A Strong Example

Friday 0630
Everyone has lined up in front of Sato-Sensei waiting to run up the surrounding mountains around Tokai University. People are looking like they probably got up from bed 5 minutes ago; Tired, unshaved and all with exhausted bodies after a week with tough training. After the compulsory "Rei" some drops of rain starts dripping down on us. Sato_Sensei acknowledges this immediately and says:

"Today we´ll go to the Station! Maybe I also go to the Station as well. Ok, let´s go! Only 30 minutes and then we are finished." 


I did not know what place this "Station" was, but the whole group are suddenly sprinting, euphorically. I realize that we running towards the train-station. About 2 minutes late,arriving to the station the rain starts pouring down. There is of course also a natural solution there as well....

We are running in the stairs of the train-station...


For those of you that have visited Japan one of the first things you realize is the apparent orderly chaos of the subway.stations. People are flocking around everywhere, busily heading for work or school.


Well, at this station, the morning-rush was yet to begin, but our group made our own little "morning rush"

In our usual manner we started dashing up the narrow steps of the stairs while Sato-Sensei was walking calmly up and down on the opposite side of the stairs.

Then we started carrying each other, jumping on one leg and running in circles around while continuing up the stairs. It must have looked quite odd. Some people were cheering on us, while others were smiling.

Some people were also talking with Sato-Sensei and he explained why we were running training so early in such a special place. Sato-Sensei said that we are students of Judo and that we need to train before the classes start and that they create an environment for living a Judo.lifestyle for the students.

We lined up and finished the session outside the station. Sato-Sensei enthusiastically told us about how this was an old tradition - When rain suddenly breaks from the sky and comes into the valley, they would have a short and intense training before returning to the comfort of their homes.


I think that the many students, the people heading towards work and the other onlookers were mostly inspired by how energetic and high-spirited we trained. For a local community I think we made a strong example during a rainy Friday-morning.

The Dojo

The Dojo is the place where we practice Judo. Ideally it should be a place of peace, focus and meaning that gives gives a space for one to reach a higher level of mastery while also raising one´s competitive ability.

Article 4 The Budo Charter - DOJO 道場(Training Hall)
The dojo is a special place for training the mind and body. In the dojo, budo-practitioneers must maintain discipline, and show proper courtesies and respect. The dojo should be a quite, clean, safe and solemn environment. 


There is always a special atmosphere in a real Dojo and to be there all your lonesome can give a sense of calmness that is rare to come upon in our modern day and time.
Sometimes a Dojo can also be a specially beautiful place. I have taken some pictures of different Dojos I have found to be particularly beautiful:


TOKAI UNIVERSITY JUDOCLUB MAIN DOJO

The top of the ceiling symbolizes Mount Fuji while the Dojo is also facing the direction of Fuji-san.

The entrance to the Tokai Budokan, containing Ken-Dojo and Ju-Dojo, are built in traditional Japanese style with Sakura-trees on both sides. 

The Dojo of Nippon University of Sports Sciences or NITAIDAI:


The Dojo is only a couple of years old and has a modern design.

BUT! Tradition is not forgotten! Here is a picture of Kano and a beautiful calligraphy of his maxims, in gold. 

克己　or "self-denial" in beautiful calligraphy at the center of the Dojo. Some may say that the virtue of denying one´s own desires and being able to act in a disciplined way is an ideal for most Judoka. In this Dojo this is clearly highlighted.

KODOKAN SCHOOL DOJO




And then the most beautiful Dojo in Scandinavia and maybe Europe, at least in my opinion:


The BOSEI DOJO at Idrætshøjskolen Bosei in Denmark

The spirit of the Danish nature makes a perfect scenery for Judo. The changing of the seasons can be seen through the large windows and sunlight breaches in and makes the Dojo very much alive. 

The Dojo is a place worth appreciating and we also need to remember that the people before us made it possible for us to study in such an ideal environment. 

The Lessons From Hashimoto-Sensei

I do not only do Judo in the Dojo. Judo is a much wider concept than the techniques applied in the Dojo. Hashimoto-Sensei guides me into to how to try to understand the conceptual side of Judo and Budo. This is not an easy task. Hashimoto-Sensei often stresses the fact that understanding the concepts he introduces to me is also hard for the Japanese. On the last lecture he even said that the best Budo-researchers are dead and that they died hundreds of years ago. That being said, I would presume that Hashimoto-Sensei is one of the greatest Budo-researchers alive. His reearch-lab is like a library with a museum-like interior, with books, documents, manuscripts, calligraphies, pictures, statuettes and lots of artifacts that awakes the inner curiosity. 

And of course it is the challenge with the language: Well, my Japanese is becoming gradually better and Hashimoto-Sensei is also very good to explain the necessary "blanks" in English, being the internationally-minded person as he is. That being said, it is difficult, but is also very educational and truly inspirational to learn these things in their native language. In English things tend to be over-intellectualized and it can become more of a show-off into elegant phrasing than a good explanation of the actual subject(something that my phrasing also shows). An example of this is that Hashimoto-Sensei gave me a whole book in English to illustrate what was 2 pages in Japanese.

At Tokai I have the opportunity to investigate Judo in several different ways: As  an Olympics Sport, as a lifestyle and as a way of Education, be it physical, intellectual or moral. Understanding Judo as a way of education is not easy. In Norway and in Europe we have a very sports-oriented way of perceiving Judo. This is not necessarily bad, if we compare looking at Judo as ways of injuring other people with the common view of Judo as a safe, enjoyable and fascinating sport, this far better. So one can say that Judo developing into a sport is a positive development keeping in mind the origin being Bujitsu or deadly techniques.

BUT: There is much more to Judo than just the sports-aspect. Judo was originally conceived as a method of education.
And at the center of this lies that Judo can learn us a great deal about human-relationships, Judo can build character and Judo be a great way to learn to know yourself. Hashimoto-Sensei gives me insights into how as to view Judo from different viewpoints, deeply and more lightly.

I can surely say that Judo is far vaster than I initially thought.

Reflections during a morning-training

0700:

I meet up at the Judo.dormitory for morning-training. This morning we are going to the mountain. That is we are RUNNING to the mountain. Sato-Sensei talked how Tokai Judo can not stop and be satisfied with their achievements winning the All Japan Championships for teams last weekend. "We have to go further! " With this in mind I set out to break my old record of 23 minutes from start to end. I gave everything I had, forcing my legs to keep running up the narrow mud roads. At the end of the last hill I saw Inoue-Sensei and Sato-Sensei. Darting up the final 30 meters I asked Sato-Sensei, seeing him standing there with his old-school stop-watch, "What was my time?". Sato-Sensei replied "I don´t know, my watch is unfortunately broken!" I was wandering if he was joking with me, but it was apparently true. 

The place where we do the mountain-training is quite special. It has been used by buddhist-monks for over a 1000 years. This gives a quite special atmosphere. There no monks there now, but there are monuments, some buddha-statues, a holy building and lots of stones with inscriptions that I can not read with my present level of Japanese. There are also always a group of Japanese senior citizens that sit around a table and talk. 

Mountain-training is not something that goes on all the time. It is a mark of change. In the periods where nature is changing, from spring to summer and from autumn to winter, we train at the mountain. I think it is because they want the Judoka to be aware that things are changing, feel how the nature is changing. This morning I could really feel this change, the sun in the autumn-leaves, the slight chill when the wind touches your skin and sounds that I have not heard before. 

This picture is from the stairs we use for training. Your partner holds your feet while you are bouncing forwards using your hands, like an explosive push-up. I remembered that I did this during the spring-trainings at the mountain and I felt horrible. Now it was tough, but not too hard. I was actually reflecting about the concept of change while training. Change is unavoidable  When I am here at Tokai I will change, Tokai Judo will change and the seasons will change. Depending on what I do it can be good or bad changes. After running back home I realized that my body was not all that exhausted. I guess that my physical condition has improved, at least that is a change for the better. 

Why Judo in Japan for 2 years?

There have been many people that does not really seem to understand why a person like me would go to Japan for 2 years to do Judo. In this post I will try to explain my thoughts, hopes and ambitions related to me taking the decision to do this, but first I want to go back to the spring of 2010 and the start of my journey.

In april 2010 I was a student of the most prestigious and highest ranked business school of Norway, NHH. I was in the last semester of my bachelor-degree in Economics and Business Administration and all my friends were talking about what master-degree they were going to choose while I was thinking a lot as well, daydreaming about what to do. If I continued on the path of the business-student I had embarked upon, the future looked good, in fact really good. Being a part of the NHH-statistisitc is something a lot of people in Norway would like to be: Good salary, steady job, excellent career-opportunities and a great way to get top status in the Norwegian society.

  
And what about everyday life at NHH? Well, it would be filled with interesting lectures about the phenomena of economics, the beauty of business and long hours of deep studies into complex problems. On the social side a lot of great people are students at NHH so there would be parties, concerts, deep talks and good friends in a joyous and comfortable environment.

So why did I choose a Japanese Dojo as my place of study for the next 2 years instead of a Master´s degree at a prestigious Norwegian business-school in one of the richest countries in the world?

Firstly, In Norway there are few people that can live a life solely supported by Judo. One person that has done this is my good friend Martin Thiblin. 

But he had been dominating Norwegian Judo for over a decade and has an unique position in the Norwegian Judo-community. I was nowhere near his status and results. Other than him you have various Judo-coaches, but they are quite few, and I was at the age of 23 and still felt that I wanted to compete and develop myself into a better Judoka as competitor and as a student. 


During an exam in Japanese at NHH I got the opportunity to apply for a MEXT-scholarship doing Judo in Japan as a research-student. I made an abstract of what I wanted to research, got in contact with Tokai University. Tokai University were very interested in me going to Japan and they arranged Professor Toshiaki Hashimoto as guidance-professor. After going to the Japanese Embassy in Norway for an interview and tests in Japanese and English I got provisional acceptance and suddenly, in January of 2011 I was officially granted the scholarship. I could do Judo for 2 years scholarship-funded. 


A second reason for me wanting to do Judo was my inner curiosity towards pursuing a different kind of education. I see Judo as an education, not only as a sport. Having completed a bachelor of science I felt that I had tried the conventional educational route and now it was time to try an alternate one through Judo. I started this journey at Bosei in Denmark.

This is a school in Denmark, with a campus built for a Judo-lifestyle with a beautiful Dojo, ideal facilities(weights, full-size swimming pool with sauna, surrounding woods perfect for running and so on). The only problem is and was - No elite-Judoka wants to come to this school. I took the leap and went. 

And the Sensei at this school was Tommy Kjøge Mortensen, a 6th Dan, the highest Dan in Denmark. He had been to Tokai many times for training when he was an active competitor and I figured that he could prove to be the ideal person to help me prepare for Tokai Judo. He teached me not only Judo in the Dojo, but also outside the Dojo in how to be a good person. 

His Judo is fantastic, both on and off the tatami. Things did not turn out as planned; I was his student for a while, but he found love and had to move away from Bosei. Surprisingly, he left me to be Sensei. So for three months I was in charge of the Judo-students at Bosei. These students were about my age or even older. I try to follow Tommy´s example, teaching Judo on and off the tatami. You can ask my students if I succeeded. I got a great experience at Bosei, though not the same way I expected. 


So In April 2011 I went to Japan. Despite the upset with earthquake(s), the tsunami and a Japan portrayed by the world as complete chaos. I was warmly welcomed by the Tokai Judo-people and I am now here. 


And as I reflect on my choices after 6 months here I believe I made a solid decision. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but more importantly an opportunity solely created by my own will to pursue the way of life that I saw as ideal for me, knowing that in some years I will have different demands, opportunities and also a different view of things. The Tokai Judo- lifestyle is the Ideal Judo Education with unbelievable Sensei, perfect facilities and everything you need to develop your Judo. 


But I have not given up the field of business, I just want to wait before I return. New perspectives, cultural understanding and the mastery of an asian language might be useful in my professional future as well.   
I would like to end this post with the words of Shigeyoshi Matsumae, founder of Tokai University, Judoka, Budoka and former president of the International Judo Federation:

In Your Younger Years 

 Grow Your Spirit

In Your Younger Years

 Strengthen Your Body

In Your Younger Years

 Build Your Wisdom

In Your Younger Years

 Chain Your Hope Towards The Stars

Have a good day!


Bård