We decided to take matters into our own hands today, so to speak and headed to the Karate Kaiken for morning training. The situation with the dojo door was still unclear so it was the right choice to avoid the ensuing breakdown of humanity if 20 or so Karateka didn’t get to train. From where I am staying the Karate Kaiken is not overly easy to get to by public transport and it’s only 4kms away so I made the decision to jog over with my backpack. I made this decision the night before and woke up to temperatures of 26C before 09:00 in the morning! 

I can’t get over the Karate Kaiken, it is simply the smoothest floor I have ever trained on. Karate people are weird, we get excited about the strangest of things, like floors, I remember talking to someone about the workmanship and smoothness etc and I’m sure they thought I had finally lost the plot. Of course I had loads of pictures as well… which looking back on the conversation didn’t really make me appear any less mental.

This morning, we were joined in the Karate Kaiken by what appeared to be a father and son, or maybe Grandfather and Grandson.  The kid was about 6 or 7 and they quickly started to work on their martial art with the father leading the training and at times kneeling to do kumite type work with him. The kid seemed to enjoy it and the odd squeal of laughter did take my attention at times it has to be said. The real truth..? I was very keen to get involved also!

After lunch and washing, there is constant washing here… I was off to the airport to meet Sensei Felix who I had promised to bring to his hotel. DJ and I had reccied it during the week and I had the simple task of meeting Sensei Fi and bringing him to his hotel…easy…right?!

After an hour of searching the airport and after I had watched the entire passenger and crew of his craft leave the airport, still no sign of a Sensei. I tried the international and domestic terminals repeatedly and still no clue. Finally I decided to try the taxi ranks and right beside them I found the man who can only be described as a Ninja… how else did he get past me!

Once safely in his hotel it was back to get ready for evening training. The door had been fixed and Uehara Sensei was finishing up the earlier class as we arrived.

Kuramoto Sensei took us through jumbundo and then kihon training. We were almost 35 people in the dojo and so it got hot pretty quickly. And although the numbers made it a bit crowded, everyone just got on with the training and made adjustments as necessary, that said, I did bump into the odd person!

After kihon training we split into groups to allow for freer working and even having time to watch other grades I got no cooler. After training and after we had cleaned the floor, Uehara Sensei said that Higaonna Sensei had asked that we remain in the dojo as he wished to visit with us.

This is the first time this trip that I have seen Higaonna Sensei and I have to say that he looks very well. He told us that he is involved in lots of initiatives to promote traditional karate on a world stage and it seems that he is very busy!

All in all a great day!