karate words

hey everybody it's richard mosdell here withmy daily karate vblog #16, wow already got to number 16 this is great. we've had a spring break elementary studentage spring break all this week, we're into day 2 of 5, and one of the things we liketo do is have the kids read when they on their lunch break, or one of the breaks betweenthe classes, so they bring books from home.

reading is really important to give them sometime to relax, read what they want to read, have some of the teenage volunteers help outsit beside them. so i wanted to share 2 books i think havebeen great for reading more about karate beyond what's just going on out there on the floor.

so one has been 'karate, my life' by hirokazukanazawa, and kanazawa sensei is a famous shotokan instructor, um way back in the 60sand 70s when he became famous for traveling around europe and the world, and this is reallyhumble, um he's really taken a human, quiet, detailed approach what it was like for himto become a student of karate to start way back in the 50s. he went and did it at a famous universitycalled takushoku daigaku, takushoku university in japan, which became famous for being oneof the center's of shotokan. he became one of the first people to win thejapanese national championships, and a really really nice person.

i've got to meet him several time in japan,and um this book is a translation of his experience of going forward and any person at any levelcan really enjoy this type of book so i highly recommend it so look it up, the translation. it is produced by kendo world, so look itup on the kendo world magazine website. of course the other one i want to bring upis the book that manga university published with me called sonny leads volume 1. at first i wrote a book about my time in japan,and they thought it would be great to turn it into a comic book, and we got the bestmartial arts karate illustrator in japan, kamobayashi sensei, to illustrate inside.

so let me give you a little of a peak becausesome of you might be curious what is this thing, is it actually valuable, well let'sstart with the first part, that building on the cover the nippon budokan is where the2020 tokyo olympic games for karate will be held. it is the main martial arts hall in tokyoright beside the emperor's palace. i'll give you a quick tour of the book. so is not supposed to be me. he is a compilation of several um well a wholebunch of experiences, everything is this book is all fictional, but things like it actuallyhappened.

it goes from right to left japanese styleand as you can see the images are fantastic. and this is a story about what it is likefor sonny to make a decision to have to leave his home town, his home country and go offto japan, and have his japan experience. he doesn't speak any of the language, he doesn'tknow what's going on, he has to use the very few connections he had before he went to findkarate clubs. the way the clubs have been drawn here isjust fantastic, the way they wear their clothes, the way the dojos are, then he also have toget a homestay, he has to find a place to work, and he has to meet kids and go throughall kinds of crazy experiences. um so the book is fantastic that way.

and in the middle is a japanese glossary soi'll get to the middle here. in the middle is a japanese glossary of notjust karate words, but words people say when they are conversing, and then from the backto the front in regular english style here, ok there are some essays, one is what it waslike for me to be a full-time karate instructor in japan. and then i've also detailed what the wholekarate world is like so we all know the old master's names in karate, but do you knowwhat's happening in karate right now? do you what's happening today or this weekend,or what happens every year this month? well, the back part of the book will explainit.

and in some ways a great glossary and a greattool, if you were to to get off the plane in japan right now and you wanted to go aroundand start interacting with people in both mainland japan and okinawa this book would be yourguide. so there are lots of stuff in here. um and one of the things i love about thebook is people will grab it, and hmm maybe i'll read it and then right away run backand say 'i've gotta read read volume 1', so we're working on it. so that's sonny leads and the value of readingsomething more, squeezing more knowledge of a source beyond what we do just on the floor.

i'm richard mosdell, thanks for watching myvblog #16, and i'l talk to you tomorrow.