Presents come in threes.

Yesterday morning I collected my post at the Welsh Institute of Sport, it was a large envelope posted in Japan. Inside I found several imprints of a translation of part of my PhD thesis. A section of the thesis relating to historical judo research had been translated into japanese by Tajima Yasuko, a Project Researcher in the Department of Budo at the National Institute of Fitness and Sport, Kanoya University, supevised by Professor Hirasawa and Professor Hamada.
(Hamada Hatsuyuki Sensei 7th Dan was the coach to Miss Ryoko Tamura, and a gold medalliist in the Asian Judo Championships.)

I was thrilled to see my work in kanji. A wonderful gift. Thank you to all my friends in Kanoya for choosing to study my thesis. I was reminded of how important your friends are in judo.

In the evening I attended one of the most important events in the judo calendar. The Team Bath Judo christmas party is an occasion not to be missed. Double Olympian Marcon Bezzina had flown from Malta to the UK just to attend. In all there were 8 nations represented, and in the training group there are 7 players on the current IJF World Ranking List. A huge credit to the coaches. Thank you to Megan and Kat for organising it.

It was warming to be amongst friends, they gave me a great welcome and I am so proud of every one of them. Their gift of friendship was a wonderful present. Again I was reminded of how important your friends are in judo.

This morning Postman Pat dropped off a parcel at the front door. A third present? A box set of the fantastic Fighting Films Inoue DVD, sent by Kosei himself, with a note of thanks. Kosei is a remarkable young man, a judoka and a samurai, a credit to his parents and his University. It has been a pleasure to be able to help him this year.

A wonderful present. For a third time I was reminded how important your friends are in judo.

Jita kyoei.

Working with http://www.judospace.com/ to educate coaches in partnership with the EJU so that more players can have the chance to find friendship through judo.