Thursday March 10th

No matter how good or confident I feel in myself before going to the Hombu Dojo, an anxious or nervous feeling always comes over me.  This is one of the things that makes training in Japan such a challenge.  I'm sure most other people in the dojo experience this feeling as well and that is probably one of the main reasons why it is such a special place to train and develop.  Today I had the same anxious feelings about going to the dojo but I was also pretty anxious and a good bit stressed over completing the next draft of my PhD thesis.  Something had to give and unfortunately it was my karate again today.  Sorry to all my followers!

"When you aim for perfection you discover it's a moving target"...  This is a phrase that I often think about.  I was thinking to myself today about "expertise"... Expertise in karate... expertise in acedemia...  These are probably the two main challenges that I am currently faced with in my life.  Can I become an "expert" in both?  Well... when I hopefully graduate with my PhD it will mean that I will have become the leading expert in the world in one particular element of technology education...  I will only remain as that leading expert until somebody else comes along and adds to the body of knowledge that I have developed...  Then again, I may choose to commit myself to researching within that area of education for a few years and remain at the pinnacle...  There are lots of decisions to be made in the months ahead!

For me "expertise" in karate is different...  I am not interested in becoming the next Kagawa Sensei or Yamaguchi Sensei...  For me, this is totally impossible... but it is important to make small steps towards the standards set by these people.  I want to be as good as I possibly can be at karate.  This is the main reason why I came to Japan after all!  But I need to prioritise and find a balance as well... Afterall I have the opportunity of becoming the best person in the world in one small area of education within the next few months!  Deadline is this Sunday!  So please stick with me and I can assure you that there will be loads and loads of more posts to come about my experiences in the dojo for the last few weeks of my stay here in Japan!

I know Kagawa Sensei left Japan this morning to teach at the JKS GB and Ireland technical course in Nottingham.  Best of luck to Alan Sensei and Scott Sensei in running the course and I hope everybody enjoys the training which I'm sure will be brilliant and inspiring as usual.  Oss!