JUKF National University Tournament at Nihon Budokan

Every year, the Japan University Karatedo Federation (JUKF) hosts a national university Karate tournament at the world famous Nihon Budokan in Tokyo. Osada Sensei (Vice President JUKF) and Komine Sensei (International Relations JUKF) helped to organize the participation of our students from Boston for a team kata and team kumite match. Amandine Fromont (Georgetown Law & Wellesley College), Lorraine Sin (Lesley University & Boston University), and Hanamei Shao (Wellesley College) performed a team Empi to compete for kata. For kumite, these students in addition to Nikita Patil (U. Texas & Boston University) participated in a team kumite match. It was an unique honor for our students to experience competition at the highest level of university Karate at Nihon Budokan, and it will be a memory we will cherish forever.

Our trip to Japan was a wonderful opportunity to train Karate with several university clubs across Japan. We trained almost every single day, from our first Saturday training at Tokyo Tech, and our training and competition at Nippon Budokan, to Karate demonstrations and an all-day Karate training at OIT. We even concluded with final trainings at Nihon University and Tokyo Tech before flying back to Boston.

We also got to visit beautiful areas of Japan. Visiting Tokyo and Osaka with Japanese students, we created close bonds while viewing bustling city centers and calmer areas like Osaka Castle and the Emperor’s palace in Tokyo. Further, our friends at OIT kindly hosted demonstrations of Kendo, calligraphy, and tea ceremonies for us to gain exposure to various traditional arts of Japan, and even took us to Kyoto to visit the temples for a day. Meanwhile, Vazrik Sensei and Cassiano worked closely with JUKF representatives to cement our partnership and plan out future collaboration.

We highlighted all these amazing events and more in our Japan photo album [link]. Please check it out for exciting photos of our trip!