First Anniversary of the Dojo

Thank you to everyone who came to practice despite it being a weekday Friday.

Looking back, I realized that we started this dojo on Sunday, September 20 of last year, 2020. That someone as inexperienced as myself has been able to run a dojo in times like these is entirely thanks to the understanding of many people. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all.

Because the dojo opened in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are, come to think of it, some members whose faces I have never once seen without a mask. Some members are now able to train on weekdays because they have switched to working from home. Others started training because they wanted to take on something new even in the midst of the pandemic. Precisely because we got to do this during such an unusual era, we have memories that could only have come from this time. If, hypothetically, I am able to keep the dojo going for a long time, then whenever someone asks, “When did you start the dojo?”, I hope to be able to entertain them with stories about the year 2020 and what made that era so distinctive.

In the end, Katoh Dojo managed to keep going without closing even once. We were fortunate that there were no COVID infections, and I believe everyone’s great care contributed to that. Training in a mask in the height of summer is truly frustrating… I was a little nervous about it, but thankfully nothing happened.

In any case, the pandemic has not yet passed, so the dojo will continue to practice with caution. I hope that the coming year will likewise pass without incident, and that we can keep training while remaining, above all, a “dojo with a low threshold” that is easy for anyone to join.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support.