Laughable Determination

After discharging from the Navy in 1983 I decided to stay in Japan and live with my wife who was Japanese.


Just to stay in Japan you have to apply for a visa. In my case I needed a residential visa. To apply , you must have a doctors report on the condition of your health. You can not have STDs or any other type of contagious diseases. Next, a letter of guarantee from a Japanese. This person must vouch for you and be held responsible that you abide and obey all the rules and customs of Japan. Then you must have proof of a job unless you are applying for a school visa.

After that, you will need proof that you have enough money that in the event you are deported you can purchase your own ticket. And lastly, you will need to provide them with a written statement of why you want to be in Japan and why it will be of benefit to their country.

Finally , you will have to sit down and have an interview and go over all of your documentation. It has to be current. Then if you pass the interview, you will need to purchase the visa. It is expensive. One more thing, you will have to travel to this office . Depending on where you are living in Japan , it could be far so you will need to check into a hotel.

And the above process has to be repeated every time you apply. In my case it was every year for the first three years and every three years after that!



Being a foreigner in Japan is not easy. Think of all the things you won’t be able to do because you can not read? For example, withdrawing money from an ATM. Going to the library and checking out a book. Mailing a package, etc. Every thing is written in Chinese and Japanese Characters. So you have to have some one who is willing to help you out, a lot !

What about food? There are many kinds of dishes that you have never seen or know how to eat them.



My first apartment was a duplex. Basically it was a room with a small sink in the end with a small closet to the right. There was a two burner stove with a built in broiler. The hall in front had a toilet and small sink that I shared with the other tenant living next door. For a bath , you have to go to the local bath house.Women on one side and men on the other. Could not see each other, just hear little. It was very embarrassing to be the only foreigner amongst all of those Japanese men. The first time it was hard, but after a few times I fit right in.

Before entering a bath house , one take off his shoes and puts them in a cubby hole like shelf, normally there is a wooden key. Then slide the door open and step in. There is normally a huge 6 or 7 foot counter where someone takes you money , about $1.50. Then there are baskets provided for putting your close in after taking them off. This place is separate from the bath house. The only thing separating it from the bathing room is a glass wall which is kind of steamed up. So after getting naked, you open the sliding door and walk in. As soon as you open the door every body looks your way. That is the fun part. So you grab a bucket and a wooden stool and go to the wall , there you will find many hot and cold faucets running along at the bottom of the wall. You take a seat down and start washing. You will of course brought your shaving stuff, a wash cloth and soap. There is also a small mirror that runs all the way down the wall above the faucets so you can see what you are doing. After washing, you fill up your bucket and rinse off several times. Now you are ready for the bath. The bath is very big like a pool except it has a wall around it so you can sit on it and dangle your legs into the water so they can get use to the extremely hot water. The pool is deep enough so that you can sink up over you shoulders.There are many men in there together. Any way, it does take some getting use to going to these bath houses.

Speaking the language is difficult. When speaking to someone that you respect, like teacher or employer, you must use humble language when referring to oneself and very polite language for the respected one.

Japanese is very difficult to listen to.

In short you will need to go to school to learn Japanese.



The first time that I saw Taichi was in Yokohama China town. I was walking to work and in the park I saw some people in a group moving kind of slow all synchronized . I thought it looked kind of kool . When I went into the office I asked some of the staff what was it . They told me it was Taichi. I wanted to take a class so I found out where there club was and went there to join. The club was located in China Town next to a Buddhist temple. My Japanese was embarrassing to say the least, but I was bent on joining so I memorized what to say. It went like this, ‘’My name is Duke , I am from America, May I join your Club? ‘’ Yes, she said. Then I asked her about the tuition, and she told me. I payed her and I went home.Wow, I was glad she did not ask me a bunch of questions, cause I was nervous.I did not understand a lot of what she said.

The classes were held twice a week. I took the morning classes. Mostly middle age women and men during the week, but more of a mix on Sats.

It was awkward , I thought I was in shape but I realized how out of shape I was. I had to get instructed in Japanese. For example,Yubi ga saki, fingers first, koshi wo urumete, relax your waiste, hiza ga ashi no sumia saki knee to the toes, etc. confusing.

The first forms that I masterd was the 24 form simplified Taich. I was shown one form at a time and had to do it until I could memorize it. Then came the next form and the next, until I could string it all along and do it without stopping.I eventually mastered the 48, and 66 Taichi forms.

My sensei did not teach how to use the forms. I could do the forms but I had no idea what they meant. Sometimes I would find books at the library or book store show certain throws and attacks using Taichi. So I became curious why I was not being taught that. Well I decided to go look at other Taichi schools. To my dismay they were all the same.I was about to give up when I found a school in north Tokyo that was teaching how to use it. I went for a visit and found out they were teaching the applications of Taichi and much more.

I joined this school and after six weeks I could finally make some sense out of what I had been learning for six years at the other school. I really felt that I had wasted my time.

Anyway , can not change the past, just try not to repeat it.

The old school was more of a Taichi exercise club . You see Taichi was never intended to be only an exercise to just keep you mentally and physically healthy. It is a martial art! Yes, Yes it keeps you fit. Not arguing with that, but it is suppose to develop martial art skills. Not just some yoga.



The school in Itabashi Tokyo was more martial than club atmosphere.

It was tough. I started out taking Taichi and Yawara,yawara is another word for Jujutsu. Later on I stared taking Paqua. Paqua is a form of Chinese pugilism. The fee for one class was $7000 yen, if you took more than one style the fee was reduced 1000 yen , so my monthly total was 19000 yen

About $200.00 a month. Plus train feee. I had to take three different trains to get there all the way from Yokohama. Travel fee was about $30.00 round trip.It took about an hour and a half.



Sometimes someone will call here and ask if I teach kick boxing or mixed martial arts, I tell them no but they might find it in Atlanta. They normally say it is too far. After all that I went through to learn martial arts, I find it laughable! Firstly, even if you found something near as authentic as in it’s mother land in the USA it would be almost a miracle. And if you did and you can not muster up the spirit to go as far as Columbus to Atlanta to get it, then you are definitely not going to be able to become a fighter. Much less a champion in that sport.

You have to work hard. It may cost lots of money, travel far, and be a foreigner amongst them and speak their language. What ever it takes, that is what you will have to do if you want to achieve your goal.