Holy un-updated blog, Batman!!

Can't believe I let this thing go for so long...I hate when life interferes with getting on the Innerwebs...! Since the last time I posted I have...

1) Lost my job
2) Got a new job with a whole 2 days to spare on my visa
3) Got headhunted for a new job that I will start next month.
...and I managed to mis-place a girlfriend along the way... :-(

That's about it. This was not the best year I have had, and othe than the Mairne Corps birthday, November especially sucked. But the good news is my new job is going to pay me well enough that I will be looking to pick up a wakazashi early next year. I'll post the pics when I do....

Indonesia/Malaysia in the house...!

It seems I have acquired few fans...thanks for your interest in my blog! I have been spending a lot of time on FaceBook since signing up for it Sept 1st. But new followers are motivation to get back on here and add new content. Also, I have taken a rest from training the past few months to allow my right shoulder to heal, and it is feeling pretty good now (but still not like it was before) so I have been back into Iaido a bit, and I will be back at Aikikai Hombu next month to train...Ganbarimasu!

Buddha Rocks!

Some pics I took in July of the stone carvings on Takatori mountain, north of Yokosuka Naval Base. Takatori is a large hill/small mountain not too far from Oppama Station on the Keikyu line. At the top is a wide open area/park that is fairly easy to get to. But there is another path to the top...This one takes you past all the carvings...

...that ???? have put into the shear rock walls that appear to have been the result of extensive mining of the top of the mountain for its massive too-rough-to-be-marble-but-too-hard-to-be-sandstone. This is a nice little hike, sometimes involving pulling yourself up the hill using ropes and chains (sounds kinky ;-)...

...to see the Buddha rocks,

but it is worth it because...

BUDDHA ROCKS!!!

Here's another pic to show how big this thing is....

More pics to come...

A stroll to Kanda Shrine...

I took these on the 19th right after going to Iaido cutting practice with my girlfriend. I wanted to do some 'mini-exploring' of Tokyo and go to a historical place I have not been to before, so she suggested going to nearby (from the Gyokufu-kai dojo at Kudanshita) Kanda-myouji. Our walk to the shrine took us past this canal(?) river(?) brickwall and train track thingy that I thought was kinda cool...

Then we walked right past one of the Mikoshi (portable shrines)

...that Gyokufu-kai's kaicho Sakaguchi-san carried for the Kanda festival:

...then up to the main part of the shrine.

On either side of the entrance were these statues of Samurai with a full complement of weapons; bow, arrows, and swords, oh my!

It is never a god idea to piss off the Gods, so I made sure to stop by the fountain thingy (Gotta learn the proper name of this) to purify my dirty Gaijin hands and heart (via sipping a bit of it to rinse out one's heathen mouth) with the finest flowing tap water Tokyo has to offer. This is a dragon(!), by the way! I was eye ballin' homeboy up close and personal to try to find a good angle fore the shot, when some oji-san blurted out behind me, "It's dragon!" I'm glad he clarified that for me...I thought I was looking at a life-size statue of Barbara Boxer/Nancy Pelosi.

Ninja lantern!
The character on the right side of this pic is "Nin/Shinobu" - to endure/perserve/steathily enter

A more atristic shot...

"Here they come to snuff the rooster...You know he ain't gonna die...!"

Training at Aikikai Hombu Dojo...

I have been sporadically training in Aikido since I was first introduced to it in the mid-80s, a couple years before Steven Seagal showed the world how Uber bad-ass the "gentle art" can be. My introduction to Aikido came from a French Yundansha that joined the Karate studio I was training at at the time. We incorporated some of the wrist and arm locks into the style, specifically Ni-kyo:

(image borrowed from the interwebs)

I started training actively with the Aikido club at IUPUI, but my training was infrequent due to part-time jobs, school, or just plain laziness. After getting selected for the JET Program, I was fortunate to be placed in Ota-shi (太田市群馬県), where I had the opportunity to train with Teruo Tsuhiji-sensei.

There are significant differences in the way Aikikai and "Iwama-ryu" (Students of Morihiro Saito-sensei and his students) people train, and I think they both have merits. What I appreciate about my time with Tsuhiji-sensei was a solid grounding in the basics of Hanmi, and training partners that grabbed you like they meant it, and the importance of blending to successfully escape a real grab. I have had far too many partners at Aikikai that grab so wimpy I can (and probably *should* to help expose their openings) pull my hand out of their "grab" and back fist them. I also notice far too many Aikikai people pulling their hand toward themselves when doing basic Tenkan practice. If Aikikai taught the basics better, they would know that the grabbed hand needs (and WILL if the attacker is much stronger) to stay in the spot it is grabbed, and the Tori needs to blend with/at the point of the attacker's grab.

Having said that, Iwama-style Aikido tends to be too static, and rarely did I ever practice at realistic speeds, everything was done super slow to get a good grounding in the basic movements. A solid foundation in basics is a good thing, but can make for some frozen toes when training at this slow pace in the dead of winter in the unheated dojo. The flowing style of Aikikai makes for a hell of a workout, as can be seen by how red my face was after last Saturday's class taught by Watanabe-sensei:

(Not a sunburn, and I wasn't drunk, just well done from training on a hot afternoon at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo/Sauna.)

...and the faster pace is better for getting used to things coming at closer to realistic speed. Different strokes for different folks. Saw this ad for the Hombu dojo in Higashi-Shinjuku station for the recently opened Fukutoshin-line. Its all about the marketing...

Action pics from the 2009 Mugai-ryu Kokusai Taikai...

I can see it it going to take me a while to post all of them. The standard templates for Blogspot.com suck dog balls. I want to add a custom background. This was very easily done on Photobucket, so I don't see why the can't add the same functionality to Blogspot to allow HTML-tards like myself to customize our pages.

In the meantime...

Seiza...the calm before the storm...

Batto. Cutting gyaku kesagiri; the first cut for the kata Shin (真).

Left kesa-giri...ending cut for Shin.

Pulling the blade from my enemy's chest after giving him a sucking chest wound via Mune-tsuki (=chest stab)

Chiburi...flicking the enemy's blood, guts, snot, and brains from my blade...

Noto and Zanshin. Returning the sword to the Saya, while remaining aware and ready for other enemies.

Extend....

A recurring theme in my training in Iaido, and one that was also discussed in Aikido as well. Don't hold back, fold, crumble, withdraw....extend your body and your spirit, and own the space/path in front of you...time to train...