いよいよ４月、そして平成もあと４日です。
我々柔道人にとって4月は大会月間で
上旬の全日本選抜体重別をはじめに、全日本カデ選手権、
そして全日本女子選手権と毎週、各地で全国大会が開かれてきました。
この大会月間の締めくくりとなるのが4月29日の全日本柔道選手権です。
いよいよ来週月曜日（祝日）です。
全日本選手権は体重無差別で行われ、
柔道をしている人であれば一度は出てみたいと思う憧れの大会です。
会場の日本武道館は当日、独特な雰囲気に包まれます。
あの雰囲気に選手は大変な緊張感を覚えるのですが、これが、一度味わうとやみつきです。
（この表現がふさわしいかどうか分かりませんが！！）
伝統の大会の重を感じながら試合をする喜びと快感はちょっと他では味わず、
オリンピックにも換えられない魅力があります。
今年は８月25日から9月1日ま行われる世界選手権の100kg超級の代表選考会となっており、
その代表争いに注目してください。
そしてそれとは別に、全国の予選を勝ち抜いてきた猛者たちの
技術と戦術に酔いしれてください！
10連休が始まります。
29日にお時間のある方はぜひ、日本武道館へ足をお運びください。
しびれる時間が待っています！！
Be Infatuated with the All Japan Judo Championships!!
Ａpril has come, and it's only 4 days until the end of the Heisei era.
For us in the Judo world, April is a big tournament month.
There are tournaments every week all over Japan,
starting with the All Japan Championships by Weight Category in the beginning of the month,
then the All Japan Cadets Judo Championships,
and the All Japan Women Judo Championships after that.
The tournament to wrap up this month of tournaments is the April 29th All Japan Judo Championships.
Next Monday (a holiday in Japan), the tournament is finally coming.
The All Japan Judo Championships has one open-weight division,
making it a sought-after tournament that anyone doing judo wants to participate in at least once.
The Judokan where it will be held will be filled with a unique atmosphere on the day of the tournament.
That atmosphere makes every athlete quite nervous,
but once they've tasted it once, it's like an addiction.
(I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it or not, though!!)
The amazing feeling of getting to have a match in this traditional tournament has a kind of appeal that even the Olympics doesn't offer.
This tournament also helps determine who in the over-100 kg weight class will participate in the World Championships to be held from August 25th to September 1st,
so you should watch those matches extra closely.
More than that,
I hope that you all simply infatuate yourselves with the skills and techniques of the professionals who have won countless matches to come this far.
The ten-day holiday is starting soon.
For those of you who have time on the 29th,
I encourage you to come to the Nippon Budokan to see the matches.
An exciting experience is waiting for you!!