Osu!

I always want to write about the two years I spent as a rough and tough Karate chick, but I never seem to know where to start. Being a "Japan person", as my friend Dave puts it, I've always been interested in martial arts and had already gotten a couple of years experience in Aikido and Judo under my white belt before I gingerly stepped into the world of Total Combat Budo. All I had really intended to do was sign up my then 5 year old daughter for kids Karate classes at the new dojo that had opened up near the station in Seta. When the Shihan (head dude) asked me if I wanted to try it too, I said, Sure why not?. I'd always wanted to try Karate but had never thought I could really hack it. I never imagined that working out together with my daughter at the dojo would lead me to bare fisted standing and ground fighting with guys close to half my age. It scared the hell out of me at first, but then I grew to love it. In the beginning I had a hard time even hitting anyone because I didn't want to hurt them. After a while I got the hang of it and found out I was also pretty utarejozu; I was good at taking hits and kept on fighting. I could do 700 squats in a row when the Shihan demanded it. I could push myself to the point where I knew I was just minutes from passing out and would step off the dojo floor just long enough to go outside and take in some fresh air to make the spinning stop before I headed back in for more. And I was able to infiltrate and make a place for myself in a very male, very Japanese situation. It was cool.
I was going through a phase where I had a lot of dangerous, volatile energy in me and the dojo gave me a place to channel that. Sure it fed my aggression too, but it was something I needed to work out with myself. It took me almost two full years from my first timid steps to the point where I had to walk away because I had been pulled so far into the inner workings of the organization that I was in danger of losing my autonomy. Sounds dramatic, I know, but it was dramatic.
I do not miss the bruises and the injuries but I miss the buzz. The high I got from sparring was as good as the one I get from playing music. Sometimes I would go directly from a jam session with my buddy Hokkan to a practice at the dojo and the Shihan could always tell because on those days my timing would be spot on. On a really basic level sparring and playing music are the same; you put a lot of time in practicing your basic moves, breaking things down into their simplest parts and mastering them to prepare for when it's time to get up there and let it all loose and it flows from you without thought or premeditation.