We finally moved the Honbu Dojo to our new location in Nishi-Waseda!
At last, I can be straightforward when friends at the dojo ask me why I moved house to this area in March 😆
I happened to pick up some intel last year from Paul Giannandrea who got advance notice — and rightly so — that the JKS HQ was planning to move from Sugamo in September. It was kept quiet for a while longer here though, until everything was 100% settled.
Since I needed to find a new place starting this spring, I really wanted to be closer to my main dojo… I figured that having less space, less money, but more time to sleep was a worthwhile trade-off. So far it has been, since it’s also a lot closer to Sugamo and to my workplace than I used to be.
I told Matsue Sensei I was planning to move nearer the dojo, and he confirmed the move and the rough location, on the understanding I wouldn’t tell anyone before the official announcement.
Fair enough, considering the murmurs in the summer that the move would not go ahead — but eventually it went as expected. Lucky for me, since I was already living 10 minutes down the road! And my girlfriend would probably have killed me if we moved here “for nothing” 😝
First keiko, with Sugino Sempai, Kajiyama Sempai, Kanayama Sensei
We had an excellent first keiko (training), with Kanayama Sensei and Yamaguchi Sensei teaching all four classes that day. I switched up my usual routine in order to join both the morning and both the afternoon classes. Great training! By the time we were done though, the soles of my (reasonably hardy) feet were in tatters, thanks to the superb grip of the brand-new floor.
A few people we don’t often see made an appearance, as tends to happen at special events — it was nice to train for the first time alongside Sugino Sempai, whose three kids are members of the dojo and often at the same tournaments that I go to.
So good to be close to home and able to get some rest between sessions on a Saturday!
Nevertheless, I will go back to my Saturday evening class at the Nippon Budokan next week. It’s good to have one slower-paced class in the week, with more space to ask questions and discuss the finer points of karate. It’s good to have the perspective of another teacher outside your system too, and it doesn’t hurt that the timing gives me 2 hours more rest than the 4 p.m. class at the hombu 😇
Here we are☝️
Come join us!
Karate Pilgrim 