Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

Sensei suggested I head down to the Fujieda Budokan sunday morning. A few of my Dojo mates would be going for thier Nidan ranks. He suggested the event would take about and hour and a half. When I got their, I was expecting just a few people to be their to show their stuff. Instead this is what I arrived to. As it turned out this was not just a Dojo Grading but the B&B grading for the whole Shizuoka Prefecture. Silly of me to think that anything Karate related could be a small event in Fujieda. Sensei Sakurai was his usual busy self presiding over a group of brown belts as they tried to advance.

Our Dojo had 3 people going for their Nidans. Takumi (1), Takumi(2) and Ikie. Here Takumi(1 on the right ) is working on his Kihon. Interestingly enough, the lad on the left is the son of Maruyama-san. A Yandan himself who has his own Dojo and one of my english students. More about Maruyama Sensei another time.

For my money, this is the pic of the day. Takumi(2) doin a good looking Keage.

Ikie on the left is doing an Ungi Uki.

Takumi(1) is in mid air during his Empi performance.

Ikie is 14 years old. The other 2 cannot be any older than 12. In Canada, Nidans are usually at least 30 years old.

Of our 3 candidates, 2 made Nidan. Ikie has to go back for another look sometime down the road. I spoke with him before the grading and he was pretty nervous and Im sure he isnt too happy right now about having to go back. But when he does get it, it will be all the sweeter. After all, as Bruce Cockburn said, "Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight". If you wanna see him do Jitte for his grading, click here.