Sensei Koichiro Okuma was our main instructor for that particular morning. The Theme was Hips Tension & Relaxation. From there we moved on to 3 attack sparring (Jodan-Oi-Zuki, Chudan-Oi-Zuki & Mae-Geri) counter-attack with Gyaku-Zuki then step-back to feet together and step-forward with the opposite leg punching Chudan or Jodan-Oi-Zuki.
That same evening Sensei Ohta invited us to train at another Dojo (the latter is run by a good friend of his, Sensei Tatsuya Naka), the Dojo was incredibly friendly and very busy, with many children training as we arrived (the Dojo has some Judo classes as well, judging from the many trophies & posters of Judo Championships on the wall) many Gaijin (foreigners) train at his Dojo. The theme of that evening class was Kiba-Dachi, how to perform the stance (many repetitions and variations in the way we stepped into it) from there we moved onto Tekki-Shodan with some applications of the first 5 moves. We even managed to use plastic knives in order to practice ways to neutralize the bearer by deflecting his/her arm and grabbing it before it was possible to strike again, taking the attacker down and applying an arm lock or neck lock, e very interesting and rewarding lesson, one that some of the JKA England members will remember for a very long time.

Sensei Seizo Izumiya was the one in charge of that Wednesday class at JKA Honbu Dojo (Headquarters), and what a class that was, we started by performing the usual 5 step forward Age-Uke, followed by Soto-Uke, Uchi-Uke, Shuto-Uke and Gedan-Barai, in the mean time, Sensei Izumiya was observing each one of us with his Razor-Sharp eyes of his, and at the end he motioned us to sit down and watch as he started to list the mistake normally performed by practitioners:
in the Age-Uke (Raising-Block), he told us that most people, move the blocking fist from the hip downward, then upward in an arc, which means that power also travels that way, describing an arc which eventually ends up behind the performer; Soto-Uke (Outside-Block), was started by dropping the fist downward, finally going to the side and eventually upward sometimes ending behind the performer before starting a circular motion finally ending too far to the opposite side of the body of the performer; Uchi-Uke (Inside-Block), was almost identical to the Outside-Block, the main difference been that from the downward motion, the fist was then travelling in an arc from under the opposite arm, and ending at the same side as the performing arm, but going past the line of the body; equally bad was the Shuto-Uke (Knife-Hand-Block), as people tend to push the Blocking-Arm away from the body first, then over the opposite shoulder and from there, in an arc, managing to go forward, but in a circular motion; the Gedan-Barai (Downward-Block) was no exception, with an action similar to that of the Knife-Hand-Block, but eventually moving downward.
All of the blocks were wasting time & power. Sensei Izumiya said "The correct way to perform all of the above blocks is to move directly towards the attack, avoiding over-exaggeration of the technique".

Thursday 12th of April finally arrived and we were in a long line of people waiting to register for the JKA gasshuku. The line was formed by people from Norway, England, South Africa, Canada, Australia, India, America, France, Belgium, North Africa, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Scotland, Slovenia and many other countries.

After the Opening Ceremony, we had the privilege to be taught by Shuseki Shihan, Motokuni Sugiura the Chief of JKA World Federation {Shuseki Shihan, was involved in Shotokan Karate for most of his life, he achieve 1st Dan by the age of 20 in 1944 and was appointed Director of the JKA in 1955. Shuseki Shihan used to Coach 5 Universities in the Tokyo area. Achieved 6th Dan in 1958 & 8th Dan in 1976.
Was awarded 9th Dan in 1992 and appointed Chief of JKA.
He formulated the Competitions Rules with Sensei Masatoshi Nakayama}
He announced that this year it was a very special one, as the JKA will be celebrating fifty years of JKA Championships and had decided to rename the tournaments the "Prime Minister Cup National Championship" and the "Minister of Education & Science Cup National Championships" for Primary & Middle School Students. Shuseki Shihan gave a brief introduction to the history of our association, he is after all one of the few remaining people that can say "I was there & I was taught by O' Sensei (Gichin Funakoshi)".

As I looked around, I was startled as I was surrounded by the who is who of Shotokan Karate world wide, Tanaka, Ueki, Okamoto, Schmidt, Wittstock, Sawada, Geyer, Bura, Naito, Ohta, Takahashi, Sato, Hedlund, Larsen, Pacheco, the list was endless, the very top JKA Karate-Ka in the world were present there in that great room. Shuseki Shihan then started to teach the correct way to Seiza (kneel down) Starting with Musubi-Dachi (heels together, toes apart) first place the right-knee down, then the Left one (both with the toes bent) then stretch your toes placing one big toe over the other sitting over the heels. To Kiritsu (stand-up) first bent the toes, lift the left-knee, and then the right one, which we practiced for quite a while, with most people starting to feel the strain. Shuseki Shihan then taught Kata application, assisted by 2 of the Dojo students (Shimizu & Kumeta) we eventually tried those applications by facing each other. I was lucky enough to face a 7th Dan (Sensei Masado Kumanai) he is a young 72 years old, and I say young on purpose as I can only dream of being that fit by the time I get to be 72.
We were then split into 3 groups; 1st to 4th Dan on the third Floor Dojo, 5th & 6th Dan on the fourth floor Dojo, and 6th Dan and over were on the second Floor. My group was made up of more than 80 people, and we had no problem in training on the beautiful wooden surface of the main Dojo.
Our class was taken by Sensei Ueki, and as scheduled we started to practice Gankaku (one of my favourite Kata) with some application. Many repetitions of the application insured we had an understanding of the timing required for that particular move in order for it to be effective.

The second Kata of that day was Tekki-Nidan; we practiced only Hand Techniques first, followed by the timing and eventually practiced the whole Kata at slow pace moving on to the correct speed and rhythm by count and finally full speed and no count. Some applications of the Kata were studied in details with and without a partner. Sensei Ueki (like all the other JKA Instructors) emphasised correct speed/timing and sequence of techniques in order to have a standardised Kata worldwide.

In the afternoon I managed to sneak in the third floor Dojo to watch as some people where practicing for their Judge/Referee exams where Sensei Tanaka and Sensei Kawawada were teaching the candidates, the two Sensei explained in details the Judges/Referees Rules & Regulations followed by the gestures/words used while judging. Plenty of practice by both the seated judges and the main referee but also by the karate-ka used to mock fight in order to be judged by the others. The responses were sometimes comical, and everyone was in a good spirit, but Sensei Tanaka would quickly intervene and explain how they should have dealt with that particular situation. The standard was very high, but Sensei was merciless expecting nothing but the very best out of the present. Sensei Gary Stewart (from London) was one of the top Referees scoring very high on the examiners chart, with a very impressive/commanding performance. We ended the day by going shopping in one of the many shopping malls around Tokyo. I ended up in the Roppongi area and was quite amazed as this area is the only one where foreigners are a majority (2 Gaijin to 1 Japanese) and managed to visit the Hard Rock Café.

The second day of the gasshuku was as exciting as the first one with Shuseki Shihan taking control of some amazing sparring displayed by Shimizu & Kumeta Sempai (2 of the many Karate-Ka studying to become JKA Qualified Instructors) first they performed Gohon Kumite (5 steps sparring) followed by Sanbon Kumite (3 steps sparring) and eventually Ippon Kumite (1 attack sparring). We were told that student at the Honbu Dojo practice every one of those sparring techniques a minimum of 32 times per session. The students were told by Shuseki Shihan to attack first in a very basic way, slowly, then gradually increase the pace and change the rhythm and eventually change the distance from which to start the attack, in the end they were told to attack as fast as they could, and continuously. The defender would have to adapt to the various attacks and counter each and every attack correctly. The class was then split into the same 3 groups as the previous day, once in our Dojo we actually practiced what we had only witnessed until then with a different partner each time and changing the emphasis, but remaining deadly serious. In the afternoon before lunch the foreigners were invited to a meeting with the International Board of Directors (i.e. the Chairman N. Nakahara, M. Ueki, M. Tanaka, H. Okamoto, J. Bura, S. Takahashi & S. Schmidt) where the minutes of previous meetings were read and some other issues were discussed. After Lunch, the second class of the day took place with Jitte & Hangetsu practiced in great details and applied with partner work. After training, we managed to find some time for socialising with old and new friends, which is the magic of Karate, I have been very lucky in the past 26 years as I have met many people which have become good friends because of our love for Shotokan Karate, since moving to UK in 1980 (to train with my mentor/father Sensei Keinosuke Enoeda), from my homeland of Sardinia in Italy.

Saturday came much too soon, and Shuseki Shihan introduced us to Hideki Okamoto (e very intriguing Sensei). Since his move to North Africa, he has been under pressure from many governments and head of states to teach their elite security forces. Knife attack was the theme of the day, and Sensei Okamoto used Riki Kumeta (one of the many students from the JKA Instructors class) as his attacker, we all felt sorry for him as he was disarmed in a matter of seconds but in a very painful way, over and over again he was picking-up the real knife and attempting to stab Sensei Okamoto (I saw Riki downstairs afterwards and his arm was black and blue from been battered continuously on the same spot) Sensei Okamoto made quite clear that what we were practicing was a very serious matter, as someone armed with a knife meant business, it was either succeed or die. We were handed some wooden chop-sticks in order to train in attacking and defending from a knife attack, and every now and then, Sensei Okamoto would stop the class in order to point out the right and wrong ways which we were performing, with some very hilarious and some less than perfect ones been demonstrated by the unlucky volunteers.

Later on that same day, some people had Dan grading to attend and the pressure was extremely high, but we had great faith in one of our British contingent, David Paulus, he was testing for Yondan, and felt very apprehensive (naturally) as he was going to perform in front of Ueki & Tanaka Sensei, in the Honbu Dojo, in Tokyo, Japan, in the same room as Shuseki Shihan the highest ranking Instructor, surrounded by the most distinguished Karate-Ka in the world, but, as I mentioned before we (his fellow British companions) had faith in his ability and in the end he was rewarded, Pass Yondan, two magical words, well deserved, I believe that David is the only British person to have travelled to Japan and successfully achieved the level of 4th Dan since the foundation of JKA England. Well done David, we are proud of you.
That evening, the JKA organised a party for the participants, which for the first time ever was held on the Main Dojo (4th Floor).

Shuseki Shihan opened the party by thanking the participants for their attendance, the many instructors & students for their support and awarded some with diplomas. It was the Chairman's turn to speak, and this he did, his English impeccable, he needed no translation, Nobuyuki Nakahara is the one we need to thank for the new Honbu Dojo Building, he is the brain of JKA World Federation, a business man without equals, he takes no prisoners, but is fair and has been a real asset to JKA. During the party we made sure we mingled, meeting some of the many gasshuku participants. One of the many people I met, David Hooper, is quite well known by the many readers of SKM, we drunk together and discussed the one thing we have in common, Shotokan Karate the JKA way. Many photos/videos were taken before, during and after a few drinks, new friendships were made some were confirmed and reinforced, e-mails and phone numbers exchanged and some people even managed to get invited to foreign countries. What a great course, one I will remember for the rest of my life. I did promise myself one thing, I will be back. The day after was the closing ceremony of the JKA gasshuku, with photos and speeches, but eventually it was over, much too soon. I cannot wait for the next gasshuku, although in my case it will have to be next April, not counting the ones in UK (Guildford near London) in May (with Sensei Tanaka & Sawada) and July 2007. The day could not end but with a shopping trip to Ginza (a very well known Tokyo Shopping paradise) we checked the Sony Building as well as the many department stores and coffee shops in there. Monday morning at 6am I was getting the Orange Limousine from the Hyatt Hotel in Roppongi to Narita Airport, and it was a sad farewell to Japan as I had a great time there, although I had missed my beloved Pasta (a draw back of being Italian) but all in all a great way to spend a holiday.