ONE YEAR IN JAPAN TODAY

How many people can come here and train karate pretty much every day for a year? Not to mention come to Japan consistently through their teens, 20’s and 30’s, to learn traditional Shotokan properly? I’m certainly not boasting this experience, but rather trying to express how fortunate I’ve been in my life, and still am.

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If there is one thing I can be proud of as a kiwi, it is not accepting the crap which is called Shotokan back in New Zealand, and always coming to the source to learn the art correctly (http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/2008/03/shotokan-karate-do-narrow-river.html).

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I truly cannot believe that a year has already passed since arriving back in Japan... But looking at how far my karate technique has come, it more than confirms that time. My only personal goal is that I continue to develop my skills at the same pace over the next 12 months. This depends on my ability to maintain shoshin wasuru bekarazu (http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/2008/03/shoshin-wasuru-bekarazu.html), which has been another driving force bringing me to Japan for so many years.

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Thanks to my family, friends, students and supporters of this blog from around the world. Domo arigato gozaimasu!

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OSU!

© André Bertel, Japan 2008