Once Upon a Time in Japan: First Day at SK Hombu and Study Session
Got up early this morning and walked around Muragame. Got some money finally from the ATM at the Post Office and also checked out the castle that they have there. It was kinda small. Well, what was left of the castle anyway. Gary, David, and Tony were taking their belt exams in the morning, so thats why all the rest of the kenshi didnt need to be at Hombu until the afternoon.
Headed to Hombu with two Toronto people around 11am. We took the long way, we went into the back entrance. There was a park n stuff. There were also three caged monkies. MONKIES! Entering the Hombu was cool as well. They had the two Kongo statues on either side. Everything was very clean and pretty. I didnt get the same feeling or awe that I had when I visited the Shaolin Temple in China. I guess its prollyh because SK isnt that old and not as famous. I walked around and took some pictures and looked at things. I changed into my dogi in the bathroom. I had lunch there in the cafeteria where I met up with Tony and David and Neal. After lunch i hit up the SK shop. Bought some bumper stickers and some souvenirs. There was a bunch of fotographs by the SK Fotographer on display of Kaiso and other kenshi throughout the years. There were these three great pictures of Kaiso with Sonny Chiba. There was a movie that Sonny Chiba did called "Shorinji Kempo" and it was based on Kaiso and his creation of the system. It was released on DVD in the US, but I haven't seen it yet. It was titled "Killing Machine" here in the US, which totally is opposite of the point of the film. I want to pick it up. There is alot in there that actually happened, alot of the true stuff had also been dramatized, and then there was stuff that never happened, but it was a movie.
After lunch, we had introductions in the big room. Then we had a long warm up session that I thought was kinda lame. He had us punching the floor. And a bunch of Brits and Italians were trying to be all macho so they actually were putting all their force into the floor. Dumbasses. The whole point of the execise was to just get proper alignment going, not to actually punch the floor as hard as you could.
I met a couple later that night at this bar that I went to with David, Tony, and Neal, this guy's hand had swollen up at the knuckles, it looked as if his hand was 2x the size of what it should be. Whatever.
The resturant was really cool, an Izakaiya.
After the warm up, Shodan and Nidan stayed in that room for Goho & Randori (sparring/freeform) practice. It was taught by the French Sensei. The Japanese Sensei teaching in Japan. He was using his french minions. He is thought to be the Goho/Randori expert in SK. He is very good. Best I have seen. I really enjoyed that practice. There was lots of good energy flowing around. Always working with other people. However, I found that the Italians, and a few other nationals, seemed to have a slight negative energy to them. It was strange, it felt as if the italians were out for blood. I dunno.
After the practices were over, the session ended and we took off.
In the evening, I went to the Izakaiya mentioned above. It was really really nice. Very good food and yummy beer. Those british folks showed up and we chatted alot with them. Good group.
I headed back and checked email and called Yumi again.
Goodnite.