The Way

The Mysticism of Bruce Lee: Why He Continues to Live On

2012-01-29T20:18:00.007+09:00

A few days ago, I finally ordered a copy of Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do for my personal library. When I was ordering it, and I saw just how much Bruce Lee related stuff there was out there it occurred to be just how far-reaching Bruce's legacy has become. Since I was a kid, Bruce's face has been regularly gracing the covers of martial arts magazines, and his likeness has been a regular in fighting video games since their onset. He has gone far beyond being a household name in Asia or even the west, as a Japanese friend lamented to me, when he said that no matter how far into undeveloped areas of Africa he went, little kids would still say "Bruce Lee!!" as soon as they saw him.

Even despite all of the martial arts masters and action stars that have come (and then gone) just in my lifetime, Bruce still remains as unforgotten and as salient now as he was back then. His book is still considered by many to be the bible of fighting, and the proliferation of MMA, events like the UFC, and the development of RSBD (Reality-based self defense) programs do more to vindicate many of its principles than wash them away.

Beyond the brilliance of Bruce however, it wasn't until a young friend of mine passed away in a motorcycle accident a week after we graduated from stunt school together that I realized why it is that Bruce continues to live on in the hearts of so many. Unlike all of the other martial artists who have come since he pioneered the genre of martial arts cinema, Bruce never fully actualized. While it's safe to say that we have seen the best that Stephen Seagal, Jean Claude Van Damme or Jackie Chan have to offer, with Bruce we will never quite know just what he could have achieved in his lifetime. We will never know the kinds of films he might have been able to produce, what revolutions he may have pioneered, or what boundaries he may have broken.

Furthermore, while most martial arts masters and action stars stay in great shape well into their old age, a certain degree of physical degradation and loss of skill is inevitable. With time, chiseled lines will be replaced with soft wrinkles, unmatchable speed will be replaced with camera speed-ups, and a desire to push the envelope will be replaced with a need to explore other things life has to offer, such as reality TV shows, religion, or music CDs (Jackie Chan). For fighters, the other heroes of the martial arts world, this may include opening up their own gyms or martial arts schools, or product endorsements.

In the minds of everyone around the world, Bruce however will always stay pure. When he comes to mind, people will always remember him as he was in Enter the Dragon: one of most physically sculpted people that has ever lived. He will always be young, strong, fast and invincible. He will always be uncompromisingly focused on perfecting his craft, his artform, and himself. While my generation had to witness the eventual defeat of Royce Gracie (the quintessential example of a soft-spoken martial artist who could defeat men twice his size), Bruce will simply never be defeated. Rumors will always circulate that Bruce could have beaten this person or that, simply because there is no real way to prove it. Much like my young stuntman friend, he will live on forever in a never-ending state of potentiality.

Bruce will always be the person that the world will always know, but will never really know. He will be that spirit that drives us to complete the journey that he could not, and that makes us want to be something bigger because he didn't have the chance to.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Bruce however was the fact that despite all of his hardships, his limitations, his setbacks, and even his death, he still accomplished his ultimate goal. To break through racial stereotypes and glass ceilings and give the world its first Chinese superstar. If an act like that doesn't qualify someone for "invincible hero" status, then I have no idea what does.

photo credit: 13HOC

Saying goodbye to full-time work

2012-01-25T11:15:00.007+09:00

So after two years of spending half (or more) of the year working full time Ive finally gotten myself into a position where I can make the leap to completely commit myself to acting, stunt work and martial arts. In one respect this is an extremely exciting time for me, but in another its a leap of faith as well. The fact of the matter is, I am leaving behind the best job Ive ever had. I was teaching English in the sports department of a university, and my coworkers were some of the best people Ive ever had the pleasure of working with. My classroom was on the top floor of a beautiful building on a hilltop that afforded me a panoramic view of Kanagawa stretching from the Yokohama Landmark Tower to the mountains in front of Fuji-san, and the most amazing sunsets I could ever ask for. The schedule was a breeze, the facilities were all brand new. The pay was great (particularly given the exchange rate to the states right now), and my students (although a bit crazy at times) never gave me a dull moment. It was also close to where I live (and on the same train line) but going against rush hour traffic, so my commute was short and easy, and I always had a seat both going to work and coming home. They even flew me back and forth to the states in between working contracts, so I never had to pay to go home. In effect, it was more or less a perfect job.

At the same time however, the full time work schedule also meant that I got home too late from work for serious training, and the longer I did it, the weaker I was becoming, and the harder it was fight off weight gain. It also meant having to turn down everything from motion capture to stunt and acting work because I wasn't able to take the time off, and eventually my becoming less important to agencies that used to call me any time and every time there was work to be had.

As such, I knew that as great of a job as it was, it just couldn't last forever. For those who have read it, the book "The Alchemist" offers a lot of great anecdotes about what it is like to follow a dream or obtain a difficult goal, and the longer I follow this path, the more parallels I see. As the main character tried to cross a desert to achieve his goal, he stumbled onto a perfect little oasis that had everything he needed in it. In order to reach his objective on the other side of the desert, he simply had to leave it behind. For me, this job was my oasis. And as I turn to walk away from it with nothing more than an idea that there is still something better out there, I can't help but think of the words of Bruce Lee, "There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."

Chuck's new web series: How to Defeat Dudes

2012-01-09T22:05:00.015+09:00

About 6 months ago, during a trip to LA, I had a chance to spend some time with a good friend who works in production. While we were at the beach, just for kicks, I showed him a bit of martial arts, and when we sat down to have a beer, he told me about a few rough situations he had gotten into in his past. During the conversation, he mentioned that he would love to see me make a show for normal people (I.e. Non-martial artists) that teaches people what to do when they get into bad situations.

The idea seemed simple enough, but there in lies the challenge: How can you teach people who aren't interested in fighting how to fight? At first I wasn't really sure if it would be possible to do, or why it was necessary when there is already so much out there on the topic of self-defense. The more I pondered it however (and the more time I spent on Youtube watching "self-defense tutorials" ) the more I came to realize that my friend was right, there isn't really anything out there for normal people. While there are a ton of videos out there, most of them don't really suit normal people for one (or all) of three reasons.

1) The techniques shown aren't explained well enough (or sometimes at all)

2) The techniques are too complex for the average person to get in the first place, let alone remember.

3) Even in cases where the instruction is okay, the videos are just poorly done, and/or only interesting for people who already like fighting.

Although it seemed like it would take a lot of research and planning and a production budget to do correctly, the creator, the producer, and the teacher in me couldn't resist the challenge. Now six months later, "the solution" I've come up with is getting ready to go live. The show will be called: "How to Defeat Dudes: Useful Stuff for the Non-martial Artist" and each webisode will be a 5 minute treatment of a single technique for dealing with a particular situation. In order for a technique to be considered for the show, it must meet the following 5 criterion:

1) It must be simple enough that an average person (with no martial arts training) can understand it.

2) It must be comprised of no more than 3 movements.

3) It must rely on gross motor skills. (Generally when people get scared, fine motor skills go right out the window)

4) It must be geared towards situations that normal people get into (I.e. Not police or swat tactical stuff)

5) It can't rely on physical attributes like size, strength or agility.

Additionally, for the show, there will be no belts, uniforms, fancy foreign words or talk of martial arts styles, and of course, itnmust be entertaining. ;) With the production team I've put together, we have done the first three episodes, and I'll be releasing them within the month. Although I am happy with these, producing them was a learning experience, and I already have ideas as to how we can make the next set of episodes even better. Really looking forward to seeing how they are received! Hopefully, if people like the show and find value in it, then it's something that I can continue to do for a while to come.

Video Editing with iMac`s iMovie.

2011-12-25T13:03:00.009+09:00

Just finished the editing on my 2011 martial arts and stunt training reel with my new iMac`s iMovie software. This was the first project I undertook on the iMac, (a 21" one I just picked up from Costco last month) and although it took me a minute to figure out how the user interface works (and then a few hours of work to get used to it, after that, I was rockin'. As everyone says is the case, once you get your head around how it works, the Mac editing software is exceedingly easy to use... and a pleasure to work with. This one was made entirely on iMovie, (which came with the iMac) and most of the video was taken on either my new or my old iPhone, and then imported in. Other videos were from old Windows Vista OS laptop and then converted into Mac compatible formats using WinX HD Video Converter and/or WinX DVD Ripper. (Both of which are great programs that worked really well- even on an old laptop struggling to deal with Windows Vista). The effects, transitions, fonts etc, selection was pretty good, and overall I could everything I wanted to do- and figure it out without having to dig through the instructions. (Always a plus).

Start to finish, the whole process took me about three weeks to complete. Uploading the video onto all the sites I wanted to use, as well both my iPhones and iPad was also a snap, and took no time at all. While initially, I was hesitant to drop the money on a new PC, my girlfriend showed me a Japanese consumer reports-type website (www.kakaku.com) that had rated the model I was looking at as #1 out of a survey of 500 PCs), and after that, I was sold. Thus far, the iMac been an incredibly good investment. Not just because of the ease of doing video editing, (and the fact that my Windows laptop always seemed to compatibility issues with my iPhone and iPad), but because in general Macs are designed to be so much more user friendly than Windows based PCs. In effect, they are PCs for people who aren`t particularly good with PCs, which is exactly what I needed.

Now that the demo reel is completed, and Im comfortable with the program, I`m looking forward to seeing what other projects I can do on this thing. Eventually, Id like to invest in a digital SLR camera, (which these days is becoming just as popular for taking video as still pictures) and Final Cut Pro, so I can start experimenting with serious action sequence production, but for the moment, I think what I have will do just fine.

Karakuri and Ear Tag Movie Premeire

2011-12-15T14:51:00.006+09:00

Last night I had a chance to check out two film premieres. The first (Karakuri) was a sci fi action short that takes place in a future version of Kyoto. The other was a suspense thriller called Ear Tag that takes place in present day Tokyo. Both were excellent films.

The main actor in both is Souji Masaki (a friend of mine who I met through a long term friendship with the CG director, Haj Ishida). Although I think it's a lot harder to get into a story and suspend disbelief when you personally know the people on screen, he still did a great job of getting me well into the stories and creating a real and believable character in both.

I really hope that both films will come out at some point with subtitles, so they can get a chance to be seen by western audiences. For smaller productions, the directors (Haj and Yamaken) both did a great job with lighting, sound, and soundtrack, small things that can make a monstrous difference in how professional a film looks. Eag Tag in particular had an outstanding soundtrack. In a way, I feel that it was really a shame that both these films had to be made on the meager budgets they were, but at the same time, I have to think that if Haj and Yamaken can create something this good on a budget this small, then they are both destined to get the budgets they deserve to have, and I look forward to seeing it happen.

Tsunami Relief Volunteering: Round 2!

2011-11-15T15:04:00.007+09:00

A few weekends ago, I went on a volunteer mission to Iwaki with Team Heal Japan. Due to the fact that I'm still spliting my time between the states and Japan, I haven't made it up to Northern Japan to volunteer as often as I would have liked, but I'm still glad to go whenever I can. The last time I was up there was about 1 month after the Earthquake/Tsunami, so it was interesting to go up there again now to see how much progress was made. Contrasting this trip with the last one six months ago, the area has improved by leaps and bounds. While there was still work to be done, (and all the empty building frames exemplify the fact that reconstruction hasn't begun yet), things definately seem on the up and up. To see what I mean, just compare the first video I took while I was there with the second:

In terms of the workload itself, much like last time, it was light enough that anyone could do it, and other volunteers consisted of people of all ages, satures and nationalities.

In the morning, we were moving dirt and debris after from a nearby elementary school, and in the afternoon, we went to a kids Halloween party. For whatever reason, I was one of a few of us who got chosen to be dressed up, and before I knew it I was in a clownsuit with make-up all over my face. (The irony of this being that I generally don't like clowns).

The kids thought it was hysterical though, so I didn't really mind in the least. In general, I've always found Volunteering to be one of the best and most rewarding things you can do with your time, but when you are doing it for kids, that feeling is exponentiated. It's funny because I've met so many people who are bored with what they are doing or unsure of what to do with themselves. I really think that if any of them tried this kind of work, they could easily have a focus and a mission for the rest of their lives. Lets hope this movement keeps going without losing any steam. With the media having moved onto to other things, Tsunami relief work may not command the attention that it used to, but the fact of the matter is, what needs to be done, still needs to be done. Hats off to my fellow volunteers and hope to see you again soon!

Chuck on House Hunters International

2011-10-14T11:19:00.008+09:00

So among other news, myself, my girlriend Mari, and our Tokyo apartment are going to be featured on the HGTV TV show House Hunters International sometime in the next few months. About a year ago, I got an email out of the blue from one of the show's casting directors saying that she thought I had a pretty interesting life and was wondering if I had planned to buy a house out here anytime soon.

Originally, I actually told her that I wasn't and referred her to a few friends of mine who had recently bought homes, but after a friend from the states spoke to me about it and told me what a great show it was, I decided to see if there was someway I could manage to do the show anyway. (It also occurred to me that this show could be a great way to show all those people at home who ask me about my life out here what it's really like.)

After speaking to the casting director further, I told her that my girlfriend and I were thinking about moving in together in the next year, but that we were only looking for apartments to rent, and not buy. From there, she said that that could work out well because from next year, the show was going to be expanded to cover apartment rentals as well.

To make a long story short, we stayed in touch over the next year, and when Mari and I decided to move in together, the show had indeed been expanded to cover apartments rentals so it worked out just right. At the time, this was immediately after the tsunami, so even as I was telling them Mari and I were still committed to our plan of getting our own Tokyo apartment, it was a bit intimidating. (I actually wanted to stay in the states for a while longer to see how things panned out with Fukushima, but she was eager to return for her family). The tsunami complicated matters further because even though the show had given us the green light, they wanted to hold off for another few months for the same reason. Finally, when they decided to arrange the shoot, Mari and I were back in the states, so they started by filming our backstory in my hometown in Michigan. We were coached through the interview process (which for me was doable because I'd done it before), and Mari won the respect of all for not just doing a good job, but doing it in English, which is her second language.

From there, we met the second film crew in Tokyo. We had a chance to look at several apartments and then there was one final filming in our place with all of the furniture in it. Overall, it was a very very cool experience, but exhausting as well. For myself, the best part of the shoot was getting to spend 3 days with the director (An Aussie who was part of the production crew for Moulin Rouge) and the camera man (who has worked on everything from Green Planet and National Geographic to Nova) Both very cool guys with lots of cool experiences to share. As I said while I was working on SeTup, I will never take being able to work in my own language for granted. Every time I get a chance, Im grateful for it- and probably always will be.

Beyond that, it was also cool because I ended up bringing home a few friend as a function of the show- a small cactus-like plant that Mari and I have appropriately named "Hunter".

Anyway, I'm excited to see how the show turns out and what will come about as a function of it. In the meantime, I am working to get a myriad of projects up and online and having them done before the show airs is a good goal, I think. Let's see where this goes!

Meeting Far East Movement

2011-09-28T13:03:00.004+09:00

Not too long ago, during a trip to LA, I had the chance to meet the guys from Far East Movement. At the time I was visiting a friend who was one of the producers of Priest, and he said that they were filming their next video and asked if we would like to stop by and check it out. It was pretty late at night, (which meant I was still seriouly jetlagged) but it was very cool nonetheless. They were filming in a small fenced in area along a relatively normal looking street, and although you could tell there was a shoot going on, I`m sure most of the passerbys probably had no idea big of a shoot it was. That`s LA for ya.

Although I didn`t get to meet all of the members (some were actually on camera at the time), the ones I did get to speak to were really nice guys. I really love it when I meet people who are at the top of their game, and are still humble and down-to-earth. It seems as though the pervasive image of successful entertainers is always that of the diva, or people seem to think that they are better than anyone and everyone else, but the longer I work in this industry the more I`ve come to see that those types of people tend to get the media`s attention because they are the exception, not the rule. Most people who work in this industry are successful because they are just very intelligent people who are very good at what they do. This is not to say that I haven`t met some serious a--holes too, but insomuch as life has taught me, you can find those everywhere.

How a Taekwondo Chest Protector and 3 Off-duty Delta Employees Saved Me $330

2011-08-25T02:52:00.006+09:00

So after finishing up my training at the stunt school in Seattle, I got up at 4:45 in the morning to catch my flight back to Michigan at 7:00am... and ended up missing my flight by 2 minutes due to difficulties in getting through TSA. As I'd never missed a flight before in my life, I went to the counter in a kind of muddled disbelief only to find out that the SeaTac airport has been busy like that all summer and that they recommend arriving two hours early- even just for domestic flights. To make matters worse, every other flight that day was overbooked by 5 or 6 people, and my girlfriend, Mari was flying into Detroit to meet me the next day, (so I would need to be there to drive down and pick her up). Furthermore I had paperwork I had to complete and fax in that day or I would have to start my trademark application process for my business (Phat English) all over again which would cost me thousands of dollars to do. Things were looking grim.

When I spoke to the person behind the counter, they offered me the option of buying a seat on one later flight for $800 or taking my chance that a seat would still be open(which would mean getting on for $50 or so). Finally I chose to latter, and much to my dismay it completely filled up as well. I was still stuck. Finally, I decided not to take any more chances and I bit the bullet, and paid $330 for a ticket for the first available flight the next day (7:00am) that would get me home by 2:13pm. Not really knowing what else to do, I went back to gate I had been at all day, and decided to take a nap (using my taekwondo chest protector as a pillow), get some Korean and Japanese study in, and some writing done. Thankfully, SeaTac had free wireless, so I could keep myself occupied.

About 7 hours in to my time there a random guy walked up to me, and told me that due to the overcrowding, Delta had upgraded a flight at 11:00pm that night to a much bigger plane and that there were now 33 seats available. He approached me because he said the Taekwondo chest protector I had on my backback (which I had brought to the stunt school to use as a spine guard during stairfalls) made me stick out, so he knew I had been there all day. From there, I told him that I appreciated his gesture, but that I had already bought a ticket for the next day. With that, he said, "What? You bought a ticket? You shouldn't have to buy a ticket. Come with me." It turns out he was an off-duty pilot for Delta who was just trying to get on a flight himself. From there, he introduced me to another off-duty employee (who was an engineer) (and who also recognized me because of my chest protector) who was also just trying to get a flight home, and they discussed the situation, and decided that something was a miss. Not being able to figure it out on their own, they called over another off-duty guy (who worked in baggage) and who happened to know the rules backward and forwards. They said:

'Hey Ryan, this guy bought a ticket for tomorrow, and we need to get his money back.'

He responded, "Which guy?" and they pointed at me.
He replied, "Oh yeah! The guy with the funny thing on his back. Yeah, he's been here all day!"
Apparently, according to Ryan, due to their poor customer service rating, Delta had recently enacted a new "Flat Tire" rule, which stated that if a customer was under 10 minutes late for a flight through no fault of their own, they should simply be put on stand-by for the next available flight, and should not have to pay more than $50.

As the new plane made the 11:00 flight "the next available flight", according to the new rule, I was qualified to be on it, and shouldn't have to pay. With the assistance of a new woman who had just started working the counter the 4 of them commenced to spend the next 3 hours not only teaching me all kinds of stuff related to flying airplanes but also arguing back and forth on my behalf with the finance department. It was simply amazing. Finally, they won the argument, and sure enough another Delta employee came up to me, and handed me an envelope with the cost of my ticket enclosed. After that, as a thank you to all of them, I took my new friends (plus another off-duty Delta guy who was trying to get home from his honeymoon) out for beers at my treat. As Karma would have it, almost all of them managed to catch a flight home at the same time as me, so as I got to get in line to catch my flight, I saw them get in line for theirs as well. For a day that started off in peril, it ended up being the best way I could have asked for to end my time in Seattle. Regardless of what any one else may have to say about Delta customer service, this is one flyer, who you will never hear utter a word of complaint. Furthermore, from this point on, anyone who cares to make negative generalizations about Delta employees may wind up finding out what my right foot tastes like.

Doing a burn stunt... in a kung fu uniform

2011-08-17T15:23:00.006+09:00

Today was my first experience learning to do a burn. In actually however, the process started about a week ago when I went to a thift store with a bunch of the other stunt players I'm training with to find cheap clothes that we could light ourselves on fire in. As a burn stunt requires all 100% cotton clothes (most synthetics will 'melt' into molten plastic instead of burning to ash), and multiple layers of protection, the very first part of stunt was finding the right clothes to burn in. As luck would have it, the ONLY tops I could find that was 100% cotton and in my size was the top of a kung fu uniform, and an exact replica of Freddy Kruger's sweater. What a combo! I already knew it was going to be a good day.

On the day of our burn we were given a lecture on the natural tendencies of fire, and how to protect yourself from it (which fit nicely with some of the wilderness survival related fire work I had done in Japan), and the instructors walked us through the preparations we would need to take in order to do our burns, and it was an incredible learning experience. I could see first hand why 1) burn stunts are rare in films and 2) why they are always so short.

1) They take an incredible amount of manpower to do as just one person safely doing a 20 sec. burn takes a team of about 20 people. (3 on fire extinguishers to put out the main fire, one with a hose to put out spot fires that re-ignite inside the clothes, 1 on blankets, 3 to prep the clothes, etc).

Second of all, you are always working against the clock. Before the stunt, the player needs to put on long-johns of flame resistant material (that have been soaking in freezing cold flame resistant gel) and the longer you wait after you suit them up, the warmer the undersuit will become, (and thus less affective). Furthermore, given the fact that it is a wet, ice-cold bodysuit against your skin) waiting a long time in the suit before the stunt also puts you at risk for hypothermia.

2) The reason they are so short is because you can't actually breath while you are doing it. As they chemicals burning are a bit toxic, there is fire around your mouth and nose, and smoke is everywhere, you can't risk breathing in. And even after you drop to the ground (the sign that you want them to put you out) they are spraying you with ice-cold CO2 from fire extinguishers (which you also can't breath in) so you need to hold enough air to get through that as well. Finally they also fill your ears with the flame resistant gel, so you can't actually hear such as well. (and for a frontal burn, you also have to do it blind.

As for my burn it went pretty well. The only downside of doing the burn in the kung fu uniform was that the small metal tabs in the collar meant that I had to cut it completely off before the burn, (hot metal on skin-no thanks) and that meant no protection for my neck. It also meant the back of my head would act as a 'heat shelf' and would get extremely hot, extremely fast if I didn't keep it down all the time. They told me that this would happen and that I should get flame 'licks' on the back of my head, and it happened more or less exactlly as they said it would. Also as I have a shaved head, I didn't have any hair to hold the flame resistant gel, (which is basically water in a molecular gel form), so that layer they put over my skin would be all that there was to protect me. After catching 2 of those flame licks on the back of my head, I was done. I dropped down so they could it me out. Interestingly enough though, after standing up, taking a shower, and walking away from it, it was an incredible feeling...kind of like completing a successful skydive. Really looking forward to the next time I can get more experience in this particular area of stunt work.

Stunt training in Seattle

2011-08-04T22:38:00.005+09:00

Yesterday was my first day of training at the United Stuntmen's Association Intenational Stunt School in Seattle. About 6 months ago, while I was training at the Society of American Fight Directors Winter Wonderland Workshop, I met the owner, Dave Boushey, and he said that it would be great for me to come out, so I decided to jump right on it. The training is 22 days and covers 15 disciplines of stunt work, including flame stunts, high falls, trampoline work, and of course, my personal favorite and specialty, fight choreography. Unfortunately, do to my schedule, I missed the first 2 days of the school, and arrived half-way through the third, literally fresh off the plane from spending the past 3 days flying Tokyo-Dallas-Michigan-Seattle. (I actually showed up at the training hall with all of my luggage).

They had spent the past two days learning a fight and were preparing to showcase it in about an hour. After having spent 5 years studying incredibly complex fight sequences in Tokyo however, the one they were doing wasn't too difficult (although the stylistic differences did take a bit of getting used to), so I just took the 30 minutes to learn it, practice it a few times, and an hour later performed it like everyone else. Personally, I felt my performance was kind of lacking (at the time I had a sore back from carrying my luggage for 3 days, and I hadn't slept yet), but I actually got applause for the performance. I think more than anything people were just impressed that I figured it out and could perform it as well as everyone else in only an hour.

Still, it was a great way to start off my training. Coming in two days late, I thought I would be at a disadvantage and would need to bust my tail to catch up, but it actually worked out even better because it allowed me to start off my making an excellent first impression. So far so good...Now the challenge will be to keep my level of performance for the rest of the school. Next up is training with clubs and knives. We'll see how it goes!

Shibuya Video Game/ Anime Club Event

2011-08-04T22:22:00.006+09:00

Last weekend, I was invited to attend a club event for Anime fans in Shibuya. It was at a small, hole-in-the-wall club in Shibuya, and it revolved around the music that goes into anime and video games. I'd never been to anything quite like it, so it was fascinating to attend. In attendance where a plethora of video game and a anime fans, as well as a few big names in sound track composition. The high light of the show was when the guy who wrote the soundtrack from the original Donkey Kong game came out, and hit the stage with his guitar. He actually had someone hook up their PSP to the massive monitor and sound system on stage and play the game Evangelion (which he also composed the soundtrack for) while he played his guitar along with it. Although is sounds kind of bizarre, it was actually really really cool to see. Homeboy was totally in the zone as he played and the fans of the game were going nuts over it. For myself, it was an introduction to a whole new world of entertainment. Great fun!

Sushi Typhoon Quadruple Movie Premiere

2011-07-24T23:22:00.007+09:00

This past saturday, I attended the Tokyo Premiere of 4 Sushi Typhoon films: Aliens vs. Ninja, Dead Ball, Yakuza Weapon, and Hell Driver. It was great to get out there as I had a chance to catch up the with the films' producer (who also produced Death Trance), as well as spend a bit of time with Yuji Shimomura, and Tak Sakaguchi. My good friends (Kentaro Shimazu- whom I squared off against for the sword action part of my demo reel) and Asami were also there, as well as Yassy, as well as an actress whom I used to do pronunciation coaching for Miho Ninagawa, Miho Ninagawa. It was my first time to see everyone together since returning to Japan, and that made the trip out to Ginza for the premiere worth it inandof itself.

As for the films itself, Yakuza Weapon was heralded as having the best martial arts action, but unfortunately as I had a rank test in Karate that day, I had to miss it. Aliens vs. Ninjas also looked like a lot of fun. The only film I was able to catch was Dead Ball, and it was absolutely hilarious. Shockingly so. Although I had an idea of the kind of stuff that Sushi Typhoon makes (just from the people involved, and their previous work), I had no idea they would pull it off as well as they did until I actually saw Dead Ball. Although it didn't have much in the way of martial arts action, it was quite simply a hilarious film. Shockingly so. Imagine a live action version of South Park (complete with all the blood, profanity, and intelligent purpose behind it) done in typical Japanese slapstick style humor, and you are starting to get the point. I was also surprised at the fact that the film actually had some really huge names in the Japanese entertainment industry as well such as ( )the guy who plays Will Smith, Keanu Reeves and most other major Hollywood male celebrities in Japanese voice overs), and ( ). It was simply awesome. I've already decided to buy a bunch of copies and give them away as christmas presents. Can't wait to see AVN, Hell Driver and Yakuza Weapon!!

Training with Yuji Shimomura

2011-05-29T22:16:00.003+09:00

I had a chance to work out with my favorite action director, Yuji Shimomura this weekend. After I returned to Japan after the March 11 quake, we met up briefly just to catch up, but this was my first time training with him. Actually, it was our first time training together in a few years.

I had told him that I am currently pursuing my expert status in knife fighting choreography from Art of Combat in Lansing, and asked him if he was working on anything that we could collaborate on. As he didn`t have anything lined up requiring that kind of choreo, he suggested we just get together, train, and possibly film a test. I met him at the PassGuard training gym (where I usually do my action training) and we got to work on it for a little while.

Everytime I work with Yuji, he absolutely amazes me. 1) because of his incredible physical skills 2) because of the depth of his philosophy on action and 3) because he`s just such an intelligent and good guy. While the choreo that I`d come up with wasn`t bad, he had A LOT of suggestions to make it better, and it made me want to completely go back to the drawing board.

We didn`t actually get to filming the test... but in a way I`m glad, because that will give me a chance come up with some way cooler sh-- before the next time I meet him. Really looking forward to committing something to film soon!

Martial Arts Action Seminar for Big Brothers Big Sisters, Detroit

2011-04-16T18:18:00.003+09:00

Before I left the states, I had the honor and privalege of doing an action seminar for Big Brothers, Big Sisters Detroit. It was actually supposed to be one of the first things I did when I got back in August, but life being as it is, things kept getting delayed and pushed back and we finally managed to make it happen just a few days before I had to leave for Tokyo.

At the time I was actually in the middle of filming for Letters To No One, and I had to be on set that day, but thankfully it was also in downtown Detroit (only about 15 min) and they only needed me in the late afternoon, so it worked out well. I'm glad I didn't have to be on set in the morning because if I did, I would have had to show up filthy and exhausted (and with equally filthy mats), and that wouldn't have made for the best first impressions.

Anyway, the seminar was an absolute blast and each and every one of the kids was a pleasure to work with. Let no one say that kids from from the hood are lazy or hard to work with. On a certain level the seminar just vindicated a belief that I already held: That if you care, and your students know it, they'll always do their best regardless of where you (or them) are from.

After having this experience, ( as well as the one at Everett High School and finally getting a chance to check out "Waiting for Superman" on the plane ride back to Tokyo) I'm bound and determined to get involved in a lot more projects such as these once I get back to the states next year. Particularly in the Detroit area.

Last Night's Earthquake

2011-04-08T21:01:00.009+09:00

I really appreciate all those who dropped a line in regards to last night's earthquake, but in Tokyo, it wasn't too bad. (While it was a 7.5 up north, for us, it was only about a 3 or so). At the time that it happened, I was just relaxing in my room with my girlfriend (who was asleep) when my phone started ringing in a way I hadn't heard before. Sure enough, I opened it up, and there was an email inside that only said 'Earthquake'. (The Japanese government somehow has a system out that sends out warnings to EVERYONE'S cell phone when an earthquake is about to hit). About 30 seconds later, it hit, and everything started to shake. It was bad enough to wake her up (and homegirl can sleep through damn-near anything), but it lasted for less than a minute before disapating. After it finished, like most 'quake-proof' buildings in Tokyo, my apartment continued to sway and wobble for a few minutes after, but overall no damage done.

Thus far, I've been back in Tokyo for about two weeks now, and it's been interesting seeing how many things are different. The other day, I saw Shibuya at night with all the neon lights OFF and much like my first train ride in the dark since I've been back, it was my first time ever seeing that. It was eerie. On a more annoying note, the escalators continue to stay off in a lot of places, and I have a feeling that they will continue to for some time to come. After work, I stopped by one of my modeling agencies, Free Wave, and dropped off some food for a run they were making up to Fukushima to help out with relief. It's funny because I never thought a modeling agency would be the first in line to do that kind of thing, but as horrible as things have been, it really has brought out the best in a lot of people, and some of the truest heroes in efforts to help out have been people that I never would have thought had the character. Just goes to show that you can never judge a book by it's cover.

On a darker note, it is also interesting to see how it changed people in other ways. People are quieter. Even though they still laugh and joke, you can see in their eyes that thoughts of what they have been through are never that far away. The master I study Karate under said he saw streets undulating like ocean waves, and skyscrapers wobbling like blades of grass in the wind... and it was an image that will be with him for the rest of his life. My heart really truly goes out who were actually in the epicenter and I can't help but wish I could do more for them.

The Return to Tokyo: First Impressions

2011-04-05T08:26:00.003+09:00

After the quake in Japan, and the corresponding issues with the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant, I was a bit hesitant to return to Japan as I had originally planned. Particularly since the US government actually advised Americans not to go there, and a lot of the long-term foreigners such as myself actually left as well.

At the same time though, there were a myriad of factors involved that still prompted me to go. For one, I had already purchased my plane ticket, and I wouldn’t be able to get my money back. It also meant that I would be screwing over the company that hired me (who needs people now more than ever) and in doing so, lose pretty much the only way I have to get a visa to continue to stay.

Lastly, and most importantly however was the fact that my girlfriend (who was with me here in the states when the Quake struck) was determined to go back herself for her family, and I just wouldn’t have felt right about letting her do it alone.

At this point however, as scary as a decision as it was, I’m very much glad I made it. I’m going to be working at a sports university here for the next few months, and they building a new program that would integrate language study with physical movement, and they are interested in having me be one of their chief developers. Beyond that, the day after I got off the plane, my best friend Tommy (who got me into Celebrity Bodyguarding several years ago) told me that he is being featured on a prime time TV show and wanted me to appear on the show with him. We shot it the same day (For Tokyo-ites, it’s Nihon TV, May 3rd, 10pm!) so I've already got an appearance on a major TV show lined up. Lastly, the Yen to Dollar exchange rate is simply the best it’s ever been right now, and for every $500 I make here, I am getting an extra $100 off of it.

Signs of the earthquake damage are apparent. The flight over here was almost empty. (All though there were a few other foreigners to their credit). My girlfriend’s father’s business building has small cracks in all the walls. Some of their furniture (that which was destroyed) is gone. All of the trains are running without interior lights, and even on sunny days they are too dark too read inside. (When you go through a tunnel it just goes pitch black). There are signs at stores saying you can’t buy more than one bottle of water per visit, and I still think about the safety of the water when I shower. (Although at present, its still deemed to be perfectly within safety levels). Yesterday at my university orientation they showed a video of a ‘typical student’ who was talking about his mother, and when he said he and his family were from Fukushima, they had to stop it and apologize because neither he nor his mother were probably with us anymore.

In terms of how the Japanese people are handling it however, their drive to move on, recover and keep the order of their society simply amazes me, and seeing the dignity that they still carry themselves with despite the hardships just further deepens my respect for them. Additionally, everyone I speak to thanks me for coming back, and appreciates the fact that I was one of the foreigners who stood by them instead of just leaving. That gratitude alone has made the trip worth it for me.

Letters to No One Short Film

2011-04-03T09:03:00.006+09:00

Right before I left Michigan to head back to Tokyo, I had a chance to work as an actor and fight choreographer for a short film called Letters to No One. Staged in a post-apocolypic era, the story revolved around a girl trying to get an artificial heart that she believes can save the life of her little brother, and it reminded me a bit of Book of Eli but with the added punch of having the lead played by a petite female. (I was playing the story's main antagonist, Vernes.) All in all the project was a lot of fun to do. We filmed everything around Ann Arbor and in Downtown Detroit, and the sets they got were awesome. (The only downside being that the detoit locations lacked heating and it was freezing on set most of the time).

As a fight choreographer it was also really interesting because 1) it was my first time creating choreography for something shot on film, and 2) because the nature of the story and characters dictated action that was much more realistic than the fantastic Hong Kong style that I had been trained in. In regards to the first point, most of my experience in action had been on projects shot in DV, and as a function of that, there's a lot more room for experimentation. On DV cameras you can just shoot, erase and re-record as much as you like, whereas on film (which has a limited stock that's really expensive to replace) every single take costs money. As a function of that, when you are working with limited resources, choreography utilizing a single master cut (with smaller cut-ins) is a lot more financially efficient to do than using a bunch of smaller cuts sequentially and then just putting them all together piece-meal. As a function of this, in order to make things run smoother, I created overhead 'fight maps' (such as the one pictured) so that the camera crew, actors and directors could all know how the fight was going to proceed beforehand and mistakes could be minimalized.

In terms of the second point, it was interesting in that I came to realize just how stylized the training I had in action really is. While I was always coaching the actors to make bigger movements and finish with pose outs, the director was constantly telling them the opposite, and encouraging to just 'keep it real'. Thus far, this seems to be the biggest reoccuring theme since returning to the states, working in American cinema, and training in western stage combat. The philosophies on portraying 'fight action' in the west, and 'martial arts action' in the east seem to be in stark contrast of each other in a lot of ways, and I can see why groups from both sides can get frustrated working with each other if that isn't clearly understood from the beginning. (Which happens from time to time).

In any event, I'm still waiting to get the finished result back, and am excited to see how it turns out once sound effects, music and editing have all been added in. Mad-props to Guru Kalaj of MMAForge.com who supplied us with training Knives, and Twistarts Gymnastics of Dewitt for use of their mats for stunt falls. Will defiantely post it once it's done!

Visit to Everett High School

2011-03-04T12:34:00.008+09:00

Not too long ago, I had the honor of being a guest at Everett HIgh School where my father had graduated. I had been there once before because the taekwondo school I came from (Shinn's TKD) had started a program there, but this had been my first time ever stepping through the halls as an adult. Much like the last time I went to my own high school (where my nephew is currently studying) it was almost shocking to see how young everyone looked. WOW.

I was invited in to speak to their Japanese classes, not only to show them that non-Japanese people can learn to speak the language well too, but also to give them a taste as to what exactly they can expect if they choose to go there. Before going there, I was a bit nervous as I hadn't done anything quite like it, but overall, they really really seemed to enjoy it, as did the teachers. I was pleasantly surprised at just how many questions the kids had, and how engaged they were.

From what I saw, they were all really really good kids. Basically, my class time consisted of my showing them a few videos of things I had done, and projects I had worked on, telling them about my own experiences, giving them some time to ask questions and then ending with my demonstrating an Irish Whip. Everybody really seemed to be in to it. It was also cool because one of my other nephews was in the class, so I had the chance to actually see him and speak to him and a few of his friends as well. Of everything that I have done with this whole wild and crazy lifetime of mine, doing stuff like this is my absolutely favorite. Working with younger kids has always been one of the great joys in life for me, and with high schoolers in particular, it's cool because you can still relate to them as adults, but they still have the open-mindedness and wonder that most people have squandered once they reach college. If a single one of them decides to get into martial arts and/or studies abroad in their college days, then I can say that this trip was totally worth it.

Martial Arts Action at WE Kids Health Expo!

2011-02-20T14:24:00.008+09:00

Today I spent the day running a booth offering people an intro to martial arts screen action at the WE Kids Health Expo in Meridian Mall. Although I love the mission of the expo (showing kids a wide range of ways to exercise to help combat child obestity), I wasn't exactly sure how well my own particular interest would go over. (Particularly since MA action and stunts is much more for adults than anything else). Still I decided to set up a booth and give it a try anyway, and it turned out to be a great day and an absolute blast. I had a monitor with some action scenes playing and that was enough to get people's attention, so I had at least 10 or 12 people stop who and give it a try. Basically, I would just run them through a short sequence (and at the end have them throw me to the ground with an Irish Whip) and they thought it was hilarious! Eventually, I even started getting crowds to stop and watch and a few people even expressed interest in coming to my next seminar (next Sunday, Feb. 27th) which I thought was very cool.

Probably the highlight of the day however was a chance meeting with Michigan State junior XMA champion Micah Moore. His TKD school also had a booth at the Expo, and his master (who is a friend of mine) suggested to his mom that he meet me. From there, he wandered over to my spot and I took a minute to show him a few moves he'd never seen before. Apparently he had a good time because he came back a few hours later, and basically stayed to continue practicing. After a while I got so into teaching him that I stopped promoting my own stuff altogether. As a teacher, it's a rare chance to get to work with someone that motivated, (particularly of that age) and the kid just impressed me beyond belief. Backhandsprings, 540's 720s, you name it, the kid could nail it. Even the stuff I showed him, he got with no problems at all. The only thing he couldn't quite land was an Ariel (no hand cartwheel), but I'm sure that with one or two more sessions, he can get it. Particularly if we do it at my gymnastics gym where I've got all the right equipment to teach him. I've got a great feeling about this kid. Very much looking forward to working with him further.

2nd Detroit 187 shoot

2011-01-26T14:26:00.004+09:00

Got called back to do another shoot for Detroit 187 this past week. This was for episode 17 (or 18?) which will be airing in March or April or so. Once again, I was actually called in to pose for photos that would be used in the show. This time I was a henchman of an organized crime boss played by Tommy Flanagan, so I had a chance to spend the day working with him. Very very cool guy. Myself and one other actor were posing for what were supposed to be 'surveillance photos', and I had heard that this means there's a fairly good chance that we will be called back for subsequent episodes. If that's the case, I certainly hope I can squeeze it in before I return to Japan two months from now. Was also invited to a staff party this Friday night as well. That should make for good fun...and great networking. Hope I can make it out... even if it's just for a few hours.

Also found out that the last episode I did will be airing on Feb. 1st. I'll be boxing in the background in some black adidas warm-ups and also on a wall as a boxer... somewhere. Will have to wait to see.

Last Day of Training at WWW

2011-01-11T05:20:00.003+09:00

Yesterday, the Society of American Fight Directors concluded the Winterwonderland Workshop. As with any experience like this, I was really sad to see it come to an end, but felt so lucky and fortunate to have experienced it, and met all of the people that I did.

My last day of classes consisted of two more staged knife combat classes, and my final class was on falling techniques. The two knife classes were great, and although there was a bit of overlap with the other ones I had done (I once again earned a reputation as someone not to square off against in knife battles ;) I feel that the review was good for really crystalizing a lot of the concepts. One really cool thing was that after the second knife class (Which focused on nasty elements of knife fighting) I had a chance to talk with the instructor about his own martial arts background, and we decided to spend half of our lunch period playing around. He had a great deal of experience in the Fillipino arts, and showed me a lot of really cool (and particularly nasty) ways to manipulate someone's body off of a punch, so that was the highlight of my day.

The last class on stunt breakfalls was also excellent, as it was my first time getting to study them in English, and it allowed me to fill in a lot of gaps. The instructor (who had a ton of film experience) also had a lot of good advice about really effective ways to cushion falls (in particular for a roll) and it made me wonder why they hadn't figured this stuff out in actual martial arts gyms. (Although when I think about it, it's probably because they had never actually had to USE those falls on concrete or equally hard surfaces and he had). Very very informative.

The end of the Workshop consisted with a show of all of the masters putting together a series of choreographed fights. One of these simulated the possible way in which a sword duel that led to a particularly perplexing autopsy (with all kinds of stab wounds in crazy places) might have gone, and that was simply fascinating to see. The event itself ended with a huge party that unfortuantely I had to miss to catch a train, but overall this was one of the most fun martial arts related events I have ever been to, and I already can't wait till next year.

Day 2 at the WWW

2011-01-09T15:27:00.004+09:00

Today's training at the WWW was excellent, albiet tiring, and I have a feeling my back isn't going to be liking me too much tomorrow. After a super-high impact warm-up (with well over 100 people involved) I went to my first class of the morning, which was broadsword training. Right at the beginning, the teacher said, 'If you do this right, your back will be way more sore than your arms' and I guess I must've been doing it right because my back was killing me by the end of it. Compared to the action katanas I'm used to using, even practice broadswords, are made of solid steel, and unbelievably heavy. I thought this was interesting because in Japan when you do sword choreography, the swords you do them with are extremely light, and you just act as if they are heavy. (Although admittedly that doesn't always work.) In the states, they just give you a fu--in heavy sword so you don't have to fake it.

It was also interesting because when my action teacher Yuji did the sword choreography for his firm Hollywood film, Way of the Warrior, after getting back to Japan he and his team thought the director and what not where nuts for making them go through the scenes using stell practice Katanas. (And if I recall, one person was actually hospitalized because he got one of them through the thigh), but I'm guessing this is why. Out here, it's just how they roll.

After that, I had a high falls class, in which we covered 3 different kinds of falls at two different heights, but I was told that once you have the 2m height falls down

the mechanics of falling and impact absorbtion are fundamentally the same all the way up to 50 ft. Hope i can try it sometime.

After that, it was back to sword training, but this time with wooden bokken. (Simulated Japanese Katana).

Lastly, but certainly not least, was another class on knife work. This one ended with a game in which the object was the cut your opponents across the hamstring and be the last one standing. Made it into the final match in the first round, and won the second. Lost the third round because one person distracted me (arguing my cut) and another silently slid up behind me and slashed me while I was distracted. I know it's just a game, but I'm still pissed at myself for falling for it.

After that was a hilarious comedy /sword fighting show by two of the masters. It was brilliantly funny. Not the easiest day on the back, but a great day nonetheless.

First Day of Training at WWW

2011-01-08T14:01:00.004+09:00

Today was my first day of training at the Winter Wonderland Workshop sponsored by the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat (BASSC). It's being hosted at a resort about an hour outside of Chicago, so it took a bit of logistic finagling to get myself here, but thus far it has been totally worth it.

The workshop is 3 days in total, and you have 4 classes a day, with each one being an hour and a half. This morning's class focused on the art of intimate killing (i.e. choking someone to death, maiming them with a knife, stabbing them and/or pulling the blade out so you leave a gaping wound).

After that, the next class was elemental combat which focused on choosing and interpreting one of the four basic elements (earth, wind, fire, water) within yourself, and then adapting it to fencing / swashbuckling style fight choreography.

In the afternoon, the first class was an introduction to further knife work (i.e. cutting angles, targets, etc). And the last class was short staff, but the instructor (who seriously dislikes the way short staffs are commonly 'cheapened' in contemporary stage combat choreography chose to focus on martial techniques instead, drawing heavily from Aikido. Cool sh--.

Unquestionably the highlight of my day was during the knife class. Near the end, instead of just giving us choreography to do, in order to make it more real and really get us into the mentality, the instructor put all of us in a circle, and made us chant 'Two men enter, one man leaves!' then two at a time we entered the 'ring' as combatants in white T-shirts. Instead of a knife, we were armed with a marker. As such, 'cuts' show up on your shirt, and a deep one means you lose. As a martial artist with 17 years of highly diversified ring fighting experience, I know how to move. And as a function of it, I was fairly confident that I would do well, if not win. In the end, out of the 20 or so people in the class, it came down to myself and one other guy (who I found out after was a martial artist of 30 years). Although I had the advantage of reach because I was a lot taller, he was really quick, and he got a stab in on my stomach. With that, he (and everyone else) thought he had won the match, until he stood up straight, and the long black mark starting from the Karotid artery and running across his trachea showed that I had slit his throat in the process.

Completion of filming for 'Setup'

2010-12-20T13:15:00.008+09:00

This past weekend, Setup, a film I was doing in Grand Rapids that starred Bruce Willis and 50 cent, wrapped. I had already worked in two different faculties on the film (driver, and prison inmate) but for the last weekend, I was there acting as 50's stand-in. Although he had had a stand-in for most of the film, near the end, I was told his regular stand-in did something that was considered unprofessional on set (asked if he could leave the set during a down time to go and do some errands) so I was selected to replace him. If that is indeed what happened, his mistake is understandable. People are generally really really polite on set, you have a ton of downtime, and it seems like people don't necessarily need you. As such, it is easy to let yourself get too comfortable and assume that something is okay when in actuality, it isn't. (Even if they only use you for 5 minutes out of 6 hours, they are paying for you to be there for those whole six hours so that they have you exactly when they need you. )

Basically, my job was just to take 50's place when they were setting up the camera, sound and lights, so that he needn't actually be there for that part. Overall, it was no-brainer work, but as it made me a part of the regular staff (and paid me better than other jobs I had done on set), I wasn't complaining. The weather made it a pretty hard shoot though. It was just freezing out, and we were outside for most of the time. When we weren't outside, we were actually filming in a meat processing plant which meant that it wasn't all that much warmer... and it smelled like dead cow. (My first time experiencing it). For a while, I wondered if it was gonna make me wretch, but after the 3rd or 4th hour I had forgotten entirely about the smell and was instead grossed out by all the things I was looking at. When I finished the shoot I wondered if I would ever be able to eat beef again, but to my pleasant surprise, the chili I had for lunch the next day was just as good.

Speaking of meals, Friday's food was excellent (and I'm glad we had it before we went to the meat processing place). King Crab, Oysters, Roast Duck, Fresh Steak, etc, etc, etc. While at the plant, they did have a snack food table set up with all kinds of goodies on it but I just couldn't bring myself to really eat in that environment (well...except for the nachos and guacamole... there's always room for nachos).

That was actually the technical last day of the shoot. On Sunday, it was more or less just a series of small pick-up shots. Still I am glad that I could do the second day though. On Friday, although everyone was nice, they also came off as a bit cold. On my second full day of working with the main cast though, people really began to warm up a lot, and I had a chance to have good real conversations with a lot of the main crew.

I was really happy to find out that about 70% were local Michigan people. One of the PA's (Production Assistants), had said that as more and more of us get experience, he said the number of Michigan people involved in each project he has done has continued to grow larger and larger. I think with the completion of the new film studios in Pontiac, Michigan may very well continue to be a strong player in the film industry for years to come. I, at least, am keeping my fingers crossed ;)

Another day another shoot... with car crashes, and exploding windows

2010-12-07T09:31:00.004+09:00

This past weekend, I had another shoot for the film I was doing. I was pretty excited because I was one of six people who asked to bring cars to the shoot so that they could actually use them in the film (which meant more $$$ for me ;). I was supposed to drive it through a major intersection just before 6 cars smashed into each other. Cooooool stuff.

After I arrived on set, they told me to park behind a blue Tahoe, and then wait for further instructions... Which was fine... except that I really really had to go to the bathroom. Finally, 2 1/2 hours later, I broke down and decided to make a quick run, and then sure enough found out that the AD had come around to give directions while I was in the bathroom, and that I had lost my spot to one of the other drivers. This is one of the things I've come to learn- if you are involved in huge projects with a lot of people, (and ultimately millions of dollars at stake) the production schedule comes before all. Unless you are one of the major players in the film, If you miss a beat, you're out. As such, I ended up spending the vast majority of the afternoon simply sitting in the car parked right behind where the accident took place. It did however, still add to the scene, still earn me a paycheck, and keep me warm and out of the wind while everyone else was outside freezing (the weather was snowy and unbelievably cold) so I didn't particularly have any complaints about it.

Even so, it was a pretty cool shoot to see up close and personal. There were 6 car crashes, gunfire, windows exploding, etc. Typical Hollywood fare. Didn't know semi-automatic weaponry was that loud. Nor had I ever witnessed real car accidents that close either. Interestingly enough, I also figured out how they blow out the windows to real restaurants and things on set... Very interesting stuff. Definately a trick I'd love to use in a film sometime myself. For this scene 50 cent was also present. I was talking to a few people on set during one of the downtimes, and noticed that he sitting about 10 feet away from me. No chances to talk to him at all (and I didn't except to), but I was surprised to find that he looks exactly like he does on TV. Don't know what I expected to be different... but when I was doing security for celebs a few years back, I was suprised at just how different a few of them looked than they do on TV. Sometimes, it's really a wonder what make-up can do ;)

First Appearance on an American TV Drama... sort of

2010-12-04T12:29:00.007+09:00

I had a job for the new ABC drama Detroit 187 last week. As there is a scene in an upcoming episode that takes place in a boxing gym, they wanted to take photos of fights for the walls of the gym, and with my background, I was one of the people selected for the photos. Anyway, I was happy to be on the show, even if only as a still image ;)

It actually reminded me of a similar job I did for a Japanese TV drama once. There was a scene where the main character reflected on and recalled his time in Africa, and he had to hand a photo from it over to someone else in the scene to look at. Much like this past shoot, the attention to detail was simply insane. In that shoot, the guy was standing in front of a tank to stop the destruction of an orphanage, and they actually brought in 20 little African (or half-African) kids, 10 'soldiers' (of which I was a part) and an ACTUAL TANK. For the orphanage, they seemd to have painted the walls, put up banners, planted flowers, etc. and then they spent the WHOLE day shooting it from different angles simply to get that one image. This one was similar, although not quite that extreme. (Didn't get to ride a moving tank this time).

In the pictures, I was wearing camoflage trunks (which were actually pretty cool- wish I coulda kept them). They got a few really good shots, but as the person I was 'sparring' with didn't have any action experience, (and as such, didn't know how to 'sell a hit') they seemed the most happy with the shots where I was taking it to the face, so that's what will probably be on the show (unfortunately ;)

Another cool thing about the shoot though was the fact that I got a chance to meet IBF World Boxing Champion, Cornelieus 'K-9' Bundrage. (Also there for the shoot). During the downtime, he gave me a few tips on how to improve my boxing technique, and showed me a REDICULOUSLY SICK jumprope routine (which I can't even begin to copy and wished like he-- I coulda got on tape). After the shoot was completely finished, and we were just hanging out and talking I got a picture with him as well. Very very nice guy. Very modest and a family man. (Notice the size of his fists and forearms though- said he's been doing 1000 push-ups a day since he was 11.) Definately not the kind of arm I want to take a punch from.

First Filming in Michigan

2010-12-01T02:15:00.003+09:00

Had my first experience working on a shoot in Michigan this past weekend for a new Bruce Willis film. While I'm here, I'm training more than anything else, but I registered with Real Styles in Detroit (who casts extras for Hollywood projects in Michigan) just for the chance to get onset and make a bit of extra cash on the side before I start filming on Figment next month, and they cast me in this immediately.

It was a first in terms of a lot of things (i.e. working on a film of that budget size, working here in my home state in Michigan, etc) but the single most impressive thing about it was the food. With a lot of the jobs I did in Japan, the craft services (i.e. food) consisted of a few bottles of tea, some Okashi (snacks) and a bento (lunch box).

Here just the snack table was INCREDIBLE. 6 different kinds of fresh veggies, all kinds of fruit (dehydrated and fresh), 5 or 6 different kinds of nutri-grain bars, 5 or 6 different kinds of candy bars, multiple kinds of potato, corn and veggie chips, and a multitude of different nuts... and all that was BEFORE LUNCH.

Lunch actually consisted of king crab, fresh steak, grilled chicken, 2 kinds of pie, 3 kinds of salad (with 7 different kinds of dressing) and the list goes on and on. The most incredible thing was the fact that I was eating like this as an extra. I can't even imagine what they must have been feeding Bruce and 50 cent.

Beyond that, the mechanics of the shoot itself were pretty much the same. The equipment they used was obviously of a bigger budget, but how they did things was nothing new. I did learn a few cool new tricks for dealing with fake blood, and adding realism to a murder, so that was cool though.

Beyond that, the other big difference was the pay rate... As an extra, for shorter shoots, Japanese films actually pay better... but out here, you actually get overtime pay and all kinds of bonus for things (wearing your own clothes, bringing your own props, etc) so for a longer or more involved shoot, you can actually make a really decent amount. It's no wonder there are people who work as extras full time in LA.

Michigan State University Action Seminar

2010-11-18T14:01:00.002+09:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of giving my first American action seminar at Michigan State University. It was a lot of fun, and at 14 students, I was pleasantly surprised to have a full turn out. The seminar ran for about 3 hours, and covered stretching, basic kicks and punches, breakfalls, and finally fight choreography. It was my firtst time teaching in English, my first time demonstrating my action ability in the states, and it was being overseen by a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, so I was a bit on the nervous side... But overall, I was really happy about how it turned out.

Probably the most comical part of the seminar was when we were practicing breakfalls out of a kick to the stomach, and the students insisted on yelling "This...is... SPARTA!!!" while they did it. (For those who don't know, Michigan State s sport teams are called 'The Spartans')

Anyway, the timing was just right, we got to everything that I wanted to get to, and everyone understood the choreography (and thankfully thought it was super-cool).

With that, I feel like I've got the confidence to move forward with organizing more, and with the excitement building as Michigan s film industry continues to grow ( from 3 films and. $2 million dollars in 2007 to 50 films and $300 million dollars next year) this is a great time to be here... And to be the only one in the state who can do what I do.

First Hard Fall

2010-11-16T06:05:00.003+09:00

So, I took my first really hard fall in 3 or 4 years of gymnastics training yesterday. At the time I was working on improving my set (jump) for backflips as a way to increase their height. Backflipping or 'Back tucks' as they are called in gymnastics is something that I had figured out how to do on my own years ago, but now that I am training in (and teaching) gymnastics formally, I thought it in my best interest to learn how to do them with correct form.

Basically, my problem is that I pull in my legs too early, and as a function of it, cut short the potential of my jump. To counter-train against that I'd been working on a trampoline to jump, and then wail until the last second before tucking. This time I'm afraid, I may have waited too late before doing the tuck because I came down right on my face. The right side hit, I saw a flash of lights, and then felt a rapid fire series of 'pops' in my neck.

At the time I was training on my own at work where I coach gymnastics, and thankfully no one (except for one little kid) saw it. Dazed as I was, I got to my feet, and went to the bathroom to see why my face was burning so much, and low and behold, I had taken off skin in more than a few places. None to comfortable.

In any event, I grabbed some ice for both my face and neck, and headed home. Needless to say, I ended up spending the day in ER (my first time in years!) before I was finally released with the happy news that nothing was broken and that I would retain function of all my limbs. Yay for that!

In any event, reflecting on the fall itself, it was interesting, because it didn't really hurt. It was just like being punched in the face (which I guess in essence, I was) and was just kind of disorienting and numbing in the same way. Strange as it may sound though, in a way, I'm glad that it happened, as now I know what taking a major fall feels like, and it isn't quite as scary. Kind of like my first kickboxing match, where I thought: 'That's it? That's not so bad...' Thus far, it hasn't seemed to deter my desire to keep improving in the least, and if nothing else, is simply irritating because I didn't feel like taking a break right now.

Anyway, I am not supposed to work out for the next two days (due to minor soft-tissue swelling))) and am really looking forward to healing up, so I can get back to hitin' it by the end of the week. It's true what they say! What doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger!!

First Runway Show in the States

2010-10-18T05:35:00.005+09:00

Had my first runway show in the states this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun. The show itself was to model for Liz Claiborne, Old Navy, and K2, and was also a part of the grand opening of a local talent agency I've joined, OMEG (Okemos Modeling and Entertainment Group). As such, the show was actually held at the Meridian Mall in Okemos, and may have been the first one they've had there. (Yet another sign that Michigan's entertainment industry is steadily growing. )

As I'd only done runway once before, I had to go through a few workshops for the new models to prepare for it, but overall it went really well, and oddly enough, a lot of people had said that I was one of the most confident-looking models there. I guess part of it was that I've had lots of experience doing print modeling and film (and am used to the utter chaos that working on a set can be (especially once egos start bumping against one another, and you are working with massive teams of people), but largely I think it's because I could do it in English. Learning to walk or learn other new skills was easier, understanding directions was easier, and for the first time ever, I knew exactly what everyone around me was saying. There was no guesswork involved. As such, for myself, it wasn't just easy. It was relaxing.

On one funny note however, after finishing my segment of the show, I noticed a plethora of junk food, snacks (and Taco Bell!! ) for us back stage, so I changed back into my tracksuit and was throwing down when my manager called me over and told me to come back up on stage, told everyone I was an action film actor, and asked me to demonstrate my kicking ability. I literally had a mouthful of Taco, a stomach full of Reese Peanut Butter Cups), wasn't stretched out at all, and had been working since 7:30 that morning (had a promo for McDonalds that morning). And I just had to wing it... on a narrow runway stage. Can't say it was the best performance I've ever had, but I can be grateful that I didn't fall off stage...or vomit on anyone. Thank heavens for the small blessings, I guess.

First American Film Casting

2010-09-11T03:36:00.003+09:00

Not too long ago, I received an email from my manager, Taka stating that I’ve been cast in my first American film. It’s a suspense/triller scheduled to film in Virginia this fall.

Although I’ve known about the project for a while because Taka had gotten another Japanese actor cast in it, I was surprised to have gotten a role myself. A few months ago, as the Japanese actor going doesn’t speak a word of English, I suggested to Taka that I go along with him as a translator. I felt it was the least I could do because during the live theatre show I did out here a few months ago, this actor himself came along with me on a few occasions just to make sure that I was okay and that the production management was treating me right.

Beyond that, having been onset and having to work and figure out everything exclusively in Japanese, I know full well just how stressful and difficult it would be on him- 1) because he wouldn’t be able to fully understand directions or what’s going on, and 2) because even if he did, he wouldn’t really be able to ask questions. I’ve had to work my way through that situation on more than one occasion, and I know just how hard it is- especially when you are still ‘fresh’ and trying to prove yourself and/or earn respect.

In any event, after getting the green light to go with Toshi as a translator, Taka told them what I've done so far,and they decided to give me a role in the film myself- complete with speaking lines. The film is being produced by Able Kane, a company that worked with Taka’s company, Quorum on ‘The Box’.

I’ve read the script, and it looks pretty cool. It will also be nice because it doesn’t start until after the action Master’s class, I’m teaching at MSU, so there will be no scheduling conflicts with that as well.

Both the film and the Master’s class will be the first time in my 7 year career that I can work in my own language and my own culture, and that prospect is exciting beyond belief. Can’t wait to get started on both.

Tricking with Rebel Alliance (Aug. 15th)

2010-09-10T13:43:00.004+09:00

My good friend Jackie Nattapong, the leader of Tokyo’s Rebel Alliance tricking group put on a full day tricking seminar last weekend, and Jackie invited me to attend. PowerArts, hailing from Osaka was also there, as well as another good friend (and the highest jumping white dude I’ve ever seen), Enis Cetin a powerhouse of a tricker from Germany. (Yellow T-shirt)

The seminar covered a multitude of techniques ranging from straight up martial arts tricks like lazyboys, sideswipes, and 540s to basic gymnastics techniques such as back and front handsprings and backflips.

All in all, it was a really good vibe, and a lot of fun. It was nice to cover such a wide variety of techniques (which gives me a lot of ‘project kicks’ to work on over the next few months), but I wish I could have spend more time on each techniques. Such is how it goes sometimes though. As everyone was there for different things, I could appreciate RA’s wanting to cover a vast array of techniques. Can’t wait for the next one.

The Play comes to an end...

2010-06-20T01:07:00.004+09:00

I had my last show this week. The last one went well, and I was happy that I managed to get through all 6 shows with no major mistakes. It was also cool because at the end of the latter shows, Miki had me coming up on stage to introduce myself and give a quick kicking demo at the end roll.

In one respect, it's a relief to be done, but after living, breathing, eating and sleeping this play for the past two months, I still have a hard time taking in the fact that it's simply done. (And of course, being a musical, I can't help but continually sing all the songs in the back of my head).

Overall, I had a great time of it, and was really impressed with what a different feeling it is from working in front of the camera (but yet still so familiar ;)

I think the biggest difference is that when you are playing a character on-screen, and you 'grow into' character throughout the filming, you can't redo the scenes that you already took. As such, you may be happy with your performance of a character near the end, but still not necessarily with the earlier scenes.

With a play however, you do the whole thing, start to finish multiple times. As such, as your character develops you have the chance to really hone all the scenes you are doing. Although what I was doing was relatively simple, it was interesting to see all the different ways I could experiment, and/or improve on how I do things. It was also interesting to watch how Miki (the main actress- who had to play a character that is diametrically opposed to who she actually is) continually grew more relaxed and comfortable with playing her character Lena.

Overall, great experience.

The Play Begins...

2010-06-12T23:13:00.003+09:00

So the play that Ive spent the past month training for opened this weekend. As I was only able to make it to half of the practices (and none of the ones on location) the director didn't quite feel comfortable with letting me open with the first show until I had seen the whole thing.

As such, on opening night, I was given audience seats to see it from their eyes, ( but I couldn't make it there until after the opening scene which Im in) and on Sat. Afternoon, I had a chance to watch it from backstage. With that, I started with the saturday night show. The most complex part is by far the opening scene in which I have to alternate between a security guard and a ninja 2x each, and complete two seperate sword fighting sequences with completely different entrances and exits ... And make the transition (including changing costume in the dark) in 10 seconds flat.

Just to get the costume chance process down to under 10 sec. I had to practice for about two hours. It was the first time in my life that Ive had to develop a systematic and hyper-efficient way of changing clothes. This is definately a different world than working in front of the camera. But Ive grown comfortable with it ....and I love it. I'm really looking forward to doing stage performances more often from now on. Another cool thing about this play is that every one has a guest appearance from a different old school Japanese rocker. I've met three so far, and even had the chance to drink with one of them. All very cool and down to earth people. Thats something I really truly admire about Japanese entertainers.

Wedding bells... and a kick to the stomach.

2010-05-26T16:16:00.004+09:00

Last saturday, was probably the most interesting job I`ve ever had. Basically, I was paid to show up at this guy`s wedding dressed as a kickboxer, and then to officiate a hyper-spicy curry eating contest. The loser of which I was supposed to kick (without holding back).

And who should be loser be, of course, but the groom. I felt kinda bad for the guy, but a job`s a job and ultimately, he was the one paying, so needless to say I did what I was paid to do... and it was hilarous.

Its stuff like this that make life out here so endlessly fascinating. When in the states cpuld I ever get paid to blast a dude because he can`t handle his curry?

It was also interesting because it turned out that the MC of the wedding was a friend of mine from my volunteering days, so after I completed the job, I was allowed to just hang out, drink (for free) with him, and I even got to keep the kickboxing uniform for free. (Gloves, shorts, everything). ONLY IN JAPAN. Life is good. ;)

Chuck`s first Rock and Roll Musical!! ...with Katana fight scenes (?!)

2010-05-24T16:09:00.011+09:00

So after the success of the short film, Miki asked me to join her again for an up and coming rock and roll musical she is co-producing called AWAY IN THE LIFE. Having very little theatre experience, I jumped at the chance, and so far, it has been a ton of fun to work on.

Insomuch as I can piece together without reading the script, (all in Japanese) it revolves around the formation of a rock band with a bunch a wild characters (an old narcoleptic woman, an ex hard-ass turned flaming drag queen, and a former super-nerd... turned hard-ass). Apparently, Miki's character is based off of a really famous old school Japanese rocker who will actually make an appearance during the show. Thus far, it looks hilarious, and I wish I had some way to show it to people at home.

As for myself, I will be playing a security guard (/ninja?) and I don't have any speaking lines, and am mainly there as an extra comic element.

Initially, as I was only brought in at Miki's request, (and the director had never heard of me) it seemed like the director didn't know what to do with me. As such, for my first scheduled practice (which I cancelled another job to go to) all I did was sit there. I was barely even acknoledged by him, let alone kept in the loop as to what was going on. Needless to say, my manager, Taka was none to happy about this, and after politely politely mentioning it, I was given another practice day.

As I could understand the director`s reservation about using someone who 1) he`d never heard of, and 2) he hadn`t screen himself, I thought I`d have to really grab any chance I could get to show him what I could do. Finally, after I was allowed to join a practice, he had asked me to do a certain scene where I usher a woman off stage. Instead of simply doing as he said, I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder and carried her off-stage. It completely caught her off-guard, her reaction was hilarious, and he loved it. As did everyone else. At that point, he seemed to take a liking to me. And he started expanding my role to the point that now I'm in 4 different scenes. He even asked me to go to Osaka with them for the Kansai shows. (Which regrettfully I had to turn down because I'm working full time).

I really feel like I've melded fairly well with the rest of the cast as well, and for the scenes that I am in, we've gone past just 'doing' and has actually started 'creating'. It feels good to know that I can have synergy with an all-star cast of Japanese talent, and that they could feel so comfortable working with me (especially since my Japanese still has a way to go). My agent Taka said this musical is going to be really really big, and he will be shocked if I don't start getting a lot of work from it afterwards.

As a live stage necessarily means no retakes, it`s both a bit scarier and more intense as compared to working in front of a camera, but I also think it will be more fun, as we will have the energy of the crowd to feed off of. I`m looking forward to the challenge. Should be fun!

Results of the short film.

2010-05-24T16:00:00.003+09:00

So after completing filming on the short film with Miki Mizuno, she invited me to come along to the film festival which she had created it for. The original rough cut of the short film was about 15 min long, but do to the rules of the festival (each entry could only be five minutes) she had to substantially cut it down to create the final version. Although this is more or less normal for film production, it`s still sad to see scenes that you know were good and/or funny go, just because there`s no room for them. Such is how it goes, I guess.

Anyway, it was still fun to see, and did fairly well at the festival. (Making it into the top 5 out of 16 entries).

It was also funny because when they interviewed her on stage, they asked in Japanese: Who was the black dude? To which she ended up giving a 5 minute discourse as to how she knew me, my action background, and oddly enough, what I look like with my shirt off.

Needless to say it was pretty comical to be sitting in the audience listening to the whole thing.

Sukeban Hunters Hits Theatres!

2010-05-24T14:20:00.006+09:00

The latest film project I did, Sukeban Hunters hit the theatres in Shibuya this weekend, and I`m looking forward to getting in to theatres to check it out. After checking out the new trailers on the website, (which were head and shoulders better than the last one released for both films) and getting a glimpse of the final product, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much more polished it looked with the sound and visual effects in place. Just goes to show you the difference between the rough cut and the final (and why a lot of directors don`t want to show their rough cut to their actors ;)In any event, I`m excited to see them both in their entirety.

Unfortunately, Im in the middle of rehearsals for my first major theatre production, and have two all-day practices next weekend, so Im just going to have to wait a bit.

Duel in Hell

Final Death Ride Battle

Short Film with Mizuno Miki

2010-04-02T17:37:00.005+09:00

Just completed filming on a comedic short film with veteran dramatic actress Miki Mizuno.

In addition to my own short film, I recently did a short film for a submission to a film festival with veteran drama actress Miki Mizuno. I have known Miki for sometime now, but it was my first time working alongside her, and she was really cool to work with. In so much as I know this was also her directorial debut, (perhaps inspired by the success of “Hurt Locker”’s director? ). Also got a chance to meet a lot of cool people on set as well.

The short is a comedy about two guys sitting in a café talking about her while she is actually sitting in the café herself, and I was playing a disgruntled bartender at the café. In so much as I know this was also Miki’s directorial debut, (perhaps inspired by the success of “Hurt Locker”’s director? ) but things went really smoothly, and everyone seemed to have have a great time, and was laughing and enjoying themselves off camera as well. Very “ii kanji” (good atmosphere). For myself, this was my first attempt at doing comedy in Japanese, (aside from my over-the-top character in Yassy) but Miki seemed really happy with the result, so my performance couldn’t have been too bad ;) I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. The short is in the process of being edited now, and hopefully will have a video of it to post sometime in the near future.

The Merits of Hanging in There

2010-04-02T17:31:00.002+09:00

The director of my short film, Jorge, recently posted a raw cut of about 50% of the footage from our short film. It is all just raw footage, (and his first draft at editing) so he hasn’t done any lighting adjustments, or added in any of the ‘frills’ yet (i.e. CG for sword clashes, full soundtrack.)

Unfortuantely a camera mishap also caused us to lose a large chunk of the footage, so he was only working with what he had, but even so, it still turned out fairly well. Well enough, at least to earn me the chance to present my film ideas to at least 3 different production companies. In that respect, despite everything that we went through, and even the loss of footage, it was a complete success. Especially considering that this isn’t even the final version.

At this point, we are preparing presentation materials for 5 or 6 films to 5 different production companies (both in the states and here) giving us a total of 25+ chances at success. The flagship script for the American companies will be Hip-Hop Assassin (now tentatively called ‘Hewa’ – Japanese for ‘Peace’), while Hip-Hop Samurai will be the ‘flagship’ script for the Japanese production companies. Although all 5 of them will be action films, the submissions vary from historical fiction to sci-fi to comedy, and as all of them are being professionally prepared with painstaking effort, I’m expecting good things. The other great result of the short film is that it won me the endorsement of Shimomura-san, my longtime mentor, as action director. With 40 + films under his belt, and an international fanbase for his work, I’m sure he’ll push the limits of what we can do as well. At this point, I’m not excited to see if it can be done- I’m excited to see which one will go first.

As for the rest of the short film itself, it will also be a part of the presentation package. The loss of footage meant a reworking of the story, but the new script is great, and I think it is actually better for it. The only unfortunate loss is the fact that Masa’s return to LA means an inability to retake certain parts of the fight, and that it’s only going to be half as long as it was originally designed and filmed to be. In any event however, Jorge has shown full well that he knows what he is doing, and I have full faith in his abilities to work miracles with it. He certainly has so far.

Working title: Street Life 2009

2010-01-25T00:29:00.004+09:00

One of the very first action projects I ever did was a short film called ‘Street Life’.At the time, I had only been studying action for a year or two, and I wanted to do it mainly as a chance to learn from the experience of working in front of a camera.

Despite the fact that I was a total novice when I made it (and believe me, it showed in my acting) it actually got quite a lot of hits on youtube, and seemed to be fairly popular. (Enough in fact that I decided to follow-up with another short one –Street life part 1 immediately after that.)

The more I trained in action however, and the better I got at it, the more I came to realize just how much I still had to learn at the time, and a few years ago, the idea of redoing it began to creep into my thoughts. At the same time though, other projects -namely ones that helped pay the rent- always seemed to take precedence, and the time just never quite seemed right to get to it.

Last year however, I was contacted about co-producing a feature film, and I thought that this was good reason to finally move ahead with the project – not as an experiment in action or acting, (as the first one was) but as one in production. I saw it as a chance to see just how well I can actually ‘activate’ my social network, put together teams of people, and orchestrate them all towards a singular end. Furthermore, despite my 4 years of training in Katana action, I’d yet to really have the chance to do it for the camera, so I thought it represented a good chance to bridge that disparity as well.

The project itself was set to be about a 15 minute film that would follow the same basic premise of the ‘street life’ film albeit in a much more complete story with (hopefully) much much better action, music, camera-work, and emotional impact. Originally, I wanted to do it with the same opposing actor, but after months of unsuccessful attempts at trying to contact him, I’d finally given up on the idea when one of the actors from the feature film, Lance Masa contacted me to tell me he would be in town for the holidays.

As Lance is bilingual, and accomplished action player and actor, and not too much smaller than I am (a serious problem for me out here) I thought he would be
great for the role. I asked him if he’d be up for it, and despite the tight time frame, he agreed.

The two weeks before filming was a fury of buying materials, creating props, developing choreography, storyboarding, script modifications, and a myriad of other things.

As is always the case in Tokyo, the biggest issue was location. As one of the tightest cities in the world (some bars literally don’t even have seats- only standing room) filming inside in most places is usually impossible, and given the Japanese propencity for order and regularity actually getting permission to film -sometimes even when you have major backing- is about as easy as sticking a wet noodle in a key hole.

Despite that though, I finally managed to find a place the day before we were set to start filming. It was on the edge of a construction site along the banks of the Tamagawa river, and according to the weather forecast, it was supposed to be sunny and warm the next day. Beyond that, as our main filming day was on a national holiday, there would be no one around. Logistically, it seemed perfect… and it would have been…had the weather been cooperative.

Instead of being warm and sunny, it was overcast, and freezing. It was cold to the point that the director had to borrow gloves to stop his hands from shaking while operating the camera. Although it was tough on all of us there, the actress I brought in, Sumie, had it the worst. She was wearing nothing but a skimpy TINY little sleeveless dress with an open back, fishnets, and high heels. Granted we bundled her up as very best we could in between takes, but she was still freezing, and our hearts went out to her.

( When we filmed the short film Yassy it was equally freezing on that day as well, but having a $40,000 budget, at least we had the benefit of massive outdoor heaters that you could run to in between takes.) Sumie remained an incredible trooper though and got through half the day, but eventually we had to stop and send her home for fear of her health.

This left myself and Masa to complete all of the action sequences in about a half a day. At least in our case, as we were doing action, we were moving so it was easier to warm up. We got through most of it, but eventually we just ran out of sunlight, and had to go back on the next (non-rainy) day available.

We came back the following Wednesday, (the last day we had before Masa had to leave Japan) and most of the morning was spent trying to obtain permission to finish filming. Finally, through some act of God we managed to pull it off, but by the time we had, the wind had picked up. It was sunnier (and warmer) that day, but with no buildings running along the course of the river, the wind down on the banks where we were shooting was twice as strong. It was nearly impossible to make any good sound recordings, and it felt like a sub-zero wind tunnel.

It was truly the coldest I’d ever been, and the fact that I was recovering from bacterial pneumonia (I think?) didn’t help. Still we managed to get through it, and get some good footage out of it.

The director said it reminded him of the filming of Apocaplyse Now. Apparently the weather and conditions were so bad for that film that what was supposed to be a 6 week shoot turned into 16 months. (Francis Ford Coppola actually lost 100 lbs in the process and Martin Sheen had a heart attack. )

As it stands right now, the project is in editing. Masa has since returned to LA, Sumie has since warmed up, and now the fate of the project rests in the very capable hands of the director, Jorge. Because some elements we had to create and/or figure out on the fly, certain scenes need may need to be reshot, and if so, hopefully we will still have time to make it out to the location one more time before Jorge has to go. (He is also leaving Japan at the end of the month to return to Holland). As Masa is no longer in the country, the prospect of having to reshoot any scenes requiring him may present some interesting dilemmas, but thus far, as a team, we’ve found a way around every issue we’ve had to face, and I’m sure we will get around that as well.

I’m still undecided on what kind of a letter grade I would give myself for my first attempt as a producer, but I guess the final product (and it’s popularity) will be the real gauge of that. In the end, if nothing else, I can say that I got what I came for- a learning experience. And it was an incredible one at that. Although admittedly, I still have a lot to learn, I did get a feel for exactly what kind of things need to be done, the kind of time frames that can be worked with, and what kind of factors need to be taken into account from pre- all the way through post-production. I found that elements such as lighting, sound, WEATHER, logistics of transporting props, location, equipment choices (note: Panasonic tapes tend to GO BLANK after filming! - not fun) WEATHER, scheduling of staff, and WEATHER, must all be carefully considered throughout the entire process. Did I mention weather?

All signs point west.

2009-12-26T15:47:00.003+09:00

Not too long ago, my business mentor gave me the book, ‘The Alchemist”. In the book, the hero is on a quest, and he goes through all kinds of trials, tribulations, and hardships for the sake of finding his way to his ultimate destination.

After months and years of struggling, when he can see his final destination in sight, and he is sure that he can get there, he stumbles upon a beautiful Oasis, and stops to rest there. While there, he meets a beautiful woman whom he comes to adore, is offered housing for as long as he wants, and has all the food he can eat. Having finally found comfort and happiness, he feels a burning desire to settle in, but yet and still however, happy as he may be, he still has not completed his quest, and ultimately, painfully, he brings himself to leave, and carries on to his ultimate destination.

For myself, I find myself wondering if Tokyo is my Oasis. It’s taken me 6 years to get to this point, but I’m comfortable, known and respected. Half the time, I don’t even need an agent, I’m contacted and offered work directly. I’m also producing my first action films, and have the full support of both the action directors who trained me. I’ve built both a taekwondo program and an action training program from scratch, and both of them have about 30 students respectively. The martial arts blog that I’ve writing for Gaijinpot has been so successful that they want me to start a martial arts section of their website, and are allowing me to bring in other to contribute to it. I’m conversationally fluent in Japanese, and I have no particular problems communicating, and my business language ability is improving by the day. Life is good.

Despite all that however, much like the hero in the story, I’m still just not quite there yet.
Even if I’m comfortable, half of my income still just comes from English teaching. As a function of the lack of unionization in their entertainment industry, the Japanese entertainment industry is particularly hard on it’s ‘little guys’ so only the people at the top make any real money. Even some of the stunt men I train with- (who occasionally put their bodies or their lives in danger doing what they do) barely make enough to get by on, and often times have to work other part-time jobs. As a function of that, I have to do 2 or 3 times as many jobs as I would have to in the states to make the same amount. Beyond that, although being the only foreign action actor out here does give me a strong USP, that also means that the roles that are available are few and far between as well.

In short, in my heart, I still feel that I can do better, and if the even if the American entertainment industry is the hardest one on earth to get into, I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try.

Furthermore, if I can find success in the American entertainment industry that will make me ten times more marketable here, and in general big budget productions prefer to fly in foreigners than use the ones they have here anyway. (As a function of the fact that it ‘looks more exotic’).

THE PLAN

In april, when one of my other roommates moves out, painfully, I’m going to give up my apartment. (Which is in a super convenient location), and take an apartment through Westgate while I work for them full time for the next three months and pay off bills.

After the contract , I will head back to the states for three months to hit up Michigan (which is up and coming as a ‘movie town’) both East and West Coasts, and Vancouver. (Where a great deal of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters are filmed).

After feeling things out, if nothing solid has popped up, then Westgate will fly me back into Japan, and I can work (and save) again for another 3 months, and then they will fly me back home at Christmas. At that point, it will be time for the ultimate decision: Use the money I made to buy a car, and head to LA, or use it to come back to Japan, get a new apartment here, and join an official Katana action school, and Japanese language school and really REALLY bust my tail to make it big here.

Either way, with all of my college debts and everything, I will only be able to make enough to do one or the other. I can't do both, and once I commit, I can't change my mind. I guess it’s man’s ultimate paradigm: stick with what you know and stay in your comfort zone, or put it all on the line to try for something better.

As always, I refer to ‘IF’ for my inspiration:

“If you can make one heap of all your winnings,
And risk it one on turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breath a word about your loss, …
…You’ll be a man, my son!

11.20.09 - Norton Anti-Virus Campaign Video

2009-11-28T13:58:00.005+09:00

Two days after the Playstation game shoot, I had another shoot for a Norton Anti-Virus Promo Campaign. (Click here to read about the campaign).

Basically, at the beginning of the campaign, there was a video to introduce a story about catching digital criminals, (click here to see it) and the PV I took part in was the video to close the campaign. This was the most interesting job I’ve done for a number of reasons.

The director was British, and the AD was Danish, so it was probably the first time in my work history that I could communicate with 100% fluency to people in both positions.

Beyond that, as you can see from the video, it was shot in a public bath which meant mosiacs on the crotches, spending most of the shoot in a hot tub (which sounds cool at first but gets tiring after the 4th or 5th hour straight), and trying to do a fight on very slippery floors. (So much in fact, that the 'Police Chief' was actually able to slide me across the floor at the end.

In the PV, my character was a ‘Yojimbo’ (A Yakuza Boss’s right hand man/bodyguard) but I was the center of the commercial and had almost all the dialog. This was challenging because it was ALL, not just in Japanese, but in Kansai-Ben,( the accent that people speak in the Osaka area), which I have had almost no exposure to.

Because the director wanted it to be re-written in Kansai-Ben (most Tokyo-ites think it’s a really comical dialect), the script wasn’t finished until the night before, and I didn’t actually get it until 11:00pm- and we were expected to be on location by 6:30am the next day.

Thankfully, we were filming sequentially, and I wasn’t needed until the 5 or 6th scene, so I had a few hours to go over my lines with a Japanese assistant. And we drilled them. It was tough, and (unfortunately for the other actors) it took a helluva lot of takes to get through my scenes. Now I know how Lazlo (who is Hungarian) must have felt during the Playstation commercial. Everyone was really cool and patient though, so I was pretty happy about it.

I also got to do the fight choreography for my scene. There was more I wanted to do (utilizing elements of the environment) but I the director wanted to steer clear of anything that was too dangerous looking. Apparently doing a pseudo-naked fight was risky enough.

11.18.09- Playstation Game Commercial

2009-11-28T13:57:00.001+09:00

This week I did a commercial for a new playstation game that was pretty high budget. It was shot at a studio out in Chiba, and the attention to detail was simply incredible. Normally, when you show up on set, (at an insanely early hour) you spend the next few hours sitting around waiting before you even get dressed, but in this case, we had to ‘suit up’ immediately after arriving. In 6 years of doing TV dramas, commercials, and films, that was a first time for me. And I could see why. Guns aside, the suits they dressed us up in were all straight up authentic battle gear, (all the way down to the gloves with ultra-lightweight carbon fiber knuckle guards) and it took forever for us to put it all on.

By far, this had to be the coolest costume I’ve ever worn for a shoot. After getting dressed in all this, (keeping in mind that it was all brand-spankin’ new) they instructed us to lay down and roll around in the dust, dirt and rubble to make us look like we were in the middle of a battle.

The dialog itself for the commercial was only about 3 lines (which I can’t speak of as of yet), but the director made the two main actors (one of whom, Lazlo, is an action student of mine) do the line at least 50 times. As he was yelling the lines, I could just imagine how exahausting (and painful) it had to have been by late afternoon. This kind of shoot is what I envision when I think of a big budget production.

Chuck the Egyptian Warrior

2009-08-24T16:12:00.002+09:00

Had filming for a commercial for Georgia Coffee today in which I got to play an ancient Egyptian. It was funny because originally, I was offered an audition to play a boxer in a different part of this commercial (which paid 4 times more) but 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave for the studio, a massive thunderstorm rolled in, and flooded the train tracks, so I couldn’t go. I ended up waiting for hours. Guess it wasn’t in God’s plan for me to make it that day. In any event, as a function of the fact that I couldn’t make it to the part that I was supposed to audition for, my agency just threw me into another segment as an extra. As such, Chuck became a bare-chested Egyptian warrior instead. Should be an interesting commercial.

Anyway, the studio was ginormously large, and it was the first shooting I’ve ever been too where they actually had a cooler full of assorted ice cream bars (in additional to the usual drinks and snacks) that we could help ourselves too. It was a fascinating shoot, because they actually had an American team directing it, and it was the first time in my career that I’ve ever been able to understand every word that the director was saying. (whether he was talking to me or not). Fascinating. It made me wonder if it would wig me out to work on an American production where I could actually understand everything that everyone is saying…

Chuck the Bassist

2009-08-24T16:10:00.001+09:00

Had filming for a promo video for Ai Otsuka today. Originally, it was supposed to be just her and her bad, but her usual bassist wasn’t available that day, and they decided to replace him with me instead. Why they would want to replace a skinny Japanese rock-star bassist with a big muscular black dude who’s never picked up a guitar (of any sort) in his life is completely beyond me, but the shoot was hilarious anyway. It was set at a beach resort, it was a warm and sunny day, and she was super cool to work with. She seemed to like me a lot. I was supposed to be wearing the wig in the picture, but at the last minute, she decided I’d look better with my typical bald self, so off it went. They promised they’d get the footage back to me (and from what people say this company is quite good about it) so I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

Asics Poster

2009-08-24T16:06:00.001+09:00

I got to model for a new Asics poster today. I was excited because it was probably my biggest modeling job to date, (next to Gunze) and not only did they pay really well, they also gave me two T-shirts, a pair of shoes I modeled, and another pair that I was supposed to model, but ended up not having to. So this is what success feels like.

I was pumped because the poster is going to be myself in a myriad of different poses (i.e. running, stretching, etc.) and the Capoeira pose was actually my idea. I was surprised that the director went for it, but it turned out well. The only downer of the whole thing, is that oftentimes, in Tokyo they never send you copies of your work (even when you request it, and they promise that they will) so I may never actually get to see a copy of the finished product. I hope like hell I do though. If nothing else though, at least I know the Capoeira kick picture looked pretty sick.

Now is the time...

2009-07-06T00:32:00.005+09:00

In recent times, things have been going really really well. After 6 years of effort, I have finally gotten out of English teaching. I am living full-time off of acting, modeling, and running my business, (www.phatenglish.com) I sleep in pretty much everyday. Sometimes I go a month or more without ever having to put on a tie or dress shoes. For the first time since I came to Japan, I can afford to take time off from work now and again simply to enjoy myself. For the first time since high school, I’m not really worried about money, and for the first time in my life, I actually have savings (as meager as they still may be). More than anything else though, for the first time ever, I feel like a success. I feel like ‘I made it’. I’m doing what I wanna do for a living, and loving every moment of it.

Not too long ago, I was spending time with the head of Spanish Embassy's press department in Tokyo, and he told me "If you ever want to come to Spain, you have a home in Madrid. You are always welcome." At the same time, a Japanese-Mexican friend whom was also drinking with us, also told me that his brother had a spare room in his place in Mexico, and that I was welcome for as long as I’d like to stay there too.

They are both great guys, and I know that their hospitality is sincere. As such, the temptation to take them up on their offers and fly to Mexico or Spain for a few weeks to study Spanish is incredibly strong. At the same time though, I have learned from my mistakes in the past, and know that the easy times are when you need to work the hardest. That’s what gets you through the tough times.

Now is not the time to take a vacation. Now is not the time to go to clubs, chase after women, or get wasted every weekend because I can afford it. Now is not the time to get all the clothes I’ve wanted for so long, or to start dropping cash on accessories that ultimately, I know I don’t need.

Now is the time to pick up extra freelance work because I can. Now is the time to start taking care of the people who took care of me when I was at my lowest. Now is the time to re-invest what cash I have back into myself whether it be in training programs, promotions, or attending social networking events. Now is the time to wake up early to study Japanese, Korean and Spanish before I go to work. Now is the time to work the hardest I’ve ever worked, push the hardest I’ve ever pushed, and study the hardest I’ve ever studied.

A while back, one of my business mentors, Lance, gave me the book, ‘The Alchemist.’ In the book, the main character is on a quest that puts him through all kinds of hardships. In the quest, his last great obstacle is to cross a desert, and in the middle of that desert, he finds an Oasis. In the oasis, he meets the woman of his dreams, and finds everything he wants and desires in life. To complete his quest however, ultimately, he has to choose to leave it behind and continue on.

Right now, I am in my oasis. And ultimately, like him, I know that now is the time to keep going.

A day at the beach.

2009-06-30T01:53:00.003+09:00

Had a shooting for a Fuji TV drama this saturday. As is usually the case, the whole script was in Japanese, so I can only guess as to what it was about. Insomuch as I could see, the main characters were in some kind of sports competition, and one of them had to race me (the bad ass) to capture the flag. By the time we started filming though, I'd figured out what the director's vision for the scene was, and as always, I did my best to give it to him- and had fun doing it. I think the finished product should be pretty entertaining. The only downside to it is that 1) I had to lose the race- (which I more or less expected) and 2) to make it look convincing, I had to slide in the sand... and it was the type of sand with huge granuals, and lots of seashells mixed in with it. Very nice to walk on, but a B*TCH to slide in. By the 10th take, I felt like I'd lost all the skin on my arms and legs. Overall a good day though. It was nice to have a day at the beach, and get paid for it. The show will be on Fuji TV (channel 8) at 11pm on the first Saturday in August for those who are in Japan, and can check it out. Should be pretty cool. ;)

I'm not a baseball player... but I play one on TV.

2009-06-30T01:45:00.002+09:00

I had a chance to play a baseball player in a short movie to be played at a concert for Mizuki Nana this Wednesday. I haven’t actually picked up a baseball bat since I was in elementary school and I’d never actually worn a baseball uniform. It was fascinating experience 'suiting up' in a pro baseball player's gear. As I wasn't used to it, it felt kind of strange and alien, and I had to wonder if a baseball player would find it as odd if they had to wear my old taekwondo sparring gear for a day. Most likely so. The shoot was in the Seibu Dome. When I stepped up to the plate, and raised my bat in my pro uniform, I couldn’t imagine how many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Japanese kids have dreamed of being in my position right then. Well... minus the fact that there were no fans, no actual game, and the person pitching (the person who the concert was for) couldn't actually throw the ball hard enough to reach me at the plate... Looking forward to seeing how they're gonna get past that one in editing ;)

My first (almost) Helicopter ride.

2009-06-30T01:36:00.002+09:00

I had a shoot for Vivi magazine this past Monday where I was posing as a bodyguard for Chikako Watanabe. For the shoot we went all over Tokyo (to a lot of places I’ve never actually been to) and it was a lot of fun. The highlight of the shoot was going to be a helicopter ride over Tokyo, but unfortunately, this being rainy season, it started to downpour when we arrived on the site. (And of course stopped after we finished shooting the pictures in the hanger instead). Better luck next time I guess.

On a positive note though, another shooting was at a restaurant called ‘Ninja’ in Akasaka, and the shoot was supposed to just be Chikako, being threated by the ‘Ninja’, but when I mentioned to the project organizer that I could do action, she decided to turn it into a ‘Bodyguard vs. Ninja’ shoot instead, where I faced-off against the ninja with a short sword to protect Chikako, and used Capoeira techniques to fight him off (in a suit, mind you). It was hilarious!! I got to see a few of the pictures and they were AWESOME. Really looking forward to seeing the mag when it comes out. (last week of August).

Nostalgia like a mo-fo

2009-06-16T23:14:00.003+09:00

I went in to audition for a role in an upcoming film called 'Beck'. It's a popular TV anime that is being made into a live action film, and is typical of my film career I was auditioning for the part of a disreputable bad guy. (Not that I'm complaining though- I love being disreputable). In any event, when my agent called me and told me the name of the station that it would be at, I knew immediately which production company was making the film- Toho studios. The same company that produced Godzilla- my very first film.

Sure enough, it was the same studio, and the room, I was auditioning in was similar. It was interesting to see how the studio had changed in the past 5 years... and interesting to think about how my position has changed since then as well. When I went there the first time, it was my first job. I wasn't so nervous... but only because I didn't know what I was doing, so I just did what came natural. This time, I felt, I knew exactly what I was doing... and I still just did what came natural... and hopefully, the result will be the same. (i.e I got the part). It reminds me of something that Bruce Lee said... (paraphrasing). 'Before you study a martial art, a punch is simply a punch, and then after years and years of training to do it correctly, and precisely, a punch simply becomes a punch again.'

Chuck the Underwear Model

2009-06-16T11:21:00.001+09:00

I was selected to be one of the models for GUNZE (kind of like the ‘Hanes’ of Asia) and had the shoot last Friday. It was fun. We did two group shots, and everyone, including the photographer was really friendly and genki. (energetic, positive).

Aside from myself ( 6”1’ American) there was a 6’2” half-Japanese German guy, a 6’ Russian girl, a 6’ 5” Hungarian guy , and a 5’ 10” Kiwi. For once in my life here, I was simply average height.

The German guy and the Russian girl were both contract models (I’m freelance) so aside from the usual international topics,we also had some interesting conversation about the differences between contract and freelance modeling. The german guy told me a funny story about a friend of his who got a 3 month, $30,000 modeling contract, and then blew the deal 2 days before his contract finished cuz he got caught trying to steal a beer from a convenience store when he was drunk. (Commiting any kind of crime in the country you are working in breaches the contract) Sucks to be him.

Event for AM PM

2009-06-16T11:08:00.002+09:00

Had a short quick job posing as a bodyguard for an AM PM press event with upcoming talent, Yasuda Misako. It was interesting. While I was there, I had a chance to meet a screenwriter/ producer who’s going to be working on a film in Korea in the near future, whom I hope to get a chance to work with later. Very cool guy. Yasuda-san was nice too. Very friendly and easy to work with.

It' s funny because ever since Men in Black came out several years ago, the brotha in a black suit-white shirt, and sunglasses thing has become synonymous with bodyguards here. I don't exactly get the relation... but as it gives me a lot of work, I can't complain, I guess. It's just funny to me because real bodyguards actually don't wear sunglasses (especially not inside). They obscure your vision, and provide an extra risk of inury if you get hit in the face.

Yassy Trailer

2009-06-05T01:58:00.004+09:00

The new trailer for Yassy is finally up. Looks great. Really excited to see the completed movie. I think Yuji-san's use of the Redcam's slow motion effects was brilliant, and it's really cool to see someone who's so incredibly physically talented himself apply his knowledge of movement to his directing, and I think it's really cool contrasting his company's (Uden Flame Works) first work, 'Push Luck' with this one. Particularly since this film was made just after Uden celebrated it's 10 year anniversary. It was my first time to work with Shinichi-san (the director), but he was a pleasure to work under and I'm excited to see what kind of concept he comes up with next.

Back in Uniform...

2009-06-05T01:43:00.006+09:00

Started a new program at a health club in Saitama called 'JoyFit' today. The club is beautful. Everything is new looking, and it's expansive. Looks just like a gym back home. My program is called 'Taekwondo & Stretch' (Japanese English) and it consists of stretching techniques (dynamic, static, and partner stretches) coupled with Taekwondo techniques to improve muscle strength and flexibility. Had a turn out of 31 people for the first class. The studio was packed. Not bad for a start up. Still have a few ideas for things I need to add to improve the program (as well as things I need to take out), but overall looking forward to doing it again next week. It was my first time actually wearing my black belt in years, and I loved every second of it.

Arm wresting for a laugh.

2009-05-29T01:37:00.003+09:00

Appeared on a popular Fuji Television Drama called ‘Atashin chino Danshin’ this week. In the scene, I’m arm-wrestling with a woman in a cage, and she beats me while talking on her cell phone. Not exactly the most empowering job, but given the fact that it was a full day’s pay for something that took 10 minutes, I see no reason to complain. Looking forward to seeing how it turned out.

Getting back on the horse...

2009-05-29T01:34:00.001+09:00

So, at this point, it’s been about a year since I came down on my head and injured my neck trying to do a ‘horiya’ (Capoeira’s one-legged backflip kick), and I finally started training for it again. For learning the TKD 720, I’ve strengthened the jumping ability of my right leg (which is used exclusively for the power of the spring) and have also gotten comfortable with a backhandspring (which shares mechanical elements of the technique). Think I’ll be able to nail it this time around.

Uchi's Wedding

2009-05-29T01:21:00.005+09:00

Had the opportunity to take in my second or third Japanese wedding this weekend. This time it was for one of the senior members of my action team, Uchigazaki-san. A ton of people from Japan’s action community were there, and it was a great time. Of course, like most other Japanese action people’s weddings that I’ve been too, sword-wielding back-flipping ninjas came out of nowhere, and starting fighting in the middle of it.

Yakuza Hunter 2

2009-05-29T01:03:00.004+09:00

Finished filming on 'Yakuza Hunter 2' a little while ago. At one point, during an action sequence I took an elbow to the face that cut up the inside of my mouth (it's action- Sh-- happens) but overall it was a really good shoot. Particularly since orginally, I wasn't even supposed to be in the film.

I had just grown out a beard for a different role (a project I was doing with an actor named Andy Koji), and when the main actress, ( saw me with it, she suggested to the director that he write me into the film, and from there what started off as a single scene turned into an ongoing role. (Kind of like what happened to Ray Park- the guy who played Darth Maul- in Star Wars). At this point, I've got speaking lines (all in Japanese) in at least 5 or 6 different scenes in the film, and I'm also going to be returning for the third part of the Trilogy.

Guess I shouldn't be pissed at her for elbowing me in the face...

*pictured with Asami (the film's main actress), and 'Uchi' (Uchigazaki-san) who along with myself is one of the film's main bad guys.

Finding Silence: The Final Piece to the Puzzle

2009-03-26T10:32:00.001+09:00

Not too long ago, I began training in the Stanoslavsky method of acting. It involves finding the ‘truth’ of who you are, deep down at your core, and then putting that truth into the characters you portray on stage or in front of a camera. A mastering of this process is how great actors perform so well, and why Hollywood actors (most of whom are trained in this method) are world-reknowned for creating characters that an audience can perceive as real people. They don’t actually ‘act’ at all- they find the person who they are portraying within themselves, and when speaking lines, they are saying them as that person. They can say each line as if it is true because for the actor, when ‘in character’, it is true. When they cry on camera, it looks real because it is real. (I found that out the first time I cried from an exercise myself.)

In any event, despite the fact that I generally always learn things really quickly, and I fancy myself to be both self-aware and introspective, in the past few months of working with my acting coach, I’ve had a devil of a time with this process. What’s more, I couldn’t exactly figure out why. I thought I would be a natural. After several sessions of opening up, and explaining my thoughts and motivations to her however, she told me point blank what she felt the issue was. She said, “You aren’t here, and you aren’t paying me to teach me how to act.. You are here because you want success and you want me to give it to you. That isn’t how it works. You can not bullshit this, Chuck. The success is a bi-product of caring about learning this process. NOT the end itself. ” After the session, I sat down for a while outside and pondered her words. I let them sink in. Eventually, I realized that she was right. And what’s more, her advice wasn’t just true of our acting classes, it was true of everything.

As I walked around that day, I came to realize that this life of mine for the past 15 years has always been a continual effort to ‘prove something’. Whether it be to teachers who doubted in my abilities, people who doubted my intelligence, or coaches who doubted my ability to fight, everything was about proving them wrong. My number one motivator wasn’t to do what I do because I loved it, I was doing it because deep down in the core of my soul, I had an overwhelmingly powerful desire to prove to them that I could.

To be good at something -indeed to truly master it- you can not do it because of what you think it will make you feel or what you think it will do for you. You have to do it because
You love it. Regardless of whether anyone else is watching or not.

In all my years of martial arts training, I had learned a lot, but I had never mastered it’s most fundamental principle- to let go of your pride, and to simply ‘be’. I knew it in my head, but not in my heart.

This was a tremendous tremendous realization. In a way, it was scary because I felt like my motivations had been taken away from me. At the same time though, oddly enough, it was also soothing. All of a sudden, realizing that the opinions of doubters are only that- oinions- the pressure to succeed was off. It was as if I was in a noisy park, and all of a sudden there was nothing to listen to but the wind, and the trees… and that was fine.

It felt my ears had been unplugged, and now I could hear or like I’d just taken a rather large proverbial dump, and now I was light on my feet and ready to play ball.

It made me miss my Taekwondo teacher in Korea, Master Jang, because I knew he was already walking this path. It also made me miss a Japanese Rock star, Takuro, whom I used to bodyguard for, because I realized that he was walking this path as well.

I came to realize my own mentality towards it is why this battle of mine to find success was just that: a battle. It didn’t have to be. If I cleared my head of it’s desire for vindication, than this ‘battle’ would return to what it was when I started off as all those years ago- a journey. With that realization, I simply let it go. And instead of trying to replace that motivation with some other reasoning, I sat in the silence…and enjoyed it.

That was a month ago…. And I’m still ‘sitting in the silence’ now. What’s more, I’ve since nailed two national commercials, got profiled in two more magazines, got offered a radio interview, got my first lead role (in an American martial arts movie no less) and made more money in Japan than I ever have before.

I don’t know exactly if I will find success on a grand scale or not. I have a feeling that I will… but whether everyone around the world knows who I am or not is of no real consequence anymore. I have something of far greater value than any amount of fame, money or success. I have myself, and I have peace.

Signing off.
Chuck Johnson

Inauguration Day 2009

2009-01-28T00:09:00.003+09:00

In an earlier entry in my other blog, ‘the opinionated traveler’ I wrote about the sacrifices one has to make for the sake of their success. In my own experiences in trying to follow this dream for the past 15 years, thus far mine range from the fact that I graduated from a big ten school, but have never been tailgating, the fact that I’ve never been to a concert (except for when I was bodyguarding the people performing), I’ve had to watch all of my sisters children grow up without really knowing me, and up until this point, I’ve seen most of my friends settle down, have kids and live ‘the American dream’ while I’ve always continued on a path that has no real room for compromise.

Of all the sacrifices I’ve had to make however, few have been as hard as having to be outside of the states for the inauguration of President Obama. (I was stuck in Korea working.) Granted, the work that I did paid for my tutilage under Shelley Mitchell (a former acting coach of Sean Penn who agreed to work with me), and that has already been a worthy investment. At the same time however, as I sat alone in a cold, unheated room in the middle of winter, listening to his speech while my father held the phone up to the TV, I had to lament at the fact that I wasn’t there.

There are few moments in my lifetime that have (or probably will have) such a monumentus resonance, and many of my fellow Americans (of all races and creeds) have commented that it was the first time in a very very long time that they felt both proud and excited to be an American. On Inauguration Day, my father, an African American in his 70s who lived through racism at it’s fullest, Raised an American flag outside of our home for the first time in his life… and did so with tears in his eyes. And that flag is still flying now. The next time I go home will be the first time in my life that I’ve ever seen an American flag raised outside of my home.

When I spoke with my sister on the phone as the inauguration was taking place her voice had an air of tranquility and a softness that I’d never heard her speak with before. For myself, it was these things, more so that anything, that made me realize just how powerful an event this was. Particularly since, it was not just blacks, but all of us, that put him there. Not black, white, Asian, Hispanic or Jewish Americans, but all of us together.

I don’t know what the future holds for us as Americans. As President Obama said, we certainly have hard times ahead, but I can say with certainty that he has given us something that we haven’t had in sometime: hope.

Hope that we don’t have to fight and that we can really all get along. Hope that the pain of history can be erased, and that we can let bygones be bygones. Hope that we can not just heal our own wounds, but each others.

There is always the chance that we will fail, but I, for one, and damn proud to stand by my neighbor, regardless of his or her color, and try my best.

Before I was born, my parents were divorced and not speaking to each other. But they came back together and with patience, communication, and understanding, they made it work the second time around. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here. To me, this is proof that fighting need never be permanent. I’ve read that almost anyone who undertakes the journey of great weight-loss fails the first two times they try, and that their success comes the third or fourth time around. To me, this is proof that we can still succeed at something, even if we fail the first few times.

At the beginning of the month, I heard a 10 year-old kid in Korea, yell out the phrase ‘We can change!’ I think he was referring to the slogan hailed by a lot of African Americans, ‘Yes, We can!’ Personally, I find truth in both of these phrases. And not just truth for African Americans, but truth for all of us.

Taking stock...

2008-12-06T02:09:00.003+09:00

As I had mentioned to you all in the last blog, my 30th birthday marked year 15 of this journey of mine, and I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a minute to list out both the things I’ve accomplished thus far, and troubles I’ve had to face in the process. Hope that it’s as interesting for you all to read as it was for me to write out.

Accomplishments:
-Traveled to 33 countries around the world, going as far north as the Artic Circle above Norway, and as far South as Ushuaia, at the very southern tip of South America.

-Seen how Dolphins play in the deep ocean when there’s no one else around for hundreds of miles.

-Slept on top of Dune 7, and watched the sun rise and set on one of the largest sandunes in the world.

-Lived in a Buddhist Temple.

-Seen just how many stars there are in the sky when there’s no light pollution for hundreds of miles around. (It’s absolutely unbelievable).

-Seen the sunrise from (near) the top of Mt. Fuji.

-Climbed the tallest mountain in South Korea barefoot.

-Learned to Rock-climb on one of the most beautiful limestone cliffs in Thailand

-Seen the Moai statues on Easter Island with my own eyes.

-Worked as a stripper.

-Drank with Yakuza. (Nice guy)

-Had a God-only-knows-how-expensive dinner with a Chinese Army General.

-Attended two Japanese celebrity weddings.

-Went on tour with the most successful rock group in Japan.

-Learned to be an applied Linguist in Korean, and Japanese with a working base in Chinese, Spanish, and Portugese that I can build on as necessary.

-Figured out the general order and process through which my mind acquires Language so that I can teach myself any language I want simply by immersing myself.

-Worked on security teams for some of the biggest movie stars in the world, ranging from Orlando Bloom, and Keifer Sutherland to Jackie Chan, and Syllvester Stallone.

-Had the world’s most expensive sushi at the same table with Cameron Diaz

-3rd Degree black belt in Taekwondo, Two-time national champion, two time state champion, and the only foreign Intercollegiate Champion of Hong Kong.

-Verge Corda in Capoeira, and experience in 9 other martial arts.

-Learned how to wield a Japanese Katana.

-Became a regular action movie actor in Japan

-Featured in a Taekwondo Textbook in Korea.

-Built a company on my own from the ground up,and published my own book and CD. (www.phatenglish.com)

-Figured out how my body works to such a degree that I can gain and lose weight as I please, and rarely (if ever) get sick, headaches, stomachaches or injuries.

-Read several hundred books covering every topic one can imagine.

-Learned how to fight adversaries twice my size, strength or experience both in and out of the ring, and to have no fear of them. Experienced firsthand that as Schwartzenegger once said, “If it bleeds, you can kill it.”

-Learned to embrace and push my way through anything and everything that scares me.

-Learned how to comfortably fight anyone, of any martial arts style, at any range.

-Learned that both success and failure are both simply illusions, and that the merit in each can only be defined by the things that one learns from them.

-Joined the Mile High Club. (Wow! The crazy things you do when you’re young!)

-Found a methodology for eating that keeps me trim, strong and muscular that’s really healthy and really cost effective too.

-Successfully nursed a pigeon back to health after it electrocuted itself, burned all the flesh off the top of it’s head and lost an eye. (Until I took him to the vet to get feathers grafted back onto his head it was pretty nasty looking).

-Found a methodology to do so, and experienced what I can honestly call ‘perfect sex.’

-Found out who my real friends are. (i.e. the people who hung in when the sh—really hit the fan).

-Learned to have no attachment to any material possessions, no fear of rejection, pain, embarrassment, loneliness, starting over from scratch, or too much of anything else.

-Learned how to stay controlled, calm, collected and objective in extremely chaotic situations. (i.e. jumping out of an airplane, or off the end of a 120 ft. crane, being stranded in the middle of a completely unknown environment, or being hungry as hell when you don’t have a penny to your name and no friends to fall back on).

-Learned that there is always always ALWAYS a way. (And usually a super-cheap or free one at that).

Trials and Tribulations:
-Got drugged, and jacked for everything I had in Thailand

-Got horribly seasick at least once in every ocean, and once even in just the sea of Japan. No more boats for Chuck.

-Got food poisoning in Malaysia, and spent an entire evening having to listen to two Indian dudes in the room next to me having sex.

- Got ridiculously bad altitude sickness on while climbing Mt. Fuji (first time dealing with it, had no idea what to do) and vomited more times than I ever have in my life. (Especially if you count the dry-heaving afterwards). Never made it to the summit.

- Got set up to lose in a kickboxing match in Tokyo

- Got set up to lose on a TV toughman context in Tokyo

- Got jacked for the payment of both of them

- Vomited blood at a time when I was penniless, had no insurance and had no idea what the Japanese number for 911 is, let alone the Japanese word for blood.

- Walked from Tokyo to Yokohama (about 20 miles or so) after an audition because I couldn’t afford the train fare to get home.

- Had to eat Pigeon in China for the sake of being hospitable. (Thankfully that was before the 'pet pigeon' experience. )

- Had to eat ‘pudding’ made out of fermented Pig’s blood for the same reason.

- Split a nest of Fire Ants in two while moving compost as a volunteer in Thailand. Not a good time to be in shorts and flip-flops.

- Lost a lot of girlfriends because I had no time to spend with them and was generally always broke.

- Almost lost a few close friends for the same reason.

- Lost the respect of a lot of people who couldn’t see just what I was trying to achieve.

- Had to drink with a different Yakuza. (Not a very nice guy).

- Got fired from my stripping job for treating my female co-workers as people, and trying to show them that there were ways around the fact that they were being systematically exploited.

- Got systematically exploited myself during the same period.

Well folks, as you can see, the list of positives is considerably longer than the list of negatives. I can only hope that this shows you why I am out here doing what I do. For those of you reading this blog who have stood by me, fought with me, had patience with my schedule (or lack of response in emailing), please know that you are appreciated. Let's hope the next stage of my life (i.e. where I apply everything I've learned from this past one) will be just as fun and fruitful ;)

The big 3-0: set, and ready to go.

2008-11-30T18:50:00.003+09:00

Dear readers, it's been a while since the last time I wrote... Sorry about that. Rest assured though, it’s just because I’ve been busy, but more so than ever in a very positive way. As I recall, the last time I had written, I spoke about how things had taken a 180 shift, and everything had been moving in the positive, and that is still very much the case. The demo reel that I had mentioned to you guys in the last message is complete, and it’s awesome. You can check it out here but I would recommend doing to www.chuck-n-action.com to download the full screen version. It’s WAY cooler.
Beyond that, having that demo reel got me an interview in Tokyo’s #1 English speaking magazine, which lead to a photo shoot with one of the best freelance photographers in Tokyo, Mike Tsang (again, see www.chuck-n-action.com for the pics). And at the same time I also recently had my life out here profiled on a TV show called ‘Fight! Japan’ (Hopefully will be able to show that to you guys in a few weeks).

All of this together has lead to an opportunity to study under Sean Penn’s former acting coach, Shelley Mitchell for two months in San Fransisco, and I will leave at the end of January.

Much like in a game of chess, I’m starting to gain ‘tempo’ and every day everything gets easier and easier.Where I used to have to struggle to get people to take me seriously, now the ones who don’t, are the exception, not the rule. And eventually, even they usually come around.

None of this however is the best news. The very best news is the fact that after 5 years of working on, struggling with it, re-inventing it, re-working it and re-inventing it again, Phat English is finally FINALLY finished. I had promised myself that I was going to have it ready to go by my 30th birthday, and I finished it, uploaded all the pages, and ordered my first edition 20 minutes before the clock struck twelve. Thus far, everyone that sees it absolutely loves it, and I’ve sold books without even having started my marketing plan yet. Thus far, I’ve got two programs running at different schools (one in Harajuku, and one in Yokohama) and I recently did a presentation for a consulting company (in hip-hop clothes) that was a smashing success. Once I return from San Fransisco, they want me to do a seminar on the 50th floor of Roppongi Hills (One of the biggest, baddest, skyscrapers in Tokyo, where a great deal of its wealthiest people live.)

Beyond completing Phat, I’ve also completed another major project- The script for a feature-length, intelligent, political action film based on my own experiences out here about an American visiting Asia who gets wrapped up in sex trafficking industry. I co-wrote it with a Canadian producer/script-writer, and naturally I will be playing the lead role. I just finished the preliminary version of the script (after two years of working on it) and it’s being cleaned up and finalized by Jason (the script-writer) as we speak. It’s pretty crazy, because I wrote this film as my dream role, but at this point, it’s looking like it’s going to become a reality. If it’s a success, then I’ll have a framework set for creating my own particular line of action films (i.e. the same way that Jackie Chan does), and it will be the first of many to come. (I’ve already got ideas for two other ones).

It’s funny because for the first time in my life, I feel like I’ve got the ‘shackles off’. Meaning, there isn’t really anything left to hold me back. The two biggest projects of my life since I’ve moved out here are completed, and all I have to do now, is sell them. … And in both cases I’ve got a solid plan as to how I’m going to go about doing that. Granted, it’s still an uphill battle, (like the fact that I may have been invited to do that program in San Fran, but I don’t have any place to stay yet, and will have to find work AS SOON as I get there, because I will only have enough cash to cover my first month’s rent.) but it’s one that I’m used to fighting and one that no longer scares me in the least. As my homeboy Matt always says, “It is, what it is.”

I had told you guys before that 30 (15 years after I began this journey) would represent the crossroads for me, and I had planned to make it back to the states (in particular, California) by then. I think it’s funny that I will be heading there at exactly that age to exactly the place that I want to go, to do exactly what I wanted to do. Even if it is for just a few months. In any event, at this point, I’ve got 11 months left of being 30. Let’s see if I can really make it happy before then.

The Beautiful Sadness

2008-07-18T01:48:00.003+09:00

A long time ago, when I first met Master Jang (my Taekwondo master in Seoul) and told him that I had come there to train because I wanted to go to the Olympics, he told me two things.

1) I am proud to teach you.
2) You will know ‘beautiful sadness’.

Being the traditional martial arts master that he is, he said no more than that, and simply left it hanging for me to process in my own way. In my youthful arrogance however, I assumed that I already knew what he meant.

Having had experiences like being forced to drink the water out of a used ashtray, and being locked in a pitch-black hole in the wall where I couldn’t stand up or laydown for several hours on end when I was a kid (long story) I’ve never felt as though I was a stranger to struggle.

At the same time though, having the child-like sense of humor and wonder that I do, as well as a ‘I love-everybody’ attitude, people have always persisted in looking down on me as naïve, ‘ignorant of the world’, easily-hurt and in some cases, just plain stupid. (Given the fact that I finished school with a 3.99 in my last semester and I’m teaching myself 6 different languages at the moment the latter has always amazed me).

When he spoke of the beautiful sadness, this is what I thought he was speaking of; the feeling that most of the people around you may not really know or understand you…(sadness) But that consequently, their lack of understanding also gives you a certain freedom from their criticism. (beautiful). Afterall, if no one around you takes the time to really know, how much can their opinions of you really matter? Not much.

For myself, at the end of the day, being accepted or rejected by most people means about as much to me as whether or not I have the time to take a shower before I go to work. To put it frankly, in other words, 9 times out of 10, I could give a sh-t less. It was this feeling of isolation coupled with social invincibility that I thought he was speaking of.

In the past 10 years of life however, as I’ve grown older, and gained experience in chasing this dream, I’ve come to realize that that is only one type of ‘beautiful sadness’. … And that what he was speaking of was another.

The beautiful sadness he was referring to doesn’t stem from that type of situation at all- it stems from sacrifice. In particular, the sacrifice that it takes to be the best at something.

As a former Korean ROC marine, and a graduate of one of the top taekwondo programs in the world, he knew full well the pain of pushing the human body past the limits of what it was physically meant to do… and the empowerment that comes from proving time and time again that your mind and will are both 100 times stronger than your body ever will be.

He knew full well the loneliness of dedicating so much of your time and energy to training that it was impossible to maintain relationships (or sometimes even friendships)… but also the fact that you develop amazing life-long bonds with those who are patient enough to come to understand.

He knew full well the desolation of failing 1000 times over… but also the insurmountable drive that develops to always pick yourself up one more time that life can ever knock you down.

The beautiful sadness he was speaking of, was the personal loss of self that comes from giving yourself to an ideal, but the strength that comes from realizing that it was always the ideal that mattered most anyway.

5 months to go... Update 2.

2008-05-30T00:28:00.002+09:00

The past half a year has been an interesting one. As I said in my earlier entry, I started off this year teaching in Korea, but thanks to the wonderful service one can expect from Delta Airlines, my luggage was lost on my way out there, and I had to spend the first 3 weeks both living AND teaching in the same sh-- i was wearing when I got off the plane. (Particularly since I'm too big to find clothes ANYWHERE on this side of the world.) Thankfully, I had 2 extra pairs of undies and an extra pair of socks, (socks I could buy- underwear was a no-go), so I was thankful for that, but it was brutal nonetheless. Yet another reason to be thankful for the small things.

It was also a lesson learned- they more or less ignored me when I tried to stay polite. Once I hit the third week though, I was angry as hell, told them they were damaging the reputability of both myself and the company I was working for, and that if they didn't find my sh--, I would do absolutely everything in one person's power to make all of their lives a living hell. Aside from threatening to get the management of that company involved, and writing about what a shi--ty experience I had on every online travel forum I could find, I told them I would flood every email address I could find with messages, and call non-stop. I also demanded the names of not just the manager involved but the all of the other people working to insure that my luggage was found, so that I could write each of them personally. Needless to say, after that, they found it immediately, and had it in about 2 days. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I didn`t feel so.

The lesson: Oftentimes even if your opponent is way larger than you, they'll still back down if you show you're willing and able to put a hurt on them.

So that was January. Anyway, after that, I came back to Tokyo, and made my transition back into life relatively smoothly, and with no real hangups. (After the 4th or 5th time doing it, it's about doggone time.) And then, a few weeks later, I got the news: the company I was pronunciation coaching through is closing down. There goes my great, well-paying job with an American boss, and a schedule flexible enough to keep up with my action training.

With that, as things began winding down there, and my hours kept getting cut back, my paychecks went from about $3500 a month (last year) to about $600 a month. (Which coincidentally is exactly how much the rent for my room is).

Anyway, to make a long story short, I decided that enough was enough, and that it was time to start planning my transition back to my own country, where I could continue on this journey without having to deal with the language, cultural, and physical size barriers that I`m constantly having to fight my way past out here. I'd always planned to make it back to the states by 30 anyway, and at 29 now, it wasn't too far off.

Basically, the plan was that I would move to Fort McMurray, Canada (SUPER-far north) to work on an oil boom town for a few months and then use the cash I could make to transition into life in California. (Where I always wanted to end up). I wasn`t exactly fond of the idea of doing the oil drilling thing (for one because of my own political reasons...but also because you`re extremely far north, so it`s freezing, you work insanely long hours, and I`ve heard people occasionally die, lose limbs or get stabbed in bar fights up there), BUT you can make as much as $10,000 in a month doing it, and having 2 friends who did it and were fine, I figured I`d do alright.

Anyway, before leaving though, I wanted to tell my main actor director, and teacher Yuji-san, (the director of Death Trance) that I was thinking about leaving if I couldn't get any action work in the fall.
At this point, I have 9 years of English teaching experience, so getting work isn`t really an issue (the last job I was offered paid $130 per 90 minute lesson) but the fact of the matter is, I am not here to work a 9 to 5 job. I can do that much more comfortably in my own country, and in my own language. I am here to do action. If I can`t do action, it`s time to go home.

In any event, when I told him, he said that the reason I wasn't getting action work wasn't because I lacked talent. My action was good. The problem is that because I was making them by myself, my demo reels looked 'homemade', so people weren`t taking me seriously. I needed one that looked big budget... and he said that he wanted to make it for me. (He also said he'd actually been planning to for a while, but had always just been busy).

At this point, he's one of the best action directors in Asia, and in addition to working on Japanese films, he also works on Korean, Hong Kong, and New Zealand films, and he's recently completed work on his first Hollywood film. (An upcoming movie called Laundry Warrior- amazingly enough it had a budget of $40 million, but it was a total independent joint Hollywood/Korean Independent film- keep an eye out for it! It's supposed to be sweet!) I was both shocked and honored that he thought I was worth his time.

He offered to cover all of the expenses out of pocket himself, set aside 3 days to film it, and put together a full-on film crew. And he made good on his word for all of it. The filming was over the course of 3 days in 3 different locations and he put together a crew of 14 people (make-up, costume, lighting, 2 camera-men, 5 stunt men (3 from Japan, 1 from the movie 300, 1 from Laundry Warrior), fight coreographer, etc.).

Working under him was amazing. 2 out of the 3 days we were filming in the rain. We started early in the morning and filmed until we ran out of light every day. No lunch breaks, no dinner break, and on one day, I didn't even get to go to the bathroom until almost 5:00pm. It was brutal and I lost a lot of weight, but we were still always laughing and joking, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was also the most concentrated learning experience I ever could have asked for. And he told me that over the course of those three days, I improved dramatically.

At present, that reel is in the midst of being edited, and it will be done Wednesday the 28th.

The funny thing is though, we haven't even finished the damn thing yet, and over the course of the one month we've been working on it, I've been cast as a main character in a Japanese action movie being filmed in Thailand next year that he's doing the action directing for (complete with both English and Japanese speaking lines), I've been contacted by one American producer who wants to profile my life on his cable TV show (17 million viewers), and another American producer who wants me to audition for a main spot in a film that might turn into a series on Fox, I was offered a part in a live action show at the beginning of next month, and I met an agent who wants to send me to China to do action films there too. It all just happened at once. (When I got the call from the American producer I was actually down to my last $2, and was comtemplating how I was planning to feed myself the next day.) Now all I have to do is not starve to death while I`m waiting for all this to come to fruition.

2008: Countdown till 30...

2008-01-04T22:24:00.001+09:00

As I have mentioned to you guys before, I started this journey when I was 15. May 14,1994 to be exact. The first day I started taekwondo training. At least that’s the day I think best represents a starting point. Strictly speaking, as I said in the very first blog, I knew I was going to be doing all these things when I was about 11. Although I don’t remember the date (I didn’t write it down or anything), I do remember the day. It was late spring, I was walking home from school, and ‘the path’ simply laid itself out in front of me. It wasn't something I decided to do, and it wasn’t something I was looking for. It was something I simply felt like I was supposed to do.

It didn’t feel like a daydream, it felt like a vision. It was a known. Kind of like when you go to bed at night, and you know that the air you’ll breathe when you wake up will pretty much the same as when you went to bed. Can you prove it? No. But do you question it? Of course not. Because you just know. That kinda thing. Well… maybe that’s a bad example… given how quickly the environmental situation is worsening in China right now, peeps out there might be questioning that as we speak…but you get the idea.

There are other reasons I’ve learned to listen to my intuition too. For one, since I started this process, ideas and answers come to me in dreams a lot, and if I remember them, both are almost always more efficient than what I can come up with when I’m awake. Besides that, as strange as it may sound, I tend to get De jevu far more often when I listen to my intuition than when I don't. As if this particular path has already been laid out for me, and I’m simply retracing my steps.

I remember reading a long time ago, that Crazy Horse used to say that he had a certain ‘medicine’, and that as long as he walked ‘his path’ correctly, he would never be killed in battle, and he never was. (Eventually, he was killed by one of his own people). Perhaps he was speaking of something similar, and perhaps that's why I've never had any particular fear that things weren't going to work out for me either.

Beyond that, even when I’ve failed or made mistakes, the things that I was able to take away from those failures have always been far more useful later on than things that I would have taken away from a win. It's like every battle that I have to fight in life is like a lesson. If I won, I learned something. If I lost, I learned something different, and usually more important. The harder the battle I had to fight, whether won or lost, the stronger it made me, and consequently the greater my potential for success became. It’s like nature’s way of finding balance. And now, after all the struggles that I had to go through to develop my product and my own action acting career, both are almost ready to launch not in one country, but in three- and all at the same time. Amazing.

There were times however (and there still are) where I have my doubts. According to some psychological texts I’ve read, it’s also entirely possible that I simply suffer from “Delusions of Grandeur.” Lord knows that for all the progess I’ve made, I still make some pretty stupid mistakes from time to time. And despite all the amazing things I’ve learned and perceived in my efforts, for the most part, I still haven’t overcome the same inherent faults in my character. (Like the way I put things down when I’m not paying attention and then having no idea where I put them later- damn I hate that). In any event, things like that make me wonder if all the people who looked at me (and still look at me) with doubt are in the right, and me and my intuition are the ones in the wrong…

But either way, I always knew that if I followed my intuition and ‘walked the path’ it seemed to be whispering in my ear, I was bound to find out. And now here we are in 2008. Year 14 of the journey… and the next major crossroads.

At present, I’m at the airport waiting to fly to Chejudo, Korea where I will start my last hard push to win my own success as both an action actor and a business person. While I’m down here, I’ll be able to spend this month working full-time, with all of my expenses paid, while I spend my nights and weekends smoothing out both my action demo reel, and my product line, Phat English. Once the job finishes, I will return to Tokyo, and make my second (or third?) attempt at finding freedom from the burden of both financial struggle and full-time work.

From there I’ll have 8 months left time my 30th birthday- The time at which I either lock myself into this path or walk away from it, move to California to start the Ph.D program I’ve been putting off since I finished my undergrad. I guess in a way, the next 8 months will determine who is more ‘delusional’- me for listening to an intuitive feeling that keeps telling me ‘You can do this’. Or everyone else for doubting in it.

I'm not a basketball player...but I play one on TV

2008-01-04T21:38:00.000+09:00

Before I left Japan to come home for Christmas, I had a chance to play the role of a basketball player on TV and in a print ad. Although the actions they needed me for didn’t require too much in the way of actual skill, the predominance of my time on both sets was spend hanging out and shooting hoops with the other actors (and actual players) on set. Initially, I was hesitant to take the jobs, but at the end of the day, I had a great time on both sets, and was actually surprised by the fact that I did pretty well. After almost 15 years, I could still shoot, dribble, and do lay-ups pretty much as well as I could when I used to play before. (But then again, I didn’t actually try dunking or anything fancy either- who knows what a disaster that might have been).

As I was on my way home from the shoots this really made me wonder just what I might have done with basketball had I stuck with it, and what life directions it might have taken me in. At the time that I quit, I certainly loved to play. When I was a kid most of my childhood went towards more intellectual pursuits like reading encyclopedias, memorizing dictionaries, and either building or trying to invent things. As a 9th grader, Basketball was the first sport I’d ever actually tried. And I loved it. Unfortunately however, as I had no previous experience with it, I just wasn’t particularly great at it… and as an African American I caught hell for it all the time. As a genetic anomaly or something. Finally, after a year and a half, I was convinced that I was just awful at it, and I walked away from it, embarrassed to play. And it wasn’t until I did these jobs that I finally came to realize that I actually wasn’t that bad at it at all.

Besides that, given how many other sports I’m come to play well, and just how many things I’ve had to figure out on my own in order to build a company and an action movie career at the same time, Im confident that I could have been really good at it had I simply ignored the mockery, and kept with it.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve developed such a fetish for trying to achieve the impossible and prove everyone wrong. It’s almost certainly why I ended up loving Asian martial artistry so much- 1)It wasn’t black or white. It was politically neutral. 2) There were no teams involved. No teammates or opposing teammates to have to live up or get along with. In the ring, there was me, and there was the other guy. He talked to his coach. I talked to mine. During the match, there was no talking, because there’s no time for it. At the end, we shake hands and walk away. It was pure…and I always loved it for that.

Perhaps this is also why being set up in that kickboxing match 2 years ago was such a hard experience to swallow, and why it still makes me so angry to think about. It took that neutrality away from me. They did all the things they did because I wasn’t Japanese, and as a taekwondo player, I came from a Non-Japanese style of Martial Arts. (My opponent was Japanese and from a Japanese style, and the crowd was also 100% Japanese.) The few other American fighters taking part were sponsored by the American producer himself so of course, they couldn’t do anything about them. It didn’t take a Ph.D to see what the domestic side fight producers wanted- even before the match took place. And the events that transpired in both the weeks leading up to the match, and the day of the fight itself certainly seemed to be directed towards that end.

One thing’s for sure though. If having the racial experiences that I had in the west pushed me to explore new cultures, then the raw-dogg racial experiences I’ve had in the east has pushed me to rise above them. Afterall, if you can’t fit in anywhere, you might as well be a role model everywhere ;)

The wonders of Fish Oils...

2007-08-31T19:47:00.000+09:00

One of the things that makes transitioning from a conventional martial artist to an action actor difficult is the fact that on camera, martial arts alone aren’t good enough. In addition to having to learn how to punch and kick for the camera, you also have to learn how to do stunts- and the prerequisite for any kind of martial arts stunt work is gymnastics. Unless you are already famous enough that people want to see your face on camera and not just your kicks, getting your own stunt man isn’t exactly an option, and if you can’t do the stunt falls you can’t get work… and if you can’t do gymnastics, you can do the stunt falls. Such is how it is that I often find my 28-year-old, 200 lb self out practicing backflips on the beach whilst everyone else is tanning.

Such is also how I found my wrists constantly hurting from the hyper-extension that goes along with being the aforementioned age and size and having to learn to do back-handsprings. In any event, to ease the pain and chance of more serious injury, a friend of mine who seemed knowledgable in these types of things recommended that I take fish oil supplements. His reasoning was that among the other myriad positive effects that they have on the body, they also help to lubricate joints, so in taking them along with Calcium supplements to strengthen bones, my chances of injury would be a lot less.

As they aren’t particularly expensive(around $10 for a month’s supply) and I heard they also do wonders for keeping your skin young looking (which as a model and actor is another great benefit), I decided to start taking them. And thus far, they’ve done everything I’d hoped they would- plus one more amazing benefit, and that is what I would like to share with you.

Before I started taking the supplements, I had read that they are also high in Omega 3 Fatty Acid, which makes up the coating around each of the cells in the brain. Generally, we get our largest supply of Omega 3s from our mother’s breast milk, but then after that, our intake of it is few and far between- (UNLESS you eat lots of fish.) Apparently, taking in more Omega 3s aids in everything from preventing depression to fighting off altimers disease, but for myself, and this learning process I’m working through, the greatest effect has been the fact that it speeds up and facilitates intercellular communication in the brain.

Although I’m sure there’s a myriad of factors going into my recent success at learning these new things (i.e. increased confidence, knowing my body better than when I was younger, eating better, etc), I can tell you all this much: I’ve never in my life been able to learn so much so fast as since I started taking these supplements. When I first started, counting the time in between practices to let things ‘soak in’, it took me about 3 weeks to learn to do a backflip. After that, landing my first back-handspring only took me a matter of days, and now I’m picking up gymnastic moves in only 2 or 3 days. That isn’t to say that they still don’t take me a while to perfect… but at this point, the basic mechanics of figuring them out takes also no time at all…and it feels incredible. Beyond that, my Japanese learning curve, and my ability to retain new vocabulary has also sharply increased, and almost all of my Japanese friends have commented on it.
The bottom line: These things are AWESOME. And whether you’re trying to learn something new or not, I for one, would recommend them.

PS. Another simple way to drastically increase your learning curve is to get a really good night’s sleep the night after learning something new and the day after that. As aforementioned in an earlier blog, while you are sleeping, your mind goes through everything that you learned that day, gets rid of any information deemed ‘useless’ and re-organizes all the useful information into a format that’s more easily accessible given the pre-existing knowledge base that you already have. (It has been theorizes that this re-organization process is actually why we dream.) Of course, if you do this WHILE you are taking the fish oil supplements, the effect is that much greater, but even by itself the effect can be dramatic. Give it a try.

Action acting vs. Fighting: Comparing and contrasting

2007-06-25T01:22:00.002+09:00

The funny thing about being a martial arts action actor is that knowing martial arts doesn't necessarily qualify you for the job. In training to do action sequences properly you not only have to learn new techniques, and movement patterns from other styles, weapons play, gymnastics and a myriad of other elements, you have to spend a great deal of time 'unlearning' all the things you learn in traditional martial arts too.
For one, a lot of the kicks that work for real situations don't exactly work for the camera, and vice versa. A lot of the body movements and reactions that you need to learn to 'sell the pain' of an impact (that isn't really there), are the very same ones that as a real fighter you learn to suppress or simply ignore regardless of how much it actually hurts. (Like showing pain in your face or buckling when you get kicked in the stomach).

Among the techniques you do know, virtually all of the techniques need to revamped so they can be thrown differently to account for camera angles and or the safety of the actor opposing you in the scene. Furthermore, real fighting is dynamic and completely unrehearsed, and oftentimes, you know next to nothing about the person stepping across from you. You have to learn how they move and how to respond accordingly in the 1-3 minutes you have in the first round. If the fight is only 1 or 2 rounds, you have to figure it out even faster. (Which, by the way, is why I've always attested to the fact that learning to fight gives you a mental framework for figuring out so many other things as well).

In action however, it's all rehearsed. The action director looks around at his actors, looks at his environment, and then designs the sequences, and the challenge lies not in figuring out to do, but in remembering it... and simultaneously going through it with someone else... while acting with all the proper facial expressions and body movements... while taking into account the angle of the cameras and your opponent's safely.

In fact the only thing that I think is similar between the two is the fact that both require you to spend hours and hours working techniques into your muscle memory so that when the time comes, you know longer have a need to think. You can move effortlessly, relaxedly (and with lightning speed when you have to) because you just do. Bruce Lee once said that before you begin a martial art, a punch is just a punch, and then after years and years of study, a punch returns to simply being a punch. Maybe when he said that, he meant it for the camera as well.

In any event, to be sure, since I started my training 3 or 4 years ago, I've really come to respect guys like Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, and Chuck Norris not just their real skills as martial artists, but also for thier talents at synthesizing all of the different talents necessary to pull off an amazing fight scene.

Finally figured it out...

2007-06-01T21:03:00.000+09:00

Not too long ago, while working to develop a standardized screening method for a company looking to hire foreigners in Japan, I stumbled across an intelligence testing site online. As I was curious about how they worked, and thought EQ testing (which I'd already heard about a lot of other businesses using) might provide an easy solution to the task at hand, I decided to put myself through one of their tests. It took me an hour or so to go through, and in the end, I didn't think that I did all that great... until I found out that I'd outscored 96% of all the people who've taken the test so far. I was shocked. And with that, I decided to find out just how smart I actually am, and spent the next few hours putting myself through a myriad of other tests...And oddly enough, I ended up scoring above average across the board. (On some tests only by a little bit, but on others by quite a lot.) According to one paper test I found and took, I'm also perfectly intuitive...which might explain why I have deja vu so much... or in the least why I've always thought I could do a way better job than most of the other actors on the pyschic friends network. (Yah man! I cahn faeke a Jamaican accent too, don't ya know!)

Anyway, as I had mentioned in my other blog, I've always felt like I was 'different' somehow, and I guess now I know how. Apparently I'm smarter than average. Wish I knew that was the issue when I was in high school and college. If so, I probably would have concentrated on honing my mind through academia instead of spending all my time learning to kick dudes in the head. (Can't say anyone ever offered me a scholarship for that). In a way though, I guess it makes sense. Looking back on the last EQ test I took several years ago during a course on Leadership in Hong Kong (at the time I was studying business there), I outscored everyone else in the class, and at the time, I didn't even know what EQ was.

It also explains why I spent my early childroom reading dictionaries and encyclopedias, why I could call the results of the war in Iraq before it even started (any of you guys remember that mass email?), and why I never understood why people lie when it's so easy to read when most people are doing it. (if you're looking people directly in the eye when they are talking to you, oftentimes you can figure it out just by watching when they break eye contact during the conversation- let alone all the other things like traces of hesitancy in their voice, body language, etc)

Granted, I still did really well in school (even with my work and training schedule I still got a 3.99 in my last semester at Michigan State) and I did really love martial arts (and still do), but had I known that my seeing the world 'differently' was simply a function of intelligence, I certainly wouldn't have ignored all those offers and opportunities for honor societies and what not. So it goes, I guess.

Well, in any event, now dear readers, we both know not only how it is that I ended up on this crazy life path of mine, but why it is that I feel so compelled to bore you with my intellectual and political ranting in my other blog. It's not just because I'm egotistical, it's because I'm actually smart. And if you wanna doubt it, be my guest. Just remember that if you talk sh--, I know full-well how to kick you in the head ;)

Finding my way back...

2007-05-01T21:01:00.000+09:00

I had heard a long time ago that Bruce Lee once said that before you study a martial art, a punch is merely a punch. Then after you start to study the mechanics of it, it becomes something else; a system of logic, a process, an intellectual journey into the heart of one's own soul, but that after that- after years and years of training, all that knowledge, all that growth, all that personal development simply becomes reintegrated into who and what you are, and once again, a punch simply becomes a punch again- albiet faster, stronger, and more effecient.

As with a lot of the things he, and other great martial arts masters have said (my own included), I can't help but think that the process he was speaking of is more than just a literal observation, but a metaphysical analogy as well. In pondering it, I can see how this pattern relates to a lot of different things. In the subatomic realm, I had read that the introduction of a new particle into a subatomic system causes it to go through a period of 'questioning' or chaos, (which provided it doesn't destroy it), causes the system to reallign in a way that incorporates the new particle to make it stronger that it was before. This also seems to be consistent with what I've read about how our mind works; While we sleep our brain takes any newly acquired skill or knowledge, picks it apart, re-organizes it, and reintegrates it back into 'the system' so that the next day, we can actually learn more effeciently (thus the root of the expression, "Sleep on it.", quite possibly why we dream, and why you can learn something two or three times faster the second day if you get a good night sleep after the first day).

But more than anything however, I can see how this pattern fits into the process of finding one's way to success (see "Success and Relaxation", in the Opinionated Traveler Blog) and the how it relates to my own personal journey.

A little while ago, I had my second filming of the "Phat English Corner" on a Japanese TV show called "Hollypop". The director and producers have left the content almost entirely up to me, which gives me a freedom that I haven't felt I've had since I came: The freedom to just be me.

Looking back on the past 5 years of struggling to get both myself and my business to the point that it is right now, I've played all kinds of roles. I've been a bodyguard, a model, a fighter, and an action movie bad guy, but none of them were really me. Looking at all of the modeling pics I've had taken over the past few years, I'm not smiling in a single one of them. That's not me. As a businessman, I've learned to be both as aggressive and as callous as necessary, but that isn't really me either. By nature, what I am is a big kid. Granted, a big kid who happens to be smart enough to outscore 96% of all the recipients on a recently taken online intelligence test, but a big kid nonetheless. And before I could find my way to success, I've come to realize that I needed to find my way back to that.

If the analogy of punching as a metaphor to life holds true, then I've come to realize that there's also another gem of knowledge from martial arts that is applicable as well. Power can only come as a function of relaxation. And in life, I think, complete relaxation can only come from being one's self. You can't relax if you're trying to be something that you're not. So now that my 'fist' has become relaxed, I hope that the coming year will allow me to show everyone in Japan, Korea, and back home in the states just how hard I can hit.

ps. On a sidenote, before I left Korea in January, I ran across a machine that gauges the amount of power one can deliver with a kick or punch. I hadn't seen one in years...so I put in the Korean equivalent to 50 cents, and it gave me three tries. And by that third time, I'd beaten it's all-time high score for the amount of force delivered from a single hit.

Housecleaning

2007-03-03T23:21:00.000+09:00

After leaving the camp, (which was on a Korean Island called Chejudo) and saying goodbye to my kids and co-workers, I had a 6 hour layover in Seoul before my flight back to Tokyo. As such, I decided to come into town to have lunch with my principle Taekwondo master in Seoul, Master Jang. Like a lot of my best friends in the world, he doesn't particularly speak English that well, but it never seemed to stop him from not only conveying his amazing sense of humor (ex. How are you, sir? I have cold. My nose is waterfall.) but also the wisdom that has kept me in his tutilage for the past 9 years.

While having lunch, we spoke about our individual faults, weaknesses, and struggles in life, and in particular, the perils of his relationship with his new wife. (Whom, by western standards, he didn't particularly know that well before he married). In talking about his having to get used to not just his new life as a married man, but her as well, I asked him what he thought of the whole process and he responded by telling me how much he'd come to realize that his mind is just like his room.

As we were speaking in a combination of broken English and Korean, I thought I'd just misunderstood him...much like the time he said "American movie have many pucking.", and his statement was in regards to the amount of swear words, not hockey. When I asked him to elaborate however, I came to understand not just that he was saying what he meant to say in one of his prototypically humorous analogies, but also that he was telling me something that didn't just apply to himself, but to me too. He told me:

"I clean my room, but next day...dirty again. Then I clean again. Dirty again. I think my mind is same. My wife makes me angry, and my mind become dirty. I clean it of bad thing, and then sometime again, dirty again. She make me angry, It's dirty again. I clean it again, but sooner or later, dirty again. Life is repitition."

After he said that, he turned his attention back to his meal, and I did the same, pondering his words. And it wasn't long before I came to realize how applicable it was to my own mental struggle of letting go of the anger surrounding the events of the past six months.

The fact of the matter is, racism is nothing new for me. When I had first moved to Okemos (predominantly white) up from Detroit (ALL black), when I went trick or treating for the first time, one of the first people to answer the door looked down at me and said "Aren't you in the wrong neighborhood, son?" And in all seriousness, she seemed to mean it. That was when I was 12. Although I won't bore you all with the details, the stories, the stereotypes and the near-fights of the past 10 years, (not only in the states, in Korea, and here in Japan) I will say that it's not only something that I've learned to be quite sensitive about, but also that it's something that I've always strived to rise above.

It's why I graduated from both high school and college with all As, why I wanted to represent my country for Taekwondo in the Olympics, and above all else, why no one has ever seen me loss my temper. The fact that my life out here has given me the opportunity to shatter stereotypes, to prove people wrong, and to show this side of the world an African American that defied every kind of category that people could dish out is one of the things that I've always gathered the most strength from. It's always been empowering for me. And to be put in not one situation, but TWO where I was too penniless to say no, and too powerless to overcome was just the most painful experience I ever could have dealt with. It was purely, simply, awful.
Although in my heart, I do believe that time can heal all wounds, Master Jang's words also showed me that it requires effort too. In his own simple way- maybe even without his knowing it- he reminded me that to struggle against one's self is simply to be human, and that what matters isn't that we always have the perfect mentality towards life; but simply that we always try to. When I first decided to start my business 5 years ago, my good friend Chad told me something that I still hold dear:

"Shoot for the moon...and in the least you'll fall amongst the stars."

That being the case, perhaps the success that is starting to come to fruition for me is not just because these losses forced me to 'clean my room' but because they forced me to clean out the rest of the house as well.

I'll be damned...again.

2007-02-13T18:36:00.000+09:00

This weekend, while doing a security job for a reggae party/snowsplash event in Minakami, Japan, I also tried my hand at snowboarding again. Much like with the bowling thing, I hadn't done it in years, and much like with the bowling thing, I started off pretty rough. Reflecting on the whole bowling experience, after about three hours or so, I decided to borrow a screwdriver at the chairlift station, figured out how to remove the foot bindings from the board itself, switched them around and reset everything myself- reversed.

With that, I got on my board 'goofy-footed' as they called it, and had my first good run of the day. Although I still fell a few times after that, by the next day, I had no problems carving in either direction, or bringing to a standstill on either edge of the board. By mid-afternoon, I had made my first run with no falls. And that was on no sleep. (I was doing security both nights, and didn't go to bed until about 7 each morning). The moral of both stories: Just because a skill isn't obvious, doesn't mean that it isn't there. Will write again soon.

I'll be damned...

2007-02-09T12:34:00.000+09:00

So in other news, on my days off from that camp I was working at in Korea, I started bowling again. It was something I used to do back in Michigan with a fair degree of frequency, but I never was very good at it. (On average, about the best I ever did was an 86 or so.) Although I started off a bit rough, after two games, I hit my usual high score, and then after that, I passed it. 3 days and some 12 games later, on my final games before leaving the camp, I bowled a 134. 48 points higher than my usual highest score. And here's the kicker- I did it all with my LEFT HAND.

I have a feeling this is going to be a very very good year...

Progress Report 2...A crazy dream and a 180 twist

2007-01-11T12:56:00.000+09:00

Ever since I was a kid, I'd always had re-occuring nightmares about having to fight off things that are much bigger than me. When I was 10 or 11, and had just moved out of Detroit and into Okemos, it was a giant green 'thing' that was chasing me through my middle school, and all I could do was run from it. When I was in my early teens, before I started Taekwondo, it was zombies chasing me through a broken down old house. They always seemed to outnumber me 30 to 1, so again all I could do was run. When I was around 16 and had started tae kwon do training, 'it' changed form again- this time returning to a singular state, and taking the form of a giant a--hole at a bar. Against this monster, I could at least fight back, but I still never managed to win. Much like in all the other dreams, once I was totally cornered, and with no way out, I'd wake up with a start, covered in sweat. Such is how it continued into adulthood. (Which, although she understood it, both wigged out and grossed out my ex-girlfriend Kasumi).

A few months ago however, for the first time since the last change at 16, the dream changed form again. This time placing me in dark alley, alone. As always, my opponent was much bigger than I was, but this time he was armed with a 26" Katana (Japanese Samurai Sword), while I was barefisted.

The funny thing about it however, was that unlike the other dreams which always seemed to drag on for hours, this dream was relatively short. And it was short because for the first time in my life, I won. Also unlike the other dreams, I actually started this one cornered. As he approached, I had no where to run, (and no desire to) so I raised my fists. Immediately he raised his arms to come in with a downward slash, and I sidestepped inward avoid the blade while simultaneously blocking the movement at the wrist (an obvious adaptation from something I had learned studying barehanded knife defense). Grabbing his hands at the same time, I used the momentum of the step to spin him around and slam his back against the wall behind us. At the same time that he hit the wall, I shoulder-checked him in the sternum so that he would be taking the impact to both sides of his body at the same time, which I knew -despite his size- would knock the wind out of him. ...and with that, he dropped the sword. Catching it with a reversed grip, I placed the edge of the blade on the bridge of his nose between the eyes, pushed in, and then slashed as hard as I could across both his eyes- to blind, but not kill him. With that, he dropped to the ground, and it was done. ...So I took off running before any of his homeboys came. I woke up once I arrived home. It was really atypical of any fighting dream I'd ever had before, and the most interesting thing about it was that when I woke up, I wasn't sweaty in the least. I was bone dry and felt perfectly calm.
At that point, I was fully awake, and as I sat up thinking about it, I got the feeling that it meant something, and that from right then and there, things were going to be different.

The last time I wrote a progress report message, I had just injured my right hand in a fight that I lost, and gotten dragged behind a car in the rain through grass, mud, and gravel (with that injured hand) in a toughman contest that ultimately resulted in my modeling agency being sued. Beyond that, as a function of the lawsuit, not only were my ties with my agency functionally severed, but I had also been stiffed out of my payment for both events, and with my work visa expiring, I couldn't actually work, but didn't have enough money to get back to the states where I could either. I also had no longer had a place to live.

Since then however, I've gotten two awesome jobs back to back- one teaching at a women's university in Kanagawa, Japan, and another teaching at a Kid's camp in Chejudo, Korea. Although short term, both of them provided visas, a great salary and a place to stay, and my students at both of these jobs have been just about the best I ever could have asked for. I've also had one great experience after another at both. Beyond that, I've gotten back on my feet financially, paid off all my personal debt to people, and paid off just about all of my credit card debt. (One more payment to go).

That in and of itself was enough to make me feel like things were starting to come full circle, but the icing on the cake was that a few weeks before returning to the states for Christmas, through a friend, I met the owner of an internet technologies company who was interested in investing getting Phat English repackaged sold and distributed all over Japan, (and possibly China) in exchange for a commision on any deal that his company sets up. After spending some time deliberating on the specifics of the contract, I met with him one more time, and signed and finalized everything right before flying out. He said to give him three months to land me a major deal, and it's only been 3 weeks, and we've already got major potential clients waiting to meet with me as soon as I get back to Japan. I've also found my first one out on my own here in Korea. It's just amazing.

They say that it's always darkest before the dawn, and if the events of this summer, and the consequent 180 that's happened since then haven't shown that the old saying holds true, than I don't know what does.

And now, having been through it, I can understand why life works the way it does. The more you go through the stronger it makes you...even if it doesn't feel like it at the time. When you actually hit rock bottom, if your will can survive it, you lose your fear. It dissipates because everything that you are afraid of happening, has already happened. And you've survived it. For every difficulty that may lie ahead, you've already had an experience that's given you a mental framework for getting through it. With that, your mind relaxes, and what was previously a source of stress becomes nothing more than a simple equation that you already know the answer to. And it's empowering. No matter how awful it may feel when you're going through it, each and every one of those failures along the way, each of those rejections, each one of those loses, becomes not just a source of experience, but a source of strength. They go from being your baggage to being both your roadmap and the windshield on your new convertible.

(For myself, the most recent personal example of that was this past trip home, when I lost my visa for Japan because I was leaving without a return ticket.I completely didn't expect that, and having a flight to catch, had no time to argue with them. Annoying as it was however, I didn't have to worry about it, because I'd already figured out a way around it when it happened last summer. Now it's more or less just a matter of reworking 'the plan' to integrate in the logistics of it.)

I had also heard a lot time ago, that luck is nothing more than when opportunity meets preparation. Now this anology also makes perfect sense. I hadn't succeeded before because I wasn't prepared for it...and now I am.

Thus far, since the beginning of this year, I've hit virtually every goal, large and small that I've set my sights on, and have rarely missed a step anywhere. When I did, I've caught myself, and compensated for it before any damage was done, and most of the time before anyone else even noticed. In addition to this, through it all, I've never lost that calmness that I had since waking from that dream, and it's also been months since I've had any nightmares about anything.

In looking back since I wrote the last blog on Miyamoto Musashi, one thing is for sure. - He was a pretty damn amazing guy. Afterall, in 30 years of fighting, and searching for 'the way' he'd never once lost. Another thing that is for sure however, is that I will never be him. I've only been walking my path for half as long, and I've lost hundreds of times. But at the same time, I've also come to realize that maybe I don't need to follow his way, because at this point, I think I've done just fine creating my own. Looking forward to the writing the next blog, and I'll speak with all of you soon.

A lesson learned...and a decision made.

2006-12-21T02:29:00.001+09:00

So, it's been about 4 months since the last time I've written, and about 5 months since that fight, and to be perfectly honest with you all, it's still something that I think about on a daily basis. As I said in the last blog I wrote about it, it was something that I had really truly put my heart into, and although I lost honestly, doing the best with the tools that I had to work with, the fact that I couldn't come through still eats at me. As I had said in personal emails before the match, I had a very strong idea I was not supposed to win that fight. I knew that going in. I knew it was going to hurt, I knew I had an injured right hand going in, and I knew that the chips were stacked against me, but even so, if I knew all the obstacles I had to face, then strategically, I should have been able to find a way around them all. Besides that, I could read my opponent well enough. I could see what he was thinking, I figured out what his weaknesses were, and even injured, I still had enough strength and drive to pull off a win. But I didn't.
Having fought to a tight split decision, I certainly didn't do badly, but the question of WHY I lost was up until recently still burning in my soul.
That is, until I was staying with a friend (and business mentor) in Kanagawa (outside of Tokyo) and I stumbled upon a text called, "A Book of Five Rings". I had been interested in it because this text had been key in the development of the Japanese mentality on fighting and, in recent years, the bible of Japanese business practice.

As both a martial artist and a businessman, it was something I had heard of myself, but before reading it, I actually didn't know very much about it. Apparently, the book itself was written 400 years ago by Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest Samurai who ever lived, and a man who by the age of 30 had killed over 60 opponents in 1 on 1 duels. (Half of whom he beat with nothing but a wooden practice sword, when his opponents were wielding real blades). Although I wasn't looking for it at the time (which is usually how it goes), the answer began to present itself as I read through it, and took it in.
The reason I lost that fight, didn't have to do with my style of fighting, my techniques, or my injuries. I lost because of my philosophy on fighting itself.

It took me until now to realize it fully, but when I was coming in my life in Martial Arts in a local school in Michigan, (which emphasized personal development and NOT competition), by the time I was 17 I was already physically larger, taller and stronger than a lot of the people there, (but still relatively new to athletics and not totally familar with my body), and I had a habit of hurting people without meaning to. As such, I felt like I was regularly repremanded for not having control, 'bullying', or 'showing off' when most of the time, I was just trying to give 100%.
Anyway, to make a long story short, despite whatever strengths I had developed in (and out of) the ring over the past 13 years of martial arts training, everything and I mean EVERYTHING I've done has always been overshadowed by the fact that I constantly afraid of hurting someone or being labeled as a bully because of my size.

In competitions in the states, I had usually done well in spite of it (more or less because I was more tenacious- and in later years- smarter), but not necessarily because I was aggressive at all. In fact, quite the opposite...In some 30 or more martial arts competitions I'd won or at least medaled in, I'd never actually fought to win. I simply fought to learn. And whether I was conscious of it or not, I always held back.

As I read however, the one thing the author emphasized over and over was that the point of fighting is simply to win. And to do so beyond any shadow of a doubt. According to that thought system, learning happens along the way. NOT the other way around. As such, and if that is the mentality of the martial artists around me out here, (and given the way I've seen fighters brutalizing each other out here, I'm guessing that it is), then that is the mentality that I need to adobt myself. If I want to prove myself among fighters out here, then there can be no more holding back.

Futhermore, I've also come to realize that insolong as I am living out here, it's unlikely I will ever have a fair fight. I don't say that, because I'm black and they're Japanese, I say that because I'm a person of one race, living among a peoples of another. And aside from having studied 'in-group' biases as part of my major in school, I have enough personal experience with being 'the outsider' to know that more so than not, people are generally biased towards their own group whether they know it or not. Especially out here. As such, if people see me in the ring, and they don't know me personally, I'm already 'the bad guy'. That being the case, if I want to win, there can be no close matches. Period. Everyone watching has to know beyond any shadow of a doubt who the winner is.

Although had I won, this fight may have very well been my last one, I've decided that as opportunities present themselves, I'm going back into the ring next year. Not just because I feel I have one final lesson to learn from the ring, but because with that fight being unfair as it was, all the bullshit I had to deal with with that toughman contest after that, and the fact that I let myself get fucked out of payment for BOTH of them, I have absolutely NO desire to call it quits before I show anyone, and everyone that I have to that this foreigner isn't going to back down. EVER. I was already beaten to the point that I quit once when I was training in Korea. I'll be fucking damned if it's ever going to happen again.
My right hand still hasn't healed to the point that I can hit with it, so chances are, I'll have to fight without it, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I had always hoped that in walking among different peoples, they would always respect the gentility of character instead of my physical size and strength, but if I have to use that size and strength to gain respect first, so be it. To put it ebonically, "Some mutha fuckas always gotta try to ice skate uphill." As a person, I'll never go out of my way to use, abuse or hurt anyone, from now on, I do what I have to.

A fighter's tears

2006-10-26T21:28:00.000+09:00

Last year, while working as an extra at a K-1 event, I had the opportunity to watch an amazing Thai fighter. For the sake of his reputation, I won't say what his name was, but the guy was a machine. Outside of the ring, he carried himself with a dignified and quiet demeanor, and showed no signs of arrogance. But in the ring, he dominated everyone he fought, from the onset of each match to the very end. He was calm, cool, calculating, and efficient. He wasted no energy on anger, 'riling himself up' or excesses in movement. He was a total 'sharpshooter' and of all the contestants I watched that day, that Thai fighter seemed to exemplify the 'action philosophy' of martial arts better than anyone else there. By his third or fourth win that day, I was completely in awe of him.
When his fifth and final match came around however, as he stepped into the ring something was different. He had clearly conserved his energy and strength for his last match (as all experienced fighters know you have to), but it seemed as though the coolness that he had in match after match before wasn't there. I certainly didn't blame him. He was human after all, and this was the final match. It was internationally televised, and beyond that, he wasn't just fighting his own battle, he was fighting for the glory of his country and his country's fighting style, Muay Thai.

On top of all this, as a Muay Thai fighter, it was more than likely that he was accustomed to using kicks simply to break down his opponent's defense and footwork, and then doing all of his real damage with knee and elbow attacks, but in K-1, elbows and multiple knee attacks are illegal. In the earlier matches, he had relied on his kicks (which were unbelievably fast) to carry him, and they always had. In this case however, his opponent was a strong boxer who would try to get inside, and he had to know it. I had to imagine that the pressure on him was insurmountable...and I could see that it was getting to him.

As the match progressed, he tried to establish dominance early on as he had in earlier matches, but his opponent, (who had maintained his coolness), knew exactly what do to: he went inside. And with that, the two of them battled round after round. It was unquestionably the best fight I'd ever seen. It was actually so close that went into sudden death, not once, but twice. Finally, at the end of the final round, they raised the hand of his opponent. And as the camera zoomed in on the victor, (I was watching from a monitor backstage) the fleeting glimpse I caught of that Thai fighter's face showed an anguish I can't even begin to describe.

Moments later, as his seconds (ringside assistants) ushered him backstage, he was brushed passed us extras, and in that brief moment, I saw something in that fighter's eyes that completely surprised me: Tears. They were streaming down his face.

As a fighter myself, I'd never fought any battle that meant so much to me that a loss would have brought tears to my eyes. And it left me wondering if I would be the same way, had I been in his shoes.

Then over a year later, although the parallels wouldn't strike me until after the fact, I got my answer. Not too long ago, as a former Taekwondo champion, I was asked to do a kick-boxing match. I only had one month to train for it, I would have to fight outside of the rule system I was used to, but if I won, I could earn respect in the Japanese martial arts community, earn the respect of the action director who was also producing the event, earn respect for the small kick-boxing gym who was training me, and most importantly, earn respect for the fighting style that I come from, in an arena where we have very little.

Going into it, I knew nothing of my opponent except for his style, and his weight, and what he looked like from a still picture I'd seen of him online. In addition to that, as a western fighter from a Korean style, I also knew that facing off against a Japanese fighter from a Japanese style in a Japanese arena, there was no way that I wasn't going to be 'bad guy'. There would be no cheers for me in the audience that day, and going into the fight, I knew it. I also knew that as a Japanese win would please the crowd, that's also what the events organizers wanted too.

Once the fight came around, and I met my opponent for the first time, I knew it would be a battle. The look in his eye was determined, and he showed no fear or anxiety. (Which, as a fighter, you learn to read even when people are trying to hide it.) And a battle it was, right until the end. Much like that Thai fighter's opponent, mine knew exactly what to do. As a Taekwondo player I was a 'kicker', and he knew that my Achilles heel would be my legs. 20 seconds or so into the first round, as I tried for a back-leg round-kick to his midsection, he countered with a kick to the inside of my left thigh. Had it been to the outside of my leg- where the muscle rests tauntly up against the bone, it would have just hurt and bruised it. But going for the inside- where it's soft, would mean hitting the kicking muscle while it was tightened, and with nothing behind it to absorb the impact, hyper-extending it. And it worked. With that move, he took out both my legs at once. (Being connected as they are, once the groin in one is injured you can't really use either- not to mention the fact that your mobility is seriously compromised). Despite that however, I went after him anyway, found his Achilles heel (weak head defense against boxing) and with that we battled until the last round.

At the end of the third match when the bell rang, I knew it was close, but I didn't know if I had won or not. (I came to find out later it was a split decision), but as the judge raised his hand, and the crowd cheered for it, much like that Thai fighter, I got my answer.

And after the match was over, and the photos were taken, I packed up my things and limped out of the arena and into the dark alleyway that would be my walk back to the train station home. My agent had left on his bike (which I was too nauseous to ride on the back of), as had my kick-boxing coach, and the two friends who had come to watch me. I was totally alone. And as I begin that slow and painful walk back to the station, I could begin to feel the tears welling up in the back of my eyes.

Given the course that my life has taken, (both inside and outside of the ring), I'm no stranger to tears. And this was certainly not the first time in my adult life that an event had brought them forth. When I was a teen, I found out someone had shot my dog in the neck and killed him. At that time, I had tears to shed. Not just because I'd lost one of my best friends, but because he was probably scared and alone at the time and I thought deserved better than that. Just last year, when my friend and colleague, Kumar passed away from gun violence, I had tears to shed then too. Not only because I had wished I spent more time with him than I had, but because I had felt that the world had suffered an incredible loss, and for the most part, was completely ignorant of it.

What was different about this time however, was that there was no one else to feel sorry for but myself...and I couldn't pinpoint why it bothered me so deeply. It certainly wasn't because of the physical pain. I was used to that...and with time it would go away. It couldn't have been because of embarrassment, because I had done the best I could. I had no reason to be embarrassed.

After a lot of thought however, I deducted that it was this very thing that made this loss so painful. I had done my very very best, and it still wasn't good enough. During my month to prepare for this , I had lost 15 lbs of body weight through hard training, dieting and in the last, starvation and dehydration. I'd invested countless hours of my time forcing my body to get back in fighting shape at breakneck speed and taken all kinds of abuse learning how to both box, and kick-box.
But despite that, in the end, fate chose not to reward me for my hard work. That's what was so painful about it.

Although we always hear about how life isn't fair, deep deep down, I think we all want to believe that in some way, it always is. In this case however, it certainly didn't feel like it, and I had learned the hard way that that old saying is a lot easier to administer than it is to internalize.

At the same time however, looking back, there were quite a lot of lessons that I could take from this month long struggle, and even in failure, I could still grow stronger from it. In addition to learning how to both box and kick-box (and learn to fear neither), the loss of my excess body weight has got me leaner and quicker and more muscular than I have been since my early 20s. Even after two weeks of inactivity while my body recovered and another two weeks of getting settled into my new job, I'm still in the best shape of my life, and having learned everything that I did about diet and exercise, I should easily be able to maintain it.

In essence, I think this is what fighting (or any sport) is really about. Not the winning or losing at all, but the things you learn along the way. At least in my opinion, this is also why so many east Asian martial art names end in 'Do' a character which means 'road' or 'way'. But at the same time, given the fact that that Thai fighter knew exactly what to do to beat the living shit out of that same opponent the very next year, I hope that this won't be my chance ;)

Ready...set...go! : The last great push...and then...the jump

2006-09-21T23:01:00.000+09:00

So... after spending the last 3 months in somewhat of a Visa-less limbo, I've settled into my path for the next three months, and hopefully, after that, the next two years. Starting from next week, I'll be beginning a new teaching job at a university in Kanagawa, (outside of Tokyo) and will be there until the middle of December. I'll also be teaching private students at night, and business classes for my security company on the weekends, making my teaching schedule day and night, 7 days a week.

I'm expecting it to be gruelingly exhausting, but I'm trying to save as much as humanly possible, so I figure the more time I'm spending working, the less money I'll spend. My goal for that time will be to generate enough money to catch back up on all my bills, and stockpile enough savings to survive comfortably with no income for at least 3 months.
I've also spent the past month and a half training under a friend who was one of the swordsmen in 'The Last Samurai' and hope to put out my sword action demo reel as soon as my principle Action teacher, Go-san, has the time to film it. After that, I'll be sending footage from all of the movies, commercials, TV shows, and martial arts demos I've done in the past few years to a good friend in the states to make my first complete action show reel. While he's working on that, I'll also be training for what looks to be my last ever competition- the All-Japan Taekwondo Champions, (which I'm confident I can win), and will be at the beginning of December.

On the business side of things, Phat English (my project for the past 5 years) has also been completed for sometime now, and I've recently finished trials for all of the basic materials to make sure that everything works, is spell-checked, and easy to understand. It is currently on sale (and selling), but at present, almost no one knows about it yet, so the only thing left to do is 'get it out there'.

Anyway, if all goes according to plan, by the time my contract finishes at the end of December, I'll have all the tools necessary to successfully make the jump to working exclusively as an actor/model in both the Korean and Japanese entertainment industries; solid language abilities in both countries, a super-solid demo reel, enough savings to last through the slow times, and the respect (from being both a US and Japanese national TKD champion) and social network to bring it all together. What's more, I will have gotten all these things almost completely on my own, so no one will be able to claim I didn't work for them, or take them out from under me either.
In addition to this, during this time, I'll also be living really near one of my business mentors, Dave, (who also owns a successful English Language business) and hopefully will be able to seek his council regularly as I turn my attention to putting together Phat's marketing plan. If I can finish that during that time, then I'll be able to simultaneously be able to start marketing Phat English in both places as I go. Ganbarro!! (Japanese for I'll do my best!!)

Besides building a name for myself in both Korea and Japan, and marketing Phat English in both places, my side project over the next several years will also be working directly under him. It will be to build an English-only, cultural/martial arts exchange camp for kids in both regions. I jumped at the chance, because I'll also be able to take my experience from building Phat and utilize it on a project that offers me both the mentorship and resources to actually make it happen. My hope is that if a successful model can be built for Japanese and Korean kids, then it may also prove effective for White and Black kids on the home-front or even farther down the line, or Israeli and Palestinian kids. It's also cool because while I'm building that one, my other roommate from Colombia, Felipe will also be simultaneously building a sister camp here in Japan for Spanish speakers, so who knows where the possibilities of that could lead.

Although I'm not so sure the next three months will be, the next two years or so promise to be an interesting time in my life. As I had mentioned before, this whole process started when I was 15 (or arguably when I was 11), it's been a long (and oftentimes painful) road to get this far, and it's really an amazing feeling to know (and not hope) that it's all falling into place.

Once I turn 30, I'll be heading back to the states and moving to California- (either to get my Ph.D in cross-cultural social and personal psychology) in the Bay Area, (breaking myself into the American industry on a part-time basis) or to SoCal to work in the American film industry on a full-time basis while pursuing my Ph.D part time. Either way, however, I'm sure I'll be bouncing back and forth between all three places for the rest of my life.

Well folks that's the plan. If, again, this process is analogous to taking a leap off of a cliff, then right now, I'm tightening my laces before the final sprint to the edge. Wish me luck ;)

Beyond that, I'm also on my first fast right now. As I mentioned to many of you, I've got a televised kick-boxing match this weekend with a Japanese Karate champion, and I'm still 3kg over weight, so I can't eat for the next two and a half days. Interesting experience. So far, not too bad. I've learned to love eating lemon rinds!

In addition to being a good opportunity to increase the girth of my social network (and respect) in the martial arts world, this fight also represents somewhat of a social experiment for me. I'll let ya know how it turns out as soon as the fight is over, and I've had a chance to rest ;) Hope all you wonderful readers are doing fine, and I'll holla at ya soon. Love you guys.

Chuck

ps. The picture is a newspaper ad for Seiko Watches I did last year. In case you can't tell, I'm the third one from the left ;)

Vibrating bed for one, please...

2006-08-05T23:00:00.000+09:00

Soooo....At present, I am writing this blog from Kimpo International Airport in Seoul. Had everything gone according to plan, I would have already written it this afternoon, while I was on the flight home I was supposed to be on. But, as I said in the last message, if I knew exactly how I was going to land, then this wouldn't have been a 'leap of faith'. And all in all, after a really good week, I'd venture to say it was a pretty smooth landing...just 1 day late...and on no sleep. This is however my first time spending a night in the airport however, so yay for new experiences! And between all the big screen TVs screaming Korean variety shows at me and the spirited little Korean lady who-despite the language barrier-spent two hours trying to convert me into a Jehovah's witness, I haven't had a chance to get bored yet! And now I've got you wonderful people to write to!

Anyway, speaking of new experiences, I also got to spend the last few days of my trip staying in a Korean love hotel by myself. Compared to the last experience I had like this in Malaysia, (where I was also sufferering from food poisoning and had to spend the nights listening to the two Indian guys getting it on in the room next to me), it actually wasn't that bad at all. Unquestionably, my only constant source of frustration was all of the murals of naked women EVERYWHERE that served as a ceaseless reminder of the fact that I wasn't gonna get any.
Hmmm...so it goes. I was there on business anyway.

In that respect, the trip was a success. Basically, I was there doing reconosense for a comparative analysis of Seoul and Tokyo so that I can calculate my next steps, and lay out the plan for the following year.

I won't bore you guys with the details of it, but it's going to involve quite a lot of 'country jumping', time and money super-management, and at least one time running around Tokyo with no pants on.
(...okay maybe that last one's just for fun ;)

Logistically however, as I learn more about how to effectively plan out and execute 3 month, 6 month and 1 year plans, things are running more and more smoothly on a daily basis, to the point that I rarely ever worry too much about things anymore. If, figuratively speaking, this means I can jump farther and higher with each leap, then I guess this also means that I'm going to have to learn to be a lot better with my landings too ;)

Ps. For those of you that are interested, the most recent blog I wrote for 'The opinionated Traveler' , 'More than enough' deals more heavily with the philosophical side of everything I learned from this trip. Check it out if you like-

A Leap of Faith

2006-07-21T16:50:00.001+09:00

This tuesday I'll be flying into South Korea, and at present, I have nowhere to stay. I'll be staying for 5 days, and although I should be fine on food and other expenses, it's unlikely that I'm going to have enough for a hotel. (I need to save most of my money to survive the 2 1/2 months after that while I'm waiting for my new Japanese visa to process). As such, I'm simply going to have to get there and figure it out as I go.

Looking back, years ago, the idea of doing this would have been daunting, but if there's one thing I've come to realize, it's that winging your way through situations such as these are just as big a part of success as having plans and goals.

Robert Kiyosaki, (a Self-made millionaire from Hawaii) once said, "The only thing more dangerous than risk, is never learning how to manage it." and after years of taking leaps of faith (much like this one), I've come to agree with him.

Granted, that's not to say that I've 'landed on the other side' with every leap. At times, I've fallen like a rock. Take for example when I went to Thailand to model, got drugged on my second night there, jacked for my wallet and gold chain and left on the street. Any of you guys remember that one? What a disaster that was! But it was also a lesson learned: No more cups of 'coffee' from strange women the middle of the night when you're not sober!

That also isn't to say that when I do 'land on the other side' that I usually do it safely. More often than not, when I do land, I trip, stumble, and grid to a screeching halt on my face. BUT the fact of the matter is, when I stand up, bloody and bruised as I may be, I'm still on the other side, and that's all that really matters. That's what it's all about. In so much as all the books I've read have told me, no one ever achieves great success in their lifetimes without getting beaten up in the process. Why? Because the leaps of faith and the mistakes that you make along the way, are simply how you learn. And more importantly, the 'battle scars' that they leave you with is how you retain what you learn. You don't grow from the mistakes with no consequence. You grow from the ones that hurt. I learned that much from ring fighting. Beyond that however, when you succeed, it's really truly your success, because you can know in your heart that no one gave it to you. You earned it by having the courage to try, and by putting in the work to make it happen. And it's that feeling that makes the effort so worth it. Wish me luck. If I fail, and end up spending a week of my life sleeping on the street, then as the Tralfamadorians would say, "So it goes."

PS. For those of you of you who liked this blog, I wrote extensively in my other blog, "The Opinionated Traveler" just click on 'Success, Suicide, and Nature Finding Balance'

Recommended Reading on taking leaps of faith: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Recommended Reading on Tralfamadorians: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Many Thanks

2006-07-20T10:43:00.000+09:00

Wassup people. A big thanks goes out to all of you who took a minute to comment on my last blog. It was my first time ever trying to sit down and write out how it is that as an African American I ended up on this side of the world doing what I do. To be honest, it's something I've thought about a lot, (particularly at the times that I was starving to death), but putting it into words was way harder than I imagined. Again, many thanks for both the encouragement and critisism. :)

To chase a dream...

2006-07-12T21:52:00.000+09:00

Good afternoon to all readers. My name is Chuck Johnson. Maybe you've heard of me. Most likely, you haven't. But I'm venturing a guess that with time you will. What I am is a dream chaser, and this blog, from now on, will be my journal.

Starting from the time that I was 11 years old, I've known in my heart that I was meant to be something special. What exactly that was, I didn't particularly know. Afterall, I wasn't particularly good at anything...video-games aside. I couldn't play sports to save my life, and although I was an okay student, I was certainly nothing special. To top it off, I was small, goofy, and easily intimidated. I had a bad haircut, big glasses, braces, and on top of that, having just moved up from Detroit to the the well-to-do suburb of Okemos, at the time, I was also struggling to adapt to the vastly different style of dress, slang, and social atmosphere in general.

Still, something inside me always burned to be great, and for the life of me, I couldn't get the feeling to go away. Perhaps, I was just crazy, I thought. To that end, I didn't speak a word about it to anyone. If I was crazy, I certainly didn't want anyone to know about it. I had a hard enough time fitting in at school as is... the last thing I wanted was for anyone to think I was some kind of a megalomaniac. Back to Street Fighter II!

For years I just sat on it. Ignored it. Pretended that it was just the delusions of a kid who was justifying his own isolationism. But at the same time in the back of my head, I couldn't help but wonder if I felt isolated simply because I was different. Not just culturally, or racially, but inherently. Even if I didn't show it in school, I knew I was smart, and I knew I was catching things that other people around me missed. I could read the feelings of both the kids and adults around me like books, and my mom had once told me that I was the only 2-year-old she'd ever seen comment on the difference between when a woman was and wasn't wearing make-up. When I was in middle school, and my friends started experimenting with drugs, despite the peer pressure, I always refrained. But I had no idea why. I just had a feeling that I'd need my body to be strong. But for what?...I had no idea. As I said before, I was certainly no athelete. Back to Street Fighter II: Alpha Edition!

Then at 15, it happened. My Korean friend introduced me to Tae kwon do. For having previously no experience with sports (except IM basketball- which I promptly quit cuz I got tired of being labled as 'the black kid who can't ball'), I took to it right away, won my first trophy 5 months later, and then became the Michigan State Junior Olympic Champion for my weight class two years after that. At the time, I'd only been a black belt for 6 days. With that, both my self-confidence and drive increased, and my grades went from a C average to all As.

Maybe I wasn't crazy afterall...I just needed a path. And I'd found one: I was supposed to go to the Olympics! All the way baby!! Nothin's stoppin' me!! Except...that I was the youngest of six, had to pay my way through everything on my own, and knew absolutely NOTHING about the process of success. To further complicate matters, despite the fact that I'd grown both tall and strong, for a fighter, I was still incredibly gentle-looking, (Facial shape, eyes, voice, you name it), and even if I won most of the time in the ring, I was still really new to sports, and easily intimidated...and coaches could see it. Despite my size, strength, and natural flexibility, I just couldn't get them to take me seriously.

This was definately going to be a hard road to walk. But being raised in the states on the ideals of the power of an individual's will, and having heard all the stories of the little guy climbing to the top, I was bound and determined never to give up.

I went to Korea on my own. (And for once, all those years of learning how to deal with feeling like an outsider came in handy.) I found teachers and trained wherever I could for free, while still taking classes to finish school. When no one would train me, I would train myself. I did things like skydiving, bungee jumping and rock-climbing to learn how to face fears and remain calm in chaotic, fast moving situations. When I didn't have other tae kwon do people to fight or train with, I'd study other systems of fighting to look for underlying patterns in movement and philosophy. I started traveling as a teacher, volunteer, or backpacker to overcome lonliness, to increase my level my mental and social adaptability, and to learn how to read people -regardless of language or culture- a skill that I thought would be infinitely useful in the ring. Beyond that, I started reading books to find heroes and mentors that I didn't have, hone my people skills even further, and study the underlying form of success itself. And through it all, above all else, I never gave up.

I wish I could tell you guys that when the 2004 Olympics rolled around, I was ready for it, I kicked ass, got a gold medal for my country and then went home, but that isn't exactly how it turned out. I did as well as one person ever could have, and I'm proud of how far I went, but being alone, in debt, knowing nothing of financial self-management, and most of the time having to work outside of my own language, the chips were just stacked too high against me. I just needed a few more years than I had, and by the time I turned 25- 10 years after I started, I knew it.

At the same time however, I also knew that I'd gone too far for me to go home, and just get a job. Despite the hard times, and despite the struggles, I'd gotten a good strong taste of what it's like to truly believe in something, and to dedicate yourself to fighting for it with all your heart...and it was addictive. Beyond that, I'd also gotten a strong feel for the world outside my hometown- and country- and even if I had failed in my first attempt, I knew there was still opportunity out there. I just needed to find it. So with that, and having lived in both Korea and China for school & training, I decided to move to Tokyo. And after a few years of searching, as luck would have it, I found not one new path, but two. One in Action Films, the other in business. And not being able to choose one or the other, I decided to simply do both at the same time. Afterall, by then, I'd read 150+ books on the process of success, traveled to 33 countries around the world, studied 9 fighting styles, learned to speak 3 foreign languages, and fought in more martial arts competitions than I can even count. If there's anything I can do by now, it's juggle and multi-task.

At this point, I'm 27 years old. That isn't old by any stretch of the imagination, but it isn't exactly young either. And I know that in both of these paths, it means, again, that I'm going to have a hard road to walk. One because I'll be older than almost all of my competition, and the other because I'll be younger and more inexperienced. At the same time though, I've also spent 13 years fighting my way through a lifetime's worth of failures and struggles, and because of that, I have no fear of them. I've lived out of a suitcase for 7 years, so I have no real property to speak of, no commitments, nothing tying me down and nothing to lose. And more than anything, or than anytime in my life, I have the feeling that I going to win this. Call me crazy-

Chuck Johnson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhHWg8m8PME