Kids get kicks at karate ceremony

Boys and girls stand in bone-chilling Kyoto river as part of Karate training.

KYOTO, JAPAN – You see the strangest things while walking around the streets of this imperial city with the 1,400 year history.

Kids very young take part in event.

For instance, while strolling around Kyoto’s Arashiyama District – a tourist area located 25 minutes by cab from the city centre which once served as cottage country for royal courts when Kyoto was Japan’s national capital – I was distracted by the sight of dozens of youngsters clad only in white pajamas standing in the frigid waters of the Oigawa River.

Intrigued, I ventured over and discovered the pajamas were actually karate uniforms and the kids were being baptized, so to speak, as part of their training regime.

The “baptismal” ceremony is carried out every January and those who can last one hour in the ice-cold river, which is fed by the snow capped mountains which ring this beautiful area, you get a passing grade.

While standing in the water, the kids carry out exercises like kicking and punching and most of them seemed to be having a good time.

Kids as young as 4 years old were being persuaded by their parents and coaches to enter the frigid water but some were having reservations and expressed their displeasure with some loud cries.