Japan is known as the home of many different Martial Arts. If you come to stay here you may want to try training. Get a piece of that Mr Miyagi mystery thing. I know I did. Ever since I first saw the movie The karate kid. I thought to myself, do they know something I dont. Is there a mystery aspect of karate that they kept hidden in Japan and never told anyone?

To get started in training Martial Art in Japan is not difficult. Just find a gym and ask if you can join. Thats what I did. If you live in one of the bigger cities it should be no problem finding one. Tokyo is more like a set of small villages that slowly growed and connected than a big city. Think LA more than NY. That means that every neighbourhood has everything. Restaurants, dry cleaning, doctors, shops and martial arts gyms. It is likely not far from your house to the closest gym. If you cant walk there you can probably ride your bike.

When you chose your gym there are a few things to consider. To me it is important that the gym is close to where I live or work. This is to make sure I go. If your gym is to far away it is likely that you skip going the days you feel a little lazy or if it is raining. To get results you have to train regularly. My gym is ten minutes from my house riding my bicycle. It is perfect because while it is close enough I still get warmed up pedaling the bike to get there. You can also chose a gym near your work, so that you can go straight from work to the gym.

As a foreigner doing martial art you probably have heard of only a few dojos in Japan. Remember there are thousands of them. If you promtly want to train at the Honbu dojo of a particular style just because Master Oyama did or at the oldest dojo in Japan in Kyoto maybe thats what you should do. But it is not the easiest way. Most universities also have a wide ranging choice of sports in their athletics departments. Besides football and baseball there is usually a choice of the traditional japanese martial arts: judo, karate, kyodo, aikido and kendo. But then you must be a student of a university.

Now, you will have to chose a style. If you already hold a belt in a particular style it might be a good idea to find a club where you can continiue with the same thing. If you for example hold a yellow belt in Kyokushinkai you simple look for a Kyokushin Club and inquire there.

If you are a beginner, or like me, have tried a variety of different martial arts over the years there are other ways of finding your style. After some basic research of what the different styles are about the best thing I think is to actuallt go to a dojo and ask if you can watch the training. Usually you can watch for free. Sometimes you are offered a free trial to sample the training. If it is possible to actually train with a group, do it. Dont be afraid if you dont understand the language or the moves. Just do it to see if you like it.

Easy enough, but how to actually find the gym you say. Word of mouth. Ask your friends or colleges. Usually the best way to find things out. Internet. Search or browse Martial Arts sights. But thats not the way I did it in the end. After trying all of the above with no result I just went out and started looking for a dojo. There are a lot of martial arts resources on the internet, but it is mostly in japanese and you need to be able to type and read japanese to get any help from that. Check out the difference for yourself if you google “karate yokohama” and then the same thing in japanese: “空手　横浜”.

So, I was new to Japan, had a very limited japanese vocabulary and wanted to find a dojo. The internet could not help me so I decided to check out my neighbourhood on foot. Go to the station. There you will find shops, restaurants and very often a noteboard. If there is no posts about martial art ride your bike to the next station, I did. Or you can also take the train. Doing this I realized that in the blocks a round every station there is at least one or two adverts for different dojos. If it was in japanese I would take a digital picure of it and get help translating it. If it it was something I knew I was not into I would just find another one.

Pretty soon I found an interesting place one station from where I live. If the poster looks good, then go check the place out. Once there, look on the signs, are there pictures posted? Does it look good, does if feel like it is something for you? If you like the place then go in and inquire.

Even though my japanese was very limited I decided to go in by myself, rather than come back with a friend who spoke japanese. It is not difficult to communicate what you want. It feels better to know that it was me who found the dojo and went in. Even though I had to get help later with the application forms.
This is the club where I train in Yokohama. Looks more like a dojo in LA than the traditional Japanese style!

After watching the training once I knew I was in the right place. The style was full contact karate. Traditional white gi and color belts, but boxing stance and boxing techniques. For the higher belts they also require you to learn take downs and grappling. I began training there the following week. It is not so much “wax on wax off”, more punch the bag as hard as you can!