Quote:
Matthew Story wrote:
My (admittedly limited) experience has taught me that the Westerners who try the hardest to be Japanese often end up creating a cartoon-like caricature of the way the Japanese really train and teach. I'm a big fan of karate blogger Rob Redmond, who spent two years training in Nagoya, Japan. When he arrived in Japan, he discovered that what his American instructors had taught him was the "Japanese" way of doing things was comical to many of his Japanese training partners.
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Hi Matthew,
I used to train in Shotokan and corresponded with Rob Redmond. Right now,
I am training in Japan!
It is important to keep in mind that Redmond's experience is only one person's. For example, I had the impression from reading his forums that only Americans said "osu". But actually, not only is "osu" used in my dojo, but it is used by lots of Japanese who play western sports, etc. So the "mistaken" Americans who "osu"ed to everyone at every opportunity weren't really wrong. Go figure!!
Just like America, you can find dojos in Japan doing all kinds of different things. Some of them are relaxed, some formal. Some teach strict forms, some teach budo-yoga fusion stuff. It takes all kinds.