Japanton – Chronicles of Anton in Japan!

I spent family day long weekend in Calgary, hanging out with the club there. It was a lot of fun, everyone is improving very quickly and are trying to give the training a feeling of reality. Working with them makes me realize the journey that we have taken together. It also make me realize that I will have to train even harder to keep up with their skill level.

This trip also reminded me of the importance of sanshin and the kihon happo. For the majority of techniques it is good enough to understand them on one side, because if you can do one side then you understand the concept for both sides. Also I have had various shihan tell me that it is better to learn one side so that you can practice it rather than half know both sides and have nothing worthwhile to practice at home. The exception to this I believe is sanshin and the kihon happo. It is important to have these fundamental movements integrated in your body. Since all the other techniques are based on these ones then you need to thoroughly understand the movement on both sides of your body. Once your body understands the kihon with control and without hesitation on both sides, the techniques become both attainable and unnecessary.

Oh, and before anyone gets mad at me make no mistake, I am not there yet.

First if you guys could let me know what a good date for a Doug Wilson seminar would be. So far as far as seminars go there is Rob Renner in Calgary (April), Lubos P. in Edmonton (September) and Doug Wilson in Edmonton (?).

Also an update on Tickets to Japan, so far the best price that I have found is $985. I hope to do better so I will keep everyone informed.

Lastly I have the new domain www.edmonton-bujinkan.com to which I will move the club site. I am still trying to sort out the hosting details but I will let you know when the transfer happens. I would like to attract a few more people to the club. I don’t see any harm in having a large club filled with like minded people who are interested in Martial arts as opposed to sports.

Just hammering out the final details of the May Japan trip. As you all know (well not all of you but I will say it anyhow), every year since 2004 I have gone to Japan to train the martial arts. Last year I managed to make it twice. This said, I am trying to organize a group trip. This will involve group rates for travel (I hope) and co-ordinates places to stay. If you are interested let me know and I will put you on the list. Usually you would plan to travel from 17-19 days and spend $4000 (as a safe estimate). It is difficult training that much and getting used to the culture for some. If you are coming and are trying to practice your Japanese, I do have resources to help. Let me know and I will get you what you need. From now until May I don’t expect anyone to be able to master the Japanese language, but ordering food and asking for directions are very important skills to have.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a Safe and Happy New year. I look forward to training with everyone in 2008.

There has been a lot of talk about the human weapon episode with ninjutsu. Mainly why did Doug Wilson grapple with a grappler? Well I will point out 2 things.

1. Doug was having fun

2. Did you see the shuriken on the ground after the altercation?

Doug was fooling around because if I know him he wanted to test himself. For example if the Judoka that was on the Human weapon really wanted to test himself and see how good a jujitsu player is, after he was up he could have taken the fight to the ground and see how he did. Doug did that, he won but he still closed the distance and the Human Weapon host got a win. No big deal it was a learning experience right?

Second, while Doug was grappling I think he pulled out two leather shuriken (throwing starts). They were on the ground after the exchange was over. I think they were pulled on purpose not because he dropped them. With the camera angle I can’t see it for sure but I am fairly sure that’s what happened. That was my opinion of the show, since I was asked.

So it is time for me to put on a seminar.  I should say it’s about time I put on a seminar regarding material that I saw in Japan.  It will be held at the club on December 8th and 9th.  Cost will be $50 Canadian.  Specific topics covered, well let me think about that for a while.  Fact of the matter is there is a lot of stuff (concepts) that I brought home with me this time.  Some of it I was told outright, some of it I experienced and sat scratching my head trying to understand what happened.
With some joint work between myself and some friends  we were able to come up with some exercises based on the techniques.  So if this sounds like something that would interest you then stop on by that weekend to do some training.

We will start at 10 AM both days and go until everyone looks tired or I run out of things to do.  Information will be on the site soon.

    I am back home safe and sound and managed to make it to work as well.  Now I have to figure out how to share what I have learned effectively.  Also how not to lose the feeling from Japan before my next trip in May.  All of those who are interested in that trip send me an email with possible dates.

I made some very good contacts in Japan and arranged for quite the seminar lineup if everything works according to plan.  The visitors will hopefully be (not in any particular order) Doug Wilson, Rob Renner, Lubos Pokorny and Shawn Gray.   With some luck that list will expand.  I will let everyone know when I have specific dates for these seminars.  I must warn you all for the distance the Lubos must travel his seminar will be more expensive than seminars in the past, Doug and Rob will be easy because to make the deal sweeter I can pay them in Canadian Dollars.

With that I am off to get some rest, my productivity has been sorely lacking today.

There is a problem in Honbu, it is far to crowded. I have come up with a solution to this problem. The Honbu admission test. Before everyone gets up in arms about how physical strength is not required for taijutsu hear me out. The test is quite simple. Can you bend over touch your toes and get back up? If so come on in. If not you do not have a body ready to properly do the techniques so don’t waste the instructor’s time.

Is it that unreasonable that if you are going to spend the money to go to Japan you should spend a bit of time training your body. You don’t have to be superman but you have to be able to move your body, bend your knees and take ukemi. Taijutsu does not take a lot of strength but it does take leg strength. If you let yourself slide into the North American fitness standard (which is quite a sad state of affairs) you will not be able to do kihon never mind learn the kata.

I will add that this fitness thing is the opinion of a few Japanese Shihan with which I have spoke not my own. I just created a test for those readers to consider.

You’re training is unrealistic, it is crap.  This is the basic message that Hatsumi Sensei was telling us on Friday night.

It started with you don’t know how to punch.  If you are taking a kamae to punch then you are fighting like you don’t want to win.  Followed up by your punch is too slow and taking that long kamae is throwing you off balance.  Punch directly just step in and hit them.

While trying to preform a technique that was demonstrated Hatsumi sensei mentioned you must be weak.  If you are strong they will respond to you.  You can not take the opponent strongly.  He told a story about a cat sleeping on a roof (ruff for you Americans) and a hawk flying overhead which thought it had an easy meal.  When it dove down to get the cat, the cat rolled over so that the hawk missed.  If you show strength your opponent will know and be aware of what is going on.  If you are weak then the opponent does not know how to counter.

Finally we got a dose of “I am teaching the connection between the schools”.  Do not get caught up in the differences and the kata.  Even with the kata if you don’t have my feeling it means nothing.  There will be books and videos to show techniques but without the essence they are useless.

As per usual though many people assumed that making something real means that you just have to speed up what you are doing rather than do what sensei was showing.  It takes a lot before Hatsumi sensei feels the need to say something.  If you are not doing something right he will show the right way over and over again.  If finally months go by and you have learned nothing then he will lose his patience and say “you suck, do it this way”.  Hopefully a few people learned something from this cause I would hate to go through a harsh class like that again.

I managed to make it to Oguri Sensei’s training at his own dojo.  It takes about 2 hours on train (each way) with 3 train transfers.  It was a very small class but the training was fantastic.  We worked on the kihon (not kihon happo).  There are certain points in techniques, ways of taking moving to capture kazushi, or to control the weapons of your opponent which Oguri sensei views as the kihon.  He explained his views of the qualities of a shodan, godan, judan and beyond.  Remind me to let you know when I get back if you are interested.  I do not want to put it on the site because I may have understood incorrectly and do not want my foolishness in writing.

I will try to convey the feeling that Alice got from Hatsumi sensei. “Hatsumi is a strange man but it kind of fits the job discription. He was mean, I saw him and was like no he is ripping that guys eye out”.

The funny part about all this is that Hatsumi sensei was watching Alice do a technique on me and then stopped the class to show how a women could protect herself from someone grabbing at her chest. That’s right Alice got a technique taught for her sake. Kind of pisses me off. Ah well I just have to live with it.

I will write more on Osaka and our impromptu trip to Sendai.