Ninja camp 2003 (31-05 & 1-06)

Well, the title says enough… this entry’s all about the ninja camp. I’m glad I went; there also was a camp from youth club (where I don’t really go to anymore, anyway) this weekend, but although it wasn’t certain my parents would let me go to ninja camp I kept this weekend clear… and I got to go to ninja camp! I’m sure I made the right choice. It was so great! We couldn’t have had more fun even if we tried!

I went to Lelies place on Friday. The ninja camp would begin Saturday morning at 10 o’ clock. But Lelies parents would drive us there, and it was easier for me to spend the night there because we had to leave early. Friday afternoon Lelie and I went to buy some stuff for her for the camp, like a mat (to sleep on) and she also saw a ‘Vampire Hunter D’ DVD she wanted to buy. We watched that DVD after we packed our stuff.

My mom gave me a suitcase, but it was really heavy, and I was afraid my senpai would make a comment about that x x; So I moved all my stuff into a bag I could borrow from Lelie. We decided to go to bed early. We didn’t even see the entire DVD!

The next morning we had to pick up Lelies niece, Kim, at 8:30 . We left Lelies house at about 8:15 . When we were well on our way to camp, we found out I forgot my mat! We decided to see if we could buy one there. So we got to the campsite and we got our tents, and we heard which senpai we had to train under. Lelie, Kim and I got to train with senpai Graham’s group (Kim actually wanted to train with senpai Maarten, the leader of the other group) We got a tent next to the senpai’s tent. Eventually we shared our tent with 3 other girls and Mary; a really high ranked kunoichi, she had hurt her knee and walked with crutches, but despite that she did come to camp, most of the time she sat on the sidelines and wrote down the techniques.

Lelies parents bought a mat which I could borrow for the weekend. Well, now that we were all settled in our tent, and the camp could begin. First Graham explained a few things to us. The weekend was a competition; we had to compete against the group of Maarten, another black belt (He’s lower ranked than Graham; Maarten’s 1^st Dan, but he happens to be ‘uchi deshi’, personal pupil to the kancho; the grandmaster) Graham had lost every camp so far, and this time he really wanted us to win. Graham would be our ‘jonin’, think: commander, senpai Mark and senpai Fabian were his underlings; if you had questions you had to ask them first. I had to answer to Fabian, and Lelie and Kim had to answer to Mark. We trained as one group though…

We started off with condition training (or; warm-up, if you like) because after that there would be a condition contest. This warm-up began with running through the forest and some exercises, after that we stretched our muscles, and then Graham began to pick people for the contests. I was really startled when he chose me for a low stance contest. I never got to compete though; because time was already over (I was nervous for nothing). Maartens group won most parts. Next contest would be a rolling contest. Two guys were picked from our group; one could roll very far, the other very high. The rest of us practiced some rolls in the forest and after that the contest began. We won with far rolling, it was supposed to be tied, but ‘our guy’ was just a rope and the kancho was impressed by that. The high rolling was tied, both persons rolled over 8 punching bags high!

Now it was time for the techniques. Senpai Mark came running by, shouting: ‘Techniques, techniques, techniques!’ XD That was really cute; never saw him this enthusiastic…

We learned some nifty advanced techniques, which the senpais hadn’t even learned yet, so they reacted very enthusiastic. The kancho himself taught us. He showed us everything, and well, Maartens not Uchi Deshi for nothing, because the kancho did every new technique on him first, and with some serious force too! Poor Maarten was beat up a lot… He can take surprisingly much. After the kancho showed us we got to try for ourselves, Lelie was my sparring partner. We even got some compliments from the kancho! Although some of those techniques were very difficult.

Time passed and it was lunchtime, everyone had to bring their own plates and stuff and a towel, because you also has to clean your own stuff. We sat on a long table with all the ninja and kunoichi, and the senpais and the kancho (with his 2 daughters) sat on a separate table.

After lunch there were some free fighting contests; one of our ninjas against senpai Sander from their group and another high ranked ninja from their group. After that they chose someone to fight senpai Mark and another ninja from our group. We did that a few times. Everyone wore protective body armor, a mask and gloves. We scored some points again there, but unfortunately so did Maartens group…

Then the kancho told us something about self-defense strategies, and both groups separated to prepare for the next contest. A NINJA ROLE-PLAY contest! =P We had 5 ‘situations’ and it was our goal to make Maartens people act wrongly in those situations… To make them fight, because all situations could be solved peacefully. We practiced with our own group. It was lots of fun! Especially when Graham showed us some things ^^;;

The competition was moved to the next day, because it was dinner time. We ate macaroni, and that’s not my favorite kind of food, to say it lightly… Luckily, we had soup first, and I took 2 bowls of soup. I tasted some macaroni from Lelie, but it really tasted bad to me. Senpai Fabian walked by and he noticed I didn’t eat anything, so he asked if I was okay. That was pretty kind. Fortunately there was also dessert, so I did eat some things.

We had to assemble in front of the big tent after we washed our plates and stuff. We were first gonna watch the video of last year’s camp and after that night training would begin!

The night training is sort of a ‘capture the flag’ game. We began as the defending group, and we had to make sure Maartens group didn’t return to the tent with the 4 flags. You also got a small card that was your ‘life’; you could challenge Maartens ninjas and take away their life if you won. Because every life they brought in was a point. Same went for us, except we didn’t carry the flags from the beginning, we had to steal them. If we stayed out of their hands for longer than 45 minutes we could bring in our own lives as points.

The first game went wrong, and we did it over. Lelie and I teamed up in the 2^nd game and we decided to stay low for 45 minutes. But the problem was; how late were we supposed to get back? We even hid in a tree for a while, but there weren’t enough leaves to ‘cover us up’, or else it’d be the perfect hiding place!

Now (3^rd game) it was our turn to bring in the flags. Lelie and had to walk within 20 passes around the big tent to cover our people, who were trying to get in. We were walking around when suddenly we were blinded by the headlights of a car; we thought it was a trick of the other group! But the car stopped near the tent, and one of our ninjas stepped out in ‘civilian’ clothes; he drove 2 of our flag carriers to the tent! Maartens group objected, but the kancho said using vehicles was not against the rules (yet; I think it will be next year o.o;) and he even said it was very clever and ninja-like ^^;; We also brought in the other 2 flags, and won the night training! We went to our tents, and fell asleep soon. But not before some of the senpais poked their head in (I was told senpai Sander wore a light on his head! XD Too bad I couldn’t see it; I wasn’t wearing my glasses).

I woke up at 5 AM ; I stayed in bed until 7 and waited for Lelie to wake up. Then we dressed and joined Bernard (a ninja we know from our dojo) outside. He was awake since 3 AM ! We watched some young birds leave their nest, and had lotsa fun; especially when all the senpai started waking up and walked towards the showers all sleepy-like! XD

First we had breakfast, then warming up. The running and the exercises weren’t bad, but we had to roll up and down a hill x x; Well, there was stretching after that, just like the day before, and there was also a condition contest again. We tied most of the time and Maartens group was just 1 point ahead of us. The great thing was; Mary (who hurt her leg) won a push-ups contest for us! *claps for Mary*

Sunday we also had weapon training; we started with the kama (small scythe) and we learned some cool moves with that weapon. It’s a really nifty weapon, too. We also got to use the hanbo (1 meter stick), some of the techniques had some sword-like slashes in them; that was so cool @_@. There was a hanbo contest too, just like the day before someone (but now with hanbo) had to fight against a senpai and a ninja from the other team. Again, we lost no points here, but gained none either.

The yawarabo (foam baton) was fun too, the techniques weren’t too hard and you could really hit each other because of the foam. Lelie and I were filmed by (evil) senpai Patrick during this training ^^;; We apparently did quite well. We’ll be able to see ourselves on tape next year, another reason to go again!

We also used the tanto (knife) and we actually got cuts from using a rubber tanto x x; The techniques were cool, though. There were yawarabo and tanto contests too, but we lost some points with the tanto contests. u_u

Lelie and I were really looking forward to sword fighting and chain fighting (that last one we didn’t even got to do), but first we had to finish ‘ninja role-play’ we had to pick one situation that Maartens group had to solve. We picked one with a hotel manager being attacked by angry customers (played by members from our team). Senpai Mark showed us some possible reactions; first, he was a rude hotel manager and he drank half a bottle of soda and let out a big ‘burp’! (So cyute~! ^^;;), after that he was a Japanese hotel manager that didn’t speak Dutch, and he tied his green belt in his hair (Just like Sano! They look SO much alike @_@), we had a lot of fun.

In reality it went different; our play went pretty well, we managed to make their guy upset; and now it was our turn to solve one of their situations. One of our guys was to be attacked by some hoodlums of Maartens team while reading a newspaper. He was punched in the face and that was it! Play over… Those ‘hoodlums’ also happened to have been part of a demo team once, so they had a big advantage.

Our group was pretty mad about how this went. The kancho said that the right way had been for our guy to walk away when he saw those people come at him… .

Camp was almost over now; we had to clean up our tent quickly if we still wanted to do some sword fighting. Lelie and I were about the only ones from our tent who cleaned up. There was only time to learn just one basic strike. The kancho came walking in to tell us the result of the competition. We already kinda knew u_u

Maartens group won yet again *sighs* Maartens team picked some students and one of them had to compete in a low stance contest against the best student of last year, he won again this year. My parents came to pick us up and because they were late we had some time to say goodbye to the senpais. I told Graham I liked the camp and wanted to come again next year to win! I also said goodbye to senpai Sander (who was one of Maartens underlings during camp) and he told me ‘See you Wednesday!’ ^^;;

Bernard said he thought Maartens group cheated, because they always used their best ninjas and always the same ninjas, too. At least Graham also picked some new persons.

At home I took a shower, because I was covered in dirt (and bruises, and I had sunburn on my nose; but it was worth it!).  Still now (Tuesday, June the 3^rd) I long to go back to ninja camp. I’ll have to face reality; the next camp won’t be until next year, but I’ll be there; and I’ll probably be 9^th or 8^th kyu by then! And then Graham Ryu will be victorious!! *dramatic pose *

Upcoming ‘events’: Thursday I have another job interview at that supermarket I applied for online. Wednesday (whee~! That’s tomorrow!) there’s ninja again; yawarabo and tesse training. June the 13^th; school exams results. June the 29^th; ninja exams 9^th kyu!!!!