Everyone gathered in the dance studio (room 210) for practice and we got through 10 minutes of warm-up before Kim Taylor came up to say we were all gathering in the west gym for an opening ceremony of sorts. So we all headed down there, had some words from various folks and Fran the spriteliest naginata (halberd) wielding old woman ran us through some warm-ups.
The we headed back upstairs and started the seminar. Good turn-out; about 12 people including Simon and several others from Chicago. We started by going through the basic cuts, then kihon 1 & 2, the basic draw-cut-sheath moves, before getting into the kata.
In the AM session we got through the first 10 kata; go-yo and go-o, and had 15 minutes at the end to practice in pairs getting the feel for keeping your kissaki pointed at your opponent, keeping the pressure on him, and chasing him down.
Broke for lunch at noon and got some food at the University Centre before heading back for the PM session at 1:30.
Basically the same group again, so we did the next 10 kata goka and hashirigakari, and then for the last hour paired up and ran through various kata again with wooden swords, trying to get a feel for where the cuts are going and how the opponent moves.
The demo started soon thereafter, so we headed down to the main gym and saw some demos of Musojikiden-Eishinryu, kyudo (archery), naginata, and other sword arts. The Eto-sensei and Eto-sensei each did a traditional dance to music, one with a sword and fan, the other with just a fan. Hoshina-san demo'd five Mugairyu Iaihyodo kata and I did one cut as all we had were dry beach mats.
The demo ended with Ohmi-sensei in his kendo gear getting his but kicked by Fran in her naginata gear.
After the demo Hoshina-san, Rob Rivers, and I headed out for dinner. Guelph being a one-bar town, we headed out to the University Centre (closed), Griphs (says open but was closed), and finally walked about half and hour all the way down to the Stone Road Mall to get a late dinner at Casey's. We had the bartender call a cab so that we could get back to the east dorms by 1 am. When we came back, Ohmi-sensei, the Eto-sensei's, and everyone else was still drinking in the suite next door.
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