The Armouries RE: Japan;
They're twinned with the Nikko Toshogu Shrine, and ever since that relationship began have pretty much sold the ''Japan is the highest form of bladed and bow combat seen to MAN!" despite the constant notations that in free-form sword contest, sword and shield unarmoured tends to best all comers (because it doesn't take armour into account).
Also- regarding harness weights; my maille weighs within a lb of the extant shirts held in armouries across the UK and in the Wallace collection. My shield is heavier than the Von Brienze shield, and my sword bears the same weight and balance as a 12th C original in Oakeshot's Records of the Medieval Sword. All my primary combat style is based around Mi.33 and images of 12th C combat (practical stuff stays in, impractical rejected), and my -shoes- are without modern grip. That's how close we're talking.
And if you look on my avatar, you'll notice me lunging mid-sprint.
Speaking of Knights not liking dismounted combat- I suggest you -really- look into Anglo-Norman to English Knights, c.1090-1500. Norman knights fought about 1/3rd of all recorded actions on foot (either dismounted for the purposes of forming a super-heavy infantry block, such as the Battles of the Standard and Tinchebrai or for siege attacks/defences) and this figure only increases by the time we reach the the end of the dateline for 'Knights'. The problem is partially that 'knight' is given to mean something specific, whereas the term changes entirely across six hundred years of standard usage. So I suggest a bit of research- and not just embracing sources that whilst supporting your argument, also contradict themselves and have been widely debunked.
And Night Ninja; I apologise for my colleagues. During my diss. I trawled a LOT of academic sources regarding equipment, it's likely weight and outfit... and essentially one man bullsh*ts and the rest repeat. Wonderful how academia becomes a ground for 'thought inbreeding'. There are -some- good works out there, though, I would hasten to add... and some historians who do bother to take time to try and check their conclusions... although their snobbish attitude to both Archeology as a whole and Experimental Archeology specifically doesn't help at all.

I am hated by my own breed...