It’s fair to say that the Karate Kid films in the 1980s had a profound affect on my life, and since the Cobra Kai series began in 2018 it has become my all-time favouite TV series. Of course it’s not only about karate but that is a staple. However, it is a sport which I’ve pretty much never watched outside of this franchise so it was time to change that and see what it was like in reality.

2023 has been a year of watching many different live sports including a fair few I’ve never previously seen in the flesh. Karate was one of those and so when I heard that the 13th World Karate Championship was going to be held in Tokyo I was keen to attend and see what I’d make of it all. I like to think I know the basic rules at least for a wide range of sports but I’m rather clueless when it comes to any form of martial arts, and really cannot distinguish between them too well.

On a very rainy day I headed down to an area of Tokyo which has a few sports complexes in close vicinity of each other. The National Stadium, Meiji Jingu Stadium and Chichibunomiya Rugby Ground are all located within a short walk of each other but there is another sporting venue which was used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium is situated on the border of Shibuya Ward which is across the road from Japan National Stadium. It’s from the 1950s and still looks futuristic today if not a bit worn down.

The days proceedings had begun at 10:00 am (the doors were open from 9:00 am) but I decided that seeing it from 12:30 pm onwards would be more than enough. On arrival at the gymnasium I was handed a very big, thick and heavy A3 sized programme which really was inconvenient to have at times, and could barely fit in my backpack.

My late arrival was not without problems though as trying to find somewhere to sit in the unreserved section on the 3rd floor of this 10,000 seater arena was a real big problem. This is often problematic in Japan where people like to put their bags and jackets on the seats next to them to prevent others from sitting there. The suitcase below had a whole seat to itself!!

This place held the table tennis event in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and also hosted the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament until 2008 when it moved to its present home in Ariake. My first live experience of any martial arts was something of a slow burner as I struggled to get to grips with how the women’s and men’s quarter finals didn’t quite meet my expectations.

I had listened to Survivor (from the Karate Kid soundtrack) to get me hyped before leaving home that morning but it was the shinko shin karate anthem that played on the PA system over and over again which became the tune of the day. Not only that but Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi; a prominent figure in Japanese music, provided some entertainment between bouts and sang this song as well as one or two of his own famous ones.

The semi-finals were bookended by a couple of demonstrations. Children Dream Winners were first up and that involved a lot of choreography involving pine wood breaking boards. Two-time champion Yuji Shimamoto then gave a display of moves with the highlight for me being when he quite literally broke the ice which inevitably evoked memories of a scene in ‘The Karate Kid Part II‘ (1986).

Another memory from that film was that all the crowd in Okinawa had den-den daiko hand-held pellet drums so I thought I’d take mine along to this event in Tokyo. It seems Hollywood lied to me as no-one else had one!

Who’d have thought I would be the only one to have one of these!!

The finals began at around 4:45 pm and it was the moment of truth for the four competitors involved in the two finals. The women’s competition was first and an all-Japanese affair.

From the quarter finals onwards it seemed like it was only Japanese women involved. The lights were dimmed for this match-up between Mihiro Suzuki and Ramu Amikawa which saw the former get the victory to become the champion after extra time.

The atmosphere in the place was pretty electric for the men’s final between home favourite Kembu Iriki and Bulgaria’s Valeri Dimitrov.

As a novice, I’m not sure if this is true but the Japanese fighter did seem to absolutely dominate the bout and every kick he landed on his opponent was met with cheers from the crowd.

There was a closing ceremony scheduled but I didn’t feel the need to stay around for another fifteen minutes for that to begin. The vast majority of people must’ve felt the same and left moments after it was announced that Iriki was the champion. My first experience of live karate was an interesting one for sure. I’m not sure if I feel the urge to watch more but when the final season of Cobra Kai begins I will have a much greater appreciation for the karate scenes.

Click here to read ‘California Filming Locations #3 – The Karate Kid (1984)’ 

Click here to read ‘Review: Films Set In Japan – The Karate Kid Part II (1986)’ 

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Click here to read ‘Reignite Your Passion For The Olympics At This Tokyo Museum’