Japan: From Ancient Traditions To Blue Note Club Franchises

A Journey Through Japan - In Four Parts

Part 1, Departure:

I started to seriously study the martial arts of Japan in the late 80’s, having recently retired as a professional musician, a drummer. I required a channel for all that excess energy, for years I had been able to vent all my frustrations on an innocent drum set, a heavy duty Gretch set with Rogers memory lock hardware, I could hit it as hard as I wanted and it always came back. As I became serious about martial arts I also started to study the history and the fascinating culture of Japan. I was studying the typical Japanese karate (a style referred to as Shotokan) as well as the more esoteric Koryu or classical martial arts of Japan, Eishin Ryu Iai- do (sword) and Shindo Muso-Ryu Jodo (short staff).

Flash forward 15 years and we’re off to Japan for a martial arts tournament accompanied by my wife Nina, eighteen other martial artists and a cache of weapons that would make the Canadian army envious. We arrive at Pearson International Airport just before 6:00 A.M, we are the first of our group to arrive, we do the Air Canada check in, with the help of a staff member, they ask me, “what’s in the riffle case”, I’ve prepared for this, nervously I tell them “it’s sporting equipment”, one staff member asks “what kind”, I respond, “the martial art variety”. Seeming to get a little impatient he says, “What kind, like guns”. “No, swords, knives, sticks that kind of thing,” I respond. He fills out a form and has me sign it. This is some kind of waiver for insurance purposes. So far so good, we head for customs, greeting some of the other members of our group who are mixed into what has become a very long line up.

We clear the security checks and enter into the boarding area with another 2 hours to lounge around prior to boarding. At 9:00A.M we finally board our plane and were off, to Vancouver. Another 5 hours, a couple of movies, an Air Canada lunch with metal spoons and little plastic forks, I laugh at the irony, 19 martial artist’s on a flight with plastic forks and metal spoons, yes this is a secure flight. The announcement comes; we will be touching down shortly. A beautiful sight greets me, glorious mountains and a landscape that I promise to explore at some point in the near future. We have to change planes and there is a delay of approximately 2 hours, we wander around, investigate the duty free shop, eat some good Japanese food and head back to the waiting area. At last we get to board our plane to Japan, I can’t wait to get there, but I will have to, this was to be a 9 hour flight.

Planning for this trip had started the previous year; fortunately, our teacher a Japanese Canadian (Ryuske Juge, Seibukan Martial Arts of Canada) made all the travel arrangements and informed us of the importance of purchasing a rail pass from the JNTO (www.jnto.go.jp) prior to leaving. The best move you can make, it saves you a lot of money, as rail transportation is very expensive, if you wish to travel the country by rail, which is the only way to travel safely, than a rail pass is a must. Once you contact the tourist organization, they send you a fantastic package of information that provided us with very important details on getting around in Japan. This includes some maps of the areas you are interested in travelling to, list of Ryokan, traditional Japanese accommodation, hotels, restaurants, important terms and tips, such as do not tip, as it is always included in the cost of accommodation and food. We received good advice about Japanese Yen; buy your Japanese currency before you leave. Many of the cities restaurants and small stores do not take credit.

Kansei Airport

We have a relatively uneventful flight to Japan, landing at Kansei Airport just outside Osaka Japan. As we fly over the area I notice mountains, however unlike B.C where they are all clustered in one area, Japan has mountains every where, we appear to be landing in the ocean, the runway juts out into the ocean, cool, we are landing on a floating runway. I have finally arrived in the land of the rising sun, I don’t know what to expect but I plan to make the most of it. I follow our Juge sensei, the leader of our group to a JR rail station where our rail pass is used to purchase our train fare to our tournament location. We would be travelling by Shinkansen, bullet high-speed express train and regular passenger train, this takes over an hour to get organized, processing 20 people. Our destination is Nobeoka, a town on the most southerly island of Japan, Kyushu. Travelling time approximately 8 hours, we were scheduled to leave at 9:30 A.M the following morning.