laid-back biker

sushi

First class in over a week. Felt slow and sloppy, so we worked at a nice mellow pace; lots of time on basic cuts at the beginning and finishing up with a couple of kata, getting nicely into details. Tried to focus on hand and blade control, making the sword go where it's supposed to, without forgetting about the feet and hips.
After class I fed Elvis cheap sushi served by non-Japanese waitresses with thick accents and we (what else?) talked smack about budo and babes.
His shinken will be ready next week, and he is SO looking forward to cutting himself repeatedly with it until he gets used to using a live blade a bit longer than the dull practice blade he uses now.

shintoryu

Only two guys showed up for kumitachi class, so we drilled through most of the Shintoryu kenjutsu kata. Niina-gosoke popped in and out every now and then to laugh or comment. I haven't done them all in a while so I was forgetting details (left or right foot?) but got the general flow down. Still feeling a bit clunky since I had a long break last week.

national museum of western art

Went to Ueno to check out the George de La Tour exhibit at NMWA. Fairly interesting -- neat to see how many of the works are copies, and how they use X-rays and infrared to authenticate the originals. La Tour's not one of my favorites, but he's got that wrinkled-clothing-by-candlelight thing down, and it just looks so cool.
The museum's regular collection is ok, I guess; some paintings by artists I've seeen or heard of before, but nothing really gripping.
After the museum we walked down to Ameyoko for the Last Great Bargains in Tokyo. We passed fishmongers with stacks of fresh cut maguro slabs for ridiculously cheap, bags of nuts and crackers and fruit-on-a-stick and cheap ties and rip-off brand name sportswear before finally hitting the candy store and loading up on sugary goodness. Two overflowing shopping bags for less than 3000 yen.