Home  News Archive General A trip to Japan for the World Championship 2009
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A trip to Japan for the World Championship 2009 |
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Friday, 04 September 2009 |
by Arne BergersenSo we're back. Back from the land of the rising sun. What a fantastic country. For my part it was the first visit to Japan, and I am just blown away by the people and the cities.
We stayed in a rather worn down hotel in the Ikebukuro part of Tokyo, but were surrounded by friends from Norway, Sweden, Scotland, England and Finland. The first element that struck me was the cleanliness of Japan. There were basically no trash cans, but people just hold on to their garbage to they found one. Combining this with the fact that on every corner you could buy bottled water it was as far from the streets of Oslo as you could come.
The English and Norwegians had a field trip to Grand Masters dojo, but had no training there. It was a rather small dojo and I don’t think it could hold more than about 30 people for a regular training. Combining this with the fact that it was crammed full with boxes for the Championship there was barley any floor space left. It was nice, though, to have been there and see what is the heart of the Wado Ryu Karate Do Renmei.
The next day we went off to a training session at Nihon University (UK, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Norway) where we were treated to a few hours of training. Nothing new to learn, but we trained the way the Japanese do it, and as Shiomitsu Sensei said during training: “Do what they do. But Don’t Kick the Floor!” For all that have been to Shiomitsu Sensei’s trainings the last decade I’ll bet you’ve heard that before. :-)
Some did a training at another university the day after, but having a limited number of days in Tokoy we went out shopping. Talking to the Finish guys afterwards made that sound as a brilliant idea. They had been away from the hotel for a total of 8 hours, and had about 1 ½ hours of training. Combining this with the fact that the university’s dojo
was so small they had to train outdoor made me feel I did the right thing.
The Championships were divided into two days: Saturday was National Championship and Sunday was the International Championship. We were there for the National Championship as the formal opening of it all with the lineup of all participants and officials for both days were made that day. The Japanese do it a bit different than we do in Norway, as we play by the WKF rules.
- They did Kata in pairs, and were flagged to select the winner.
- Fighters under the age of 18 wore helmets
- There were much harder contact than WKF accepts
- Little kicks, much rushing with hand techniques
- Category 2 warnings for dangerous throws, hitting without focus, Mubobi etc. where disregarded
- And Japanese refs were allowed to ref Japanese contestant, but this rule did not apply to refs from Italy, UK, Norway etc. (Go figure)
In addition to this only Grand Master’s speech at the lineup were translated into English. There were 14 or 15 countries present but they did it all in Japanese. The coach meeting were held in Japanese, the messages on the speakers, the introductions of the finales, the speeches at the banquet, the presentation of people who was awarded honors. Annoying? Yes!
The Japanese won all the classes in the International Championship. Some very well deserved, some far from it. And at the end of it all when the medal ceremony was to take place only the Team fighters were awarded they plaques in public. After that the rest of the ceremony with individual medals were done in the hallway as the time were up in the sports hall.
I have not seen any formal lists of result, but I know England made a Bronze in the men’s – 65Kg. Sweden made a Bronze in women’s Kata, Norway made three Bronze’s. Men’s +75, Women’s Open, and Women’s Team. I think USA (who was there with at least two squads) made a very good performance in the Men’s Team and may have gotten bronze there) As for the other countries I really don’t know.
All in all I think the Championship done in England 4 years ago was far better, and to brag I think the Euro Cup 2007 in Norway was good to. This… not so much.
But Japan as a country was fantastic. The weather was good, the food great, the people polite and the history even greater. People would stop and ask if we needed help if we were standing looking at the map. I saw none of the racial issues that I was warned of before going. All in all a very nice vacation with a twist. |
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