Your Japanese word of the week is...

"shikatanai". It's actually more of a phrase meaning "it can't be helped". Or, at least, that's how I use it. As with all of Japanese words, the meaning is highly context dependent but considering I have only been here 3 weeks, one meaning is pretty darn good. So if you were late for a job interview because your bike was run over by the train?? Shikatanai. If you spent all you money at a bar and can't afford to get home?? Shikatanai. If you're competing and you wet yourself in the ring?? Shikatanai....

At least, shikatanai for the little girl who did. I was at the annual Elementary-aged Nationals yesterday and that poor little girl wet herself while she was performing her kata. But, the tough little 7 year old karate student that she was, she finished whatever she was doing, she bowed out, and then ran off to the bathroom. She didn't win though, so I guess there's no sympathy card to be played.

But aside from that incident, it was as interesting and as hard to follow as........ well......... a giant facility to 12 rings and 40+ competitors per ring. It took place at the Tokyo Budokan which is essentially a facility designed for martial arts and the level that some of these kids were at was rather spectacular.

More interesting than all of that was the fact that, being a national level tournament, there were kids of all styles competing. Karate, like nearly all forms of Japanese martial arts, stems more or less from a common ancestor and has been analyzed, re-analyzed, and reformed over the ages by different people offering different perspectives on the same moves. So you end up with a bunch of katas (forms) performed by a bunch of different styles that are essentially the same underneath. Some are superfluously showy with moves that make no practical sense while others have had all the really difficult parts (like jumps) editted out, perhaps because the original master didn't like jumping. Or couldn't.

At any rate, it was a really neat experience to watch, especially considering the coordination and muscular control relative to the ages of those kids. I know I've seen 5 year olds at the park with nary that level of ability.

And so, on wednesday, I'm off to the aforementioned karate camp. There's a barbeque on wed night (yay!) and fireworks on thursday, which I'll be missing as I stumble my way across Japan back home. Apparently it's only one train straight to Tokyo and from there, I know I can find my way back sooooo.......... unless "one train" isn't one train, it shouldn't be a problem.

So, keep checking to see how the camp went beacuse....... well......... if I haven't written about it, I'm probably stuck somewhere in Okinawa. Although that would make for a good story too heh.......