ramen

ramen
Originally uploaded by renfield
And this is were we ended...
The day started early, with a short run before breakfast. Then I gathered my gear and headed to the Chuo City Sports Center. Nearly 400 competitors at this year's taikai, but things proceeded amazingly well. I had nothing to do in the AM so just watched and chatted and generally stayed out of the way.
After lunch I had to judge 4th and 5th dan competition, and then immediately grabbed my sword and hit the floor to compete in the final 6th dan group.
I managed to beat Sudo-san and even Hoshina-san (both 3-0), got my ass handed to me by Hashimoto-san (0-3), and then beat Yoshida-san (2-1) for 3rd. Hashimoto-san went on to beat Sakaguchi and finally took first.
I felt pretty good for not having trained at all for the past few months, and not seriously for at least a year.
My ryoguruma was atrocious, though. Gosoke commented on my total lack of appropriate timing, rhythm, and understanding of the fundamentals for that one, so at least I have something I need to work on.
After the taikai we had a quick chat with Denshobu and then accompanied the aikido posse to Taimeiken for the banquet. After killing the awesome food there we headed to the bar around the corner from the dojo, where the Italian team celebrated loudly before heading home, and then the German team celebrated quietly as the German team crushed The Netherlands to get to the World Cup finals.
At this point, the owner of the bar (who also owns several other places, including the awesome yakiniku joint Batten) was roaringly drunk and took me, Presley, and Urabe to his restaurant for some well-deserved meat and ramen.
By now the sun was rising and it was time to call it a day!