Phil and Red's Excellent Adventure

Got up at about 515 to get ready for the Taikai. We were supposed to go at 7AM, however, the powers that be were like, lets change it to 6AM. So, thats why we got up so early. We arrived at the Sun-Dome which was an hour away. I thought it looked neat, but alot of folks I talked too thought it was ugly. Oh well. I bought myself a new Dogi. It was expensive because it was the "deluxe" model. The cadillac of dogis. Its an offwhite color and it seems to fit well. I just hope it fits better in the pants than my old one.
The actual Taikai itself I found to be quite boring. There really wasn't much to do. The first thing that was going on was the Japanese Embu competition that was the preliminaries for the embu competition later that day. The embu competition later in the day would be Japanese and foreigners. Apparently they allow the foreigners to do their embus without preliminaries. Its good and bad in a way.
The first thing and pretty much one of the only main things that I took part in was the International Branch procession. Basically, its like the Olympics when they have all the different countries come out with their flag in front of the audience to display who they are. That was an interesting affair.
We lined up in the bleechers with our country and prepared to go down onto the main floor but there was something else we needed to wait for. First off, there was a laser light show with really tense driven music. A bunch of kids ran out onto the main floor and laid down. Half were in red shirts and the other half were in black shirts. They made the interlocking circles of the new SK Logo. Then they were all given green and red glowsticks and held them up in the air and waved them back and forth in time with the music. That went on for awhile and then they got up and left.
The second thing was a caligraphy guy. This was actually quite cool. The brought out these massive pieces of canvas/paper/sheets or whatever. This old guy grabbed a giant calligraphy brush and wrote some characters down. It took him awhile. I mean, it was a great gesture and it was cool to see, at first. It took the guy awhile to write the stuff out. Not the best filler for a shower...lots of boring dead time. But when it was finished they dropped down two already made sheets from the cieling with the same things on it. That was pretty neat. So they had two copies.
After this was the part where all the countries come down. As we waited, they started the music that we will be doing this to. It came blaring on and I immediately busted out laughing...along with a bunch of other folks. Queen's "I was Born to Love You" came blaring. I was like, "WHY THE HELL ARE THEY PLAYING QUEEN!?" It was hilarious. I wish I had that on video. So, we headed out onto the floor. For some reason the US was called out first. I guess its because the US had some part to play in the creation of Shorinji Kempo...a very indirect part of course. We headed out there and did this whole thing. The whole while, about 20 minutes, they just kept replaying the same song. Strange thing is, I dont think I ever heard this song before, but its unmistakeably Queen or just Freddy Mercury.
Once every country was out the Japanese kenshi filled in the open spots. We were all lined up and did our meditation thing. We then had some speeches given by the president, Yuki So, and the sponsors. It was cool to see Michael Eastwood up there interpretting Yuki So's speech, she requested him. One of the sponsors fell asleep on stage and another sponsor looked like he was gonna die.
We did chingon. We also were doing the warm up. Everyone was doing the punches and kicks together and it was so packed that we were almost kicking the people in front of us.
After the ceremony, we got to have some box lunches. After lunch there was the embu competition with the foreigners. After that, there was a deal where foreigner kenshi would do this Foreigner Kata Demo. So i headed to the other side of the stadium with Neal and Gary to do this thing. We got there and waited around for awhile and were given different directions about things by different people, it was very confusing.
After all the boringness and junk we had to deal with today, and somewhere around the Fukui Girls Highschool Drum Corps performance that I made the decision that I am never gonna come back to another taikai unless i am doing an embu. Everything was just so lame. I was wondering why i dropped so much cash on this.
After the drum corps were done we went out onto the floor. This was an interesting thing. We went to different areas on the main floor and waited there for our partners. Then a large group of little kids, like 5-12, scrurried onto the floor. The foreign kenshi were gonna do paired formwork with little kids. I found and picked out this little scrawny yellow belt no more than 6. I was looking at him and was all like, "You're mine!" We did our kata practice. I totally kicked his ass. I felt so good about myself.
After that kata thing, they brought out the Shorinji Kempo Demo team for a performance. These were the best of the best, the hardest train kenshi, etc etc. The demo pretty much blew. I thought the one cool part was the one guy vs 5 guys. All the other stuff was pretty lame i felt. Especially the knife encounter. If someone attacks you with a knife, they aren't gonna wait, they are just gonna keep slashing until they hit something.
After that, I changed and prepared to leave, they handed out some more awards. McCollach Sensei of Toronto got an award for spreading the Shorinji Kempo ideal for their constant events that he puts on. They mentioned that the 2009 Taikai would be held in Indonesia. The Indonesian Federation was on stage and gave some speeches.
Then there was the finale. Oh man did it suck on so many levels...but, it was still fun, the most fun I had all day, and I laughed pretty hard. The lights went down and the glowstix came out. We moved to the main floor. The Shorinji Kempo theme song, written by one of the guys from Toto, started up. There was a large japanese woman on stage and some white dude sporting a full blown mullet...and I am talking 100% mullet. This thing...man, at first, I thought it was a wig, someone was like, "Why would you wear a mullet wig..." I was like, "Why would you have a real mullet?" He was like, "Point taken". This thing was like , gosh, i can't really explain it, but it was nasty. Anywho. The japanese kenshi that I saw were going absolutely bonkers. This woman must have been famous or something. I can't see how the white guy coulda been famous. The guy was a total tool. He had a lyric sheet as he was singing along. I was like, "LEARN THE DAMN LYRICS BEFORE GOING ON STAGE, YOU HACK!"
The chorus group was just as funny. All these girls dressed in cute blue outfits. Then it was brought to my attention that there were three boys in the group. I found them on the ends. They were wearing matching blue hats and shorts. I felt so bad for them. I truly did. It was a good laugh though.
After the song was over, people were going around popping balloons and taking fotos with people. I saw in the corner people were taking fotos with the president, Yuki So, and then when the took off, I saw a funny site. She was standing there flanked by two tuff looking SK guys with armbands and earpieces, like they were her body guards. It was really funny.
After that we took the bus back to the hotel. And what a long ride it was. Traffic sucked and just took awhile. Then we got back to the hotel and took another bus into the city for this local festival. They had a little stage wtih some Tyko drums and singers, etc. It was nice. Had some local food and beer and sake and hung out. There were also a pair of visiting Geisha and Maiko. Maiko is a Geisha apprentice. I got a foto with them. The evening was kool. I searched for a workable ATM with Michael Eastwood, but found none. Aiya. You would think that Japan, being the technical/futuristic capital of the world would have international hook ups on their banking systems, but apparently not. Its like, the only drawback that I really encountered with Japan. And its really not a problem because all the post offices are equiped with Internationally connected ATMS. I couldn't find any at the times so far and i just thought, Hell, if I can connect my card in China, I should be able to do it in Japan. But nope. Oh well. I got my money when I really needed to.
Went back to the hotel and used the toilet. Many toilets in Japan have heated seats in them so you dont shriek at cold toilet seats. It gives the toilet that "Just sat in feel". And while other groups partied, i helped Tony and David practice for their exam. Goodnite.