By Kristopher Inting
November 3, 2012
It’s about 6am local, but have been up since 5am. That means I got less than 4 hours of sleep, but both Loida and I can’t contain our excitement for today. I know most of you guys will be in practice today, but for those who won’t be for some reason or another, try to make time to watch the All Japan Kendo Championships. It would do you good. 🙂
There is a ustream channel available, just go to the ZNKR website to try and find the links. Quality is usually bad, but it’s better than nothing. Also the quarterfinals and up is usually shown live on NHK, so if you have that channel you can at least have a good quality video experience.
Scenes from Meiji Jingu
Shinto priests with a box on their way to a ceremony. I love how the lead priest is still wearing traditional clogs, but the “carriers” are wearing sensible shoes.
The Koryu people lining up prior to their demonstrations.
The Yabusame on a practice run.
Iaido demonstration from the TSKSR folks
Don’t know who these guys are, or why they were in costume, but it seems funny that they were toting plastic bags while in period costume.
Scenes from the Nippon Budokan.
Outside the Nippon Budokan. People were relaxed.
Inside the Nippon Budokan, where the atmosphere is definitely more tense!
————-
Loida posing with the most famous dog in Japanese history, Hachiko. She wanted to bring him home, but he’s too heavy. 😛
Getting lost in Asagaya sure made me thirsty!
————-
Hello everyone. Back from a really good but tiring keiko in Kobukan Dojo. We were warmly welcomed by Ozawa-Sensei, hachidan, the dojo head, who is also a very famous author of Kendo books. Of course we were absolutely killed in the jigeiko. Loida and I, as guests, did jigeiko with Ozawa-Sensei. I managed to have jigeiko with Ninomiya-Sensei, our old teacher, nanadan. Loida and I also had jigeiko with Kodama-Sensei, a very powerful lady-rokudan. Needless to say, what most of you guys feel when you have jigeiko with us, it was like that for us tonight multiplied by 10 or 20. 😉 We would also like to thank the other people in Kobukan who helped welcome us and made us feel at home, such as Hayami-Sensei, Shida-Sensei, Gibson-Sensei and Mr. Young. To all the rest, we’re sorry we can’t remember your names, but you have our sincerest thanks!
Anyway, during keiko snacks, Ozawa and Ninomiya-Sensei told us that any IGA-Ken member is welcome to have keiko in Kobukan dojo if you visit Tokyo. So, if any of you have Tokyo travel plans, allot time for keiko. It is well worth it.
After keiko snacks in Kobukan dojo.
Finally, let us all pray that Ninomiya-Sensei will pass his hachidan exam November next year, because he promised us that if he passes he will take the time to go to the Philippines with other Kendo Sensei friends (maybe even Ozawa-Sensei himself) to conduct a Kendo Seminar.
So it was a good day for us. Wish you guys were here to share the experience. 🙂