Shinkyokushin 38th All Japan Open Karate Tournament
So on Saturday Ryuuji and I joined a bunch of our dojo peepz and moseyed on down to the Tokyo Municipal Gymnasium to watch duderz and dudettez kick the crap out of each other for nine hours at the Zen-Nihon Karatedou Senshu-ken Taikai (er, the 38th All Japan Open Karate Tournament).
Let me begin by saying that nine hours is a REALLY LONG TIME to sit there and watch karate. :P I was also HELLA disappointed because for some reason not a single gaijin fighter participated this time! Shinkyokushin is evidently really popular in Eastern Europe, there's lots of strong fighters coming out of Bulgaria and Hungary and Russia, but nobody participated this time so I was hella bummed. I was really hoping to meet one of them. :/
But it was really neat to see in the flesh all those famous Japanese fighter dudez that I always see on TV and in the magazines, up close and in action. They televise the matches every year so there were camera crews everywhere.
Watching the girls was especially terrifying. They're SO STRONG and SO FAST. As opposed to me, who is only strong. (Well, I have a strong kick... my punches are pretty lame though). So uh yeah, needless to say I have a really really long way to go before I'm anywhere near Zen-Nihon level. D:
A bunch of duderz from our dojo fought, but sadly they all got eliminated on Day 1, except for Yasumoto-sensei, who got eliminated on Day 2. But just the fact that they made it to Zen-Nihon is pretty damn amazing. =O
For me, the real eye-opener of the day was watching Tsukamoto Norichika in action. He heads up his own dojo in the area and he was also one of the judges of my fight at Zen-Kantou. (My claim to fame! I hope he's forgotten about it though...). Anyway, I've never seen anybody beat so much ass in my whole life. He's so cool and calm and collected, it's pretty obvious once he gets in there who's gonna win.
And he won the tournament! He defeated Suzuki Kunihiro (another ridiculously strong, famous dude) in one move (high knee kick). WHOA I wish I could have seen that.
PICTURES (for the one or maybe two or three people on my flist that care!!!)
Teh arena
They made this banner for Yasumoto-sensei, who is apparently "Unstoppabull!!". Which is cool and all but doesn't it make sense to look the damn word up in a dictionary (or ask your native speaker student Barerii!) whether the word is spelled right before you spend a zillion yen making a banner?!
Keepin it real
Uh oh, Tsukamoto has entered the building! He's the big tall dude.
Dude, I'd get the hell outta there if I were you!!
Sensei and a bunch of dojo homeyz are in the front row... and there's my viewing partner to the right.
THE END
Let me begin by saying that nine hours is a REALLY LONG TIME to sit there and watch karate. :P I was also HELLA disappointed because for some reason not a single gaijin fighter participated this time! Shinkyokushin is evidently really popular in Eastern Europe, there's lots of strong fighters coming out of Bulgaria and Hungary and Russia, but nobody participated this time so I was hella bummed. I was really hoping to meet one of them. :/
But it was really neat to see in the flesh all those famous Japanese fighter dudez that I always see on TV and in the magazines, up close and in action. They televise the matches every year so there were camera crews everywhere.
Watching the girls was especially terrifying. They're SO STRONG and SO FAST. As opposed to me, who is only strong. (Well, I have a strong kick... my punches are pretty lame though). So uh yeah, needless to say I have a really really long way to go before I'm anywhere near Zen-Nihon level. D:
A bunch of duderz from our dojo fought, but sadly they all got eliminated on Day 1, except for Yasumoto-sensei, who got eliminated on Day 2. But just the fact that they made it to Zen-Nihon is pretty damn amazing. =O
For me, the real eye-opener of the day was watching Tsukamoto Norichika in action. He heads up his own dojo in the area and he was also one of the judges of my fight at Zen-Kantou. (My claim to fame! I hope he's forgotten about it though...). Anyway, I've never seen anybody beat so much ass in my whole life. He's so cool and calm and collected, it's pretty obvious once he gets in there who's gonna win.
And he won the tournament! He defeated Suzuki Kunihiro (another ridiculously strong, famous dude) in one move (high knee kick). WHOA I wish I could have seen that.
PICTURES (for the one or maybe two or three people on my flist that care!!!)
Teh arena
They made this banner for Yasumoto-sensei, who is apparently "Unstoppabull!!". Which is cool and all but doesn't it make sense to look the damn word up in a dictionary (or ask your native speaker student Barerii!) whether the word is spelled right before you spend a zillion yen making a banner?!
Keepin it real
Uh oh, Tsukamoto has entered the building! He's the big tall dude.
Dude, I'd get the hell outta there if I were you!!
Sensei and a bunch of dojo homeyz are in the front row... and there's my viewing partner to the right.
THE END