November 15th -- there's something significant about this day...

That significance escapes me at the moment. Regardless, here we are in another installment of Gregor vs Japan.

This entry is heavy in Martial Arts -- philosophy and comparison. If this doesn't interest you and you say "tl;dr", just read the first two lines past this point. That's about all that's going on in Ed's Japan. I'm healthy, happy, and doing as best as I can at school. I'll post some pictures up later this week.

Since my return to normalcy, it's been quite boring... except for one thing. I am now taking Karate. Specifically Chitou-Ryuu Karate here at Sophia University's Karate-bu, or Karate Club. It contrasts vastly with Jeet Kune Do and Muay Thai, the two "stand-up" styles I have become accustomed to. However, the similarities are also vast. Several pieces of footwork and punches are one in the same. The principles behind the moves are different, as well. In my short experience of the art, we focus on hard techniques for tournaments and kata. The practice is two-hours long and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays. We stretch for the first 15 minutes or so, then we warm-up with kicks. My first contention with Karate is the positioning of the hands -- if this were a kickboxing fight, I'd be knocked out cold. But, it's not. It's point-karate. That's what you have to take into account when you train various Martial Arts is their context.

Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee's creation, is a self-defense martial art focusing on countering with direct moves that either intercepts an opponent's attack or negates the opponent altogether. Jeet Kune Do evolved from Bruce's personal research and originated in Wing Chun, a Chinese Martial Art. Adding in elements from other arts and removing from others, Bruce created the most complete martial art for his time. The idea of the art is to protect oneself -- unconditionally; and, thus, it can be brutal. Eye gouges, joint-manipulation, and groin shots are the recipie of Jeet Kune Do. Of course I'm over simplifying things. Bruce created Jeet Kune Do to be the Anti-Karate. More so, the Anti-Dogmatic Martial Art of Martial Arts. A "process" he called it, making it capable of evolving and adapting to change and the times. Differing from the stagnation of other arts, JKD could adapt and change -- and so should the Martial Artist. Lee called Karate tournaments "organized despair" for the lack of realism that the arts were espousing at the time. In my opinion, Jeet Kune Do was designed specifically to be counter-intuitive to Karate's Tao (Karatedo in Japanese).

A rather strong statement coming from a guy who's taken Karate for three-weeks. But, here's the kicker: I love it. It differs greatly from the dogma I've heard of in the States. Perhaps it is the style, or maybe my fellow Karateka (practitioner), that make it different. Instead of pulling punches, these guys really hit each other. My first night, I was privy to a practice Tournament spar. The Senpai's (senior's) competed against each other in a psuedo-tournament scenario. One guy got a bloody nose -- the bloodiest I've seen. A black belt competed in and dominated in the sparring matches, his footwork was far superior to the others and allowed to make angles and score a point. 

Point Karate is very different from Kickboxing. Every time a point is scored, you reset and start from the center. The first to accumulate the most points wins. Quite simple, but completely alien to me. In Muay Thai, there is a time limit and when you hit, you hit some more. There are no breaks. You fight till time runs out or the other person quits -- either by choice or consciousness. So, frankly, Point Karate is not what I'm used to and it will take awhile. My hands automatically come to the kickboxing rest position and not where they're supposed to be. My body-shots look more like a boxer's than a Karateka's. It'll take some getting used to.

That being all said and done. I'm looking to train MMA here. I've heard from the grapevine that the Judo club focuses more on Sport Judo and I'm not really interested in that. A believe I have found an MMA gym that offers a competitive student discount and classes everyday and at good times. It is in Nakao, Tokyo which is a few stops up the line for me; so I won't have to pay any extra for transportation. The only problem is cost. I don't have a lot of money, so I'm going to have to wait till January to start. I'll continue to do Karate while I'm here in Japan, but I need more than 9 hours a week of training, I need around 40 to stay happy. I can't wait.

My next post will be more about Japan and how I relate to it, I promise. But, I've waiting to talk about me doing Karate since I started. I'm at a crossroads with my future. I don't really know what I want to do with my life, I have so many options and can't decide the path best suited for me. It's problematic for sure. That'll be the bread-and-butter of my next post coming by the end of the week -- I hope.

Until next time!

-Gregor

The Return

So, finally, I have returned to a somewhat normal life here in Japan. Today was the first day of school since my release from the hospital. The reason for such a large gap in time is because of the Matsuri, or festival, that was going on around campus -- that and it was culture day yesterday (I guess).

I woke up, on time, and managed to get downstairs for some breakfast and managed to make it on the train the starts at our station right when the doors opened, so I got a seat -- quite nice for my inaugural ride. This train departs Musashi-Koganei (the station closest to the dormitory) around 08:15ish, we arrive at Yotsuya (the station across the way from our school) about 5-10minutes before 09:00. It's my new favorite train, haha.

Upon arrival to the University, I manage to forget where my class was. I made it to the classroom in time only to find out that it had been canceled. Oh, man. I could have been sleeping! Oh well. I go to the Lounge on the first floor and study Japanese to try and catch up. I listen to music and enjoy my hour and a half of studying to the best of my ability. Soon, I arrive at my Japanese class to a test! Nothing like a warm welcome with a test.

I did the best I could, most of it was okay. I know I botched the part about Taxi's. After class, I speak to the professor about my absenteeism. She, following guidelines, informs me that I cannot make up any unit tests that I missed (2) or quizzes (4). Also, my participation grade is forfeited (5% of my final grade). Wow. So, basically, what I am being told is that the highest grade I can make in this class is a C. Fucking fantastic. An excused absence or not, these are the guidelines of the Japanese department of Sophia. There is pretty much nothing I can do -- or so I thought, keep reading and find out.

Dejected, I go to the conbini (the new name for the convenience store) and buy an unhealthy lunch. I return to the aforementioned lounge and enjoy lunch with my Koganei buddies Noah, John, and Jean-Claude discussing the flags of the Victoria Revolutionaries -- WE BUILT THIS CITY!

My next class is Post-War Japan, by far my favorite class. The instructor is able to keep me interested and captivated, even while discussing theory. After class he asked me if I could meet him at 17:00 at his office to discuss my absenteeism. "Great" I thought, "hopefully this will go better than Japanese..." Class ended at 15:00, so I had some time to kill and found some friends in the aforementioned lounge. (This lounge is a great place to chill, it's in our building and just so convenient, haha...)

Meeting with Professor Slater was awesome, though he was a tad bit late. He spoke with me about the experience in the hospital and was actually concerned about my well-being and how I paid for it. Basically, with his class and others in the Faculty of Liberal Arts department, I am starting with a Tabula Rasa -- Clean Slate. Great news! I told him about my Japanese class predicament and he said he will look into it, although he made no promises.

Ironically, upon my return to Japanese class early today I found out that our books are now useless and I need to purchase the next volumes. These damn things, 3 of them, cost me $80! Professor Slater is going to email the bookstore owner and ask him about returning them for the next volumes. Professor Slater has truly been a life-saver. Or, at the very least, a GPA saver.

After my discussion with Prof Slater, I headed with some of the guys to Karate. Now, as many of you know, I am an Instructor in Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do under Sifu Scott Shields. Taking Karate is not exactly in the mindset of a JKD practitioner. Karate has been around for many years in America and Bruce Lee kind of created JKD to be the anti-Karate. Let's just say that the Karate in Japan, at least in this group, is a lot more intense than what I have seen in America. The "organized despair" that Bruce spoke of was no where to be seen tonight. The class started at 18:00. We warmed up with stretching and running. Then we gathered in a circle -- a large circle -- and began to practice the core techniques. Very different from Muay Thai or Jeet Kune Do. I felt out of place wearing my RevGear rashguard and fight shorts, but at the same time it felt good to be different. After practicing these techniques, we began drills of combination's. My partner,a Black Belt, was quite relieved when he heard I took had Muay Thai background. I do not think he was quite looking forward to teaching a newbie. These drills were simple, yet I am glad they were. They allowed me time to adjust and get the feel for training again. It was great. We donned chest protectors, and those of us that had gloves wore those, and we began more drills of combos. This was nice, because instead of hitting pads, we were hitting people! AWESOME! I am so rusty. It's amazing what happens in two months of not training. Before, where I had just acquired the ability to kick someone in the head had now become extraordinarily painful to attempt. Nonetheless, I persevered and had a great time. It felt good to punch and kick again. I definitely plan on going back on Saturday and thereafter.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to Judo and try that out. I am very interested in doing Judo and have been since I saw Yoshihiro Akiyama compete in the UFC. I believe it will really help my overall game to be proficient at Judo, we'll see if I can handle both Karate and Judo.

Os!

-Gregor

PS: Here's Mount Fuji from the Koganei Dormitory.