seminar day two

Finished up the basic twenty kata and then after lunch had a promotion exam. Everyone was really nervous, but Niina-gosoke had already seen everyone's kata, so he just had fun hearing everyone recite the Japanese Member's Duties and Principles in Japanese.
After practice we all went out to El Ranchitos for some killer Mexican food; Niina-gosoke had a giant steak and I had wonderful chicken fajitas. After dinner we can back to the house and watched the Nami-ryu DVD. Niina-gosoke was...amused. He figured all the kids who are into anime can do Nami-ryu and play samurai and have fun, and that's cool, as long as the don't think they're actually learning anything that real samurai were doing.

seminar day one

Full house for the first day of the seminar; over twenty people. Broke up into three groups and ran through the first 5 kata before lunch. Niina-gosoke was really impressed with how much everyone has been practicing and we breezed through the first five kata quickly. Got some sandwiches for lunch and then went through the next five kata. Everyone was doing really well and we ended up finishing a bit early, giving folks a chance to get home and change before dinner.

leaving on a jet plane

Got up early to meet Niina-gosoke at Ueno Station to take the Skyliner to Narita Airport. Figured it would be crowded because it's the day before Golden Week. Turned out it was empty. Nobody was in the airport, so we breezed through. Got stopped when we first got off the train because of the swords. Seems we had to get permission (read: lots of paperwork) just to carry the swords through the airport, besides the paperwork from the Ministry of Culture to take the swords out of Japan. So we were plenty early and waited at the gate for a couple of hours, watching the people arrive in fits and starts.
Took off on time, landed a bit early (9.5 hours in flight) and Tony picked us up and took us back to the house.
Had some In-n-out burgers for lunch at the Senpokan Dojo then came back home and took a nap before dinner.