More Than One Way to Learn

Erica here!

One of the lovely things about the Shiramizu dojo is the variety of instruction available. The diversity of the Sensei in terms of experience and instruction style insures that I receive a variety of perspectives on my progress as I train. At this point, I've interacted with some Sensei more than others, but I'll just use this blog to talk about my experiences with a few of them.

There are two female instructors who I mentioned before, Yoshihara Sensei and Yamazaki Sensei. These ladies motivate me so much for a variety of reasons.When I first began this journey and everything was new, they really came to my aid in a very basic way: by telling their stories how they both started Karate in their 40s, how they have gotten good enough to teach at Arakawa Sensei's dojo, and how they have done well in various competitions.

On the one hand, it's awesome to know that I'm training under the umbrella of Arakawa Sensei, someone who is internationally recognized for his talent, and who has a room full of medals and awards that signify his exceptional martial arts ability. Learning under someone who is so throughly accomplished makes me feel that I am in good hands as every time I train at Shiramizu.

However, it can be intimidating and difficult to relate to someone who's been immersed in Karate for longer that I've been alive! Therefore, it's easier for me to see Yoshihara Sensei and Yamazaki Sensei as more immediate role models because of their background. Through training everyday, they developed a love and passion for karate, along with great skill. Even though they haven't practiced Karate for decades, they have a spirit of learning, and continual improvement that is thoroughly transparent and contagious, and I'm always energized by their presence and instruction.

On Sunday, we had a special "girl's only" practice and both Sensei made the experience great for everyone.

Female only Practice! The Dojo certainly smelled different that day :)

Uehara Sensei has also been a great help to me. He is very gentle, but stern in his instruction, and he has really helped me to break down many of the different Kihon. I can repeat a move over and over with him and he will continue to help me correct my mistakes until I gain confidence.

I've also recently begun training with Peter and Richard. While Peter isn't a dojo Sensei of course, I feel I really benefit from the occasional private practices we do together, not only because he speaks English, but he's also incredibly funny when he explains things, which helps me not to take things so seriously. While of course the internship is serious business, I'm also a beginner and he helps me to remember that that's not a bad thing, rather, it is something everyone has to experience to move to the next level. He is definitely encouraging as well, and because he was the former intern, I know that we have some shared experiences which helps me put things into perspective.

Training with Richard is great not only because of his own long and impressive martial arts background but also, due to the fact that I see him once a week, he is able to evaluate the changes in my ability differently than the other Sensei who see me every other day or so. When I train with him, he also gives me great insight into the reasoning behind moves and he helps me to understand what I should be thinking about and what others will be looking for when evaluating my Kihon and Kata.

All this instruction will soon culminate into my first belt test, which will be on July 9th! Last week, there is no formal Karate instruction at Shiramizu, so my preparation will be mostly self-training. I'm still nervous, but hopefully a few solo trips to the dojo will help give me the confidence I need for the weekend!

(Editor's note: Erica's belt test report & results will be the next post up later this week!)

Pete's Graduation & Erica's Welcome Party!

Richard here!

Pete & Erica in the front row wearing Shiramizu towels!

Congratulations to Pete being the 8th graduate of the Shiramizu Karate Internship! In addition, a warm welcome to Erica as the 9th intern! We had the Graduation/Welcome Party a week ago at a Taiwanese restaurant.

Some mischievous Shiramizu members remembered to complete the party with the mandatory natto eating contest for all non-Japanese in attendance (ahem).

Myself, Pete (with graduation certificate & Wadokai National's photo 2010) and Arakawa Sensei.

Erica and the honorary alien

The nijikai was the annual gaijin karaoke madness with an honorary alien member as well from Pete's non-karate life.

That's going to look pretty sweet on you-know-who's wall...

Post Earthquake post

Peter Here;

My first ever earthquake experience was in the first week of my Japan experience. The birds fell silent, the ground rumbled and the houses shuddered for all of ten seconds. Then the world returned to normal, and all was left as a reminder was a gently swinging lampshade.

Last week was different, and obviously not as fascinating an observation. Of course it was scary, and of course I feel very lucky to be alive, given the devastation up in the north. The quake hit just as I was getting ready to leave for my Friday afternoon kindergarten English class, and that's exactly where I went after the earth stopped moving. It was relieving to see that apart from a few teary faces, they were all ok and treating the whole experience like camping. The teachers were absolute angels with them.

Since then, various news sources seem to have difficulty in providing accuracy in the actual situation; some people have mentioned statistics that have been quite simply plucked out of thin air, or at the very least a twitter commentary. Quite a few of my Eikaiwa contemporaries are now leaving Japan on the basis of this, personally I think it's a bit rash.

I must say it would've been very easy for me to have left Japan as I don't have any family or commitments outside of the Internship keeping me here. However, especially after the first couple of headline days were over I felt fine staying, because having come from an advertising background I know firsthand that certain news sources will very much tweak and dramatise the information to get a larger viewing audience, rather than reporting it 'as it is'. From my humble experience, news has become more about ratings than providing de-facto information, which means it is difficult to get a reasonable report on our current situation.

The best way to see through the smoke is to get to the same sources that they use, which Richard has pointed out in the previous post are the Embassies and the expert authorities that are actually working on the site. Any armchair enthusiast can call themself an analyst, so news journalists can pick and choose the ones that run with the story they want to write, if you know what I'm saying.

So quite simply, given the official and direct sources, I feel reassuredly safe here. I'm just not going up North anytime soon. I've not done any firefighting and I don't like the cold, and although I was in the Scouts and an avid fan of Ray Mears I would probably get in the way of the real heroes!

Kita Katsushita-Gun Open Tournament, 30th January 2010

Pictures Courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's Blog

Peter Here;

The year's competition calendar literally kicked off with the Kita-Katsushita Area Taikai on Sunday 30th January. Technically, I was still told to not compete by the doctor because of my toe recovery, but a combination of my foot feeling great (no pain at all for a while), and itchiness to get back into training and competing meant that I was lining up with the other competitors at the opening ceremony.

As this was an open tournament, the major styles had come to participate; Goju, Shito, Shotokan and Wado were all present, and it was great to see some old faces from previous tournaments again. I even surprise them with some (allegedly) improved Japanese!

Kata was first, and it wasn't so good for the Wado entrants, as could be predicted. Personally I love Wado kata, but the other styles had fielded a strong set of competitors, including in my category. I felt happy that I had given my best shot with seishan (even Arakawa Sensei said it was my best attempt yet, despite the weird kicks and shiko dachi), so I was satisfied with how I did even though I went out at the first hurdle.

Pictures Courtesy of Arakawa Sensei's Blog

Kumite was a bit better, as I was drawn against a relatively easy opponent in the first round, winning 5-0. What I was even happier with is that I was scoring with punches and not relying on my feet (although I must say my healing foot forced me into it somewhat). The next round however saw me compete against Toyama Sensei, one of Arakawa Sensei's many friends. He was BIG and, to be honest, the fear stopped me from performing. I seized up, and ended up losing 3-0. The problem was that I could see scoring opportunities, but didn't think I was fast enough to get them. I will work on this.

As usual for the tournaments, many kids from the Shiramizu English classes were there, and I spent a lot of time with Sae, Kaho and Saho from the Monday class drilling them on distance and gyakuzuki. Whenever I get the chance to do this it reminds me of how much I love coaching the kids, both in English and Karate, and it's really something I'd love to do back home now.

Shiramizu ended with medals and many best 8's, and overall it was a good haul for them. Considering that I had been injured and unable to train for the past five weeks, I felt my performance wasn't disappointing, though for the next tournament I must improve if I am to reach my goals of at least two silver medals this year. Back to the Dojo!

Yakusoku kumite

Sports Karate is fun But you have to concentrate on Form, too.

Peter Here;

These last couple of weeks Shiramizu has been focusing on the Kihon Kumite syllabus, which is particularly useful to me as my JKF Wadokai Shodan test looms ever nearer.

What has been particularly concerning me with this series is the concepts of maai (distance), tai sabaki (body movement) and the nagashi block. Because of my problems with go-no-sen that I wrote about last month, it means that I rush a little and tense up. This means that my covering arm in yakusoku kumite ipponme becomes a jodan harai uke, and is incorrect. Also I keep turning my body into a neko-ashi kamae with the counter punch instead of seishan dachi; I'm not quite sure where this came from as it's not correct in any syllabus version. Just a case of my body telling me where I want to go, perhaps?

Gohonme is also proving problematic, but thanks to my aikido training I can better appreciate the ten-gai movement principals when applying the arm lock to your opponent. Ten-gai is where you move your body to face the same direction as your opponent, creating a stronger position for you and pulling the attacker off-balance. Accompanied with a lock or throw, this is a very important principle.

Once again I've been scribbling down notes and pictures in my training diary, trying to keep the comments made by Arakawa Sensei and the other Shiramizu Staff in my head between the end of training and heading home.

dedicated, or just too slow?

Quiet on Set: Watching the Shiramizu DVD

Peter Here;

One of the very exciting new projects Shiramizu has for 2011 is a new DVD! This will cover the Wadokai syllabus including Kihon Kumite, Pinan Kata (including bunkai), Kihon, Idori, Tanto Dori and Kumite Training. This was recorded on Sunday 23rd at Studio Dorup (スタジオ　ドールップ - I can't tell what the 'katakana'd' second word is!) in Nakano, close to Shinjuku. I went along to see the footage being shot.



Richard and I arrived at the Studio at 12:30pm, Arakawa Sensei had been there filming since 8 in the morning and had only just taken a break! We then watched as he worked through the Pinan Kata. This was recorded 4 times (one slow explanation, then normal speed from the front, side and rear), which taking into consideration Arakawa Sensei's perfectionism for kata meant he had to repeat each kata at least 6 times, under intense lighting. It just goes to show how much skill and stamina he has!



Also on set were the recording crew and the President of Champ, the sponsers and producers of both this DVD and JKFan Magazine.

Shiramizu Instructors Kikuchi Sensei, Suzuki Sensei, Uehara Sensei, Iwasaki Sensei, Yoshihara Sensei and Yamazaki Sensei were all present too, and took part in the video shoot, being the attacker for kata bunkai, kihon kumite or other sections. Richard was involved in this too, and seemed to enjoy his time on the set!


Other guest appearances were Shriamizu Student and JKF national team member Rie Hirai, and Fujimoto Sensei.

I had to leave at 7pm to prepare for work the next day, but at this time they were still filming! In fact, they were filming until gone 10:30pm, meaning Arakawa sensei had put in staggering 14 and a half hours of karate into one day. Awe inspiring!

Arakawa Sensei, still smiling and genki after 10 hours of karate. Incredible.

The DVD is due for release in March, and will come in both English and Japanese flavours, as Richard is expertly translating the dialogue. I am hoping that this will have a large take up in England!

A day of good things!

Peter Here;

They say good and bad things come in threes, and I am happy to say that Wednesday 13th January was a case of the former!

Firstly, I went to the hospital to get a check-up on my toe, which has now finally been removed from it's cast. It looked a little weird and there's now a bit of a lump on the side of it, and there was a small case of stinky foot after not being able to wash it for a month, but overall it feels genki. I was given a set of exercises to do three times daily (I call them 'toe curls', thought it would sound manly but now I write it down it sounds a bit silly), and I can FINALLY wear shoes again! Thank goodness, because my toes were starting to fall off from the cold.

Secondly, Arakawa Sensei surprised me after training with an award that I missed out on collecting at the end of year training in December (because I had to work), congratulating my achievement at the Wadokai Nationals last August. It is rather splendid I must say, and now sits next to my medals in the aparto.



Lastly, I received via Arakawa Sensei a wonderful late Christmas present from Juergen Fabian Sensei- a Calendar for 2011 containing pictures of our time together in Japan. It was a really thoughtful and touching present! Thanks Juergen, I look forward to seeing you again soon!

Kagami Biraki: Nippon Budokan, 10th January 2011

Peter Here;

As 2011 woke up from the winter holidays (Fuyu no Oyasumi), the annual ceremony of Kagami Biraki marked the Nippon Budokan's celebration of the new year on January 10, and the beginning of training. Takagi Sensei had again been asked to represent Karatedo by the Nippon Budokan with Arakawa Sensei since they are the official karate instructor's at the Nippon Budokan's Budo-Gakuen, and once again the Shiramizu group attended to take part in the group budo training session.

Everyone arrived at the Nippon Budokan for 11:30; well, everyone except yours truly- a horrendous misunderstanding about the pronunciation of 10:15 and 10:50 meant I arrived at Tobudobutsukoen station a tad later than I was supposed to (note to self: double check all times in writing in the future). However, the ceremony started at 12:30 and everyone including myself managed to be seated comfortably by the time it started.

The mochi breaking ceremony has been well covered by past interns, but a good further explaination to the mochi and embellishments can be found here: http://blog.alientimes.org/2010/01/opening-the-mirrors-kagami-biraki-a-more-comprehensive-look-at-kagami-mochi-revisited/



The round rice cakes were shaped to resemble mirrors because mirrors have been revered in Japan since ancient times and are believed to be receptacles of the gods. You might have seen mirrors set up inside the main halls of a Shinto Shrine. For the New Year, a smaller mochi is usually placed on top of a larger one (sometimes there are 3 mochi cakes in a stack). Sometimes the Kagami-Mochi are further embellished with significant decorations such as a citrus called a daidai (which is a homophone for generation after generation), a spread open folding fan (to symbolize the spreading of your seed), kelp (konbu), which is a near homophone to YOROKOBU (to enjoy). There might also be other plants (all with symbolic meanings) and folded red and white paper (to keep out impurities) used to decorate the mochi.

The reason the hard mochi is broken and not cut is that the SAMURAI avoided using the word CUT, as well as the symbolic action of cutting, especially around New Year’s. Thus a knife is not used, And, even though the Kagami-Mochi is BROKEN, the word WARU (割る), to break, was also avoided (the SAMURAI did their best to avoid being cut or broken!). Instead, an IMI KOTOBA (忌み言葉), a euphemism, is used: hiraku (開く) to open. And thus this custom came to be known as KAGAMI-BIRAKI (鏡開き) the OPENING OF MIRRORS, which sounds very auspicious.




After the mochi breaking ceremony, we assembled outside for a photo shoot. It was pretty cold and windy, so we made it as quick as possible, and then headed inside for the budo demonstrations, or Embu. As was last year, 9 budo was represented at the ceremony: Shorinji Kempo, Aikido, Kyudo, Kendo, Naginata, Judo, Jukendo, Sumo and of course Karate. Each demonstration lasted about 15 minutes and boasted the best aspects of each art: Kempo showed it's Chinese origin with its circular attacks, Aikido demonstrated the use of your opponent's power and the elegance of technique, Kendo was graceful and spiritual, Kyudo displayed incredible focus... each demonstration had superb and enviable qualities.





Karate's demonstration came courtesy of the JKF women's kata team, and the Japan University Championships male team kata champions, with a wonderful performance and bunkai of Kururunfa and Unsu.



The group training followed, with participants from each of the 9 budo styles taking part on the floor. The massive Taiko sounded the beginning and end of the practice, and the twenty minutes between was filled with shouts and enthusiasm, the biggest coming from the Karate area! There aren't the words to describe the feeling of the training- motivation and determination permeated the hall, driving everyone on. Sadly, the taiko signalled the end of the training just as everyone was getting into the swing of it; 20 minutes wasn't enough, even for the kids!



After the training, the 'opened' mochi from the Samurai ceremony was offered in Oshiruko - sweet red bean soup - along with an offering of Sake for the adults. Sake is potent stuff, so after Okano san kindly refilled my glass with his sake offering I could only sip a couple of times before leaving it!

On the journey home Arakawa sensei and I talked about the new year's plans, about the new dojo in Satte, my Shodan test, practising English and Japanese, and where I should start training from next April. We also admired the setting sun, nestling behind Fuji-san in a picture-postcard scene. Inspiring Stuff.

Shiramizu Temple Walk and Start of Year Training, 9th January 2011.

Peter Here,

The frost was well and truly biting when people gathered at Sugito Takanodai park for the annual Temple walk (hatsumode) and start of year training (hatsu geiko) on January 9. Leaving the park at 8:30, we were to walk to Satte Jinja (Shinto Shrine), be blessed by a Shinto priest, and then walk to Asukaru Taikakan (training hall) to begin the year by training all together.



As my toe was still in its cast, I couldn’t walk; however I was determined to take part so I was allowed to take the bicycle instead! As well as not being able to walk the distance, I couldn’t wear shoes yet either, so endured the cold with sandals and socks (a fashion no-no, but it can slide this time):



By the time we walked to the temple, my extremities were well and truly frozen!

Having arrived at the temple, there was a quick ceremony, and we then did 100 punches, followed by 100 kicks. It was a lot harder work that it has been in the past, because of the cold but also because of the holiday too! We then received an offering of sake (well the adults did- no drunken kids, they got lollipops), and made a prayer for the new year.





We then walked to Asukaru Taikakan, the Satte training hall that houses many Shiramizu competitions and weekly dojo training, with a quick pause for lunch and a recharge when we arrived. Richard also came along at that point to, so it was great to see him for the start of training too!



I could only take part in a small part of the training because of my toe, although I really wanted to join in more. Despite that, the energy on display in the room was seen and felt by everyone, from the kindergarten kids to the adult spectators. It just goes to show how great Arakawa Sensei and the rest of the Shiramizu teachers are at motivating everyone!



A great start to the year, and plenty to work on for the times ahead!

Cycling back on the way home, I also caught a very nice view- Mount Fuji in the sunset, all the way from Saitama. Happy New Year indeed!

New Year's Resolutions!

Peter Here!

Happy New year to everyone! I hope 2011 is a marvellous and successful year.

A tradition that seems to span the globe is that of New Year resolutions (shinnen no houfu, 新年の抱負) ; goals you want to achieve, bad habits you want to kick, life decisions to be made, mindsets to change, etc. I thought I would write down my own, so that people can kick me up the backside if I'm not keeping to them!

1. I will practice Karate every day: This is no different to what I am doing now, but it is good to set it in virtual stone. I will stretch Every Day for at least 30 minutes too, and make sure I keep up with my cardio exercises once my toe is completely fit!
2. I will practice Japanese for at least an hour every day: I want to be able to read and write too, so I will probably go to a language class this year- something that I didn't get round to doing last year!
3. I will listen to advice more, for Karate and teaching.
   
4. I will make more of an effort to remember names!
   
5. I will open a bank account: I usually have a lot of money in my wallet which, when I think about it, can be quite dangerous. A bank account would probably make my life here much easier.
6. I will prepare for lessons at least two days before the class: Sometimes Monday's lessons are planned on the day because I was busy over the weekend, which means there's less margin for error if I check them. Ideally I would like to make the next lesson plan immediately after the last lesson, so I'll try and do that.
7. I will complete private projects: I have a couple of websites that are karate-related on the go, but they have been very slow to get started. I want to have them finished by March! Then, any other projects can be tackled without these hanging over my head.
8. I will get a gold in at least one tournament this year, and at least two more silver: After the amazing training at Shiramizu, I want to get back into winning ways! At least one gold is an absolute minimum!
9. I will compete and spar with more confidence this year: I started doing this just before injuring my toe, so I look forward to getting back to competition fitness as soon as possible.
   
10. I will pass my JKF Wadokai Shodan test this year! This is the big 'Must Do' resolution; if I don't do this then I will be very very disappointed.
    
11. I will grade in Aikido: I was starting to really like aikido last year, and the bokken and jo practise was very interesting. I would like to grade or advance a little in it before my time in Japan is over, so I could do something similar back in the UK as well as karate.
12. Finally, I will find more people to teach English to, and improve the Internship.

I hope everyone who has made resolutions this year will succeed in sticking to them. Good luck!!

Santa San and No Senbonzuki?!

Peter Here,

Because of having to work, I think I might be the first Intern to have not completed the Senbonzuki (1,000 punch) practice. I must say, I’m more than a little sad about it, as I was really looking forward to the challenge. However, such is life in Japan- if you are contracted to work, there’s little you can do (enter that handy “shooganai” – ‘it can’t be helped’ - phrase again).

Instead of training, it was the final English class for ICE in Nerima on Thursday 23rd December. We had a party for all the kids where we played English games and ate lots of unhealthy cakes and sweets (it is the season after all!).

I was asked to prepare the games, so I made a bingo sheet based upon the vocabulary I taught this year, then Pictionary (drawing what is on a flash card for others to guess), and finally Twister. Even though I missed training because of it, I had a very good time and Oguchi Sensei and my adult student Kondo san even gave me presents! It was very unexpected!

The Shiramizu English Club party was the next day-Christmas Eve! All English students were invited, but some couldn’t come because of school (it’s almost unthinkable to me that some kids are still at school on Christmas eve, and even Christmas Day!), but there were enough there to have fun!

First up was an English lesson – this was a bit difficult because of the difference in abilities between the kid's ages, but after changing the lesson into a learning game, they soon all became interested. Well, at least as interested as kids get when being taught at a party!



Second was ‘Magician Arakawa’, performing mighty feats of magic under a lot of pressure from a tough crowd!





After a small break of food and ball games, we had another special guest... Black Belt Santa San! Before giving the kids presents for being good he reminded everyone of the virtues of studying and practising hard. Obviously his schedule was very busy for the day so it was a quick visit. It was a shame Arakawa Sensei was somehow occupied while here was here though!



In the evening, Arakawa Sensei, his family and I went out to a steak house for dinner- this has happened with almost every Intern on Christmas Eve since Mark was the intern, so I’m glad to have kept the tradition. It was also great to just talk and relax and ask Masatoshi about what he wants for Christmas, and what Sensei’s plans were for Christmas and the New Year.

With my work duties done for the year, the rest of 2010 was spent relaxing, training when I can and making sure my toe recovers as quickly as possible.

Christmastime goodies!

Peter Here,

My old sparring mitts had finally fallen apart after their long years of service, so I asked Arakawa Sensei to order me some new ones. At the same time, I thought I would invest in the Shiramizu Karate Team wear; I had wanted the jacket for quite a while!

So now, they’ve finally all arrived. The quality is great, and the jacket and pants are really warm. With all this Adidas equipment and clothing, you start to feel more professional about your karate, or at least a little bit sponsored- even if you’re not!

I’m also glad that I’ll finally not get any problems about my mitts in tournaments. Because of the helmets used in Japanese competitions, all mitts must have a thumb sleeve to keep the thumb in the glove (which doesn’t exist on the UK mitts- this was a major problem to some of the England Wadokai team at the World Cup and Nationals) to stop potential injuries. These will not be necessary when I go back to England, but at least then I can just tuck the sleeves in.

I do like getting new things though!

Ouch!

Peter here,

It seems that I was tempting fate with my blog entry about getting hit, for I was injured with a dislocated little toe on Friday 10th December and was told to rest for 5 weeks.

I was training with the junior high school high-performance class and pushing ourselves in jyu kumite (free sparring). The eldest kids and I were together and was sparring with Rikito (who was giving me the customary pasting he usually does) when I felt my little toe ache a little after a badly timed sweep. It was only when I looked down when we finished that I saw that my little toe was pointing sideways.

Arakawa Sensei told me to immediately get to the local hospital, which I did with Rikito showing me the way to go.

In Japan, hospitals (byooin, or 病院) can be very small as well as like the large buildings that exist in the UK. I suppose we call the smaller ones ‘health centres’, but the Japanese make little distinction between the two.

After confirming that it wasn’t broken (hurrah!), the doctor then tried to relocate the toe (ouch!), with no success. We were told to go to a larger hospital in Miyashiro for an X-Ray and a further attempt at relocation. Arakawa Sensei took me to the hospital the next morning, where two further very painful attempts were made to put the toe back, before admitting that I may need to go to an even bigger hospital in Shin-Shiraoka.

The news at that hospital wasn’t good. After a two-hour wait (and being wonderfully ferried about and tended to by Uchida-san, Yamazaki-sensei and Arakawa Sensei) I was told that I may need an operation to put the toe back, which would cost 130,000 yen! But when we returned to the Sugito hospital, the doctor there was very sceptical of the operation, thinking the doctor was a little ‘op happy’. Also, talking it through with Richard, we all agreed that we will wait and see for at least a few weeks before signing anything about an operation.

On the plus side, I have learned two new phrases: “Koyubi dakkyu shimashita”, which is “I dislocated my little toe”; the other is “shooganai”, or “it can’t be helped”.

So, every cloud, eh!

JKF National Tournament and Bonenkai

Peter Here,

The Winter chill settled into Tokyo on a bright Sunday 12th December morning, where Arakawa Sensei took his family and me to see the JFK Japanese Zenkoku Taikai (National Championships).

The JKF Tournament is a massive event (the finals of which is televised a week later), which is the climax of many prefecture, regional, company and university competitions, so to get here you must be really good.



Before setting out though, we first visited Masatoshi’s school, where there was an art fair and Masatoshi’s Karate Monkey had won a gold award, which we all marvelled at. Although this was a ‘best of school’ fair, it still amazes me just how good and advanced some kids can be in their field in comparison to back home, and we had a good look around the other displays before setting off to the Nippon Budokan to watch the tournament.



Richard and his international students were already there and quickly gave me a catch-up. Next was Kata, and Richard’s tournament game, which is to guess who wins each kata round before the judges raise their flags (with bonus bragging rights if you guess the correct amount of flags too). I joined in too, but as he has played the game much longer than I have Richard ran out comfortable winner.

Watching the amount of support (the audience, the recording crew, the support for the atheltes too) that the National competition has in Japan is really heart warming, and an inspiration to try and get even more support for the sport back home.

Sadly we could not watch the end of the competition because we had to get back to Kuki for the Shiramizu Bonenkai. As every Intern has written, a bonenkai is a large party to celebrate (or ‘forget’ as the name suggests) the passing of the year. This is done using a lot of speeches, food, and of course the natural amnesia aid, alcohol!



Everyone arrived in good spirits, and after settling down in their tiered positions (in such an event, seating positions are very important- with the most senior person right at the top of the banquet) we all ate and drank and listened to each other’s speeches. I had prepared one with the help Setsuko - one of my English Students - however in my ambition to make a good impression I think I made it far too long for the rapidly diminishing attention spans of the alcohol-fuelled revellers. Other people, such as Suzuki Sensei and Uchida-san, are amazing speakers and can really get everyone laughing.






The Bonenkai also had entertainment, firstly in the form of Bingo! Everyone was given a card, and a wealth of presents were available to select from. Naturally the first winners had the better pick. Gradually everyone had their numbers called, including me. What did I get? Some underpants that said ‘stinky’ and a lovely mask:



After this, Mikya performed on the guitar, singing in English as well. Very impressive! Then, a performing monkey came out and played keyboard, that monkey being me. I didn’t play very well, the nomi-hodai (all you can drink) starting to take it’s toll on my fingers a little, but people seemed to enjoy it enough. Perhaps that was because of the nomi-hodai too!





Although this was the last social event on the Shiramizu calendar, training continued right up until 23rd, with the customary 1000 punch drill.