Too Much Japanese

Notice of complaints that I am using too much Japanese have reached me indirectly, so I am going to change my policy on Japanese use.

One of my objectives with this blog is to represent Karate the way we experience it here in Japan, with Japanese instructors. I also wanted to introduce genuine Japanese expressions commonly used in Karate every day that might be of help to people interested in training over here.

However I realize that:

1. I am using a lot of potentially extraneous expressions that come as natural to me or people who train in Japan under Japanese instructors in Japanese dojos that people without this experience may consider redundant and,

2. Some people with limited PC skills may not be able to change the settings on their browsers to read Japanese characters, and

3. Some people may regard Japanese characters as confusing or an irritant, either psychologically because they don't want a Japanese lesson, or think they are being patronized, or in terms of making the narrative difficult to understand...

...and so on.

At the same time, there are some boundaries that I will impose. For example, an oi-zuki (or oi-tsuki) will stay an oi-zuki/ tsuki because I have no idea what a "lunge punch" is. So names of techniques and some basic Japanese will remain.

I had hoped to inspire people with an interest in basic Japanese by showing them something of the real flavor of training here, but there are always drawbacks, caveats and unforseen consequences with new enterprises.

So I am going to try to make the blog more user friendly for people by reducing the number of Japanese expressions, while continuing working hard to try to bring the sweat, smiles, winces and occasional blood and tears that are part and parcel of Karate training at the KWF HQ.

So, best punch forward, let's think of the largest common denominator ;-)

Best regards,
Paul.