mugai-ryu english homepage

Talked to Niina-gosoke last night and he gave me the go-ahead to spread the word about the English translations of the Mugai-ryu Iai-hyodo pages I made. Check them out at: http://renfield.net/iai

clouds

At what age do most people stop seeing patterns in the clouds? I was watching a couple of circus elephants juggle bicycles in a particularly impressive cumulous formation the other day, and was so lost in the display of dexterixy I almost got run over by one of those really big Mercedes Benz yakuza-mobiles. You know, the ones where they take your standard yacht-sized Benz EL-900000 and Brabas or AMG lowers it, puts incredibly wide tires on tiny little rims with the purple disc brakes showing through, tints all the windows, makes every body panel bubble and flare somewhere, and puts like 11 giant exhaust pipes on it to handle the even-more over-sized engine. Very convenient to drive in downtown Tokyo.

the photo my mom wanted

Small version of the photo my mom wanted. This is done mostly to check out Blogger Pro's file upload/imaging functionality.

PRO

GIVEYOURMEAT has gone Blogger Pro. There's no stopping us now.

Japan plods into the 21st century. I picked up my new Alien Registration Card today at the ward office (aka "gaijin card") and was pleasantly surprised to see registered foreign aliens in Japan are no longer fingerprinted! Of course the card still has my photo, signature, name, address, work address, and passport information, and I'm required to carry it at all times and show it to any law enforcement or government official whenever requested for any (or no) reason. Failure to do so is grounds for arrest and possible deportation. Ah, progress!

Seriously considering upgrading to Blogger Pro.
I also looked around at all the various cool blogs out there and decided...I don't want to expend any effort whatsoever in an attempt to get linked to any of them.

Hot and sweaty practice last night, and thanks to the shizankai on Sunday, my forms were all messed up -- everything too high and too much follow through. SIGH.

Put up some photos from yesterday's cutting practice. Tried nukiuchi a few times but it's still beyond me...I can't even consistently do one-handed cuts yet. Lots of messy cuts and flying straw. My goal for next time is 5 clean cuts in a row: both diagonals up and down, and one straight, smooth sideways cut.

Last night we had a small going-away dinner for Kokubun-san. He got transferred out of Tokyo and will be leaving next week. We went to an all-you-can-eat (otherwise known as a "viking" in Japanese) dinner place on the 31st floor of Cross Tower in Shibuya. Had a nice view of the fireworks in the bay!