So I was suggested by a sensei whom I train under whenever I go to Japan to write out a, “guideline” for foreigners (non-Japanese) in how to get go-dan, by writing out my own experiences/feedback that I received when I prepped for my exam. I originally told that sensei that I would be more than happy to do it, but that I’m not sure if my, “guidebook” would be helpful to others because the feedback that I got for myself, may be different than what another person would need in order for them to pass the exam.
But upon thinking about it further, I figured, “Why not?” since it may help others in the end anyway–may as well give it a shot, wouldn’t hurt.
I originally wanted to document the whole experience as vlogs–but I’m sure that the senseis and the AJNF wouldn’t have wanted their privacy to be jeopardized (since a lot of their feedback was from their personal naginata philosophies, etc…) and the work, I felt, would’ve made me shift out of focus with what I was really supposed to be doing there anyway.
I talked about this with some other non-Japanese national 5-dan friends, and they seemed to be open to the idea as well—it would honestly be interesting to compare all of our notes together.