Kendo

Having in my last post talked about Yosakoi now is probably a good time to talk about one of the other ways in which I have been spending my free time; Kendo. For the lost, Kendo is Japans answer to fencing. Much like how fencing is a distant, defanged descendant of European style duelling with rapiers, Kendo is a sporting version of Ken-jutsu, the art of using the Katana; more commonly known as "Samurai sword". As in fencing the weapons are heavily modified to reduce their lethality and all participants wear armour, because even if you take the edge off a sword it still bloody hurts to be hit with one.

How Kendo is supposed to look.

We had heard that several of the volunteers who came before us had trained in Kendo and had enjoyed it very much so we figured we would try it. Very fortunately for us a man called Matsubara-San (or as we refer to him Matsubara-Sensei) had recently enough moved to Toya. If you are somewhat well acquainted with Japan then you may have guessed by his title that yes, he is a Kendo teacher but more than that he is a 7th Dan instructor which suffice it to say is extremely high up (although technically 10th Dan is the highest possible grade the best practitioners alive today are all 8th Dan). In addition to having an extremely well qualified instructor we we're fortunate enough to be some of the only people in the area interested in training, so we received private tuition at a heavily discounted price, so heavily discounted in fact that it for all intensive purposes it could be considered free.

James learns about the importance of a head guard.

So with free, private tuition from a highly regarded teacher you'd think I'd be some sort of Kendo prodigy by now juggling Katanas and hunting down ninjas, or whatever it is that talented Kendo practitioners do. Well as it turns out, Kendo is incredibly difficult. My roommate James had also started training in Kendo and took to it a lot better than I did. Oftentimes while he would be breezing through the exercises receiving praise from the teacher I would be left  stumbling through them leaving my body in pain and the teacher with a look of bemusement. I have to concede that on several occasions I was left with a bitter feeling of jealousy and frustration at my inability to do what others made look so easy. Now you'll have to take my word that I am not normally a jealous person but in this case private tuition began to have some drawbacks that I had not foreseen. In a group class you work with a range of abilities spanning from gracefully talented to the outright spastic, leaving most of us somewhere in the middle to make our own way up the ladder. However in a private/semi private class it's only you and the other person and whether or not you intend it to be that way you are constantly being compared to each other. As well as in a group class you can hide away in the crowd and slowly practice and perfect your craft in a relaxed setting with your peers before you bring it to the teacher. In a private lesson though, you don't have this option and you are constantly under the watchful scrutiny of the teacher before you've had any time at all to become acquainted with your craft let alone perfect it. Despite these drawbacks though, I overcame these challenges and slowly but surely the gap in between myself and James began to close.

How I felt for the first several months of practice.

Finally here are a few things I have noticed about practicing martial arts in Japan. Unlike some of the western dojo's I have practiced Karate and Judo in, the Japanese don't seem to be as obsessed about grading and examinations at least for what they view to be the lower grades. From what I can discern they view them as being unimportant and have no problem with letting you skip them to get straight to the grades that actually matter. In addition to this I've noticed a slightly more relaxed attitude to the tradition behind the martial art. While in western Dojo's there may be a big emphasis on how you speak and carry yourself you don't find the same tenseness in a Japanese Dojo. While the traditions and customs are observed it feels much more natural. This is probably because in Japan the customs which may seem so alien and unusual to a foreigner are just the done thing for the Japanese and therefore they dont have to make any effort to adhere to the rules. Although there are many differences these were just the two that stuck out to me the most.

Practice

Yosakoi

Firstly I must apologise once again for my terrible consistency with this blog, however this time I have a half decent excuse. About a fortnight ago something happened that I had been expecting for a long time, the possibility of which had been gnawing at me from the back of my mind. Unexpectedly one evening, my laptop drew its final breath, and as the last bit of shrivelled up life force that it had been desperately clinging to was unceremoniously belched out, it slithered miserably off the mortal coil. In layman's terms; my laptop's fucked and as such I've had to resort to borrowing my roommate's P.C for all my I.T requirements.

Somewhat similar to how I looked after this calamity.

Now, onto Yosakoi and the festival. I'm going to go on ahead and assume that absolutely no one who reads this will have ever heard of Yosakoi, so I'll give you a brief run down. Yosakoi is a contemporary style of dance that started sometime in 1950s Japan. The costumes are bright and flamboyant while the dance movements themselves often involve swinging, dynamic movements with the limbs sometimes using props such as cloth, flags, drums and clackers. These movements usually represent the four classical elements; earth, water, wind and fire. The music itself is energetic, rousing and at times epic in its tonality. On an interesting side note all the Yosakoi dance songs are inspired from an old Japanese sea shanty (a song for sailors and fisherman to work to) and as such all contain small excerpts from the original tune, although heavily remixed.

What you can expect from an average Yosakoi performance

Now, what does all of this have to do with me? And how the hell did I wind up on stage, wearing a headband, dancing and chanting to lyrics whose meanings I am still completely ignorant to. Well for the past eight years all the volunteers who have come to the Toya project have joined the local Yosakoi troupe and have performed alongside the locals at the Yosakoi Soran (festival) in Sapporo. It has been so popular with the volunteers it has become somewhat of an unofficial tradition so shortly after I arrived I soon found myself in full garb desperately flailing about trying to keep up with the other dancers. My initial impressions towards Yosakoi were somewhat mixed but largely positive. The most prevalent thought that occupied my mind at the time was "thank god my friends at home can't see me now". This was largely because the I'm pretty sure the song we conduct warm up exercises to is used in Zumba, something I associate with menopausal women and not gap year adventures. These feelings of discomfort soon left me however and I found myself enjoying Yosakoi for what it was which is a bloody good hobby and a great way to spend your time and if that made me a puff then so be it, I would become the champion of all gaylords.

A shot of me and James performing with our team on the main stage. I managed to mess up a movement involving a jacket change so I had to finish the song without my fabulous orange attire. 

As the festival approached I slowly became more and more nervous about performing a dance that I had grown to find second nature. The Japanese reassured me though that mistakes are okay and that as long as I smiled and went for it that was all that mattered. "Gambatte" was the phrase that was used repeatedly which roughly translates to "just go for it" or "give it your all" which really embodies the Japanese spirit quite well. So as we said our final "Gambatte"s and ran onto stage for the first of our performances, I stopped worrying, I stopped thinking and just went for it. Many of the letters and messages I've read that have been left over by previous volunteers have said that the Yosakoi Soran is one of the most memorable nights of the year and although I admit I was slightly sceptical at first they were all so right. The rush that the performances gives and the unimaginably climactic explosion of tension is truly exhilarating and it leaves you with the stupidest grin on your face dying for more.

See bellow: Stupid Grin.

So basically what I'm trying to say is if you get the chance or are ever in Japan for an extended period of time try Yosakoi. It's not about skill or technicality or looking cool, it's about going for it and having a great time and I can't I think of a better reason to do anything.