My karate instructor makes an effort to sometimes speak English to me. This is mostly at times when it is obvious to him that I can not guess what is going on from my yet limited Japanese. Now, “belto testo” I understood. It means belt test. Grading. So there was a belt test coming up and he wanted me to take it. The test would be graded by the chief instructor so it would not take place at our dojo. In conjunction with a competition in Shinjuku, an hour from Yokohama by train, it would take place.

After various styles and belts over the years I started fresh again with a white belt when I began training here in Japan six months ago. The colour of the belt is not really important to me, I was always into MA for the exercise and the well being emerging from leaving your aggressions behind. Anyway, it is still nice to be above the white belt. If not only for the look. A coloured belt looks better with a white gi. The white belt makes the whole thing look like a pyjamas. A coloured belt looks more athletic and serious. And a black belt has of course this whole master vibe around it. So, if it feels good it is good sort of.

The problem doing things here in Japan not knowing the language is that everything becomes an approximation. I can go into a restaurant and order food, and I know I will get approximately what I order. Maybe beer in a bottle instead of glass, maybe curry with pork instead of curry with beef. The same goes for the grading, I did not know exactly what was to be tested, or how.

“It will be just like a normal training” was as close an answer as I managed to get. When the day came the few of us who were there for the grading started a joined training session with all the others who were there for the competition. In a crowd with a lot of people I wondered how this could possible serve as grading test. Did they check us out? The head sensei was sitting at the front and most of us was standing in the back so I thought this must just be some kind of warming up. At the same time I tried performing my techniques as proficient as I could, maybe there were assistants watching and rating our performance, I thought.

After this the competition started and I watched a few youth matches. We were asked to stay, so there sure was something more to come. I assumed there would be sparring in one form or another. This is full contact so to grade without some sort of fighting would be kind of lame. Seems I was right when we were issued protective gear to put on. By now I thought I would just be fighting another student who also was there for the grading. Turned out I was wrong.

When they picked a black belt from another club as the first opponent I slowly realised that this was going to be tough fights. The match started with a series of fast attacks from Kato who was up against the black belt. The fighters wore headgear that is made as a padded leather helmet with a plastic visor. This means you can punch each other straight in the face without any real damage. Even wearing gloves you have to be careful with your hands, punching wrongly can hurt both your knuckles and your wrists. Watching this first match and knowing that I was up next was a strange feeling. On one level I felt a fight or flight sensation emerging through my body. I remember thinking, I wonder if I can leave this place now without anybody noticing? After that I switched from flight to fight. I would punch out the other guy or die. No matter who was in front of me. It is good that I was not the first to fight. Watching the first two fights gave me enough time to prepare mentally and perform.

Luckily this was short, one round fights. After the first two minutes fighting I felt as I had consumed more energy than I normally do in a full two hour work out session. I had decided using the same tactics as Kato, to attack furiously from the start. Fight for my life. Go out with a bang. This worked out fine and I got many hits in the first thirty seconds. Then the opponent started to counter and I took a few blows to the head. Even though the visor protects the face a hard punch still gives your head quite a shake. I decided here to change tactics and try to keep him away from me with kicks. Problem was he started kicking me too. And by know I was so tired that I had no energy lifting my leg to protect from his low kicks, even seeing them coming clearly. It was here that I made my mistake. Too tired to think properly I threw a hard low round kick to the front leg of the opponent. This he blocked the full contact way (Thai boxing style) by picking up his leg and turning it slightly outward. The sharp pain when my leg hit his almost dropped me to the floor.

Our bodies contain many amazing things, one of them is a small drug factory. By now my brain felt immediate pain and grave danger at the same time so it issued a large shot of adrenaline. My leg hurt for three weeks after this, but not for the rest of this fight. I realised I needed to try something new. The idea was never to win against this guy, but to perform a decent fight that would earn me my belt. If I was to go out it was to be in style. Having hurt the front of my right leg I decided to be bold and try a back spinning round kick. It actually worked and hit my opponent! Even followed by cheers from the crowd. By now I was so tired that I could barely stand so I just tried to hang in there until the match would be over.

I got some ice on my leg and was quite happy about the whole thing. Afterwards my instructors congratulated me on a good fight. Two weeks later the results came and I now carry the blue belt with two black stripes. I know that I earned it from fighting and it feels good wearing it.

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