Taikai

Hey all, hope everythings all fine back home! Life here has been pretty normal lately. Well as normal as living on the other side of the world, in the biggest city that exists, can be. Work just got quite a bit more 'busy' (Im using this term fairly lightly) due to the fact that our previously fairly easy thursdays have now got another 3 hours of working added to our timetable. The reason Im not entirely classing this as busy is because this time is spent working at a nursery, and all we really do is get fed and then play games with the kids - so to me that seems more like a cop off than actual work, but Im not one to complain about doing a lack of work, and Im sure anyone who knows me will agree with me on that.

So, how did I cope last thursday on our first session with the kids? Well, I'd say it went quite well. Mike from last year clearly made a good impression because I'm pretty sure they mistook me for him: they all mysteriously knew my name as I arrived and they pretty much swarmed me and demanded I play tig from the word go. They have no understanding of the fact that I dont speak Japanese though, and if I dont respond to them in Japanese they either forget about it and move on or just shout it louder hoping that the only reason I didnt respond was because I couldnt hear.

I'm hoping that the sessions with the kids will be a good way to practice some Japanese because although Im trying to practice with as many people as possible, the kids will speak fairly simple Japanese. That and if I dont use Japanese I wont have a clue whats going on itll just be a swarm of kids chasing me, hitting me and pulling me around. Should be a good laugh, Im sure.

On Sunday, I went to a shorinji kempo taikai (a taikai is like a sports competition) in Akabane, a town about 5 minutes or so away on the train. I met up with the students and the teachers in Akabane station at around 9ish and the thing started at around 12, the other hours in between were spent practicing the opening ceremony so that we knew what was going on (although this didnt really help because I didnt understand a word of anything, being the only gaijin [foreigner] in the place until 12). At 12 we had lunch and Leon turned up, meaning I had someone to talk to in English, which was an absolute godsend because theres only so much time you can survive not being able to understand anyone (or be understood for that matter).

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Anyways, onto the competition itself. There were tons of competitors, all performing either 2-man, 1-man or team embu's (an embu is essentially a kata but its more of a simulated fight, the kind that youd see in a martial arts film, than a serious of moves in random directions). Me and Yuu, a first year senior student, were doing a 2-man embu together and I was ridiculously terrified of performing as Id barely finished learning it days before. Anyway, with my pulse racing and blood rushing to my cheeks we got up and performed it. Id say it went really well, we took our time and I really put my all into the moves and didnt slip up once. The four judges held up sheets saying numbers between 76 and 82 (out of 100) or some such and apparently this score was enough to get us second place in our group of around 7 pairs and we both got silver medals. Not bad for someone who started not much more than a month ago, eh? Especially considering there wasnt a single other white belt in our group.

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I also performed a fairly simple embu solo, but that one didnt go as well. I probably enjoyed it more though because, due to having done the first one, I wasnt nervous at all. After the event finished me and Leon went to the adults/teachers' after party in a hired out room in Hokutopia. This was mostly just a drinking session for the adults so, although Im a teacher at Junten, I still feel more like a Junten student when Im doing shorinji due to the fact that Im getting taught by students AND we're the same age and therefore felt slightly out of place at this party. Afew people told me to drink but since the owner of the school (watanabe-sensei) was present I figured it was probably for the best that I didnt, although at the end 3 leftover crates of Asahi lager got dumped in my possession so Id say thats a huge score. They also got me to do a speech (ergh) to everyone at the after party. I had Leon there to translate things into Japanese but I figured I might aswell chuck some Japanese at them so I said about 6 or 7 lines and then the rest in English. I hate giving speeches about myself, its one thing I wont get used to. Ever. But it didnt go too badly and it seemed pretty well received. I think they were fairly grateful that I tried even a little Japanese.

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Another long post, eh? Cant help myself sometimes, when I start typing I tend not to be able to stop. The pictures are just some I took of me in my Shorinji Kempo dogi, figured I needed something and I hadnt taken many pics in a while. (The commas are there due to some random error which doesnt allow me to have a space between those lines...)

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Anyhoo, sayonara.