Profile of a Budo Teacher

It's a bit of a shame when a Japanese newspaper makes a couple of factual errors in their reporting (budo isn't a style; it's Japanese for martial arts)
For the martial artists out there, do remember this quote:

A battle has no rules except two: follow your own clear-cut principles and never
believe that the enemy plays straight.

or possibly this one:

Time is life. Americans say time is money, but this is a foreign concept for me.
I know my time is very limited here — at the most 120 years — and one third of
that I will be asleep. Not to mention that I could die the next moment, so I
want to spend such a precious commodity on something true and valuable. This is
why I am never late: I take others' time as seriously as my own.

But not this one:

In the Japanese language words and emotions are perfectly matched. When
foreigners speak Japanese, they are much kinder and gentler than when they use
their mother tongue. Their facial expressions soften and they are unable to say
yes or no clearly. Japanese food also contributes to this metamorphosis — after
five days living here on miso soup and rice, the color of their faces is
healthier and they look better.

Minoru Inaba The Japan Times Online

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