Your Japanese word of the week is...

"omedetou". It means "congratulations". "Omedetougozaimasu" also works, with that last part adding an extra bit of politeness and emphasis. And who am I congratulating?? Mr. Mike Spain.

You might remember I mentioned him last December. He's an American who lives in Thailand and, wanting to join the Wadokai, he visisted Japan early last December to do just that as well as practice. In the Wadokai, being a member is not really a problem. But in Thailand, where Wado karate is rather under-represented, Mike wanted to have his own dojo join as a branch dojo. However doing so requires at least one member of the dojo to be a certified Wadokai shodan (black belt). So he came back this week and, on March 2nd, challenged and passed this black belt test in Tokyo (mine being a different exam because it was a different "region"). That's Mike in the dogi at the right of the picture. That's Arakawa Sensei beside me on the left of the picture.

I hope I don't have to point out which one is "me" haha............ although I just realised that having said that, I've just set myself up for a bunch of comments asking "Which one are you Lawrence??".......

Or...... "What country are you in??"....... "Who are you?!?"....... the list goes on haha...... Annnyyywaayyy....

So really, all I did all last week was help Mike prepare. This was actually a really good chance for me to try my hand at teaching though. As I said last week, while basic form is important, there are a lot of elements of karate (and indeed any sport) that I call "intangible" and being able to demonstrate/model as well as explain these elements in words isn't easy to do. And since I've spent nearly all my time since July learning these things, it was great to have a chance to switch my thinking and take a stab at teaching.

But Mike worked hard all week so a big "omedetou" to him for passing! =)

I'm sort of taking this week off because the dojo has kyu tests (kyu's are all the ranks prior to black belt) so there's no classes. I'm using the time to get errands done.

More exciting than that, though, is Peter, who wants to come back to Tokyo again this weekend. But I will eventually visit Peter's town of Aizu Wakamatsu and see for myself if it's really as boring as he makes it sound haha..........

Later though, since it's still cold up there haha..... til then......

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"kincho". It means nervous and what you might expect me to talk about is my dan (or black belt level) grading this past weekend.

But interestingly, that wasn't the most recent nerve wracking experience I've had this weekend. As a matter of fact, last night something else crazy happened. I got pulled over........... on my bike.....

See, I was feeling a bit peckish at night and was heading to the convenience store (or "convenie") for some food. By bike it takes about 5 minutes and so I didn't think much of it as I hopped on my bike to go.

Halfway there, this black and white Toyota Echo (or Platz, as it's called here) pulled up and three (3!!!!) men stepped out. I'm not sure if they're really police or just patrol or something, but they asked me to get off the bike and asked for some information. I can just imagine how odd it must've looked to have 3 guys in a car stopping one kid on a bike........

Anyway, one gentleman pointed out to me (after I pointed out to him I don't speak Japanese) that riding at night without the headlight on is dangerous.

"Oh sorry! Yes, you're right. There you go, it's on now."

While all this was happening, another one was radio-ing (is that a word??) in the serial number on the bike while the third man was checking to see if my lock had a key and if my tire was properly inflated and such. I started to wonder if I was going to get arrested for a wobbly rear tire or something........

Anyways, long story short, I didn't get a fine and the men left, with one man's last three words being, "No. Light. Dangerous." Yes, thank you.........

The weirdest part was that not one of them mentioned that not wearing a helmet is dangerous, too. Honestly, they checked the bike rather thoroughly and only left when they were convinced that it was in good working condition and, rightly I might add, were concerned for my night time safety lest I be run over by a truck. But then again, it's totally fine to bike around with no helmet?? Weird............

Regardless, back to the main point of my weekend heh.......... I did indeed go to my karate grading. In case you don't know, the grading was for my second degree black belt, otherwise known as a nidan. It took place in Urayasu city in Chiba which was about an hour and a half drive from where I am, and near Tokyo Disneyland. There were 12 of us going for the test from Shiramizu, 3 testing for their nidan (including me) while the rest went for their shodan.

I had been putting in quite a bit of self training at the dojo for the few weeks leading up to it and I'm happy to say I passed (as did everyone else from Shiramizu, regardless a few of them not smiling in the picture haha). Although, now that I think about it, having passed it only means the work gets harder since now not only are all the coloured belts looking up to me, so are all the shodan (first degree) students. The responsibility to be a role model both in karate and as a character grows so this is indeed not the end but rather, the beginning.

Still, I'm quite happy because I put in the effort and it's nice to see these things bear fruit.......

This is a picture I "borrowed" (heh) from Arakawa Sensei's blog of us after we got back to the dojo.