Did some research in the morning and early afternoon. Watched a bit of TV as well and read The Japan Times. I have been following the news on TV (but am never too sure of the details as I can only understand the pictures) and it was great to be able to read about it then in the newspaper (in English of course).
Headed to the dojo for training at 4pm. It was raining pretty heavy so I brought an umbrella with me. Like last Saturday, Makita Sensei and Nagaki Sensei taught the lessons. Makita Sensei took the 4-5pm class. About 12 people training, mixture of adults and kids. We did lots of squats for the first 15 minutes and then practiced gyaku-zuki from zenkutsu-dachi… hamne – shomen… 30 on each side. For the last 10 counts we had to punch twice each time. We did yoko-geri keage and kekomi from zenkutsu-dachi… 10 on each side slowly broken down to the count and then 20 kicks each side (10 keage and 10 kekomi). When counting quick and doing so many repititions it is difficult to have full extension on the kekomi each time.. Need to work on this.
We did kihon up and down the dojo while facing a partner who was at a distance which was out of reach. So as one side stepped forward the other stepped back as if doing a mirror image. Makita Sensei was stressing the importance of snapping into zenkutsu-dachi and using the hiki-ashi as an impetus for this. It was more difficult to snap back into stance when kicking say.. kizami mawashi-geri and pulling the leg back as you step back and do kizami-zuki. Makita Sensei pointed out that I need to keep my elbow high in my preparation for soto-uke…I tend to keep my wrist higher as I bring my blocking hand behind my ear in preparation.
We practiced Jion in this class. In the initial double block I tend to bend my gedan-barai hand a little too much and Makita Sensei told me that I should keep it straighter. In the three movements before the final techniques where one brings the knee up, stamps down and strikes with the forearm.. Makita Sensei pointed out to the class that this striking hand should start from a vertical preparation.
We finished the class with gohon (5 step) kumite. This was fine although the floor was pretty slippery at this stage and it was difficult to move as quick as I would have liked.
Nagaki Sensei took the 5-6pm class. A couple of people left and a couple of others joined in fresh. We did a lot of exercises for the first ten minutes. Sprints up and down the dojo, quick feet movements between tubes, squat position running etc.. Thankfully the heaters were turned off! We practiced all the Heian kata as well as Jo-No Kata. I meant to mention this Jo-No kata earlier. It is a kata that I never practiced before. Pretty simple as it is a prerequisite to Heian Shodan. Very nice kata and incorporates oi-zuki, age-uke, soto-uke, gedan-barai, mae-geri, shuto-uke, zenkutsu-dachi, kokustsu-dachi and kiba-dachi. So it gives a great foundation for beginners. Nagaki Sensei allowed us to practice our tokui kata. Following on from Makita Sensei’s lesson I practiced Jion. We then did it three times in a row.. This was tiring enough!
We finished the class with some kumite. First of all just staying as relaxed as possible and trying to touch your partner and trying to get inside their guard. Nagaki Sensei then got us to put a mitt inside our obi in the front and we had to try and grab this from our partner. Nagaki Sensei got one of the students and myself to demonstrate and I ripped the mitt out from behind his belt first! This felt good… Oh the small pleasures! We did a few rotations with different partners and then changed the mitt to behind (at our back-side). We only did one rotation of this.. All good fun but with a specific purpose. In the changing room afterwards I could here the young kids talking about the gaijin (foreigner) while looking at me and something along the lines of how I was able to rip the mitt from the people I faced.
I really like this Saturday evening training with Makita Sensei and Nagaki Sensei. Makita Sensei appears to have a very humble side to him while his karate is exceptional and his eye for detail is amazing. It’s hard to describe Nagaki Sensei… Angelo and I were talking about this once and he reckons that Nagaki Sensei was born for karate… I have to agree. He has this positive, feel good factor about him and he appears to be in his element in the dojo… always smiling and also having an exceptional eye for detail.
Went to Jonathan’s for dinner, desert and the drinks bar after training. Tomorrow is Sunday. No training. Must start getting into a serious routine with my research again now that I feel settled in the dojo. I might go on a little adventure to Ginza which is a “rich” neighbourhood. Apparently Abercrombie and Fitch have a store there so this might be interesting… Would also like to have a look at the Japanese fashion as well.
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