Friday, February 10, 2012

year of the dragon



Time to work on the dragon form from Xing Yi Quan....

Thursday, February 9, 2012

swords and arrows



ahhh, the good old days. I was invited by my teacher to join in special all-day seminars in Chen style tai ji jian (straight sword) and tai ji dao (broadsword). The pace was brutal but I learned both forms. Rode the Shinkansen bullet train out of Tokyo to a different prefecture and back in one long day.

The last session was in a prefecture gym / sports complex. We used the kyudo dojo -- kyudo is the stylized Japanese form of archery. People store umbrellas or arrows in the divided compartments outside. They also serve as a nice place to put swords at lunchtime.

I would give much to have a teleporter device and be able to travel instantly to Japan to join in more of those trainings.....