Friday February 18th

Yesterday I noticed that there was a water leak in my apartment and it got progressively worse last night with the end result that I had to move to a different apartment bright and early this morning..  This wasn't a problem really and I like the new apartment... it's much brighter and a bit more spacious I think.  This building where the apartments are is pretty old... like a lot of buildings in Tokyo actually! But it's situated in a really nice neighbourhood and it only takes me 20 minutes for me to travel from the door of my to the dojo.

I only trained for one hour this evening.. This was for two reasons..  I want to get to bed earlier tonight as I'm having a little bit of trouble getting to sleep at night and I'm also going to train tomorrow for three hours.. 2 hours in the morning and 1 hour in the evening before Angelo and Michiko's wedding party which is on at 6pm.  That's the plan anyway.. I might be cutting it tight with the party if I train from 4-5pm.. We'll see!

Kanayama Sensei and Makita Sensei were in the dojo tonight.  Kanayama Sensei taught the 6-7pm class and there were only five of us training.  After a high tempo warm-up with Kanayama Sensei which involved a lot of bouncing and squatting, we did a quite a few kumite (fighting) based training drills..  Practicing timing when changing between stances.. gyaku-zuki, kizami zuki and also a couple of very nice techniques involving mae-geri... The main focus was on the timing elemnet and commiting to techniques.  We finished off the class with kata.. Jion and Gojushiho-Dai.. Kanayama Sensei and Makita Sensei took us individually in turns and they analysed their kata and gave us feedback... I felt good in myself doing the kata and Makita Sensei pointed out a couple of things to me in relation to expanding my preparation and execution of manji-kamai in Jion.  It was a very nice class and both Sensei's appeared in very good form... A bit of a "Friday Feeling" I think!

I just want to write a little bit on gaijin (foreigners) coming to the dojo.  Michiko (who I often write about) started training as a beginner at the Hombu Dojo when she started University in Tokyo.  I asked her once if she realised straight away how important the dojo she selected was.. She said that she quickly realised it when she saw foreign people travelling from all over the world to train there for a week or so at a time and how much they were in awe of the place and the instructors..  She also mentioned to me that when foreigners visit that it energises the regular members and motivates them to train harder.. A typical example is one of the kids in the dojo... I'm not sure of his name but he seems to train 3/4 days a week.. about 15 or 16 years old and his karate is excellent.. world kata champion in his category in Okinawa 2007... I was training with him tonight doing the kumite drills and just attacking oi-zuki while he was either doing a punching or kicking technique in defence...  Kanayama Sensei was keeping a close eye on the two of us and as I was feeling pretty good in myself with no excessive pools of sweat under my feet...! I constantly let fly into him with oi-zuki.. all with good control of course...  But he was not able to deal with the pace of my attack or the distance I was able to close him down in... Realising he was struggling somewhat Kanayama Sensei was encouraging him to lift his knee up higher and to commit to his counter attack on me etc..  He got a little bit better but it was obviously a good learning experience for him and I know from my observations of him within the dojo that he will be keen to improve after this experience.  So I think there is a mutual benefit for both gaijin (foreigners) and Japanese to train together in the Hombu Dojo... So it's probably a good thing to change the variables!

Every evening I make sure that I arrive at the dojo around 30 mins before training.  I do this for two reasons.. I don't want to be late and I like observing the different Sensei's as they teach the 5-6pm kids classes..  These observations that I make while I'm stretching while waiting for the 6pm class and the observations I make of the differerent instructors while I'm training really fascinate me.  Okay I'm in awe of the instructors technical ability but then again I can say the same about Scott Sensei and Alan Sensei back home..  However, there is something beyond this that makes everything click and I think that all of the instructors in the Hombu Dojo possess this and that Scott Sensei and Alan Sensei possess the same thing also..  I'm not sure what that is but I know it goes a lot deeper than technical ability and knowledge...I think it takes a certain type of person to "fit in" within the JKS...  Identifying these characteristics will be one of my objectives over the next few weeks... I'm going to analsyse all the Sensei's in the dojo and I'll integrate my experiences with Scott Sensei and Alan Sensei into it as well and we'll see what I come up with..  I'll write about Kanayama Sensei on a couple of occasions next week and hopefully I'll get through all the Sensei's before I head home and we'll see what "trends" I come up with..  Actually that reminds me that I should be looking at "trends" in my PhD thesis at the moment as well... That will be done too :)