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.