the 55th Wado-kai All Japan Karate Competition Part 1

I went to Tokyo to watch ” the 55th Wado-kai All Japan Karate Competition.”

It was held on 17th and 18th August.

I’m going to report about first day of the competition.

By the way, I didn’t compete in this time.

In the first day, the eliminating round was in Ushiku city, Ibaraki.

If a competitor win in this round, the person can compete in Budokan in next day.

Kumite(fighting) place and Kata Place were separated and Kata site was smaller than Kumite one.

The air temperature was over 35 degree.

But no air conditioner in Kata area.

That was super hot!

Some children got heat stroke.　

I spent most time to watch Kata games.

This competition was ‘Wado-kai competition’, so competitors should do ‘Wado-kai’ kata properly.

If they didn’t do so, referees didn’t raise their flags.

Some people made sounds by breath, touching gi(this means ‘Dogi’ in Japanese), foot.

Even good player lost because of these things.

I saw the games which I felt ‘why did the player lose…?’

I saw the people who have strong feeling for win and the people who shed tears of vexation from lost.

I was so glad to watch the high level competition.

I will write about the second day in this competition in Part 2.

To be continued…