Last Saturday (July 11th) I was invited by Okano-san to the Tokyo Kaiyo University Karate Club's (東京海洋大学空手部) practice because he is an alumni. though he graduated from the Shinagawa campus and we went to the one in Odaiba. The two universities were actually separate until recently when they joined to for the Kaiyo University. There students study everything about marine science and technology, from boat design and maintenance to marine biology and oceanography. I, however, was there for the karate club.
As you might have noticed, Louise and I were actually asked by Okano-san to go and teach kata to the club. I was a bit hesitant at first, considering most university clubs train a lot and it can be hard to compare my personal training to theirs. But I was assured that they had a lot to learn from the two of us and so I agreed, not in the least because I realised I might not have another chance to once I returned to Canada.
It turns out that many of them had only started karate in university, which means some of them at most had 4 years of practice. They also were lacking in any real instruction aside from the experience of the senior students and occassional visits to other dojos. And thus, what I thought was going to be a lesson on various mechanics and details of certain kata, ended up being a rather straight forward class teaching the kata itself. Which suited me just fine because that is, essentially, what I would be doing a lot of the time back in Vancouver.
In the end, I had a lot of fun working with the students. We would go over the kata once or twice with me explaining certain key points, I'd let them work on it for 15 minutes while Okano-san, Louise, and I walked around helping them, and then we'd do it two more times. And it's good experience for when I'm back here teaching. Which brings me to my point about evolution - that when I came I was always the one in the back, working my butt of in each class. And after working that hard, I had a chance to (and enjoyed) sharing what I had learned. I'm still learning but it's this passage of knowledge that is really what brings about evolution as well.
Of course, some things just never change haha......... like me and Louise scaling a wall near the Imperial Palace Gardens =P...
Or pretending to be samurai and having a sword fight... Note to self: Don't bring a twig to a stick fight... =P
Note to Louise: Don't bring a stick to a gun fight =P heh....Anyways, I'm back but tomorrow I leave for Hawaii for a week..... expect loads of pictures! See you guys soon =P
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