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BACKGROUND: In 2005 BIKO, in association with Ruykyu Kan of Okinawa, hosted the British Open International Karate Championships at the Grundy Park Leisure Centre, Cheshunt, Herts. Master Koei Nohara Hanshi 8th Dan from Okinawa was in attendance. Master Nohara is the President of Okinawan Karate-do Shorin Ryu Ryukyukan Karate Kobudo Federation and the President of the Okinawan Full Contact Karate Association. It was a great honour when in the summer of 2006; Master Nohara invited Gerry Coulter, BIKO Public Relations Officer and a student of Master Nohara to train in Okinawa and to attend the Okinawan Karate and Kobudo Festival in October 2006. The Okinawan Karate and Kobudo Festival is an annual event, attendance and participation is by invitation only. Normally the Festival takes place over a four day period. The first day being demonstrations and displays by invited participants, the second day is reserved for open seminars by the Grand Masters and other senior instructors, and the third and fourth days are dedicated to competition. Prior to flying to Okinawa Gerry had been invited to bring fellow senior grades with him, who were also students of Master Nohara to actually participate in the Karate and Kobudo Festival as part of Master Nohara’s International Members section. Therefore, Gerry along with fellow senior grades Sam Winder, Toby Winder and Cliff Richmond prepared both Karate and Kobudo kata in preparation. This year the Karate Festival was down sized to two days, omitting the competition element, as it coincided with the 4th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival. This event takes place in Okinawa once every four years and is a major cultural festival, where Okinawans from all over the World return to the home of their ancestors and all manner of traditional Okinawan arts and cultural skills are performed in their honour; of course Karate and Kobudo are two of the central elements to this cultural event. Other days in the Festival schedule are given over to Peace, Worldwide Relations, Music, and Traditional Dance, various sports, singing and traditional drumming. DAY 1 - Friday, 6th / Saturday 7th October 2006 Gerry Coulter and Cliff Richmond left Heathrow on a Japanese Airlines (JAL) flight in the early evening. JAL, as ever provided a new Boeing 777, with plenty of leg room, excellent in-flight catering and service. The flight arrived precisely on time in Osaka International airport, having made a non-stop 12 hour flight via the North Pole. Gerry and Cliff found time for a beer (or two), and a stroll around the airport shops before boarding the internal flight to Naha airport, which is the main airport for the island of Okinawa. Due to the 8 hour time difference between the UK and Japan it was now Saturday, 7th. October 2006. The internal flight took 1 hour, 50 minutes. Master Nohara himself picked Gerry and Cliff up from the airport and took them to ‘The American Hotel’, situated opposite the main US airbase. This airbase having been their ever since the end of WW2. The hotel has very helpful staff, and the rooms are equip with self-catering facilities. So after a quick stock up with some essentials from the local supermarket it was time to crash out for the night. The night temperature was 20c and the daytime temperature 26/27c so the air conditioning was very welcomed. DAY 2 – Sunday, 8th.October 2006 As arranged the previous night, Master Nohara picked Gerry and Cliff up from the hotel at 10am. for their first private training session in his personal dojo. Master Nohara’s dojo is located over the top of his house in a pleasant residential area of the city. The interior walls are of wood in the traditional style with a wooden floor and all the essential equipment, including a suspended punch bag. Perhaps, from Gerry’s and Cliff’s point of view the key piece of equipment was the fridge and it’s chilled water! Master Nohara went downstairs to his own house to change into his gi and left Gerry and Cliff to change in the dojo. Upon his return the hospitable and friendly disposition had been replaced by that of Okinawan Master about to give instruction and impart knowledge to two of his more senior graded and seasoned practitioners. While they all sat in seizar Master Nohara reminded himself of both Cliff’s and Gerry’s background in the martial arts, he also explained that only five of his overseas students could take part in the katas demonstration during the Festival, and that he intended to have three of his International students from the UK to perform with two from Houston, USA. He informed Gerry and Cliff that they would perform for a second time at the Festival in the Kobudo demonstrations along with BIKO Members Sam Winder and Toby Winder( who were scheduled to fly in later in the week ), also there would be students from Belgium and the USA. Master Nohara regularly instructs in Europe and the USA. Master Nohara commenced the training session by going through many key basic techniques. There was free flowing discussion about the differences between Wado Ryu and Shorin Ryu techniques during the training session. Master Nohara demonstrated back kicks and various techniques in essentially slow motion, easily maintaining his balance and continuing to give instruction in English. After the first two hours of training, Master Nohara took mercy on Gerry and Cliff and took them to a traditional noodle bar for lunch which consisted of Oksoba, a traditional noodle and clear soup dish with chicken and pork. Before doing so he finished the karate session, as he had started the session, with all three of them doing Nihanchi kata. The three hour Kobudo session commenced at 2pm. and concentrated on the Long Staff. The humidity rose throughout the afternoon session, with Master Nohara encouragingly saying “be young, be flexible”; it became a very long hard session. It was impossible not to be impressed by Master Nohara’s own energy levels and flexibility. During this first day of training Master Nohara covered the basic techniques in both karate and the long Staff. He introduced Gerry and Cliff to the Sock Sen Geri kick. Practising the Nihanchi Kata was a good opportunity to analyse the differences between Wado Ryu and the earlier Okinawan Shorin Ryu versions. The Sock Sen Geri kick is similar to the standard front kick as used in Japanese styles of karate. However, instead of using the ball of the foot with the toes pulled back, the toes are curled slightly downwards as if making a fist. This kick is only found in the very old Okinawan styles. The object is to use the tips of the first three large toes for the impact delivery, following through with the lower part of the in-step. This kick would be used for great penetration on the smaller points of delivery to the soft parts of the opponent’s body, much like a spear hand attack. Having covered the basic techniques of the six foot Long Staff Master Nohara began to teach Cliff and Gerry the Shu Shi-No-Con Bo Kata. The last 30 minutes of the training session was spent ‘winding down’ training on the impact pads and the punch bag. Despite five and half hours in the dojo Gerry and Cliff decided to walk back to their hotel, in order that they could make their own way to the dojo in the following days. At 6.30 pm Master Nohara picked Gerry and Cliff up from the hotel to take them down town to the Central Park area, via a bus, to enjoy the first night of the Festival and to eat traditional Okinawan food with him. As you might expect the Central Park was laid out with many attractions, many of the women were in traditional Kimonos, and there were lanterns and fireworks. The only real touch of East meets West was that along side the food stalls selling traditional foods such as noodles, squid and octopus, they also had on sale ice cream, candyfloss and toffee apples. Many people had brought their own picnics and among the many events were open auditions for their own version of the X-Factor! Downtown Naha is a modern 21st. Century city with all modern amenities, including a mono-rail and comprehensive bus service. Around 8.30pm Master Nohara invited Gerry and Cliff to eat in a local traditional restaurant in International Street. This street is Naha’s version of Oxford Street and is where all the tourists visit. A leisurely 15 minute walk took them to a small private restaurant with traditional low table eating areas as well as a bar. The restaurant was run by a fisherman, who is famous locally for his food. He was dressed in the traditional fisherman’s garb and bore the traditional top-knot and long trailing beard. The food was served by way of many small dishes; it included seaweed, a local bitter cucumber, raw fish, egg, tofu, local free range pork, a local citrus fruit (which tastes like a cross between a lemon and a lime) and plenty of local beer and local saki!! The buses had long stopped running by the time they emerged from the restaurant, although International Street never closes, it was definitely time to take a taxi to the hotel and crash out.
DAY 3 – Monday, 9th. October 2006 The training during the weekdays were to be every evening commencing at 6.30pm. Gerry and Cliff would join Master Nohara’s other students for these sessions. Due to the 4th Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival, Monday was a public holiday. Master Nohara picked up Gerry and Cliff from the hotel at 10am. And took the opportunity to show them around Shuri Castle. This castle is the sole survivor of over 800 years of inter rivalry between originally 400 different strongholds and castles in Okinawa. During the conflict the other castles were destroyed and Shuri Castle became the centre of administration for the Kingdom of Okinawa. Unfortunately most of the original castle was destroyed during the WW2. The castle we see today was restored after the end of the WW2. The martial arts that evolved during the conflict between the various warlords became known as Shuri-te (Shuri Karate) Due to the Festival Cliff and Gerry saw live performances of Okinawan Traditional Dances at the castle, many of which contained elements of karate katas. The inner part of the Castle is of wooden construction, heavily lacquered in red, black and gold, the floor of the inner courtyard is laid out in stone, indicating where officials and visitors to the Castle should stand/sit during audiences with the King. The throne and royal crown are among the exhibits on display inside the inner sanctum. Moving on from Shuri Castle, Master Nohara then drove Gerry and Cliff to a northern part of the island to see the world famous Churaumi Aquarium. The trip took just over an hour, and took in breath taking views of fishing villages, crystal white beaches, and sub-tropical forest. The northern part of the island is known for its agriculture and fruit production including the unique citrus fruit called Sthkqusai. The Churaumi Aquarium was constructed with money from mainland Japan and has over 4 million visitors a year. It houses living examples all the sea life in around the southern Japanese islands. It is not possible to describe the incredible sights and exhibits to be found at this aquarium in this report – except to say that to watch feeding time for 27 foot long tiger sharks, which are in the same outsized aquarium as 8 to 10 feet wide manta-rays, 6 foot turtles, hammer-headed sharks and many other XX sized sea creatures, from below is an experience not to be missed. Infact there were many other exhibits such as manatees and dolphins and other sharks in other parts of the campus; but time did not permit more than a visit to the main aquarium. On the way back to the hotel, Master Nohara took Gerry and Cliff to probably Okinawa’s top hotel with its own private beaches. Bamboo furniture, marble floors, luxury everywhere. This was where the G8 summit was held in 2000. Coffee on the terrace, while a pianist played seemed to be more reminisce of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore during Colonial days than 21st Century Japan. The only thing to break up this scene was the incredibly high volume of noises being generated by millions of grasshoppers rubbing legs together in the surrounding vegetation. Master Nohara dropped Cliff and Gerry back at their hotel for a change of clothes and so forth, before picking them up again to take them to dinner at ‘Sam’s Café’. Master Nohara introduced Gerry and Cliff to another of his senior students who originated from Columbia, was educated in USA and was now settled in Okinawa with his Okinawan wife and children. After a very successful and enjoyable dinner Master Nohara came to the hotel with Gerry and Cliff for coffee in the reception area, where they all sat talking over aspects of old Okinawan Karate, the development of Karate in mainland Japan, and speculated about the future of Karate both in Okinawa itself and abroad. DAY 4 – Tuesday, 10th. October 2006 Training was scheduled for a private session from 12 to 2pm. and with other students from 6.30 to 9.30pm., so with approximately 20 to 30 minutes walking required to get from the hotel to the dojo, the morning was spent catching on sleep. The walk to the dojo acted as a warm up session. The private session from 12 to 2pm concentrated on the techniques of the Bo Staff from the previous session. Again walking back after the first training in the heat led to the afternoon being spent catching up on sleep and doing a few essentials like stocking on food items. Lunch back in the hotel rooms consisted of sushi picked from the local supermarket and fresh fruit. Fortunately, the temperature had dropped a little by the time Gerry and Cliff had to walk to the dojo for the evening session. Due to Okinawa’s long narrow configuration there is always a sea breeze. The evening training session included two of Master Nohara’s Dan graded students. The session focused on impact training and developing hard techniques on the impact pads. Master Nohara analysed the difference between the type of technique used in normal dojo training and the type of technique used in full-contact and knock-down Okinawan fighting. He then re-capped on the Bo Staff techniques and finished with the Nihanchi Kata. One of Master Nohara’s students gave Cliff and Gerry a lift back to the hotel to change before going out to eat in a different Traditional Okinawan restaurant. As with the restaurant on the first night, there were many dishes and copious amounts of Saki. During the dinner Master Nohara took the time to explain more about the history and lineage of his Shorin Ryu and the Shuri-te dojos in around the local area. It would appear that Urasoe City which is the city/ area the American Hotel is located is a ‘hot-bad’ of Shuri-te and Kobudo dojos. The dinner finished sometime after 1.30am. One of Master Nohara’s students had been designated driver and therefore had drank coffee all night, forcing him to miss out on the Omori DAY 5. - Wednesday, 11th October 2006 As there was no training until the evening, Gerry and Cliff decided to take a stroll out and find one of the famous tropical beaches. Just outside Urasoe City was their International Conference Complex. Along the Conference Complex was a one of these beaches. Unfortunately, due to the layout of the area the beach had seemed quite close to the hotel; in reality it proved to be possibly 1.5 miles away. By taking one or two wrong turns Gerry and Cliff at first found themselves headed straight into the US Airbase, then into a major power station and then passing the time of day with some local winos in a park area before spying the way to the beach over a bridge and behind the conference centre. As with everywhere else in Okinawa the beach was kept in an immaculate condition, with plenty of lifeguards and a sea-net preventing one assumes, sharks, jellyfish and any other undesirables from attacking the swimmers. While Cliff took up a relatively cool position to read a book on the beach, Gerry ventured into the sea. Having soaked up a few rays and had an ice-cream it was time to pick up the gis back at the hotel and head for the dojo. This time using a bus to get back to the hotel. Trying to get the bus driver to stop at the hotel stop was difficult until Gerry discovered the word “Sigi” which means “next”. After the now regular walk to the dojo, Gerry and Cliff discovered this was the night when Master Nohara trains children. Unlike most dojos in the UK, the children are brought usually by their mothers, who either leave them there or wait outside. Master Nohara, in line with the practice of the other dojos in Okinawa, do not permit parents and others to hang around in the dojo during training sessions. On this particular evening there were 15 children aged between 7- 13 years old. These children did exactly the same training session format as the adult’s class, starting and finishing with the Nihanchi Kata. Their session lasted about an hour. During that time they also put on pads and head guards and engaged in some rigorous sparring. Such is the pride of these children that two of them continued fighting despite crying at the same time. Master Nohara did intervene and ask if they were alright, but neither child answered him; instead they just continued fighting. One of these two children had already been on the receiving end of an effective technique. This is a typical example of Japanese fighting sprit in the face of tough opposition. While Master Nohara did not force them to stop, both he and other black belts kept a very watchful eye on both the children. After the childrens’ class it was the turn of the adults. On this occasion their were seven adults. The session started and finished with the Nihanchi Kata. Gerry had the opportunity to pad up and put on the head guard to engage in some full-contact sparring with one of Master Nohara’s Black Belts, a young man in his late twenties. Despite Gerry giving his very sharp and able opponent over twenty years age advantage, they kicked and punched each other to a stand still. Gerry commented afterwards; Due to the nature of the full on training session Master Nohara gave Cliff and Gerry a lift back to the hotel. That evening Cliff and Gerry decided to eat out in a local noodles bar. The owner of the noodles bar saw the Ryukukan badge on Gerry’s jacket and asked him if he was training in karate. After eating their noodles, and because there were no other customers in the noodles bar at that time, the owner proudly showed Gerry and Cliff his heavily callused knuckles and told them how he was a 3rd Dan in Shorin Ryu. He then asked Gerry and Cliff to name all the kata they knew. The noodle bar owner was surprised to find out the length of time both Cliff and Gerry had been training and realised they were both genuine senior Dan grades (fortunately). As the noodles bar remained unattended by any other customers the owner then produced a set of heavy weight Nunchua, from under his bar counter, and asked Gerry to name any Kobudo kata that he knew. Again, from Gerry’s response, he realised both Gerry and Cliff were serious practitioners. He asked Gerry to show him his basic Nunchua repertoire which Gerry did, very briefly before any other customers came in. The owner then confirmed that Gerry’s repertoire was genuine traditional Okinawa and not ‘Bruce Lee’ style. Having settled their bill Gerry and Cliff took a short walk to their hotel where they sank a few tubes of the local beer and watch a video from the hotel in-house library. DAY 6 – Thursday, 12th October 2006 The first part of Thursday Gerry and Cliff found they had to themselves so they caught one of the many and frequent buses which go pass their hotel and into International Street. By chance the particular bus they took went via the Tomari area which is famous for karate also situated on the bus route was the Shureido Martial Arts shop. Since both of them had it in mind to purchase new gis, this was really the place to do it. Gerry felt it must have been good karma that put them that particular bus route to International Street. Shureido will embroider names and karate styles onto belts and gis in order to personalise them. The shop assistants spoke little English, and Gerry and Cliff little Japanese, but with perseverance and goodwill on both sides they successfully made their orders. Although normally it takes ten days for the embroidery to be completed, as they were flying out in just four days time, the shop assistants promised to get their gis ready for them to collect before flying out. There was still time to continue their journey onto International Street before heading back for that night’s training session. International Street is full of typical tourist type shops and places to eat. Along one side of International Street are a number of entrances to an undercover market, which is a labyrinth of alleyways of shops and stalls, selling everything from sweets to kimonos. The further you go into the market, the cheaper the products become. Having made some purchases, it was time to head back to the dojo. Training commenced at 6.30pm. At this training session Gerry and Cliff met up with Toda san, who was studying under Master Nohara for one year. He had been sent there by his family from Tokyo. Toda san had come over to England in 2005 with Master Nohara and had come 2nd. in the BIKO Competition, in the light weight category. At the same session was John-Luc one of Master Nohara’s students from Belgium. John-Luc had only flown from Belgium that day; he was here to train and to take part in the Karate Festival along with Gerry and Cliff. The training session again concentrated on fine tuning basic karate techniques and on the Bo kata. After the training session Gerry and Cliff met up with the others to eat at another traditional Okinawan restaurant; which on this occasion also had French fries and pizzas?! When Cliff and Gerry arrived back at the hotel around 10pm. Sam and Toby Winder had arrived to join the group for training and to take part in the Karate Festival. Unfortunately, the baggage handlers at Heathrow had failed to put Sam’s Bo and Jo staffs on the plane, and had infact sent them back to his home address. Sam had resigned himself to borrowing a staff from Master Nohara’s dojo. After a quick catch up on the schedule for Friday and the Festival over Saturday and Sunday everyone went to bed.
DAY 7 – Friday, 13th October 2006-11-27 Yes, Friday 13th – hopefully it would have no bearing on today’s events or the Festival itself. At 2pm Master Nohara picked up Gerry, Cliff, Sam, Toby and John-Luc to go down town to familiarise themselves with the venue for the Festival and to understand exactly what was required of each of them The Okinawan Bodo-Kan is a spectacular building. It is predominantly made of concrete and was probably built in the 1970’s. To fully appreciate all the angles and different levels would require some sort of ariel view. On the ground floor is the performance area, with a raised stage at one end. The remaining three sides have staged seating and there is a large video screen above the stage. Also on the ground floor and on the subsequent upper floors are 7 private dojos, many of which have seating/dining areas. There are also classrooms and all the associated facilities. The building itself is located near the docks area and is well served by roads and the mono-rail. Any of the Masters and Grand Masters in Okinawa can book dojos in this building. It is seen as a public facility and is well used. Once everyone was fully conversant about which rooms they were to use and how they would be called up to perform their particular part of the demonstrations, Master Nohara took everyone to see a traditional Okinawan theatrical performance at the International Conference Centre, part of this performance included musicians sat in seizar and wearing formal monski hakama. After this they all went onto a sushi bar, which had an ever rotating conveyer belt from which you picked your choice of food. Everyone finished their meal with a bowl of crab miso soup. After the meal it was time to go back to the hotel and prepare for the Festival the following day. Master Nohara issued everyone with a copy of the full programme for the Karate Festival, although it was in Japanese, it contained a profile of the Grand Masters that were attending over the weekend, and the names of all the clubs and associations that were taking part. So some where in their they all got a mention. DAY 8 – Saturday,14th October 2006 Master Nohara collected everyone from the hotel at 10am and with a short drive to the Budo Kan, everyone was inside and changing into their gis by 10.45am. Using a vacant dojo, Master Nohara had everyone warm up and then he put them through their demonstrations a number of times. One of Master Nohara’s concerns was that the Kobudo demonstration should result in every individual completing their kata at the same time. As their were a number of different weapons being demonstrated, he had to work out the timing, by having a staggered start to the individual demonstrations and requiring some of the shorter katas to be repeated a number of times. Master Nohara achieved the performance he required from everyone. All that was left to do was to queue in the right order with the many groups waiting to perform. Where time permitted Gerry, Cliff and the others viewed some of the other demonstrations from the public seating areas. The event started with a parade of the Grand Masters and some demonstrations from Hanshi Grades. The timing of the whole day was very precise. At 11.30am Gerry, Cliff, Toby, John-Luc and other International Members of Master Nohara’s dojo joined his Okinawan Members to perform Nihanchi kata and Penan Shodan kata in front of all the Okinawan Grand Masters, all the other groups and the public audience and film and TV cameras – no pressure then! There was then some two hours of non-stop performances from other groups, before Gerry, Cliff, Sam, Toby, John-Luc and other International Members of Master Nohara’s Ryukukan dojo were require to perform again. This time they each performed different Kobudo katas alongside each other. Specifically, Gerry Coulter – Sai Kata, Sam Winder – Bo Kata, Toby Winder – Nunchua Kata, Cliff Richmond – Seishan Kata. Other International Members performed – Shorynryu Kata. After that part of the performance was over boards were then held in four different positions whilst Nohara’s Dan grades smashed through three boards with a punch, two boards with a side elbow strike, the same on the other side, two boards using a side kick, and the final two boards using a back kick. Apart from one Vichi-Aju 9th Dan, this was the only breaking demonstration. The event finished about 5pm. Master Nohara took everyone out to dinner at 7.30pm. After another very enjoyable evening everyone went to bed looking forward to the Grand Master Seminars scheduled for the following day. PLEASE NOTE: Clearly there is much more to be said about the skills and performances shown on this day. This will form the basis for an article separate from this general report on the trip. DAY 9 – Sunday,15th October 2006 Known as the ‘Super Seminar’ all the individual seminars were taken by 9th or 10th Dan Grand Masters. The dojo was filled with reporters and TV crew along side those who had to take part in these seminars. The day commenced at 10am in the Bodo Kan in one of the main dojos on the ground floor. The opening address was from the most Senior of the Grand Masters present. This was followed by the first seminar which was taken by a Shorin Ryu 10th Dan, who was assisted by three 9th Dans. They took the class through Nihanchi kata actively explaining its application and giving correction, including giving correction to other 9th and 8th Dan grades. This kata forms the central core of the Shorin Ryu close range fighting, and therefore a lot of attention is given to it. This first seminar lasted an hour. The second seminar was taken by another 10th Dan Shorin Ryu practitioner. He again started by taking the group through Nihanchi kata and then moved on to Pasi kata The fourth seminar was infact a lecture given by a 10th Dan Shorin Ryu Master on the History of Shuri-te and Tomari Ryu and how they merged to form Shorin Ryu, which is the style with the largest following in Okinawa. The final seminar of the day saw Uichi Ryu stylists demonstrate their unique version of the Sanchin kata and other breath control/tension exercises. The seminar programme finished around lunchtime. Everyone went their own ways, some to the beach, some went site seeing and some to the last night of the main Festival; in which the groups of Okinawan devil drummers had gathered from all over the World to perform in the finale to the Festival. The last night of the Festival was held in the grounds of the International Conference Centre; again plenty of traditional foods, lanterns and music were present. DAY 10 – Monday, 16th October 2006 Sam and Toby Winder bid their farewells and flew out. Gerry and Cliff were due to fly out the following day, so they took the opportunity for one more training session that evening. During the morning however Gerry took the opportunity to have a Mos Teriaci Burger – can’t get them at home! He also visited the Bear Shrine. Besides some last minute shopping it was an easy day. About 4.30pm Cliff and Gerry went to the Shureido shop and collected their new gis. Their last training session commenced about 6.30pm.The training session was attended by Cliff, Gerry, John-Luc, and Toda san, along with more of Master Nohara’s full-contact fighters. The initial hour was spent on impact training. This was followed by full contact sparring with bouts of two minutes duration. As is usual in Shorin Ryu training session’s part of the session was dedicated to Bo basic techniques and kata. This was a good way to wind down after full-contact fighting. After the training Master Nohara took them to the nearest bar and then onto to a night club called Apache. It is a unique experience to hear young Okinawans sing Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran classics, but very entertaining. Everyone got back to the hotel late, that any packing had to wait for the following morning. DAY 11 – Tuesday,17th.October 2006 Sadly all good things must come to an end. Fortunately Gerry’s and Cliff’s flight did not leave until early evening, so after stacking their luggage in the back of Master Nohara’s vehicle, and with John-Luc also included, they went to the south of the Island. Master Nohara took them to the National Gardens of Okinawa. Again, like the aquarium, there are many interesting things here and it would take a good day to see it all. These gardens house many of the country’s crafts and cultural itmes. Master Nohara led them to the underground cave with a pathway through it of some 900 metres It is full of stalagmites and stalactites, and is the biggest known cave of its type in Asia. Elsewhere in the Gardens they saw the brewing of beer, habu saki, sugar production, live music demonstrations and their collection of live snakes and so forth. Master Nohara then took them on to see the Okinawan Peace Memorial. This is at the very south of the island and it commemorates the hundreds of thousands of Okinawan men, women and children who died, many of them throwing themselves off the cliffs, where the Peace Memorial now stands. The names of all other Japanese and Americans who died in the Battle of Okinawa are recorded on stone tablets, and there are numerous black marble tablets placed on the ground in memory of all the unnamed war dead. The Memorial was only constructed in the last thirty years, and includes a museum of Okinawan experience in the 2nd World War. After the visit to the Peace Memorial it was time for Cliff, Gerry and John-Luc to head to the airport and to board their flights. Having said their final goodbyes to Master Nohara Gerry and Cliff boarded an internal flight to Osaka. They arrived in Osaka early evening. Their scheduled flight to Heathrow was due out the following morning from Osaka’s International Airport. So they took the 70minute non-stop coach ride from one airport to other. Osaka at night is a neon light show, with complex road configurations which put our ‘Spaghetti Junction’ in the category of a country lane. The engineering and structural work is something to be amazed at, and gives Osaka a futuristic feel to the city by night. Gerry and Cliff spent the night sleeping on the seats in Osaka International Airport under the watchful of their ever present security staff before boarding their JAL flight back to the UK. The JAL flight was its usual high standard and they arrived back at Heathrow on schedule late Saturday afternoon. IN CONCLUSION: It had been a truly memorial trip and Master Nohara had been the perfect host. Gerry and Cliff had not expected to have so much of his time in the dojo, or so much of his personal time away from the dojo. It had been an honour to be invited out to Okinawa to train and to take part in the Karate and Kobudo Festival. Both of them returned with a sense of achievement and knowing it had been time spent in the cause of developing their skills and knowledge. A separate article dedicated to the two days of the Karate Festival is being prepared. In addition to the Karate and Kobudo, Master Nohara gave Gerry and Cliff as wider experience of Okinawa, its people and their history and culture as time would permit, which they both fully appreciated. It is to be hoped that BIKO and Ryukukan will work well together in the future and that this trip has been a substantial step towards that future. Report prepared by G.Spratley CLICK HERE FOR IMAGES Keep checking the BIKO WEBSITE : www.bik.org.uk for the latest news and results. |