Encounters change people.
～Enchanted by the Gold Medal～
One day in the spring when I was 11 years old, I visited my brother’s house in the neighborhood. I saw a gold medal displayed there as soon as I came in. It was the gold medal my brother had won in the town marathon. When I saw the gold medal, I wanted it badly and asked my brother for it. My brother said: “No. A gold medal must be earned by oneself. A gold medal that was just given to is worth nothing. Go get your own gold medal.” From that day on, the Karate Kid’s desire to win a gold medal grew by the day. The boy who had been doing karate for five years and had never won a single match was fascinated by the gold medal made his decision: to someday get a gold medal.
Training every day at the elementary school gym
～Talking with the teacher～
From the day after seeing the gold medal at his brother’s house, the Karate Kid changed dramatically. Usually, I would practice twice a week from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm. Adult training was from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm. I wanted to become better, so I asked my teacher if I could train with the black belts and adults. From that day on, I trained with the adults for one hour after the children’s training was over. It was unusual that a boy who had hated training and would always take breaks suddenly asked his teacher if he could participate in the adults’ training, but I think that the teachers and black belts who accepted that are amazing. From that day, I wanted to improve the things taught to me by the teacher before the next training. When I was 11, I told my teacher I wanted to become even better during the summer holiday and was allowed to train every day from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. Even if it can be called morning practice, the dojo is a public facility and as such not open at that time. For that reason, I ran to my elementary school gym at the top of a mountain every morning at 5:00 am, cleared the concrete space in front of the entrance with a broom and prepared it for practice. But my teacher was a taxi driver and had to work until late at night, he often wouldn’t come in time. So I had to go to a public phone booth at the foot of the mountain and wake him up, get back to the top of the mountain and wait for my teacher to begin the training. Finally, I practiced from 6:00 am to 7:00 am.
An elementary school gymnasium on a mountain.
Concrete space in front of the elementary school gym entrance
It’s the slope I ran up the mountain every morning.
The pay phone at the end of the mountain.