Projects

In addition to teaching at least half of the classes at my dojo each week, I am involved in many projects relating to karate.  First, there is the Instructors' Class that currently meets approximately every 3 months.  For more on that, please see the Instructors' Training pages. I am also involved in assisting others in the area with the organization and administration of some local tournaments and act as guest instructor at classes and seminars at different locations.  I also try to arrange for different guest instructors to visit my dojo several times each year and support the activities of other dojo in the area when they host special seminars. 

In addition to the dojo, my second night-job (Yes, I have a day-job, too: I train people on how to use Bloomberg, a sophisticated financial software package, which takes about 60 hours of my time each week.) involves running the sales and web design end of the primary Tokaido web-based international distributorship, exporting these products from Japan with my partner in this venture, another American who has also lived in Tokyo for many years.  For more, please visit the Tokaido website. 

Is that all?
No.  Not even close.  I am in the process of compiling and editing a book about training in Japan.  This book will have at least two dozen contributors providing their reflections of living and/or training at the Hoitsugan and other locations in Japan, spanning the first 30+ years of the Hoitsugan's existence, since Nakayama Sensei had the dojo built in 1972. I am supplementing the submissions by these people with photographs, interviews and a little history.  This should be "the new Moving Zen" for Shotokan readers.  I expect everyone doing Shotokan will want a copy. 

I am also involved in arranging reunions and seminars involving past Hoitsugan karateka, the first of which occured in northern California in 2004 and second in southern California in 2005.  These reunions coincided with some of the best seminar sets held anywhere, ever. Future Hoitsugan Seminars (& Reunions) will be held around the globe.  Please help support these seminars by ordering a professionally made DVD from the 2004 event. Although some people have suggested I put all my website articles together and publish them in book form, I may never do that. 

But I do have another book planned for someday in the future when I have enough time for it.  It is a much bigger project. The second book project has been in the works for several years, but has reached a point that further development is difficult.  This is a technical text that requires more research.   Until I gain access to a university laboratory or win a lottery, I cannot conduct many of the experiments that I have planned.  Within the next several years, I hope to get the work done and publish this book along with an interactive DVD.  As for my articles, I plan on continuing to write one each month.  I have a list of planned subjects for future articles.  I could definitely make a book out of them.  I have put out about 70 so far and for many of them I have additional notes and diagrams that I could put in if I were to actually publish a book from them.  But that is not the plan.  The idea is to spread my knowledge, experience and ideas.  I am always interested in getting feedback on these articles, even when it is not 100% agreement.

That's it?
No.  I am always conducting some type of research, whether it be reading about different martial arts, thinking about kata applications, teaching theory or working on calculations to quantify characteristics of techniques.   Some of my articles have made their way into the Shotokan Research Society International Journal (which I helped create and develop before its aim and format changed from my original vision and eventually deteriorated into history) and other publications.  Whether or not I have enough time to write an article of my own for inclusion elsewhere, I try to keep involved with the activities of other contributors to karate publications and web-based forums such as "Karate Underground" (for which I am a moderator) and am involved with discussions on the related Yahoogroup discussion lists, as well as acting as administrator for others that I have created, such as one set up to facilitate the discussion of scientific study of the martial arts.

No more?
Have you seen ShotoMag? This is THE new place for Shotokan articles. I am its primary creator and Chief Editor. I write, edit, upload articles and events to the calendar, do a little work on web design, look for advertisers... We launched on October 2, 2005 and just one month later already had well over 400 registered visitors. I am always on the lookout for writers and advertisers to make this bigger and better. Yes, this keeps me busy well into the night.

Anything else?
Actually, there is one more thing that deserves mention.  I am compiling a database of Shotokan Instructor Profiles.  If you haven't already, please help further this project by submitting comments on instructors you know.