the same ‘brand’ of Wado i.e. JKF-Wadokai, we still perform Kata with slight differences from each other. We worked through the various Kata, with Yuki Sensei being very patient with us, and using her limited English to make our lives easier. I was having a particularly harder time than usual though due to my ankle. I was struggling to pivot over the left foot without getting serious pain, and the joint wasn’t as flexible as it should be. The result was a very unstable performance of Sandan; a shocking attempt at Yondon and finally Godan, without a jump!. I was getting particularly annoyed with my body part way through Yondan, and Yamazaki sensei realised that I was uncomfortable. I told her I was fine, and she continued giving the count, this time concentrating more on Amy’s kata performance.

After a while, Sensei left us to self-practise Pinan Godan. I did a bit of stretching to loosen the ankle a bit and then started, albeit very slowly. Yamazaki sensei kept a watchful eye on us, and steered us in the right direction on a few moves. When she wasn’t putting us right, she practised some kata herself, and as you would expect from a Japan national Kata champion, her form was very good, inspiring even. I was jealous that her petite form allowed her to move so crisply, me being a western troll, who only likes to fight, I can’t quite manage to perform Kata so gracefully. But I will keep at it, maybe one day.

Arakawa Sensei kidnapped Amy and took her into the office so that she could fill out an application for an English teaching job. When he stepped back in, he put us through Seishan Kata. I was concentrating hard, trying to get it right. Arakawa Sensei spent a lot of time on me, and I feel as though I learned more about Seishan in those ten minutes, than I have in the past 5 years.

Training finished with a bit of a talk by sensei, again in Japanese. Now, despite not speaking the language, I kind of followed what was said. I think Sensei was saying that Takagi Sensei had talked to him about the way I punch in Junzuki. I always lock out the striking shoulder, and the striking arm. This, he said is the correct application of the technique, but not the best way to practise. Takagi Sensei mentioned Okinawa-te (Okinawa hand – a predecessor and early influence to modern day Karate), and how when you punch, the arm is sort of curved and therefore not locked. It’s a much more relaxed technique, and quicker too.

I agreed, and tried to blame it on my sporting background (lol). But I was quite pleased that Takagi sensei took the time to notice how I performed during training with him. The challenge of course, will be to put the techniques right for my next training session with him.

We cleaned the floor by hand, as is the usual custom, and then bowed out and got changed.

Sensei reminded us that we were going for lunch straight after training, so we quickly got changed. I had to borrow Amy’s expertise to wrestle me out of my Gi-pants as they were so soaked in sweat, that I couldn’t undo them. Nice.

We went to the Flying something restaurant, we’ve been there loads in the last two weeks, but I still keep forgetting the name. Afterwards, we were dropped off at Joyful Honda for supplies and we walked back home.

We chilled out for a while, and then I stole Amy's bike and headed to the dojo to do some paperwork. I spent a couple of hours checking email, proof reading the blog, writing this diary etc... And then went next door for teh English class. I was running the class on my own, Lawrence and Amy in background.

The class was very good, we got the kids learning some new, more complicated sentences. Lawrence admitted that the kids had done the same sort of thing for the past two years. So its about time that they were challenged a bit. Afterwards, I got some good feedback from Lawrence and then we went across to the dojo to get ready for training with the kids.

The training was good, we bowed in with Arakawa sensei, Yoshihara sensei and Uehara sensei (sporting a new haircut) who turned up a few minutes late. Uehara Sensei ran most of the class, with lots of warm up drills, jogging etc... We ran through the usually sort of basics before the break.

After the break Arakawa Sensei put us with the brown belts for seishan and naihanchi which was taught by Uehara Sensei. Afterwards, we moved onto Kumite drills. I was selected to be at the front of the line up (for all the other kids to attack). There are some really good fighters amongst the kids, despite their ages, they have very good awareness of distancing and timing.

We ended up free fighting, with the kids. Towards the end of the session, everyone else stopped to watch me fighting the kids. Sensei thought it would be a good idea for him to pick my next opponent, and to keep us fighting for ages. I was shattered, but kept going, trying not to hurt the kids - too much. I was purple by the time we finished.　We cleaned the dojo floor, and bowed out.