More folks who will completely kick my a$$

So I finally got back over to the gym I used to train in when we lived Fukuma side... I had gone there a couple times last week, but never when they were actually having classes... the schedule had changed a bit since I was there last.

But I finally caught up with Shoda-sensei [middle] and had an outstanding time getting knocked around for a couple hours. Oh, and as a bonus I finally figured out - through the magic powers of the internet, Google and PAYING ATTENTION - what kind of Karate gym it was. I trained there 7-8 months when we were here before and never managed to crack the code.

But it's Daido Juku Karate. An offshoot of Mas Oyama's Kyokushin Karate, established in 1981 by Takashi Azuma...

"In 1981 Takashi Azuma who is a '77 Kyokushin All Japan Champion founded Karatedo Daidojuku. Our mother art is Karatedo, but we also incorporate grappling and submission training in order to be well rounded martial artists as well as for self defenses."

It's good stuff, applying pretty much all the fundamentals of MMA [mixed martial arts]. Their competitions limit the groundwork to 30s on the ground, but the training is pretty much all around goodness...

It's funny, in looking up Daido Juku, I came across this guy's account of his time in Japan working out at a Daido Juku gym, [but it's not really that hardcore, at least in my experience... lotsa fun though]:

"Whilst in Japan, I also did a style called Daido Juku under Azuma Sensei. Australia’s Andrew Dickinson told me I should go and check out Daido Juku. I’d heard about it before and its reputation for being a very hard karate. It was a very, very scary kind of training. I went home and felt intimidated because they did train extremely hard: full contact – not just to the body, but to the head and everywhere. It was very hard training. But I joined up because they incorporated boxing into the style. They also included grappling in their training."

I totally paid ahead for a couple months training... I am so definitely getting back in the groove here, which is very cool...