STUDENT COMMUNICATION:

Foot Care: I’d like to mention foot care for you or your kids. Karate is generally practiced barefoot, which is fantastic for our feet. They are confined in shoes most of the time, so the myriad of pressure points on our feet are seldom activated for good health. Ashiatsu is a Japanese word that literally translates to ‘foot pressure’ and has been around for millennia to activate the corresponding points on the bottom of the feet. These points can reduce chronic pain and improve overall flexibility, among other benefits. However, we train in a public space, which does not get the same attention to floor cleaning as a true karate dojo would. Lots of people use our training space for other classes and activities, mostly done while wearing shoes. Therefore, foot care is very important. We recommend that all students or parents carry sanitary wipes for cleaning the bottom of your feet after class. Always wash your feet well when you get home using soap and a washcloth or scrub brush. Not only does it make your feet feel great, but you’ll also sleep better. It will keep staph or fungus at bay. I use a foot cream I buy on Amazon that was recommended by my Podiatrist and keeps the feet in excellent shape – especially since we live in Albuquerque -- arguably the Dryness Capitol of the USA! A photo of this cream is also attached. The point I’m making is that, as karateka, our feet deserve extra care and attention. Attendance: All I will mention is that we only meet twice weekly, so to improve and keep up, attendance is very important. Practice outside of class is beneficial, but class time is important for getting the lessons. You will be amazed at how quickly you or your kids will progress if they regularly come to class. I thank all you parents for your dedication to getting them here.

NEW BEGINNINGS - DEJA VU IN ALBUQUERQUE NM

 It has been a little over a year since we relocated back to New Mexico. It has taken a while to get settled in and for me to start my new job as a Construction Observer for RESPEC Community Design Solutions -- Civil Engineers. We've been training in our home dojo, but need a larger space to reach out and open up for new students. Finally, that has happened.

Thank you to Marc Lewis, Chief Operating Officer of the YMCA of Central New Mexico for offering us a chance to build our club at The McLeod Family YMCA, located at 12500 Comanche Rd.NE - Albuquerque NM 87111. 

As many of you know, we had a dojo for years in the 1990's at Lomas and Carlisle and when we moved back to Austin TX we restarted at The Southwest YMCA and it was a wonderful win-win experience. I served on the Southwest Y Board of Directors and have been a big proponent of the YMCA's mission ever since. So in many ways this is a sort of Deja Vu and full circle.

We are also proponents of the values of traditional Japanese/Okinawan karate-do. Over decades Theresa and I have worked with so many students -- men and women, children and adults, and we know firsthand the benefits imparted to our students. They grow in confidence, in their ability to project, in their physical health and the grace of their movements. Our kids grow in overall fitness, in learning to work to achieve goals, in their ability to stand tall in their values and to not be bullied nor to be bullies.

We know Albuquerque will benefit from our work through the Y. If you aren't part of the solution to a better society, you are part of the problem. My hope is that you and your kids will check us out and get as much from your karate training as we have.

We begin classes at the McLeod Family YMCA on Tuesday, April 9th, right after the Albuquerque Public Schools Spring Break. We have a Meet the Instructors event on Saturday, March 23rd from Noon to 1:30 where you can get information on our dojo and our style and can discuss your training needs. I hope to see you there.

Yours in the Martial Arts,

Jim Pounds, 7th Dan

Theresa Herrera-Pounds, 5th Dan

SEIWAKAI PRESIDENT NO LONGER

 I have recently resigned as the President of the USA SEIWAKAI KARATE ORGANIZATION, our sport non-profit governing body.  I have served almost 4 years in that capacity and felt it was time to pass the torch so I can concentrate more time on my own dojo and my real estate business. 

I think the most importatant thing I have accomplished in addition to providing leadership was to have shepherded the 510(c)3 structure into existence. This structure will allow businesses and individuals to donate funds to support traditional karatedo in the United States and receive a tax deduction for doing so. 

It will also make it easier for USA Seiwakai to seamlessly move into the future with a solid Board of Directors and a perpetuity not typically found in most karate organizations. As many of our senior people age, we have sought to put together an organization that is dynamic and welcoming of new leaders and new energy from within our ranks. Fresh ideas and new energy!

Too often, karate organizations are headed by one founder or head instructor, which works well until that person retires or passes away. Because there was no clear path of succession, the organization typically splinters into multiple new groups, falters, or ceases to be. We wanted to avoid that and to empower members, while still acknowledging and respecting that Seiwakai International is headed by Seiichi Fujiwara Hanshi.

CHOP WOOD CARRY WATER: JAPAN IN 2022?

It has been too long since we have made it to Japan for summer training, and many of us are getting nostalgic because the training is so amazingly hot and hard, but also because the country is so welcoming.

But...Covid-19 is still around and the Japanese have been very protective of their own population by limiting who they allow into the country. Currently, other than Japanese citizens, only fully vaccinated foreign students studying there and business travelers are allowed in. There is speculation that these restrictions may ease after the national elections in July, but we are training there during previous national elections, because the Omagari Daisen city uses the Budokan (Martial Training Hall) as a polling location and we get bumped to other locations for several days.

We are currently trying to solve this situation by applying as business travelers, since that is what we are. We travel to Japan to train and learn so we can take what we learn back to our own country to our students. As members of both the Japan Karate Federation Goju-Kai and also Seiwakai International, we are in fact branches of Japanese business and the cultural art of Karate-do. Our businesses support their businesses, and vice-versa. 

Stay tuned. We hope to have good news about this soon. We are acting proactively because July will be here in no time. 

Meanwhile, we will continue to train hard -- chop wood, carry water.

DAY 6. IT'S OVER. . .?

July 23rd, and we're back in Omagari. The funny thing about this kind of training is that on the first day or two you sometimes wonder how you're going to make it through an entire week of heat, sweat, blistered feet, and spent bodies. Then a miraculous transformation occurs, invariably without you knowing it, and by the end of the week you're feeling strong and confident and actually feeling sad that this is the last day for another year.

Quite a few will be going on to Sasebo to the JKF Gojukai seminar, shinsa (grading), and the All-Japan Goju-Ryu Championships. But many won't and I'm sure they always feel like they're leaving prematurely. The last day always seems to enhance the feeling of camaraderie that has been building between all of us through the sweat, the fun, the beers. The last day is also the day of the Seiwakai shinsa and a fast and furious day of review, a microcosm of all we've been focused on during this year's training.

Canada, USA, Australia, S.Africa, USA, India

I won't give a blow-by-blow of the training day, because the pattern has held pretty true all week.  It was plenty hot, I'll say that. We ended near 3:00 pm because there were 29 karateka scheduled to grade, but of course, before we bowed out, we started at Sanchin kata and worked the entire Goju-Ryu kata syllabus through Suparinpei. Always when you think it is finished, it isn't! We were pretty soaked by then. See the above photo!

I was on the grading panel, all of us 7th dan except Vassie Naidoo Sensei and Seiichi Fujiwara Hanshi, who are 8th dans.  The 29 candidates were grading from 1st to 8th dan, so we observed all levels of experience and most were very impressive. In the lower yudansha ranks, some who were not as impressive in kata, were very impressive in kumite, or vice-versa. Of all of them, my unscientific observation was that the 5th and 6th dan candidates were most impressive, but the shodans were the happiest by far.  It pleases me to know there is an entire new guard of karateka who are moving up the Seiwakai ladder and who will no doubt assume future leadership roles. Kudos to their instructors! I know we are in good hands in the future.

And congratulations to all of you who passed!

Then it was back to the ryokan to soak our aching bodies in the sento bath and enjoy another fine dinner. There was a wee bit of toasting to Fujiwara Hanshi and our Seiwakai family. Some were leaving early tomorrow morning to all points of the globe, or heading for Sasebo. The professionals among us decided it was a good night for one last get-together downtown. Tomorrow is a travel day, which means you can sleep on the train or plane.

HOT, clear sento water

Kampai, Vassie Sensei!

Jay and me

Last night! And that's a wrap!

TRAINING DAYS 4 AND 5

On Sunday, the 21st, we resumed our training in Jinguji, a quaint but growing town one train stop from Omagari on the local train. The civic center where we trained the first three days is being readied to be a polling place for local elections tomorrow, so we'll train here. I remember training here a few summers back, and the area has grown since then.

We all took the local train at 0940 and arrived Jinguji six minutes later. From Jinguji Station, it is a twenty-minute walk to the large gym in which we will be training.  The walk is beautiful -- first past rural homes and well-tended gardens, then alongside taro and rice fields. We saw numerous eagles hunting in the rice fields.

The gym is part of a large recreational complex with tennis courts, indoor pools, a school, and even an onsen (natural spring water baths). We were advised to pack our lunches as there is not any store close by. On day 5, I would discover there is a small restaurant at the onsen complex, that was very good. The onsen also had a number of excellent massage chairs and flat tables that, for 100 yen (approx. $ .95 US) would give you an amazing mechanical massage for about fifteen minutes!

This gym was actually better than the civic center gym in Omagari.  The floor is kinder on the feet, and the gym has excellent cross-ventilation because it is surrounded by fields rather than other buildings.

Both days, we began with walking, then stretching, and into moving basics until we were warmed up. From there, the morning session was spent on Sanchin, Tensho, kihonkata (the Gekkisai katas and Saifa), and Seiunchin. Then lunch break.

On Day 4, I ate the sandwich I brought from the Family Mart and sat outside with friends, thankful for the breeze and the beautiful vistas across the rice paddies toward the mountains beyond.  Akita-ken has some beautiful vistas, and this was no exception.

View from the training gym.

After eating, I worked on massaging my left calf and my hip, which, because of a pinched nerve in my back, have been lighting me up for the past three months. It has been a bit of a balancing act trying to keep the pain on a manageable level by stretching and massage. Good thing I have a high pain tolerance level -- the result of many years of karate, distance running, and construction. Nonetheless, I can feel age starting to exact a toll on me. The reward is that I don't see many people my age capable of doing this. For that I am thankful.

 My new vibrating roller!

On Day 5, after I ate my sandwich lunch, Glenn Stephenson Shihan, the head of Seiwakai Australia and a long-time friend, asked if I wanted to go to the onsen cafe and get a coffee. That's when I discovered (too late) that I could have had tempura or curry or ramen instead of my Family Mart sandwich. Grrrr... But the coffee was good. Then we found the massage chairs and that was like heaven for my tired and aching body. I think I need one of those chairs for my living room!

Both afternoons, we started back with Sanseiru and went through Seipai as a group, with periods of bunkai oyo (applications of sections of the kata), which were a nice break. Glenn Stephenson was my partner. What I love about Goju-Ryu kata is that everything in them is usable in combat and effective! This is not sport karate.

Bunkai practice.
Thanks to Richard Hang Hong Sensei for some of these shots.

Shihan Fujiwara shared with us his standardized training regimen for kyu ranks and asked us to record them (not for public use) so we could begin to assimilate the progression into our regimen when we returned to our home dojos. Two of his students demonstrated the syllabus. Good stuff, which I've already started to incorporate.

We were also fortunate that Fujiwara Shihan had Kazuhisa Saito Sensei demonstrate each kata before we worked on them. Saito is one of Sensei's senior students and a remarkable kata performer. I watch his kata and think, "well mine looks kind of like that..."

The final hour and a half, we were separated into groups based upon our next grading kata. Since I am still ranked Godan (5th dan) in the JKF Gojukai, although Nanadan (7th dan) in Seiwakai, Fujiwara Shihan sent me to work on Seisan kata -- the grading kata for Rokudan (6th dan) and my old nemesis. There are some one-leg balance points necessary for the kensetsu geri kicks that, due to past knee issues and my current hip and back issue, give me hell. I am either right on or far off on my balance, with no consistency. It is maddening.

This year, Fujiwara Sensei had Rod Martin from Australia, teach the Seisan group. I've known Rod for a long time, but this was the first time I had the opportunity to have him instruct me. Rod is a healing arts professional and I was very pleased that his instructional style is more from an internal rather than an external approach and perspective. Much of his instruction focused on aspects of internal application and I have to say, it really resonated with me, and immediately gave me a new perspective. Really remarkable how you can be doing something for so many years and then someone with a little different focus, approach, and vantage point can switch your light bulb on. Not to mention he was tasked with the thankless position of trying to teach a group of primadona yudansha who already think they are doing it right! Good job, Rod Sensei!

After the train ride back to Omagari and walk to the ryokan, it was time for a bath, a beer, dinner, and laundry. You can always count of an entertaining time at the laundromat with such an interesting and diverse international crowd as we have in Seiwakai.

The wonderful Seiwakai laundromat crowd. 

REST DAY -- AH!

We receive a rest day on the fourth day of training, and believe me, you're ready for it!

There is a caveat, however...if you're grading, you may be assigned for extra morning training in the Honbu Dojo, next door to Sensei's ryokan. Or, typically, there is a trip to the nearby mountains to do waterfall training, a practice developed by Gogen Yamaguchi to eliminate distractions by outside influences. The idea is to meditate beneath a tall waterfall -- the colder, the better -- until one is impervious to the distraction and discomfort of icy water beating down on your head and shoulders. Rather like shimae (body testing) by water. In a good snow melt year, it is fun, but downright brutal. Not to mention you are trying to maintain balance in a jumbled pool of boulders beneath the falls.

Scenes from a waterfall training in Akita.

This year I opted out of the Waterfall training in order to really try to rest my back and feet.

The group that went reported the falls were pretty gentle this year.
I washed my gis and napped a little, because our annual Seiwakai banquet and party is the evening of rest day. I've always felt we might be better served if we held the party the night before rest day, so we would actually have a day to recuperate from drinking. If you've ever been to a Japanese karate celebration, you'll know what I mean.

The party is a great way to let your hair down and socialize with your fellow karateka from around the world. The food is terrific and the sake and beer flow freely. True to his word, Takahashi Sensei was there -- out of the hospital, and flashing that great smile of his. The most fun is possibly the karaoke the last hour of the event.

Afterward, there are a number of after-parties at The Old Friends Club, The Bowling Alley, or The Riverside Club.

 Fujiwara Sensei

 What a great couple!

 Let's hear it for karaoke!!!

Pal Gila (Hungary), Craig Vokey (Canada), and me

GROUNDHOG DAY - TEXAS TO JAPAN

Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day?  Egocentric weatherman, Bill Murray, is sent to cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA only to find himself living the same day over and over again. That's pretty much how the two-day sojourn from Johnson City, Texas to Omagari, Japan felt. Trains, planes, and automobiles . . . Southwest, American, and JAL.  All flights were good, just long!

Haneda International Airport - Tokyo

I traveled from Santa Monica with my Sensei and dear friend, Vassie Naidoo, who is one of two Vice-Presidents, along with Satoru Takahashi, of Seiwakai International. He asked me to teach his Thursday night class at USA Honbu, which is always an honor. His students are always open to new instruction and we had a great class.

I focused the teaching mainly on the more circular and flowing JU aspects of Goju-Ryu, since these karateka are mainly big strong fighters who can smash you with only the harder, more linear GO side of our art. In my belief, it is the blending of Go and Ju that truly makes our karatedo both effective and beautiful. I was very happy to be asked to teach. Afterward, we had dinner and drinks at the Mediterranean Grill on Pico Blvd., and of course I stayed up too late before a long travel date.

This morning I am in my tiny room at the Ohara Ryokan, enjoying the quiet of this Sunday morning, happy that training does not start for a couple of days so I can get acclimated and lose the jet lag. Shihan Fujiwara's family owns and runs this ryokan, which is most well-known for the amazing food and I always feel like it's a homecoming to be here again. Sunday is the Fujiwara family rest day, so no meals will be served.

The only furniture in my room is one low-slung wooden table and a couple of cushions on the tatami. This table becomes my office work space, writing desk, snack space, conference room, and general clutter-catcher over the course of my time here. I like that the tiny room makes me so much more aware of space usage and storage, and the importance of finding, and keeping my belongings in order. I have a single futon on the floor with one small pillow, but it's my home for the next 11 days, and I like that it transports me out of my usual reality. The Ohara is a favorite of many working men who are on assignment to jobs in Omagari, good hard-working truckers and tradesmen, many of whom are smokers, so I leave the room window open the first couple of days to air out the residual cigarette smell.

Ohara Ryokan is so much better than I am probably making it sound. They have delightful sento baths for both men and women, and the food is absolutely to die for. There's a grocery store just across the street and a Family Mart (similar to Lawson's or 7-11's) where you can find espressos and snacks of all kinds. I don't have any yen on me so I went to the ATM machine at Lawson's, which declined both my debit and credit card,despite the fact I notified my bank of my travel dates. Grrrrr...
I managed to rustle up some Nescafe in the kitchen and begged some cream and sugar packets from the Family Mart, so I am caffeine fortified -- a necessity after 4 hours sleep last night.  It gets light at 4 am and only rice paper window covers, so that's when you wake up. My days and nights are now reversed and that takes time to adjust.

Omagari, Daisen in Akita Prefecture is in the wild and mountainous Tohoku region of northern Honshu (the largest of the islands that make up Japan.)  It is a land of cold winters and warm people 
and has a reputation for having the best rice, and therefore the best sake in Japan , and also has a reputation for having the most beautiful women. All of us in Seiwakai count ourselves lucky that our Honbu Dojo is far off the tourist track and we get to experience Japan without all the bling. This is country where the winter snow is as deep as the roof eaves and the inhabitants are strong and uncomplaining. Like Texans, there is a certain pride in being from this region of high mountain passes, deep lakes, and fertile valley farms. The people are survivors and take pride in that fact.

Last night, Vassie Sensei and I arrived Akita from Tokyo Haneda Airport around 8:00 pm and were met by Fujiwara Shihan who was accompanied by Paul Penasse Sensei, our dear friend from Belgium, which was a nice surprise. An even nicer surprise was when we arrived at the ryokan and Shihan told us to leave our bags in the lobby, that we were going to have dinner at his daughter Mariko's new restaurant.  From the photos, you can see what a delightful gastronomical experience that was. The dinner was a treat from Fujiwara Shihan, along with some of that famously delectable Akita sake. If Mariko had her restaurant in Austin, Texas, I guarantee she would be a millionaire within two years! We were also joined for dinner by Rob Crawford Sensei from South Africa. Thank you Shihan!  Thank you, Mariko!

Oh, Yum!!!

Mariko-san

Today we will be taking it easy and get our bodies on Japan time.  I am about to ask Shihan if I can use the dojo to do my yoga and stretching this morning, and later we are going to observe his students who are training for the All Japan Goju-Ryu competition in Nagasaki in two weeks. I'm always amazed at the perseverance and quality of Shihan's youth in particular.  I learn so much from them despite 47 years of karate.

Glad to be here!

JAPAN TRAINING 2015 -- August 3 -- LAST DAY

August 3, 2015.  1800 Japan time
Japan Airlines 60.  Osaka Kansai to LAX

I’ve had a wonderful visit to Tokushima to visit Masumi and Dave Cooper and the Toyosaki family. They were awesome hosts and Masumi’s father, Masao, would not let me pay for a single thing – from my hotel to the express bus to Kansai this morning.  He said it was because Terri and I took such good care of Masumi when she came to visit us in Texas about ten years ago, but I suspect he would have done that anyhow.

Yesterday we went shopping at the new mall on their side of the Yoshino River from Tokushima City. Since it is new and since it is hot as hell right now, the mall was packed, and my true feeling is that if you’ve seen one mall, you’ve  seen most malls and this was no exception.  I found a couple of very cool shirts for Jacob and a summery shirt and breezy trouser set for myself, and then we ate in the food court with the kids.  After we dropped Masumi and the Kids off, Dave and I went for a massage.  Male masseuses work on males and female masseuses on women.  You are fully clothed in a little Jack LaLane style jumpsuit.  No oils.  My guy was very good however and after two weeks of travel and karate, he had me asleep on the table after about twenty minutes.

Dave dropped me off at the hotel while he went to catch up with his Awa Adori dance group at a Shinto shrine where they would perform later.  Masumi and family picked me up later and we also went to the shrine.  Got there right at dusk and the orange full moon was rising over the massive tori gate entrance. The walkway was lined with glowing lanterns on both sides and I had a feeling something magical was about to happen.

The Awa dance dates back to the 1500’s when Tokushima prefecture was known as Awa and was the fief of a Samurai daimyo.  The dance is very tribal and seems a little like a mating ritual, with the women in their geta and kimonos, very fluid and supple as sea grass, and the men in jembei and colorful headbands and tabis, dancing around the women like dervishes.  The drums are pounding, shamisens and wood flutes droning on, and bells ring constantly.  Like reggae, it is almost impossible not to start moving your body with the beat.  The saying for the Awa Adori matsuri is “You’re a fool if you dance and a fool if you don’t, so you might as well dance.” The dancing lasted about an hour and then there were sparklers for the children.  Afterwards, Dave and I took the other car to the local onsen baths and had a most wonderful soak.  Then a light meal and some good conversation before he dropped me off.

Today Masumi, Dave, and the kids came to my hotel and we walked to the JR station together to have a light brunch at Starbucks and some last minute shopping.  I was terrified that I was not going to find the items Terri had given me for her “shopping list” but at the stores around the station, I scored big time and found everything she had requested.  She likes the small, interesting items like coin purses.  Tokushima is famous for its indigo blue dye and I was able to find the items in that beautiful deep blue with almost tie-dyed patterns.  Very exquisite.  Then we had to say our goodbyes and I boarded the express bus for Kansai, while Dave and Masumi had plans to head for the Oboke Gorge to visit their whitewater rafting pals.  Both of them used to be river guides.  They were such great hosts and are dear friends indeed.

All over Japan I am impressed with their civil and structural engineering fetes, mainly the way they have managed to build amazing roads, tunnels, and railways throughout this mountainous nation. Today, however, I was awed by the entire area around Kobe and Osaka.  The area is one huge network of ports and bridges that almost defy imagination.  Wow!  Kansai airport itself was created as an island by using cofferdams, pumping the ocean out, and bringing fill in.  Then it was connected to the mainland by a bridge that must be four miles long and allows shipping passage beneath it.  This is one amazing country and a very ambitious people.

In another eight hours, God willing, I’ll be in Los Angeles.  I always suffer a reverse culture shock upon arrival after the  politeness and orderly manner of Japan.  But it’s my country and I miss it.  I mainly miss Terri and Jacob.  It seems a long time since July 18 when I departed on this journey.  Thank you, love, for supporting my need to go.  Thank you to my senior students who took the dojo classes for me while I was away.  Thank you Dave and Masumi, and also the Aussies who always adopt me.  Thank you to Shihan Fujiwara and his wife and family for being so hospitable at their ryokan, and for him being my teacher.  Shihan, you are the best of the best.  We all know it.  I hope you do also.  I think other ryuha thought Seiwakai would be diminished after Tasaki Hanshi passed, but we have in fact grown and are getting better.  That makes me happy and proud of our legacy that I try to instill in my own students.

Now it is back to our lives.  Being able to attend a gasshuku such as ours is like entering a monastery. We live and breathe Karatedo and don’t even think about news or politics or the mundane things that typically fill up our existence.  We get to do ONE thing and do it to the best of our ability.  And when it’s over we’ve  grown in ways we don’t even know and have hopefully changed in positive, subtle ways.  I know I have.

So, from somewhere over the Pacific, I’m signing off for now.  Thanks for coming along on this journey, whether actually or vicariously.  I hope you’ve grown some too.

JAPAN TRAINING 2015 - August 1st, Day ?

August 1, 2015.   1006
Between Kokura and Okayama
En route to Tokushima, Shikoku

I left behind my many karate friends at 0800 to catch my trains.  The people you come to know through this strange and exclusive international organization is what keeps me involved.  I’ve met people of so many countries and occupations through Goju-Ryu Karatedo it is unbelievable, and I don’t see how our paths could have crossed any other way.  Some are merely acquaintances, but many become like brothers and sisters – family – whom even if you don’t cross paths for a few years, when you do, you take up right where you left off and are genuinely joyful to be together again.  And they are trustworthy, honest, and loyal, always willing to go the extra mile and watch your back in any country or situation.  In a word, it is wonderful.  So it was with genuine sorrow to say goodbye.  I almost teared  up when I said goodbye to Fujiwara Shihan because I like him so much and he always brings out the best in us and is an amazing host.

I’m heading to Tokushima to visit my dear friend Masumi Toyosaki Cooper, who I first met in 2004 on a whitewater rafting trip on the Yoshino River after my first Japan training.  Masumi spoke very good English and wanted a native speaker to talk to.  I now know her family, who are now my family too, and her husband Dave, who was a rafting guide from Australia, living in Japan.  They now have three children and live in Brisbane, but are here visiting her family, so I finally get to see their beautiful children.  Tokushima is a gorgeous city on the Pacific side of Shikoku, just across a straight of water from Osaka.  It is the home of one of the biggest matsuri festivals in Japan, the Awa Adori Matsuri, which draws over a million people to dance in the streets and have a great time.  It is the Japanese equivalent of Mardi Gras Festival, and like the Mardi Gras crews, the various Awa Adori dance troops will be practicing in the evenings while I am there.  When you walk along the river downtown, the big drums are slamming out a heartbeat rhythm, and everywhere are dance troops practicing.  Masumi and Dave are both dancers and I think Dave is quite famous as one of the few gaijin who can do it.  Not to mention he’s about 6’3” tall with a shaved head!  Very recognizable amongst the dancers.

My first two trains had no reserved seats left, so I’m using the unreserved cars, which is quite fun and like a land rush to get on, because there are always some folks left standing, kind of like a game of musical chairs.  And there is absolutely no chivalry.  You snooze you lose... and nobody offers a woman a seat.  I dropped my hand bag and already broke a real good bottle of sake (second time in that soft bag.  First time 2006) so my bag reeks of sake and people probably figure I’ve been on a drunk.  Oh well.  Good times!

My body has reached its absolute physical limits from the travel, time changes, different diet, gallons of sweat, and nine straight days of karate in a soaking wet gi.  I really don’t even care to put one on for a few weeks, because I am so sore and exhausted.  The training has been very good and very technical, but I really don’t know how many more times I can do this.  But I always say that, don’t I?

I found out this morning that I did not pass my Rokudan grading.  I thought I did a good job and had a better chance as there were only 13 grading this year (5 passed) as compared to 18 (3 passed) when I graded two years ago.  You never know what the grading panel is looking for and the standards are quite high at this level.  I know I am fighting the battle of age also.  In fact I was surprised to find I was the oldest one grading for Rokudan, which explains why I was number 13 out of 13.

The grading was held in a smaller Kendo room off the main area of the Beppu Budokan and it was so hot, instead of all of us going in at once, they brought us in in three groups of 3,5, and 5.  I was in the last group, which was apparently the eldest of the group.  That’s a good thing really, because you don’t really want to come right after a guys who is 48 or 50 and can stick a kansetsu Geri like a locomotive.  The older guys try to be a little more precise about timing and Kime (focus points) because they have lost some power.  Vassie Naidoo and I were speculating there are probably not many guys in their 60’s who can do what we do.  The grading panel is 6 stone-faced 8th dans, with 3 more observing from the side.  It is a bit intimidating.

I’m of course disappointed, and maybe more disappointed for Fujiwara Shihan and Seiwakai, but I have to look at it like the Japanese do.  For them, it is all about the doing, and failure is a part of the game.  They do not look at failure quite like we do in the west.  To have been there and made the effort is paramount on the path to perfection.  You won’t achieve perfection, but you keep striving.  There are many senior Japanese Sensei who have failed these grading numerous time and they seem totally unfazed and undeterred.  It is an honor to have been qualified to try.

My new friend, Sanny Yap Sensei, from Singapore helped me reframe it yesterday, even before I knew the results.  Sanny asked me how I felt about the  grading and I replied, “I think I did pretty well.”
He said, “No…how do you feel?”
I said that I felt good and he replied, “then hold on to that feeling because that is all you can control.  You never know how they see you and what they see.”
That was good advice.  I feel good about it all.

Vassie Naidoo, Desmond Tuck, John Dean, and I  went out to a Korean barbecue place last night with Jamie Duggan’s group from Brisbane.  This bunch of crazy Aussies are my adopted crew and they are so much fun.  Tough, funny, loud, and really strong karateka.  Definitely crazy as Texans.  Probably more so..  And they live life for today, so every experience is good and life is for living in the moment.  It was a great time and more than a little alcohol was consumed now that the pressure was off.  I can’t wait to see this bunch again.

Almost to Tokushima now.  I need a massage!!!  Over and out.