As a precaution, many people had opted to sleep on the streets. It was not easy to get some sleep during the first nights due to the still frequent aftershocks that from time to time woke us up. On occasions a particularly unpleasant odour could be perceived and I was told that it came from the many collapsed buildings that still had corpses beneath. Under these conditions and with a temperature of 86вњЇ combined with a high humidity level, breathing fresh air was an unimaginable luxury. It was particularly shocking to see that some locals, both men and women, would answer calls of nature where it took them and did not hesitate to urinate in the middle of the streets. Human and animal waste was lying around everywhere together with garbage of all kind. The local parks had been turned into refugee camps where huge amounts of people were living in the most overcrowded conditions in camping tents or just under a canvas, without water supply or the minimum of hygienic conditions. The whole city looked like a war zone heavily bombarded with its infrastructures destroyed. As we approached the airport, I could already see the considerable damage on buildings and streets but nothing could have prepared me for the level of devastation I was about to witness first hand. I remember boarding the small United Nations propeller that would take me from Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, to Port au Prince. The author Francisco EstГ©vez (centre) with members of the JKAвЂ€Haiti advanced class. I'm sure readers will understand this situation. Regrettably we have had to increase the SKM subscription fee due solely to astronomical postage charges. Bob's Gyo (path) has taken him through much adversity with numerous physical problems over the years of training, yet he still continues along the way, as do many others. Many times people were rushed into attaining Black-belt status.

With the petty club politics and the even higher, more complex organisational politics, causing many innocent young karateka who started in those days to become pawns in the political karate game, when really all they wanted to do was practice karate and hopefully improve as time passed. This story is very common with people who started in the 1960's or 1970's. The article by Bob Remington will strike a cord with many older karateka for sure. Gichin Funakoshi taught just fifteen kata and even then he suggested that probably five or six would be sufficient to work on in a lifetime! But good luck to anyone trying to learn new forms if that's what interests you. Personally I've got enough problems with the standard 26 Shotokan kata and getting to grips with the in's and out's of those, and continually finding answers to the bunkai puzzles we have been left with, so for me (and many others I believe) this number of kata is sufficient. He has some interesting points to make in his interview especially regarding the introduction of new kata which seems to be catching on these days amongst the various Shotokan associations. I remember Yamaguchi sensei as a very young guy who came here (UK) from Japan in the early 1990's on a course with senseis Asai, Abe, Kagawa and the other Yamaguchi (much older and no relation, I think). The four that readily spring to mind are senseis, Asai, Kase, Enoeda and Nishiyama who all had a massive influence on literally thousands of Shotokan karateka who continue to practice the unique styles of karate developed by these past Masters, all who came from the Shotokan school. It seems that several world famous Shotokan senseis who have now passed away, still maintain a huge following around the world.

Like many other senior instructors, (for example Rick Jorgensen in the last issue who carries on the karate style, tradition and philosophy of the late Nishiyama sensei) whereas Yokota sensei makes no secret of being an avid follower of the late Asai sensei's karate, and he explains his reasons for this in the interview. Some of his articles have been quite controversial where he has described his views on the many so called Myths surrounding Shotokan karate-do and indeed he has published a book dealing with this very subject. As many readers will know, we have had several articles written by Kousaku Yokota sensei in previous issues of SKM but never before had an actual interview with him until now.

Shotokan vs sabaki