Friday 18th October
Amidst much excitement, departure day had arrived. It had been over 5 years since my last visit to Japan and it felt long overdue. Having boarded the airport bus on route to the British Airways flight which awaited, I glimpsed a familiar face and exchanged smiles, sensing a mutual feeling of comradery which develops from years of similar experiences.
The flight to Haneda International Airport Tokyo has an extended flight time compared to previous years, in part due to the various conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. I spent the time trying to relax and enjoyed watching a couple of movies and attempting to sleep to realign my body clock to Japan time, without much success. I guess the excitement and adrenaline were playing a part in keeping me awake.
The flight landed the following day ‘Saturday’ and having collected my suitcase, Myself a Zeb (Genbukan Myojo Dojo-Cho) set off for the train, as we had to go via Narita Airport to catch the bus to the hotel. On route we collected one of Zeb’s students and arrived at the hotel safely, being greeted by Soke Tanemura and Hanshi Kohtarou personally. I eventually reached my hotel room which I was sharing with Neven and Bruno from Croatia and tried to catch up on my sleep, but the body clock was out of sync, so I dozed in and out of semi consciousness until the morning, day one of the Taikai.
After breakfast, training commenced with a warm up, then demonstrations by Soke and Hanshi in the techniques of Araki Shin Ryu Jujutsu, followed by kumite gata (partner training). At lunch time I meet with Colm (Ireland) and we ran through our Genbukan Ninpo Taijutsu Dan patterns in preparation for testing latter that day. The afternoon continued in the same vein as the morning, with demonstrations followed by kumite gata. The training session pasted quickly and soon it was time to test. It felt like a very special moment for me being Colm’s test partner as I had also been his instructor’s test partner some 20 years earlier for the same 5th Dan level. I wondered if Shihan Martin O’Reilly remembered this, and that’s why he had asked me to partner his student? That evening, I met up with Renshi Laura and Renshi Jon and we headed out by taxi to the local Onsen. There I relaxed in the outdoor bath watching the moon, the stars and the international flights not far overhead coming in to landing at Narita airport.
The next morning, having slept well with the help of the Onsen, I was ready to go again. Yes, as my body gets older, my joints need a little more attention to get moving, but that was a small hinderance which could be put to one side for now. Soke and Hanshi explained in depth the patterns and allowed the opportunity for questions to be answered throughout the training. Afternoon training was followed by testing in the Araki Shin Jujutsu techniques we had spent the last two days frantically learning. It is impossible to master these things in such a short time, but the expectation is on the individual to have the discipline to go away and fully train the patterns.
The final day of the Taikai arrived and was spent visiting the Katori Jingu shrine and wandering the streets of Sawara, also known a little Edo, which retains many of its original traditional homes and shops intersected by a canal which date back over 200 years. That evening we were entertained by traditional dance from both Japan and Ireland, Taiko (Japanese style drumming) and an all you could eat hot buffet, with generous helpings or beer and wines for those who wished to partake. The evening culminated with spectators being invited on to the stage and joining the dance troupe for an energetic rendition of ‘Soran Bushi,’ with Soke and Hanshi leading the way.
The following morning after breakfast everybody said their farewells and either headed back to the airport to catch flights home. or for further training at the Honbu Dojo. For myself it was neither, I was booked on to the 11am Shinkansen destined for Hiroshima, but that is another story……
