June - August 05

 

Day 320: Thursday, June 30-05 - Day 370: Sunday, August 28-05

Apologies for the protracted silence. Between the end of June and now I have had lots of short deadlines, two weeks holiday, a sick child and have not quite found the time to keep my blog updated (general apathy).

Living abroad also means that during August my apartment becomes a busy, yet somehow loss-making, hotel for friends and family. We have had six people stay over the last three weeks and expect a few more before the end of the month. 

I have, however, continued with the suburi, although I did skip some days while on vacation. The plus side of this has been that my knees have returned to as-normal-as-they-get size and I can even run with some semblance of normality.

I did manage to find a dojo while I was away and I had the pleasure of practicing with Taguchi-sensei and his family. Even though they did not know I was coming they kindly allowed me to take part in a training. 

My daughter also turned one. This is a picture of her taken a couple of days after her birthday. She is learning to walk and often when I am cooking I feel her small hands clutching at my trouser leg. 

The suburi continue. I am still thinking about the 70%/30% balance and am concentrating more on the angle of my feet to achieve this. No particular insights over the last 6 weeks that I can remember, probably because I wrote nothing down. 

I have also been day dreaming about walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage that takes in 88 temples. It lasts around 8 weeks and the henro covers 1000 or so miles. I am gradually sensitising my wife to the idea...

On Saturday I met my kendo teacher in the market. He comes up to me with a knowing smile and says something like, 'You used to do kendo, didn't you?' 

He knows just where my ego is located. I try not to bridle. We'll see who is smiling on Monday night. (Answer=Probably not me:). 

 

Monday, August 29-05

I go to kendo, my first training in about 4 weeks. I expect to have a torrid time and leave totally depressed, but it's not a bad as I expected.

I concentrate on my feet and it amazes me how often they get so tangled I cannot attack. I also think about correct distance and try not to get drawn into making attacks in response to my opponents seme.

I fence against my teacher and realise how he always has the initiative. Most of the time I am just responding. I have to learn how to take this advantage away from him.

There is also a sprinkling of new faces as the term starts again. I hope many of these people will stay, a feeling reinforced when a beginner from last year's influx took about three sweet mens off me. 

 

Tuesday, August 30-05

Asa-geiko. I get out of bed at 6 and get the dojo at 6.30. I fence with four people and feel very virtuous. Afterwards I resolve to practice sashi-kote more as I often make the opening but rarely land the strike. 

 

Day 371: Wednesday, August 31-05

I go through the motions, irritated that these suburi take up so much of my time. It's not that I don't want to do them, it's just that I can think of many other things I would prefer to do, especially at 10pm. Oh-hum, poor me.