Grandmaster teaching children at the main Dojo in Tokyo; Iwasaki and Shiomitsu Sensei look on.


















7am, an early start. But I did not really mind since I had not slept since 3:30am with the Jet Lag. In the restaurant, the formally dressed waiter, in black tie and starched white shirt and cuff-links serves us scrambled eggs and ‘huge’ toast. Sensei laughs and says his daughter named it huge toast for obvious reasons – one slice is what you get but its about four inches thick, cut into quarters with a great dollop of melting butter on the top. The coffee was good and strong. I notice Sensei was having a rather lavish Japanese style breakfast. I would have preferred that and asked if I can have it tomorrow. We are in a hurry because we have to meet Shiomitsu Sensei and the English team at some station on the other side of Tokyo to travel together to the Grandmaster’s Dojo for special training. Sensei says we have to be early because Shiomitsu Sensei will just leave if we are even three minutes late. He really does hate waiting.

The trek across Tokyo in the subway has numerous stops and train changes and takes us about an hour and a half. We are there an hour early and go for coffee at a vantage point where Sensei can see Shiomitsu Sensei arrive. About 20 minutes before the appointed time of rendezvous we saw the English team standing around the ticket vending machines so we joined them only to end up waiting for an hour with no sign of Shiomitsu Sensei. So we called Ohtsuka Sensei’s Dojo and it turned out Shiomitsu Sensei had mistakenly been waiting on the level above us, got annoyed and left. So we made our own way to the Dojo and are greeted at the station by Kazutaka, the son of our current Grandmaster Ohtsuka, who is wearing rather shredded-up looking old Karate- gi bottoms and a t-shirt, with a towel wrapped around his neck. He looked as if he had been training all morning. He drove us through the skinny, windy little streets to the Dojo where the Grandmaster was standing just outside the door with a big smile on his face. Inside, Shiomitsu Sensei was punching a heavy bag with a sort of menacing look on his face. Some angry words of Japanese were exchanged between Iwasaki Sensei and Shiomitsu Sensei and we were told to hurry up and change as everyone was waiting for us. There were other Karate-Ka from around the world sitting around stretching on the Dojo floor.

The dojo was typically Japanese in style and had a large shrine to the original Grandmaster at the top of the hall. The changing areas were very tight for space and I struggled to get my gi quickly so as not to be last in the changing room! Ohtsuka Sensei comes out of his office and claps his hands to line up. Class begins with some basics and then Kata. We go through the Wado Shitei Katas first, Seishan and Chinto in great detail. Then we move on the Jion and Jitte as well as Naihanchi. Ohtsuka Sensei explains the importance of understand the potential applications of all the movements so that you can perform them properly in practising the Kata, not just making nice shapes. Small nuances in the movement he said make a big difference to the effectiveness of the applications.

After two and a half hours the Dojo floor was slippery with sweat and my gi completely soaked and stuck to me everywhere. The pain in my back was not too bad but I was very aware of it and concerned about the tournament and how I would perform. After class, Kazutaka started to show me some greater detail in the Seishan Kata. Particularly the last combination with the Mikazuki Geri , Gyakusuki and double Teisho. I couldn’t manage the Mikazuki too well with the back problem and didn’t want to complain and kept doing it poorly until Shiomitsu Sensei shouted at me from across the Dojo - “What the hell are you doing?” I explained about my back and Ohtsuka Sensei suggested that I might have hurt it because I was not turning my left foot enough for the Mikazuki Geri thus straining the sacrum. This was exactly what I did to myself a week previously. Anyway, the correction was great and I could do the kick without feeling too much discomfort.

After class, Ohtsuka Sensei, Kazutaka and one of the Dojo’s Senior Yudansha carried out a big blue plastic sheet which was spread out on the floor so that we could drink beer and eat snacks without spilling it all over the place. Eight or ten six packs and some particularly large cans (little kegs really) of various different types of Japanese beer were brought out with rice crackers and potato snacks and sweets. We started very cautiously at first but when we saw Shiomitsu Sensei taking a few great big swigs of beer everyone loosened up and started having a good time exchanging conversation and telling stories and jokes.

The two sensei having a drink in the Dojo.




















After an hour or so, Ohtsuka Sensei stood up and started cleaning up. Shiomitsu Sensei, Iwasaki Sensei and everyone else pitched to clear the dojo for a children’s class Ohtsuka Sensei was teaching, seven to ten year olds. It was really funny to watch because he is so jolly but at the same time very strict with them giving them a slap of his bamboo cane when they did not perform properly. It did not seam to bother the children though who roared with laughter every time someone got a whack. After photographs, Kazutaka packed some of us into the space wagon and off to a restaurant owned by a friend of Shiomitsu Sensei nearby for dinner. He had to make several trips back and forth to get us all over there.

Grandmaster uses his cane to correct the kids.
























After the meal came the dreaded trek across Tokyo back to our Hotel. Sensei was very tired and fell asleep on the last train to Yokohama. I dreamed of the hot tub back at the hotel.


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