6 June 2007

Jon Lovett

Part three

Thursday

Ah Ha! I've finally cracked the train tickets. The station you've visited is printed on the back with the amount left on the card. Money can be transferred between cards by putting one on top of the other. It's only taken me three visits to work this out.

Karate training this evening was taken by another black belt. Shihan Tatsuichi popped in at the beginning and asked him to train kihon. This was mostly done standing in a circle in either sanchin dachi or kibadachi and then running through a series of techniques with each person in the circle taking turns to count to ten. The technique is performed after the count, not on the count and each technique is accompanied by a shout of Sei! The kihon was interspersed with pad work, press-ups on the knuckles and sit ups. After the karate session I went downstairs to work on the bags and do five rounds with Reku-san.

While training on the bags, Shinobu, Shihan Tatsuichi's sister phoned. We are going to Izu for a seminar in the Ito dojo on Saturday, staying until Monday.

Kirsty arrives tomorrow, so no sooner has she got here than she'll be whisked off again to train with Kancho. After training I stood on the dojo stairs admiring the cherry blossom with Ice Ichiro, who also trains at Honbu. Ice speaks good English having worked in the Philippines as an irrigation engineer, and last year was presented to the Emperor for his work on introducing Japanese rice to the Philippines.

Friday

The weather is changeable. After a couple of warm days this morning is cold and pouring with rain. By late morning the rain has cleared and it is sunny and hot again. Kirsty's bus arrives at 13.15 at Tokorozawa so I go off to meet her, and met Tomoko at the station too. Kirsty has brought half the amount of luggage that I have…

Back at the dojo we practise kata. Kirsty is doing Seienchin for her nidan. In the evening I have the usual work out with Reku. In the night strong winds whistle around the dojo.

Saturday

Kirsty and I spend the morning studying the video of Seienchin performed by Shihan Tatsuichi. We go through it sequence by sequence, making notes and working out the moves. Kirsty points out that we make little noises to go with each move - bop, bop, bep, boh, bop.

We pop over to the supermarket for coffee and brunch - we get a pizza, a chocolate croissant, and a curry donut. A curry donut is exactly what it says it is, a sweet donut with a spicy curry filling. Shinobu phones, she will collect us at 9.30 pm to take us to Ito Dojo.

In the afternoon we practise kata, then train on the bags with Reku in the evening. Shinobu comes at 9.30 with her three children and we head for Ito, collecting her husband Makoto on the way. Makoto drives through the night, initially along the Tokyo expressways with views over the tall buildings and lights of the city. Then towards Odawara in heavy rain and high winds. We arrive at the dojo at 1.45 am. During the night there are high winds and it feels as if the dojo is going to take off.

Sunday

A glorious sunny, if windy, morning. Omuro Hill rises up behind the dojo and there are views to the hills beyond. The trees are just in bud break so we can see through them to the landscape beyond. We stretch on the dojo balcony in the sun, enjoying the view and fresh wind.

While we are waiting for the seminar to start, Kirsty, Makoto and myself clean the dojo. Kancho arrives. He has an injured foot from mountain training, which involved jumping rocks and climbing trees. He is using a walking stick which is an antique sword stick.

Around 12.00 the Shihans start to arrive. Kancho asks two of the Shihan to take Kirsty and myself into the dojo and run through kata with us. We go through the Pinans. They correct mistakes and any errors in the way we are doing the kata. Then Kirsty and I demonstrate Shikon no Kata for them. By this time the dojo is starting to fill up with Shihans stretching and warming up so we stop there.

The seminar starts at 1.00. We bow, pay our respects, cite the dojo kun then go for a run right round Omuro Hill. Some people are wearing running shoes, others are wearing dojo sandals. After the run we form a circle to stretch and run through kihon. The shihans make a fantastic kiai shout on each technique, which is almost continuous as the count nears ten. After the kihon Kancho says it is time for kumite.

Kirsty and I are lined up and we fight everyone in the dojo - 14 people - except Kancho, who is time-keeping with a drum and has an injured foot. Each bout lasts about a minute and there is only enough time to bow to each fresh opponent between bouts. Opponents include past champions Sato Kenichi and Ryuji Murakami.

Murakami winds me with a series of three punches to the solar plexus which start by grabbing my dogi to open my guard - something I am not prepared for. I can't watch Kirsty fight as I am too busy keeping an eye on my opponent, but there is a continuous sequence of shouts and kiais coming from Kirsty next to me.

After the kumite Kancho announces that Kirsty and I have passed our grading and shakes our hands. The rest of the seminar is spent going through three kata Gekisaidai, Gekisaisho and Jitsu. These three kata belong to the same family in the way that Sanchin and Tensho are related. Murakami demonstrates the kata for me, and as he does, he makes little noises for each move, beep, boh, bop, which shows that making funny noises when working out kata is international.

After the seminar we go to the Izu Hotel where the Shihans are holding a Shidokan business meeting, which we attend, quietly rubbing our bruises. After the meeting we have a short break to enjoy the lovely hotel rooms, which overlook the Izu coast, before the evening dinner. At the dinner there is a continuous flow of beer as everyone takes turns to carry pitchers of beer from table to table, topping up everyone's glass. I discover the trick is to take a few sips at a time so that a top up can be accepted without ending up completely legless.

The conversation turns to the kumite session. Murakami compliments me on taking his punches and then stands up, pulls off his Murakami-dojo tee-shirt and gives it to me. Another shihan who is a kick-boxing champion, takes off his tee-shirt and gives it to Kirsty. That night I find it hard to sleep and get up very early in the morning to watch the dawn break over a misty sea.

Monday

Kirsty and I limp up to the dojo to collect our bags and then walk down to the railway station through streets lined with flowering cherry trees. Groups of people are taking pictures of the blossom and there are stalls set up along the way to sell food and souvenirs. We take the train to Atami and from there pick up the Shinkansen to Shinagawa and then the Yamanote Line to Shinjuku. From there we walk up to the Seibu line for a train to Shin-Tokorozawa and back to Honbu Dojo in time for evening training. Heavy rain and cold in the night.

Tuesday

Tuesday evening is karate training and Shihan Tatsuichi takes the class. After kihon training he suggests that we do a session of kumite but Kirsty and I point out that we are rather bruised and would prefer kata training, so he goes through Seienchin kata with us.

Tatsuichi tells that Seienchin is his favourite kata and that it is like a tiger stalking in the jungle being teased by a monkey up a tree. There are three kiais, for the first and second kiais the tiger leaps but misses the monkey. On the third kiai however, the tiger pounces, catches the monkey and eats him. Tatsuichi tells us that we should develop our own style and spirit for each kata, even the kihon kata.

Wednesday

The cherry blossom is falling. The weather forecast is for clouds, but otherwise mild. We visit the sacred 600 m high Mt Takao with Tomoko. Tokyo city is east of Mt Takao and temples were positioned on the mountain to protect the city according to the Chinese principles of geomancy.

We start with a long walk up through the forest and then have lunch of noodles and quails eggs in the café on the peak. Then we visit the upper temple which has statues of two winged goblins, tengu, either side of the entrance. One has a long nose and fan, and the other a beak. The fan is to blow up magical winds.

The temple is very ornate in a Chinese style. On a stone slab next to the temple is the carving of another god - a jovial man sitting on bundles of rice stalks with a bark cloth over his shoulder and a magical hammer in his hand. He is Daikoku, the god in charge of the seven gods.

In the lower temple monks are chanting in front of a fire. People write prayers on pieces of wood and these are burnt in the fire. In another temple there is the sound of horns and drums. It is very cold and raining, thunder rumbles. We later find out that there was snow in Shinjuku. We hurry down the mountain on the main path, past stately trees bedecked with ropes and tassles.

After evening training at the dojo we watch K-1 kick boxing on television with Reku and Takahashi.

Thursday

At karate training Tatsuichi runs through Tensho kata with us. He explains that Tensho is purely defensive, there is no attack. In the kata there are 100 breaths, 70 big breaths and 30 smaller breaths at the end of ibuki breathing. The kata consists only of three steps forward and back in sanchin dachi, so can be performed on a single tatami mat. It is also very good for snow training when you are training in the snow wearing only a dogi.

Finally...

The weather warms up again by the weekend so Kirsty and I spend Sunday in Koku Koen Park. The park is full of people enjoying the sun and cherry blossom: children playing, a Tai Chi class, joggers, a lady playing a harmonica. After the weekend it is time to leave for England. Shihan Tatsuichi collects me from the dojo at 5.15 am to catch the 5.40 am bus from Tokorozawa back to Narita airport. He gives me my new belt and offers his congratulations. The bus is full and I'm lucky to get a seat.

On Wednesday I'm back in the York dojo and Steve presents the belt to me. New bruises continue to appear over the next week or so as memories of the kumite in Ito dojo. But it was worth it.

Part 1 : Part 2