Administration Notes:
August, 2005

It has been many moons since I have typed out a page for this section of KTJW. Things seem to have been running along so smoothly this past year. The Karate Underground Forums have been booming. Updates have been made on this site, sometimes in shotgun style, but they get out there nonetheless. Sales of Karate The Japanese Way and Channan with UPJ are slow, but steady. There seems precious little to complain about. Life is good.

This summer has provided me with some time to do some house cleaning on this site. Chris Spackman, KTJW web guru extraordinaire, and I have been working through KTJW and making things look a little nicer. We are killing off the dead links, adding a few more, merging some sections, and developing a couple new ones for this project. More articles and reviews are finding their way on the site as well.

We are putting together a section on KTJW entitled, “Karate Resources”. This section is absolutely required browsing for the karate student and dojo head. In this section we are highlighting companies that have the best to offer in terms of karate information and gear. There are some excellent publishers here who have written and promoted books that are MUST READS. We have karate uniform suppliers. We have magazine publishers. We have guys who design and produce DVDs and video. These are the companies that KTJW supports and would like you to support as well.

Please keep in mind that there is absolutely no financial interest for KTJW to promote any of these companies. We will not take a single dime from any of these guys. The companies that we promote and support here get some special emphasis from us simply because they are EXCELLENT. I buy their stuff. You should too. It is hard work to try being a positive support for karate practitioners and teachers. These guys deserve your patronage. Please support the people who support your karate.

The next developing section for KTJW is our DOJO DIRECTORY section. This is a project which I knew would be big going in, but Chris Spackman and I are taking it on in bite-size chunks. Some countries have gone absolutely wild with sending us their dojo listings. We think that is quite cool. If your club is not yet in our listings, by all means please send us that information as soon as possible.

Our goal here with KTJW is not only to do our best to provide a place for you to get good karate information, access to resources, and discussion (on our forums) but to also help new students to karate find clubs at which to train and get the personal experience they need to grow and develop in karate. If KTJW is a place that you can recommend to your students and karate contacts, then we want to reciprocate that with giving newcomers the information that they need to show up at your dojo door. We hope that the DOJO DIRECTORY will be of great service to the greater karate community.

If you would like to get listed in the DOJO DIRECTORY please send your information to mark@karatethejapaneseway.com. We will do our best to get your listing added in a timely manner.

Please include the following information (just copy and paste this into your email):

Your Name:
Country:
State/Province:
Club/School Name:
Karate Style:
Club/School Address:
Phone Number:
Contact Person:
Website (if applicable):
Email contact:
Are you the instructor at this club? (yes/no)

In the meantime, and in between time, we look forward to your comments about this site. Feel free to drop me a note with your thoughts, feedback, and concerns. Also, feel free to join our regular discussion on the Karate Underground forums.

Be well.

Mark Groenewold August, 2005