Japan Trip – November 2008

We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 3 in matching tracksuits. Good and early, so Carl tried to negotiate an upgrade from ‘cattle class’, which though not successful, we were given seats with extra leg-room and this was very useful. We are not the smallest people, and enormous when compared to the Japanese!

The flight was with All Nippon Airways, so was very Japanese. The staff were extremely polite and kept bringing an endless supply of hot towels, beer and other drinks. The announcements on the plane were 90% in Japanese, so one could only pick up words like ‘mashita’, which seemed to be said every four other words. Steve showed his passing knowledge of the language and we were very impressed. There was a choice of Japanese and European food and thus began a fortnight of disgusted looks by Norman as Carl tucked into what looked like live eels. The flight was long and tiring, but with good-natured banter that set the tone for the rest of the trip.

Our first view of Japan was through the airplane windows as we were coming in to land. It seemed that the fields were all separated into identical-sized and shaped rectangles, rather more ordered than the farms we see over here.

We arrived at Tokyo at 4 or 5am English time, but it was the afternoon there, so the four of us took a short walk out of the terminal building for some fresh air. The floors were immaculately clean and gleaming as if highly polished. We didn’t have long before taking another plane to Osaka.

Arriving in Osaka at about 9PM local time, we once-again witnessed Japanese organization as we had to show all our baggage receipts before picking up our cases, and of course, half the Brits had lost them! One had even lost his passport! There is very little crime in Japan and this was handed in and ultimately reunited with the bearer. The then took a but to the city of Kobe, much of which is build on reclaimed land, with a most impressive harbor area.

That evening, we checked into our hotel; the rooms were small with twin single beds in each, but clean and adequate. We then rushed out for some food before the restaurants closed. We went to a European restaurant for a few beers and more grimaces from Norman as Carl ordered pasta with squid ink sauce.

The following morning Norman was again strained to see his friend eating strips of dried tuna, tofu in fish sauce, strange mushrooms and other obscure delicacies.

Terry Wingrove asked Carl and Tony to prepare a demonstration. This was somewhat begrudgingly practiced over a 20 minute period in the cramped hotel room, with useful contributions from Steve. That was all the time available and we would have liked weeks to prepare something proper.

The following day we went to train at a university famous for its sports. This meant taking unfathomable public transport (i.e. a main line train then a local train) and a long walk up to the top of a hill. The weather was warm and there was no graffiti, no rubbish, and every blade of grass seemed trimmed perfectly. About one in twenty people on trains or in the street wear surgical face amsks over their mouth and nose; we though this was a bit anti-social until we discovered that they did this when they were ill, so as not to infect others!

We found ourselves in a fantastic Judo dojo, where the Karate class was due to start. We separated ourselves off into those practicing ‘Do’ and those doing ‘Jutsu’ with Terry Wingrove. In 1970, a British squad had gone to Japan and we given an extremely hard time in Japanese dojos (according to karate folklore), but the students seemed afraid to train with us and Terry Wingrove had explained that he had had to reassure them and promise that we would not ‘beat them up’! Tony was asked to warm up the class, but as no instructors made themselves known, he and Carl taught the class, later supported by Steve, and it lasted 3 hours! With line work pair work etc A few Japanese joined the class, but they weren’t of any standard. The students said they enjoyed the session and it was nonetheless a privilege to teach and train in a fabulous dojo in Japan. We were all a little tired as it was hot and humid and jet-lag was taking its toll.

Carl and Tony did their 2 minute demonstration to the approbation of all, but little did we know what would happen later. We had a short time to change then a taxi ride to where the England squad were training, namely a very old, almost colonial sports and social club with a little wooden-floored gym at the top. Tony and Carl were compelled to repeat their very short demo in front of the team, Ticky Donovan, Wayne Otto, Greg Francis, Juliette Toney and the 100-or-so members of the party, and without a warm-up. What they lacked in sparkle, they made up for in power, and this seemed to go off without disgrace. A bit of the ‘thespian’ was shown by both. Terry Wingrove then showed how he could subdue innumerable strong and determined adversaries using little more than a well-positioned fingernail and use of the celebrated ‘Vulcan Tank Pinch’.

The four of us returned to the hotel, then went out for an evening meal. We found a restaurant, but all the dishes were written on the wall in Japanese (Steve’s command of the language, though awesome, did not stretch to that!) and no-one spoke a word of English, apart from a young girl having a meal there, whose English was about as good as Tony’s French. With some ‘clucking’ sounds we managed to order fried chicken, some soup and some rice, which all proved excellent and even Norman, with his delicate and traditionally English palate, enjoyed. There is even photographic evidence of Norman eating with chopsticks! We asked for sake and they served it topped up 50% with cold water, so not as we expected.

The following day we took the famed ‘bullet train’ to Hiroshima. Though constructed in the early 60s, this remains impressive: 200 miles in an hour and a quarter (with stops!). The train was due to arrive at 10-01AM (not 10AM), and if the train is more than one and a half minutes late, then an employee has to apologise to all the passengers. The train, like everything else was immaculately clean and very comfortable. When the conductor leaves the carriage, he turns and bows to the passengers. Imagine something like that in the UK!

We went to see the memorial of the Atomic Bomb of 6th August 1945. There is the iconic photograph taken shortly after the blast showing the centre of the city razed to the ground with only one ruined building still standing, a brick shell with the remnants of a dome at the top. Well, that building has been left for posterity and the area around it, the erstwhile financial centre of Hiroshima, is now a series of memorial gardens. There is a museum showing the details of the bomb that took 100,000 lives, right next to the T-shaped bridge in the middle of the city that was the aiming point for the attack. This was a very moving visit as the human suffering was brought out as a sort of anti-nuclear warning.

The visit to the museum was crowned by an unforgettable talk from an actual survivor. We listened attentively as this very distinguished lady spoke of that day and the aftermath. She had been 8 years old at the time, had lost her Sister in the blast and then her Mother from the radiation. Even now, so she stated, she didn’t like to see sunsets.

Terry Wingrove took the whole group of us for an excellent meal at lunchtime, and Norman kindly donated his raw salmon and rare steak to Carl, who forced himself to consume it.

That afternoon, we took a coach to the sacred island of Miyajima. This trip involves a 10 minute boat ride, as the island is considered too spiritual to be joined to the mainland by any bridge. This too was a most interesting trip as there are many statues and shrines, including an enormous Shinto shrine on the beach, that is a very well-known Japanese tourist destination. There were many little shops for buying souvenirs and there were dozens of wild deer that were not at all afraid of humans and continually sought to be fed and petted by passers-by.

That night we succumbed to Norman’s incessant concerns about the food and went to a McDonalds. Carl had to order a Teriyaki burger, but said it was disgusting. The others weren’t particularly impressed either. Later, we walked down to where the locals went for a drink. There was a street where there were a series of bars where there was room for no more than some 8-10 people, with someone serving behind a counter and cooking food as well as serving drinks. Carl was given a bowl of raw cuttlefish, but the rest of us weren’t too keen.

The following day we all walked around Kobe. We had expected to pick up some bargains, particularly with electrical goods, but found them to be far more expensive than in England, even though they had been manufactured down the road. A camera that would cost under £90 in the UK was on sale for some £200 and even a memory stick worth £12 here, cost £20 in Japan.

Kobe seems to be a city built without any form of thought given to urban planning. When the earthquake devastated the city, all the buildings were re-built immediately, and it seems a shame that an opportunity to achieve some semblance of order was missed.

That night, we returned to the same little bar, where the serving girl had taken a bit of a shine to Tony, resulting in a certain amount of ‘ribbing’. Tony had downloaded film and other programmes on his laptop and we were treated to the ‘Roast of William Shatner’, with jokes that would last until the end of the trip.

We did not go to the various training venues we had hoped to go to, nor indeed had been promised. We learned that a Japanese instructor resident in the UK had phoned Japan to try and prevent us gaining access to certain dojos. We were all angry at this, as it seems a poor indictment on the mentality of the individual concerned.

The last night in Kobe we walked around the magnificent harbor area that was beautifully illuminated. We found a large ‘eat as much as you like’ restaurant with varied seafood, and even chicken nuggets for Norman. Excellent evening, topped by our fond farewells in our little bar, where Tony seemed quite moved.

Early the following morning we took the train to Kyoto, the ancient capital of feudal Japan. Though annoyed at not being able to train as we had hoped, we did do some tourism and it was most interesting. We visited the Rukuon-ji Buddhist temple with the celebrated Kinkaku (Golden Pavilion), with manicured ‘moss’ lawns under the trees. Though packed with tourists, the Japanese are so well behaved that there was no pushing and everybody waited patiently for the crowds to move on. We then visited Nijo Caste in the centre of Kyoto, the ancient palace of the Shogun or military leader. This was most interesting as all the floorboards ‘creaked’ deliberately to warn of assassins. This 1000 year old building, like so many others, was very well preserved. Many buildings were destroyed by firebombing during the war as they were made of wood, and very close together.

The hotel room in Kyoto was practically identical to that in Kobe. Even the toilet had strange buttons to denote other functions that none of us chose to experiment with.

We visited Heian shrine, where Japanese people dress up in their best kimonos to visit. Kimonos (real ones) are very expensive, the cheapest being some £6,000 each, but young children were all dressed up in hired kimonos to go to the temple.

We then visited Kiyomizudera Buddhist Temple, a spectacular ancient building perched on a cliff top, with a narrow street with small tourist shops leading up to it. Also packed with visitors, the impeccable behavior of Japanese members of the public helped greatly. The four of us then sat together in a traditional Japanese tea shop, though I don’t think they had PG Tips and Custard Creams for Norman.

We were all quite sore from our various injuries: knees, hips, etc. Tony was also nursing a sore throat that was to last the entire fortnight. This led to complaints from Carl as he ‘sniffed’ and ‘snorted’ through the night, though this brought counter-accusations of snoring, probably fully justified.

Steve and Tony were too sore to go on a visit to Mount Hiei the following day and thus missed out on a hard but memorable experience. We visited a Zen Buddhist Temple up in the mountains and sat on the ground for hours in the freezing cold, ostensibly performing ‘Zazen’ or seated meditation, but actually suffering extreme discomfort and the effects of years of Karate on the knees and hips. The cap it all, a monk went round hitting everyone on the back with a heavy wooden stick. Bliss.

We had a meal with the Buddhist monks, but there was scarcely enough food to sustain anyone. We were each given five bowls, with soup, rice, vegetables, pickles and noodles. First we had to take out seven rice grains (not 6 and not 8!) to feed the birds. We were given a mug of hot green tea, but were not allowed to drink it.

After eating this ‘mid-morning snack’ we had to pour the tea into the bowls and wash them with a piece of pickle deliberately kept back. Carl wished he had be sat nearer to Norman, as this was definitely not the sort of meal that the old boy found appealing to his palate.

That afternoon, we visited the town of Nara, to see the Horyu-ji Temple, the biggest wooden building in the world. Even though we were a bit ‘templed out’, this was impressive. Inside is a 50 foot high bronze statue of the Buddha. There is only one statue that is bigger, as that is made out of concrete.

In the evening, we went for a beer in the hotel bar and discovered the disparity in prices in Japan. One bottle of beer cost £12, when we could have bought the same bottle in a local bar for £2. Still, the view from the top of the hotel, overlooking the whole of Kyoto, was splendid.

We took the bullet train down to Osaka to visit the Shito-Ryu dojo of Fujita Sensei. A huge dojo with lots of classes running together, some with kids as young as five years old, right up to adults. We were made very welcome and the class was enjoyable, culminating with some sparring with the little ones.

Each day Tony and Carl thought they were grading, but nothing came of it. This was extremely frustrating for them as they had prepared for months and had undergone quite a lot of stress throughout the trip, aggravated by the fact that they did not have any opportunity to train outside club visits and suffered the additional uncertainty of when, and indeed if it was happening. This put something of a ‘cloud’ over the whole trip, not just for them but for the four of us, as we were effectively together the whole time On the other hand, we all got on very well together and greatly enjoyed each other’s company.

We were most privileged to be able to visit the dojo of Sensei Tsuchiya, perhaps one of the most highly venerated Karate instructors in Japan. He clearly had a very profound knowledge of kata and applications in a variety of styles and we had a most interesting and enjoyable time discussing different moves with him. It wasn’t a particularly physically demanding class, but we all felt it re-kindled our interest in kata application.

We left Kyoto for the final leg of our journey, to Tokyo and the World Championships. The bullet train passed Himeji Castle, where the James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’ was filmed. We were also afforded spectacular views of Mount Fuji as the train passed very close to the foot of the mountain.

Tokyo was very different from the other places we had visited, with its many tall buildings. Our hotel was situated near Shinjuku Station, the busiest station in the world, but once again, the politeness of the Japanese meant that people did not get in each other’s way. One clear example, was when Tony asked for directions from a man who had walked past quite a way before realizing Tony had actually spoken to him. He came back and rather than merely telling us where to go, he walked back 200 yards with us to show us.

Norman (he doesn’t like the name ‘Cyril’) was still having difficulty with Japanese food, having to go to Wendy’s Burgers, rather that eat with the others. A most incredible phenomenon in Japan are arcades full of slot machines; so many that one can hardly move between them, packed with people, the air filled with cigarette smoke and the noise utterly deafening.

The Budokan is an impressive building, having been constructed to host the Judo at the 1964 Olympic Games, but is really showing its age. The organization of the World Championships was decidedly poor. The England Team were in dilapidated accommodation at the old Olympic Village, unheated and without access to adequate facilities. The competitors had to queue in the cold whilst the 30 or 40 coaches taking them to the Budokan loaded up one at a time! A large area was dedicated to the VVIP seating, that could have been used for the competition, with seating upstairs. The competitors didn’t have enough room to warm up and the security staff were officious, to say the least.

Carl told an amusing story of looking for Tony at the entrance, being stopped from leaving the wide open entrance but having to leave by the exit right next to it, turning round to go back when he didn’t see Tony outside, and being stopped again so that he went through the entrance! Both doors were open and right next to each other and there was no-one else around.

There is very little theft in Japan and shops would be a shoplifter’s paradise in England as there is so little security. Suffice it say that some of the other countries sending teams to the Championships did not have similar standards of behavior and the Japanese were scandalized by the thefts taking place in and around the Budokan.

We were able to secure an invitation to train at the dojo of Sensei Yahara 8th Dan a name infamous in the world of Karate, and renown for his aggressive fighting style and spectacular techniques. We finally found the dojo and enjoyed a very physically demanding session organised by Tony’s good friend Paul Martin who now lives in Japan. Yahara was accompanied by another famous karateka, Isaka Sensei, who impressed us with his friendliness and his kicking ability at the age of 64! Yahara was everything we expected, and more; he struck a makiwara post that didn’t have any padding on it and demonstrated a spinning uraken technique that was truly awesome. At one point he was clearly annoyed with a student he had asked to demonstrate a technique, so demonstrated himself on the student, bringing sympathetic shudders from the whole class! This visit was probably the most enjoyable and rewarding part of the whole trip.

We were disappointed with the performance of the England Team. Jonathan Mottram came 4th in the Kata event, having seemingly eclipsed the ultimate winner in the semi-final, leading to suggestions that the referees were not capable of judging fairly and too afraid of criticism to score against the well- known competitor. Many of our competitors were penalised for excessive contact where they would have scored on England, and this might have been attributable to the presence of IOC representatives. Carl was clearly concerned as the way the event was organised gave a poor impression of Karate on the world scene. On a positive note, the standard was very high and our young squad showed that we clearly have the potential to win medals in the future.

Ticky Donovan was presented with a memento from the EKF to mark his retirement after 35 years as Team Coach. Terry Wingrove was also given a memento and Carl thanked them both on behalf of the EKF & Terry for sponsoring the Team.

We had the pleasure of meeting up with an old friend, Paul Martin, a former international competitor now residing in Tokyo. Paul also took Tony, Steve and Norman to his Kendo class at 8AM and we were privileged to see some very old practitioners of this ancient art, able to move like people a quarter of their age! We also visited the Sword Museum and that too was most interesting.

On our last evening in Japan we walked around the narrow streets of the business districts where people went to relax after a days work, bumping into the ‘Birds of a Feather’ actress, Linda Robson. She was just like her character and very friendly. The four of us spent a last night together in a bar chatting through the various event of the trip.

We flew back to reality, Carl having, once again, negotiated a bit of leg-room. The trip had been a tremendous experience for all of us but not at all what we had expected. We don’t know if we will ever go back, but all in all, it was worth the hardships. & Disappointments’ We were all happy to get back to our families.