When I was a small boy, my mother was a teacher at the same elementary school I attended. I remember how after school she would plunk me on her bicycle and start toward home. As we rode, we would pass farms where we would stop and buy the ingredients for our evening meal. First we would pick up vegetables from farmers who would pull them up from the muddy field and rinse them off quickly before handing them to us. 

Next we would go to the open market where they sold foods straight from the earth and water. What we couldn’t fit in our basket, we slung over our shoulders. We would buy fresh fish that was still jumping, shellfish that was still crawling. And we’d buy fruit: not the perfect, stackable apples you see today in the supermarket all covered with wax, but apples with blemishes that were tasty enough for the birds to fight over.

Today it’s unrealistic to imagine hopping on a bicycle and buying fresh food every day. Even when we do make it to the market and buy fruits and vegetables, we still have to soak them to remove the pesticides. Yes, there is still fresh food. But it’s not like when I was a little boy in Taiwan. Those memories of riding on my mother’s bike and picking up fresh food stay with me even now. It was a perfect world for me.
There’s really no other way around it: food is best in its natural state. In an ideal world, we’d all eat nothing but whole foods that are just as nature made them. But we do not live in an easy world. We run from one activity to another, trying to balance family and work and all the rest of the elements that make up our complicated lives. It’s no wonder we rely on convenience foods and so-called fast foods. What kinds of foods are you really getting when you head down that supermarket aisle? If you are relying heavily on frozen, processed, or canned foods, you might be serving your body foods that not only are lacking in nutrition but are also harmful to your health in the long run. What harms your health harms your fertility. Here are some of the biggest offenders.

Coffee 

Coffee is a natural stimulant. The caffeine it contains gives you a lift, helps you stay awake, and increases your concentration level—what could be wrong with that? The answer is plenty if you are trying to get pregnant.
The caffeine in coffee stimulates your nervous system, temporarily increasing your heart rate and raising your blood pressure. There is no problem with moderate occasional use. But if you drink coffee on a daily basis, especially as a substitute for a nutritious breakfast, you can compromise your blood sugar levels and create an energy deficit. When that happens, you run the risk of raising your adrenal gland activities as a way to compensate for this loss. That can spell trouble for your fertility, since chronic overactive adrenal glands, when combined with an overstimulated nervous system, can prohibit the proper function of uterine contractions, the tubal functions of transporting the egg, and finally, implantation itself. In short, it can have a suppressive effect on female hormones.
If you don’t drink coffee, don’t start now. If you drink more than a cup a day, cut back. And if you are over the age of thirty-five and trying to get pregnant, don’t drink coffee at all. 

Sugar

If sugar is so bad for you, then why are there so many delicious cookies, pastries, and candies in the world? The answer is simple: they taste good. But sugar also happens to be among the most addictive substances known to humankind. When you eat those cookies (simple sugar) or pastries (refined carbohydrates), your pancreas goes on high alert and starts to produce and release insulin. 

Insulin is a hormone secreted by your pancreas that helps stabilize your blood sugar levels by regulating your metabolism. When you indulge yourself with a frequent intake of sweets, your pancreas must work overtime to secrete more insulin to catch up with the added sugar. After a while your body becomes accustomed to the elevated insulin state. When that happens, you become resistant to the effects of a normal amount of insulin. This temporary insulin resistance can decrease proper ovarian function and your fertility potential. Too much sugar can also potentially change the quality of your cervical mucus, making it more acidic and less conducive to retaining and protecting sperm. In men, it can actually reduce sperm motility, making sperm unable to swim well enough to meet the woman’s egg.

Refined sugar and processed sugars like corn syrup and fructose are just plain bad for you, particularly when you are trying to get pregnant. A snack bar, for example, might say “no added sugar” on the label. But read further and you may find the words “sweetened with fructose or fruit concentrate.” Don’t be fooled. White, brown, or in liquid form, sugar is sugar. Avoid it or at least reduce your consumption of it. If you are eating grains, fruits, and vegetables, you are already getting enough sugar in a natural form. You do not need more in a refined form. 

Processed Foods

Any foods that contain artificial flavor, artificial color, or artificial preservatives fall in the category of processed foods. Eliminate them from your diet altogether if you can. We know they are not good for your body in the long run; in the short run, they can actually place a chemical burden on it.

Think about what happens when you buy a new pair of shoes. The first time you wear them, they might get a little dusty. After a few more wearings, they start to pick up dirt. If you don’t clean your shoes at that point, the dirt and the dust will continue to pile up. Pretty soon, that dirt will start to affect both the material and the look of the shoes. At some point, the dirt will become like tar that you won’t be able to remove. It’s the same with your body. In health, your body is an efficient machine with the ability to detoxify itself. A small amount of chemicals will probably not create that much of a burden on your body’s organs and systems. But if you continue to accumulate them over a long period of time, these chemicals can potentially become endotoxic. In effect, they can poison your endocrine and other internal systems and decrease your body’s ability to cleanse itself. They can start to interfere with your metabolism and with the conversion of hormones.

So look at your supply of processed, frozen, and prepared foods. Get rid of that box of orange mac-and-cheese, those sodium- and chemical-laden soups, those dinners with artificial f lavoring. Read the labels, and don’t be fooled just because something comes from the health food store. If you see chemicals in the ingredients, be wary.

Alcohol 

I’ll be perfectly blunt: no alcohol. Recent scientific studies have suggested that even moderate drinking can decrease fertility potential in both males and females. 

Alcohol is hard on the liver. But that’s not the only reason for avoiding it while you are trying to get pregnant. In order to have good fertility, your hormones must work in a balanced fashion. Because the liver has a close relationship with both male and female sex hormones, any burden on the liver can change how it assists in the production of these hormones. Alcohol can affect your ovulation, causing it to become irregular. When consumed by your male partner, alcohol can be directly harmful to the sperm. It can weaken, slow, and damage all of the sperm parameters, including their shape, speed, structure, and liveliness. As if that’s not enough, drinking alcohol puts you and your baby at higher risk for a miscarriage, preterm birth, stillbirth, and other serious conditions.

You might use alcohol to relax your body and mind after a day of hard work. While I think it is a good idea to unwind on a daily basis, there are many better alternatives for achieving this. Taking a hot bath is one—just make sure it’s no more than fifteen minutes at a time. A walk after dinner, drinking noncaffeinated tea, and meditation are also good ways to put yourself at ease.

Monosodium Glutamate

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a unique food enhancer that is added to many of the foods we eat. Contrary to popular thinking, it is not just used in Japanese and Chinese restaurants. It can be found in many nonethnic restaurant dishes as well as in canned soup, potato chips, snack foods, and frozen dinners, just to name a few. While most people tolerate a small amount of MSG well, others can be extremely sensitive to it. Symptoms can include burning, numbness, tingling, flushing, or weakness in the face, neck, upper back, forearms, and chest, as well as rapid heartbeat, headache, nausea, and even difficulty breathing. We do know that infants are more sensitive to MSG because their nervous system is weaker and therefore more prone to overstimulation. Make a practice of reading food labels so that you can reduce your intake of MSG. 

Dairy

It’s true that dairy products are high in protein and calcium. But they are also high in fat. When women who are trying to get pregnant need to gain weight and increase their body fat, I recommend that they actually eat more dairy products. It is the quickest way I know to gain the protein and fat that are necessary for reproductive function. But if your weight is normal, or especially, if you are overweight or obese, keep dairy products to a minimum. If you feel you must eat dairy, go for low or non-fat products. Avoid dairy altogether if you have dairy intolerance marked by bloating, gas, or sinus congestion after consuming dairy products. Intestinal disturbance and allergies can and will interrupt proper endocrine function. Improper endocrine function can in turn cause a thickening of your cervical mucus, resulting in decreased sperm transportation, fertilization, and embryo implantation. 

Calcium is an essential nutrient that your body needs to have strong bones, heart, muscles, and nerve functions. It’s important for follicular production and general reproductive functions in both men and women. While the best source of calcium is dairy products, there are alternatives such as orange juice or soy milk fortified with calcium, tofu made from calcium sulfate, dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and sardines.

The one dairy product that I absolutely recommend avoiding is butter. It is not a good source of fat. It can wreak havoc on your fertility by clogging up your arteries and decreasing your circulation.

Soda 

Soda contains sugar, preservatives, and other synthetic chemicals. Too much soda prohibits you from eating proper nutritive foods that might be good for your health and your fertility potential. 

Tap Water

I can hear you now. “No coffee, no sugar, no crunchy snack foods, no wine, no soda... and now, no water?” I am simply asking that you drink filtered or bottled water when you are trying to increase your fertility. Unfiltered tap water can contain chemicals. Scientists have told us that tap water is most likely safe to drink, but not all tap water is the same. While occasional consumption of plain tap water is not a problem in developed countries, filtered water is much better for your health in the long run.

Many women ask me how many glasses of water they should drink per day. Some studies recommend as many as eight glasses. I recommend moderation—no more than five glasses or so a day, since you should ideally be getting liquid from food sources like fruits and soup. If you drink too much water, you run the risk of excessive water syndrome, which could cause vital nutrients and trace minerals to be leached from your system.
Make sure the water you drink is not icy cold. As cold water goes down into your stomach, your body warms it up by using energy and circulation that could be put to better use in your pelvic area, your uterus, and your ovaries.

Seppuku should never be considered suicide, and similarly kaishaku should never be regarded as murder: both are rituals of bushido. Seppuku was committed only by warriors-commoners were deemed unworthy. There were several circumstances under which seppuku was carried out. One was to take personal responsibiliLy for a grave error. A samurai would also commit seppuku if his lord commanded him to do so. A further reason would be to take responsibility for someone dse's crime or error. In many cases, however, seppuku was carried out in combat when defeat was unavoid­able or had already occurred. A samurai could also commit seppuku after losing in battle to ensure that lhe lives of his wife, children, and retainers would be spared. 

Kaishaku was performed to assist the warrior committing seppuku. There were two types of kaishaku. The first was done to a samurai who had committed a crime: his head would be cut off completely. The second was done to a samu­rai who had not dishonored his status: a small section of skin at the front of his neck was left intact, so that his head would roll forward onto his arms while remaining attached to his neck, thus presenting his dignity. This was called "kakac-kubi."

Jujutsu, also known as kumiuchi, is in the basis of all martial arts. It is the fighting art with which one stops an opponent's attack without using weapons, and also includes counterattacks and methods to immobilize an opponent. Toward the end of the Sengoku period, it was considered proof of great skill to capture an opponent alive, and warriors who did this were appraised very highly by their superiors. Jujursu was therefore an essential skill for warriors on the battlefield. From the Edo period, jujutsu was used by the police to capture criminals, and it also became a method of self-defense for commoners. This highly skilled art has been preserved until today. 

Since the Tensho period (1573-92) of the Warring States period, the length of the tachi was from 2 shaku 2 sun to 2 shaku 3 or 4 sun at its longest. Incidentally, although it varied depending on the time and region, the average height of a Japanese male until the early part of the Meiji period was less than 160 cm (5 shaku 3 sun). According to the Tai­heiki, the tachi of Nawa Nagatoshi was 4 shaku 3 sun. Saji Magozaburo of Tanba carried a tachi of 5 shaku 3 sun. In the time of Emperor Gomurakami, Wada Masatomo's tachi was 4 shaku 5 sun, and it is said that Fujiwara no Yasunaga drew a tachi of 4 shaku sun. Tsumaga Nagamune carried a tachi of 5 shaku 3 sun. In the time of the battle of the Fuefuki Pass, Yazu Kojiro had a tachi of 6 shaku 3 sun. Akamatsu Ujinori carried a tachi of 5 shaku 7 sun. The sword of Togashi Masachika appears in the tales of storytellers as 9 shaku 3 sun.

The Ninja sword had a blade length of 1 shaku 6 to 7 sun. In the Tokugawa period, a blade longer than 2 shaku was called a katana. Up to 1 shaku 9 sun was called an o-wakizashi, up to 1 shaku 7 sun was called a chu-wakizashi, and up to 9 sun 9 bu was called a sho-wakizashi. The uchi-gatana that began to appear from the Muromachi period were initially 1 shaku 4 sun, but towards the end of the period went from shaku 7 or 8 sun to 2 shaku in length.

With the daito and shoto (a pair of long and short swords), the long sword is sometimes made into a naginata or yari, and the long and short swords are used together as a pair. The short sword was also effective when used in confined spaces against multiple enemies. There is a prov­erb: "The short sword can be used as a long sword and the long sword as a short sword." 

Real common sense means, when in a fight, look with 'extraordi­nary eyes' (kime). Kime are also an example of "the eyes of god" (shingan); when in combat, this becomes kaname (another reading of shingan), also meaning the 'key' or 'main point,' said to be a very important insight. The 'key' to the incident in which Nasu no Yoi­chi played a crucial role for the Genji clan in defeating the Heike clan is contained in this idea. Yoichi was a famous archer who hit the ceremo­nial war fan of the invading Heike fleet at sea with an impossible shot, providing a symbolic prelude to the defeat that awaited them. 

When you think of using a weapon you are at once enslaved by it. It is important to consider not carrying a sword, not wielding a stick, but using what is available at the time as a weapon. Anything can become a weapon. Look at a thing's advantages and disadvantages as a weapon or at armor, shields, and horses-anything natural or manmade can be used as a weapon. 

"The way of the samurai is found in death." Time passes, seasons continue to change-the four seasons, shiki, phonetically share the same sounds as the timing of death, shiki; reminding us of the cyclic properties of life and death.

If you unravel the phrase "ni no tachi" (usually referring to the idea of two strikes, where the first is a setup for the second) into a first and second sword, you find the small and large swords of the daisho and the use of two swords in combination. You can also see that nito (two swords used together) can mean nito (two fights). The ni no tachi of fighting in armor is the kukan through which one enters the world of fighting; it is a method of thrusting through and entering the defences of an opponent. In the case that you and the opponent are not wearing armor, ni no tachi naturally changes. Two swords then become 'with sword' and 'without sword,' also 'serious' (shinken) or 'real sword' (shinken).

The sword, naginata, and yari change according to the times. In the secret scrolls of the Shinkage-ryu, Tengusho Hiden no Maki are the names of illustrations of techniques-Ransho, Kokyoku, Unsetsu, and Denko-and pictures of samurai using long and short :swords. Someone lacking knowl­edge in bufu would undoubtedly recall the image of the long and short swords being used in Miyamoto Musashi's Nito-ryu. Masters like Koizumi.lsenokami would probably have derided a Bugeisha with such a limited sense: they'd have explained that in such a picture, it is essential that the figure have a tachi in one hand, and a yari, naginata, or nagamaki in the other; explaining that it was a secret meaning. Thus, the picture Tengusho Hiden no Maki has a secret meaning, and people who are not familiar with the period of fighting with a tachi can never truly understand. The point is that the kodachi is not just a kodachi-a yoroidoshi (dagger), a spearhead, the blade of a naginata, and unarmed combat all have the same role; they are all used for the same purpose and are interchangeable. I urge you to see this as a fight scene depicting koteki ryoda of juppo sessho.

To the people of the Empire of Japan, the sword has a significance so profound as to be almost incomprehensible to people of other lands. Part of the Imperial Regalia (sanshu no jingi) the possesion of which is a necessary prerequisite for ruling our country, it signifies courage and power, characteristics much admired by the people of this nation. Since the earliest times, a fine sword has been considered a most appropriate offering for an act of religious devotion, combining as it does in the minds of the Japanese people, the qualities of rarity and great value. Add to this its ability to destroy evil which gives it a stainless purity, and you have literally a gift fit for the gods.

For families of the Samurai caste, fine swords were heirlooms of the greatest possible value, to be used during one's lifetime and passed on with honour to one's heirs. Some fine swords that have been handed down through countless generations of Japan's oldest families are literally national treasures, as is the case with the "Kogarasu-Maru" (little crow) made by Amakuni some time in the eighth century A.D. that was originally a treasure of the great Heike clan. This, together with the "Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi" (gathering clouds of heaven sword), which forms part of the Imperial Regalia, are now in the care of the Atsuta Shrine.

Some swords are even considered to have particular traits or characteristics. Swords by the brilliant but demented smith Muramasa Senzo while of the very highest quality, are thought to be thirsty for blood and capable of driving their owners to acts of violence.

Blades by certain other smiths are thought to bring happiness and prosperity. Suffice it to say that to the Japanese Nation, the sword has been an object of spiritual, religious and national significance since time immemorial.