Day 1
The Yoga Dojo
I managed to grab a quick japan style shower/bath combo, then dug out one of my carefully folded yet now completely creased karate suits and walked the 10 minute walk to the dojo. In true form, the weather was still really hot and humid, and I was starting to look a little more hideous than normal by the time I got to the Shiramizu Dojo. I was greeted with huge smiles and looks of surprise. Arakawa Sensei was shocked to see me (a day early), and he apologised with his trademark smile for getting the days mixed up. I humbly replied in my very limited Japanese something along the lines of 'it's ok, don't worry about it, nice to see you again'. The time was pushing on 8pm so I quickly got changed... and lined up at the back of the dojo for the bow in.
Animal Instinct...
Part way through the kata practise, Arakawa Sensei asked me to put my kumite mitts on. I had absolutely no doubt about who I would be fighting, and sure enough, stood waiting for me was Rikuto. Rikuto is good, he's a high school student (14 or 15 years old) and is really fast and sharp. The thing that makes him a great and successful fighter though, is his irregular timing. For a Japanese fighter, I would say he was unique. He can suck you in to his distance, and then you get smoked. Being tired and jet lagged isn't the best time to fight the guy who has what Arakawa Sensei calls 'animal instinct'.
I managed to hold my own in the drills and Rikuto was quite respectful, meaning that my vision wasn't blurry and all my limbs and digits were still intact at the end of the session. I must have done ok, because Arakawa Sensei invited me to visit the Hanasaki Tokuharu High School with him and his boys high school team on the Wednesday morning.
During the final etiquette, Arakawa Sensei decided to re-introduce me to everyone, even though I'd only been absent for 40 days! I was also invited to the front of the class to give a short speech in japanese about why I was back etc... I tried to 'wing it', saying something like 'it's great to see you all again, let's all do our best in the competition'. i then ran to the back of the class as fast as I could. The speech really wasn't very good, but I think I dazzled them with my winning smile, I suppose this time around I can blame the jetlag!
Day 2
It was delicious, pasta bolognaise, and cooked vegetables of various types. Cold Tea, Apple Juice, Bagels and coffee. All the food had been home-grown in the Yoga dojo grounds and homemade too.
I headed to the Dojo via the local seven-eleven to get some snacks. At the dojo I beat up some of the kids (or rather, got beat up) whilst waiting for everyone else to turn up. Yoshihara & Yamazaki sensei’ were running a special morning class for the Juniors, as part of the Shiramizu Dojo build up to the Nationals. There were maybe 30 kids turned up.
I, on the other hand, was going to be visiting Hanasaki Tokuharu High School with three of the cadet boys. We rode with Kikuchi Sensei, and got there for about 8:45. We said our hello’s, got changed and one of the sempai’s started the warm up… The training was to run from 9am until 12noon, and it was broken into three distinct sections.
The first hour was mostly taken up by the warm up, stretching etc… The second hour was taken up with basics, including tons of Junzuki, Gyakuzuki, and Maegeri. The maegeri in particular really made my legs ache with pain, and it really became a mental training session rather than physical. The third hour was taken up with specific kumite training, partner’s drills, team drills, pad work etc… We finished off with some ‘free style’ drills… and shadow boxing.
Afterwards, we bowed out and I was chatting with Arakawa, Kikuchi and the High School Karate Coach about his students wanting to go to England for a ‘homestay’ program. I immediately offered my dojo' services and my parents home for accommodation.
After doing my laundry and grabbing some food, I hobbled to the local Internet Cafe which is a 4 minute train ride away. I managed to get back to the girls apartment just in time to see them drive off with Setsuko, one of our Japanese friends. I hobbled after them as best I could, I was still aching from training. I caught up to them at the Yoga dojo. We headed to a local restaurant for a bite to eat, and then off to a local, though very busy Karaoke bar, all to celebrate Erica' (Canada JKF-Wadokai) birthday.
With the Nationals at the weekend, I wasn't going to be drinking. I knew it would make the karaoke that bit more interesting. For my attempt, I picked a Beatle's number and just belted it out on stage, lots of energy accompanied by some really bad singing. My audience loved it.
Louise in action... Day 3
The next day I had an early start and was at the dojo before 7am working on my Kushanku. After an hour or so, Louise turned up to rip apart my performance. After training for a few more hours, we went with Arakawa sensei, his wife Keiko and their two sons, Yusuke and Masatoshi to lunch at a local family restaurant. We all had a great chat, the food was delicious and we finished it off with a selection of cake, what more can you ask for? When we were leaving, I tried to intercept Keiko picking up the receipt from the table and failed, then failed again in bartering with Arakawa Sensei for him to let me pay my share of the bill. The plan for the afternoon was to have a couple of hours sleep then head to the dojo for self training. In reality, the couple of hours turned into 4, which meant it was too late to head to the dojo. I popped round the girls' apartment for Ice Cream instead.Day 4On the Friday morning, I was woken at 2am by a very large bang. At first I thought something or someone had hit the cabin windows. It was only when I got out of bed at 5am that I realised it was a party balloon that had burst in the night. A reminder of Erica's Karaoke bash...
After breakfast I headed to the dojo with Louise, this time after getting my kata thoroughly ripped again, we worked on Kumite Kata drills. The Shiramizu dojo doesn't practise these so we were both a little rusty. We spent quite a long time on these, working the differences in thought, approach and application into these exercises. The English and New Zealand drills are very different in places, though very similar in places too. It was interesting to see how external influences had affected the approach to these drills. Toby Threadgill Sensei, a Jujitsu master based in the US has heavily influenced Robbie Smith's New Zealand Wado whilst Yanagawa Sensei, a Budo Karate master has influenced England's Sakagami Sensei.
Carl (left) and Yusuke Arakawa (right), Arakawa Sensei's oldest son
On the afternoon, Louise and I accompanied Arakawa Sensei and his family to a huge retail park near Kuki City. The place was pretty cool, really trendy and well designed with some cool features such as multiple Ice Cream parlours and a huge area devoted to racing remote control cars. We spent a couple of hours window shopping and watching the racing, then we met up with the Arakawa's for ice cream. We then headed home and had to hump it to get to the dojo on time for the class.
At the Friday night class, the students were packed wall to wall as this was the final class before the 45th JKF-Wadokai All-Japan Nationals. The session was pretty standard, except the kumite training. Again I was matched with Rikuto but as it was the day before the nationals, we were both on good form. I would diplomatically say that we were very well matched, and we each scored some cheeky shots. I also fought a few other people and did well.
After the training, everyone collected a paper cup and wrote down their 'oaths' for tomorrows competition. We then all filled the cup with our favourite drink, then the Shiramizu Captains, Yuki and Chihiro said a few inspirational words and then we all drank. We all then made a huge circle, arms over each others shoulders and then stamped our feet and shouted something in Japanese (sorry i wasn't sharp enough to hear what) then we all disbanded feeling ready to face the world - it's a really simple but effective team build.
Once the class was over, Team Gaijin (Carl, Erica, Louise) escaped and headed to the Intern apartment to do some sowing. Yes, you read that correctly. The competition is huge, perhaps 2000+ competitors, so to ensure that everyone is where they should be, you have allocated numbers that you have to display on your back and then show these numbers before you fight. This effective system minimises a lot of mistakes that could otherwise happen.
As it turned out, the girls only had two sets of needle and thread so I decided to to simply tape my numbers onto my karate suit. This was to have repercussions at the competition.
The big day - the 45th JKF-Wadokai All-Japan National Championships
Sakayuri Sensei had arranged for Team Gaijin to have a mega breakfast feast early on the morning. The food was simply delicious and it gave us the boost we needed to be at the meeting point (Shirayuri Kindergarten) for 6.20am to ride the Coach with the Shiramizu Team all the way to Chiba prefecture. Day 1 of the competition was taking place at Urayasu Park Gymnasium near Tokyo Disney Land.
We made really good time with the coach, which meant that we had to wait for nearly an hour outside the venue until they opened up. It would have been fine but it was already becoming a very hot day. The doors were eventually opened at about 9am.
Being a veteran of this event now, I headed straight to the changing rooms to get my suit on, dropped off my bag at the annexed Shiramizu seating area. As expected, the venue was already filling up and the eager Shiramizu team had already secured a spot close to the middle of the hall. I headed down into the main hall for the team warm up which was led by Yuki, one of the Shiramizu Team Captains.
The warm up was pretty standard, basics, simple combination drills and light stretching, all of this accompanied by kiai's, lots and lots of kiai's... as with all competitions, these team warm ups are an exercise in who's got the biggest.... kiai/team etc etc... in reality, it is actually a great way to get the younger competitors involved and fired up, ready to go. Kumite
The senior ladies were up first, so I secured a good spot by the side of the mat so I could coach Louise. Louise took third place in the Wado World Cup in 2005 (Japan) and she'd never competed in Kumite as a senior. She moved well, and held her own though her opponents experience won out and Louise ended up losing the match with a very close 4-3 score.
My kumite division was quite large, about 75 entries which was about the same as last year's event. I was feeling in good shape, I signed in when called, we all bowed in and then I drifted to the side of the hall with my IPod playing my 'fight music mix'.
I was on the line ready before the referee called us up and I bowed my head to my opponent with was respectfully returned. The referee eventually called us up with more than a little drama as I didn't have my competitor number attached to my back, the tape I had used had proved inadequate and it had fallen off during the warm up. Louise showed my number from the side lines but the Tatami chief (Area head referee) didn't seem to be pleased. He told me in broken English that it should be attached to my back, I tried to explain that it was attached but had simply fallen off. Looking around the hall at this point, I couldn't help but notice more than one competitor in action without a competitor number on their backs, none of them seemed to be having the same trouble.
Carl (blue) in action
The match was started and I quickly took the lead with two well placed lead hand punches. It wasn't all going to go my own way though as my opponent eventually equalised, and then took another. The score was now sitting at 3-2 with the time ticking away. I launched my attack, leading with my hands as feints followed by a perfectly timed lead-leg roundhouse kick to the head which wasn't even acknowledged by any of the officials. In the ruckus, my opponent somehow managed to get a body punch scored. I came back again, this time with my trademark hook kick which even if I do say so myself, landed perfectly across the back of the head. Once again, not one official acknowledged the kick. I chased the fight right to the buzzer, managing to get one more point but in the end it wasn't enough, I'd been closed out in the first round with a 4-3 score line.
Now, it's easy to feel bitterness at this point. I'd flown thousands of miles only to be shut out in round 1, not exactly the result I was going for, and my ego was definitely bruised. Though when I stepped off the mat I'd felt as though I'd done everything I could have. It was only when I was going over the fight afterwards in my head that I'd fully appreciated how the fight went. As always, you think about what you would do differently, how your defence would be stronger, your body movement faster, your scoring techniques more obvious.
In the end though, it all comes to the same thing. We've all chosen to participate in a sport were no matter what our preference, be it Kata or Kumite, it comes down to human opinion as to who is best in a match. The problem with that is that even the most impartial judge/referee has bias, whether they realise it or not. You can have the best technique and timing, be the fastest and strongest, have the best ring craft and tactics and still lose. If you look at football, 99% of the time, a goal scored is a goal scored, 100,000 people in the crowd can immediately see that a player has just scored a goal, this will be followed by girly screams of joy from one side, and girly crying from the other. Karate is just not like that, it's not that clear.
So, what do we do about this? Complain? Quit? Argue for a change in the rules? Better training for referees? No.
What we do now is no big secret. We practise more. We do more training, get more coaching and try harder. If we as competitors aren't good enough to leave no doubt in anyone's mind in a match, then we need to do more. Simple really.
Kata
The first round Kata for all senior divisions was going to be Kushanku. If I'm honest, I'd say all my other Kata's are better so it certainly wouldn't have been my first choice. You can't complain about how the cards are dealt.
Motivated by my embarrassing performance in Kumite. I spent the next 3 or 4 hours beating my Kushanku into submission in a random corridor of the sports centre. I got quite a lot of attention from random Japanese people whilst I was practising. In fact, people would just stop walking in the corridor and watch me practise. I figured that this could be taken one of two ways, one: 'awwww bless, the white boy's playing at Karate.... awwww bless' or two: 'hey look, the white boy can actually do Karate!'. I'm not entirely sure which was the common opinion but it didn't stop me training.
Nearing exhaustion, i made my way up to the Kata competition area on the second floor. I watched in frustration as Louise performed a very good Kata, only to see the officials blatantly bodge it. The area had 5 flag officials. After both competitors had finished the kata, they returned to the line and the referee put his whistle to his mouth. WHISTLE!, four officials raise their flags immediately, two red and two blue. The fifth official took his sweet time, looked around at what his fellows had done, looked at the competitors, in my opinion panicked as he realised he'd been day dreaming and then threw up the first colour to come to mind. Red. Louise didn't go through. It was so blatant that as the two competitors bowed to each other the head official asked the spanner official if he was certain about his choice. The guy looked again and insisted that he had. To me, as a biased spectator it looked like he wasn't paying attention during the performances, then panicked and subconsciously (?) chose the Japanese competitor on instinct. Then, once the decision was made, he couldn't go back on it because he would look like a complete fool.
At this point I'd just like to point out to the readers that I do in fact deeply respect the work that officials do at competitions, without them we simply wouldn't have competitive Karate. I do however have very strong opinions on spanner referee's being permitted to judge high level events when they simply don't have the experience to do so adequately. It's not fair on the competitor's who will often have spent months physically and mentally preparing for the event, only to have it botched by someone not knowing what they're doing. It cheapens the whole sport.
Ok, now it was my turn. It was almost 50 weeks to the day since I'd first competed in a Kata competition. My debut was in fact this same competition the previous year and I'd only ever competed in Kata competitions in Japan. My only goal was to perform without being nervous. At last year's event, I'm not ashamed to say that I was so nervous that my hands were shaking during my Kata and I got through Chinto in about ten seconds flat!
This year, I was ready. I felt prepared. My kata was as good as it was going to get. When called up, I bowed to my opponent and confidently announced my Kata KUSHANKU! We started on the referee' whistle. I actually have my kata on video and i've already watched it hundreds of times, analysing every move. I was very sharp and fast. The thing that lost me the match was (for those who know the kata!) the part after the turn were you raise your right knee for a kick, and bring both hands together before dropping to the floor with your right leg forward and both hands on the floor in front of you. After completing the turn, I managed to botch the recovery and wobble into cat stance. At this point I knew that I'd blown it and my composure faltered enough that I managed to kiai at the wrong point in a subsequent combination and scowl at myself in the process. I finished the kata knowing that the result would be a 5-0 loss.
I really can't say I was disappointed with my performance. There is no excuse for losing balance in Kata but I've managed to improve my Kata one thousand percent whilst training in Japan. More practise needed...
Part TWO of this mini adventure will be with you shortly... including climbing mount Fuji and catching the sun rise over Japan's tallest mountain!
making this small window-hole into a massive 8ft deep x 8ft long x 5ft wide hole that we've surrounded with a solid brick wall and staircase... 
In other news, Amy has had us moving back into our own house after 18 months away from it. So we've, Ok, Amy's been really busy cleaning and unpacking and generally making the house look pretty. So in between trips to Ikea, removing a strange accumulation of 28 inch CRT TV's, and re-setting up our home-dojo, I've been doing my best to resist Amy's insistence that we do actually have to go home eventually.
Special thanks to the Vue Hartlepool Management for making the trip possible...
Click on the LOGO for the Hartlepool VUE Cinema Website
