Hello all. Unfortunately I was attacked tonight in a train station tonight coming back from a budo buddy's wedding party. This happened while I was coming out of a bathroom. There were four men together and one seemed to purposely try to back into me (which he couldn't). This made him angry so he started to come at me (accompanied by a foul mouth). Everything happened SOOOOOO fast which goes to show that there is absolutely NO TIME for plans or thought. I warned him, but my warning was ignored while he tried to come at me. Although he had his hands up, he couldn't touch me because I just kept moving just as Soke and the shihan tell us to do. I had the room to keep moving, so eventually he gave up. When I told the station staff, they laughed assuming that I was a friend of his and it was a joke (the attacker was also an American). The reason I am writing this is to say that budo is not something that can be turned on and off. It is something that becomes a part of you (hopefully). If all four of them came at me, I would not be writing this e mail. I would be laying in a hospital bed. Luck is also a big factor. Budo to me is the ability to do the best you can when dealing with life's challenges. The "superninjer" concept is a result of Hollywood conditioning which really has nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish. Moral of the story: KEEP MOVING! (Even "bad" movement is better than no movement at all.)
Another reason why I want to learn bujinkan. The other week at my college, some students were robbed at knife-point. Last week, two girls woke up in their dorm and found some guys in their room stealing their things. In today's world, I need to learn to protect myself.
However, that is the martial art I want to train in and plan to train in. I found a dojo close to my college and everything. The only thing stopping me from training is that I don't have a way to get to the dojo.
That is true, at least against untrained attackers. I was in a similiar situation this summer, but the attacker was charging on my friend, I didn't have time to think so I kicked him in the shoulder, when he got up and tried to punch me, well his right shoulder was hurt so he couldn't use his right arm, but I was still surprised how safe I felt just moving diagonally away from him, keeping the distance, it felt as I could go on like that for a while. Luckily his friends grabbed hold of him. I was lucky in the same way as you, if they all had attacked I wouldn't have had much of a chance. The thing is, I haven't trained for long, I am not skilled, and everyone was drunk, including me. So it was probably really bad movement, but the point is, I kept moving. If I had walked in and started exchanging strikes, it woudln't have gone well, either me or him would of gotten very hurt. P.S I have talked to everyone that was there, and everything was pure self defense from my side, don't know if I explained everything well enough.
Good to hear that it came out ok. Sickening. I'm assuming that that's pure racism, or discrimination on national-origin; I wonder whether they would assume "oh, hey, they're both Japanese, they must be friends messing around..." at the sight of a brawl between locals...
Sometimes in Japan businesses will not allow foreigners to enter if they had trouble with them in the past. When they have trouble with Japanese customers, which DOES occur, I never see "Sorry-No Japanese Allowed" policies being made. This is because they would go out of business since 99% of the people who live in Japan happen to be Japanese.lol Although I have very strong opinions about racism based on experiences in Japan, I don't want to open a big can of worms here simply out of respect to the Japanese shihan that frequent MAP.
Good to see everyone escaped unharmed ! Racism is a problem no matter where you are in the world it is a fear reaction employed by some humans who can't or don't want to accept differences and want a status quo maintained. It comes in all forms. MAP members are quite often attacked by Martialism & Martialist on this forum. Water off a ducks back my friend
I'm certainly glad to hear you're okay. Frankly, I was shocked as I began reading what happened -- What?!? Coming out of a train station bathroom in Japan?!? Then you mentioned that the attacker was another American. Okay, more comprehensible at least, though I don't like what it implies about our culture. . .
If Raitei is who I think he is, Dale he might tell you in private one day about another non American problem he had a couple of years ago. Americans DON'T have a monoploy on behaving badly they just tend to more noticed as there are more of them.
Although this was my first "real" fight encounter, Japanese people have tried to start fights with me. These were times when I put my ego aside, let the insults dissipate into the air, and went home to play with my son. This might be shocking to hear Dale because I have seen you in Japan quite a few times. What foreigners should realize is that many Japanese will go into "cater to foreign visitor mode" when they feel that a foreigner is here for a short stay. They will do things for you that they would ABSOLUTELY NEVER do for Japanese in the same situation (one foreign student was given a ride to the Hombu by a stranger which absolutely blew my mind). When you start peeling away more layers of the onion, look out. Only thing I can say logically here is DON'T EAT ONIONS (or just look but don't touch lol).
You sometimes get the occasional a-hole no matter what country your in. I had only one problem since my stay in Japan. What station were you at? They must have been former Nova workers angry about losing there jobs. Glad your safe.
If there is ever a time to "be a ninja" and let your ego disappear, it's when you're in another country. Maybe next time I'm over I'll take a page from Ed Martin's book and bring my CaneMasters cane. I'll be back December 1 through 8; first training will be Nagato's and Soke's classes on Sunday, December 2. If you have a chance while I'm there, please introduce yourself -- perhaps we can train together a bit and/or grab a beer or something. By the way, the training-and-beer bit also goes for anyone else here at MAP who's going to be around Noda/Ayase that week.
