Last term holidays I took a trip across the Pacific Ocean to Japan for two weeks. I travelled with ten friends and two teachers. We arrived in Osaka in an airport on a man made island. We did several things while in Japan starting in Osaka staying at a youth hostel for five nights. Our second day there we watched a historical sport, sumo wrestling. It was a new experience in sports for me. We then went to Himeji Castle which was built in 1333-1346. It is now one of twelve original castles still remaining in Japan. The castle was an interesting place to see and very cool. The next day we visited a ninja museum. That was the coolest part of the trip so far. They were so fast and had pin point accuracy. I got the chance to throw a few shuriken but I wasn't very good. Three days later we took a bullet train to Tokyo reaching speeds of up to 200km/h. Tokyo was all it was said to be and the night life was awesome. One terminal in Tokyo has four million people using it a day. That's the population of New Zealand. Going to Hiroshima was a very interesting and learning experience. I learnt a lot about the atomic bomb and WWII. Nearing the end of the trip we got to home stay in a very small town called Gokase. The next day we got to go to a school. It was nice to talk to people our age and I made a lot of friends. Those two days were the best part of the trip. I really enjoyed those two weeks and I would like to go back to Japan.  

Fukyugata ichi is the first kata in the Matsubayashi Ryu curriculum that you will learn in our dojo. Some of our senior members have participated in videos, demonstrating Fukyugata ichi and other kata especially for you and we encourage you to look at these video to help you with your training. Remember that a video is just a video and your first reference for assistance in your learning should always be your sensei.   Click here to go to Fukyugata ichi video.