2004

Today we gathered in the (heated!) Yakumo Gym in Toritsudai to have the first official practice of 2004. About 70 people showed up, and Niina-gosoke took us through the first couple of hours of practice. Then he split us up into groups by rank and had adjacent ranks do a few kata side-by-side. Occasionally he'd single someone out and tell them to move to the next-highest ranked group, and then the lower group would step off, everyone would slide over, and the next-highest ranked group would step on. Several people got promoted that way on the spot, including Miyasawa-kun, who thanked me and told me it must have been because of the sword he's using that he just bought from me. I didn't disagree; that's a great sword.
In the afternoon Niina-gosoke took the women and ran though various self-defense techniques. Ando-sensei took us 4th/5th dan and drilled us non-stop on all the kata. About half way through he announced "We will...NOT take a break! Next!" and we just kept cranking away. With the cutting practice yesterday and the workout in the morning by 4:30 my arms were dead.
Then we headed down to a place by the station for New Year's Dinner/Tomoyose-san's Farewell party as he's heading down to Okinawa next week. Now we have an excuse to have a seminar in Okinawa!