new uses for your weapons

skis or skates or something like that.

Anyway, the last enbu / demo went well. I did a tunfa kata, bo vs. sai (on the sai side), and bassai dai. I felt a sense of redemption as I once failed miserably in a tunfa demo in Hachioji....

saying good-bye to old friends (2)

This one was a hard parting.

From the basement of the former Japan Energy kendo dojo....a karate group also used the dojo and left behind a makiwara as things were being shut down (company was acquired by another company....former president was a kendo man, had a kendo dojo built in the basement of his company's building, a center of kendo that attracted the highest level of kendo players throughout Tokyo (and a few like me, who slipped in between the cracks). But the president of the new company does not seem to value kendo and the dojo is long gone.

have used the makiwara for several years at my home. But it could not be left behind in moving out, and cannot be taken to the US, so it met a sad fate. Long wooden posts, after all, do not fit into the specified size of garbage bags here in Tokyo.

I've kept the leather pad and hope to give it new life in the US.

going to fu

Just a couple pictures of my daughter on our way to gong fu practice, she proudly bearing her jian for a change.

Big build-up to last weekend's regional kids' gong fu tournament, good progress in her changquan. That was the total focus for a few months (she did 初級長拳) and now she is hoping to start work on the double-bladed straight sword in our remaining practices over here.

Cleaning house and desktop before the big move...

saying good-bye to old friends

Less than one month left in Japan and everyday is filled with good-byes // thoughts of the future.

I said good-bye to two close friends yesterday, my kendo striking dummies. We have been close for many years but sometimes we just have to harden our hearts and cut ties.

I sent them to another kendo person not far away in Tokyo. Curiously, we share a strong China connection even though we have never met. He will use them, may send one up to a tsunami-affected kendojo in Iwate Prefecture.

Farewell old friends, thanks for the time shared, and sorry to have neglected you in recent years.