This is my first post on MT and I want to say how much I appreciate the effort that goes into maintaining these forums. Well done.
I have been a fan of more than one martial art for quite some time now. I have dabbled in Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Kick boxing and now I have come across Ninjutsu. I was in Japan, traveling from Tokyo down to the Kyoto region back in October on vacation. One night around 2AM on my way back to the hotel I passed by the local park with its dim lights, small shrines and fountains...and people.
They had uniforms on, what I thought were maybe workers since they were standing around and it was hard to see. After I nearly walked passed the entrance of the park I hear one man, a little taller yet thinner looking than the rest shout something in Japanese and the rest of the people take off.
I was interested so I walked right into the park. I didn't really care who they were, I am confident in my own abilities to defend myself if anything happened, and walked up to the taller man who did not run off. I simply walked up to him and he was dressed in all black with his tobi, a sash around his waist. I instantly knew they were practioners of some form of ninjutsu from their uniform at that point. I could hear russling around me from the students training but not many other sounds. The area around the park was very quiet since it was so late and it made it more intrigueing to me...I could barely hear anything going on.
The man greated me in Japanese, I responded with what I knew in Japanese then asked if he knew some English. He only knew a few words and very broken english but said,"Welcome to Japan. The students are having their training now, please do not bother. Thank you."
With that I gave a deep bow out of respect as did the taller man. He took off and I didn't really see where anyone went at that point so I went back to the hotel.
Till this day back here in San Diego I will never forget that. To anyone else it would seem rather fruitless to be excited about it but I just wanted to go and find the tall man again and ask him if I could train with them. Thats all I wanted to do for the rest of my vacation...
Now here in San Diego I have wanted to practice Ninjutsu for some time but I can NOT find a Dojo that is within half an hour of where I live. The nearest one is http://www.ninjutsusandiego.com/ and that is about an hour away with traffic...
How far do you all travel for classes and schools? I grow tired of the rather boring and commercialized Muay Thai/kick boxing I do at my gym and grappling does not appeal to me very much with Jiu Jitsu. I need something that will make me think and make me learn. Learning is the keyword here and just going to White Dragon Martial arts where they teach a commercial Kung Fu for $2000 a year seems pretty out rageous.
Any thoughts? Does anyone know anything about San Diego Ninjutsu?
Thanks for the read =)
Paul
I have been a fan of more than one martial art for quite some time now. I have dabbled in Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Kick boxing and now I have come across Ninjutsu. I was in Japan, traveling from Tokyo down to the Kyoto region back in October on vacation. One night around 2AM on my way back to the hotel I passed by the local park with its dim lights, small shrines and fountains...and people.
They had uniforms on, what I thought were maybe workers since they were standing around and it was hard to see. After I nearly walked passed the entrance of the park I hear one man, a little taller yet thinner looking than the rest shout something in Japanese and the rest of the people take off.
I was interested so I walked right into the park. I didn't really care who they were, I am confident in my own abilities to defend myself if anything happened, and walked up to the taller man who did not run off. I simply walked up to him and he was dressed in all black with his tobi, a sash around his waist. I instantly knew they were practioners of some form of ninjutsu from their uniform at that point. I could hear russling around me from the students training but not many other sounds. The area around the park was very quiet since it was so late and it made it more intrigueing to me...I could barely hear anything going on.
The man greated me in Japanese, I responded with what I knew in Japanese then asked if he knew some English. He only knew a few words and very broken english but said,"Welcome to Japan. The students are having their training now, please do not bother. Thank you."
With that I gave a deep bow out of respect as did the taller man. He took off and I didn't really see where anyone went at that point so I went back to the hotel.
Till this day back here in San Diego I will never forget that. To anyone else it would seem rather fruitless to be excited about it but I just wanted to go and find the tall man again and ask him if I could train with them. Thats all I wanted to do for the rest of my vacation...
Now here in San Diego I have wanted to practice Ninjutsu for some time but I can NOT find a Dojo that is within half an hour of where I live. The nearest one is http://www.ninjutsusandiego.com/ and that is about an hour away with traffic...
How far do you all travel for classes and schools? I grow tired of the rather boring and commercialized Muay Thai/kick boxing I do at my gym and grappling does not appeal to me very much with Jiu Jitsu. I need something that will make me think and make me learn. Learning is the keyword here and just going to White Dragon Martial arts where they teach a commercial Kung Fu for $2000 a year seems pretty out rageous.
Any thoughts? Does anyone know anything about San Diego Ninjutsu?
Thanks for the read =)
Paul