shopping
Hiroko and I had a Shibuya date -- went to Loft and Tokyu Hands to get some supplies (wood putty and black tape to fix my sword scabbard) and look for furniture. We need a couple of small tables, one for next to the couch and another for the bedroom. Failed to find anything decent, but did stuff ourselves silly at T.G.I.F.'s.
Lucky
Valentine's Day, and also our 5th anniversary! Went to Kubota-sensei's practice in Nagatacho for the first time in a while (no Niina-gosoke practice) and then met Hiroko at Lucky for dinner. Mama wasn't there, but someone called her and told her we came in. She was really busy and couldn't come back to the restaurant, but she did give us a Happy Anniversary message and of course they gave us some free food -- I love that place!
quilt
Remember when I said my dad is cooler than your dad? Well, my mom is cooler than your mom and dad put together, eating sushi and riding Segways.
My mom maid me the coolest quilt on the planet. First, it's huge, dwarfing our queen-sized matress. Second, it's made with all the cool Japanese fabrics I've been collecting over the years and sending to my mom. Third, it's mostly blue, a color which, as you know, is superior to any other color in the universe.
As soon as I overcome my stupendous laziness, I will download the photos from Hiroko's digital camera and put them up.
Oh yeah, I've just been officially told that as of March I am to be lead the Tuesday student's practice. I guess this means I will get my assistant teaching credential soon, too.
My mom maid me the coolest quilt on the planet. First, it's huge, dwarfing our queen-sized matress. Second, it's made with all the cool Japanese fabrics I've been collecting over the years and sending to my mom. Third, it's mostly blue, a color which, as you know, is superior to any other color in the universe.
As soon as I overcome my stupendous laziness, I will download the photos from Hiroko's digital camera and put them up.
Oh yeah, I've just been officially told that as of March I am to be lead the Tuesday student's practice. I guess this means I will get my assistant teaching credential soon, too.
movie and noodles
Saturday Hiroko and I went to see Bowling For Columbine. Excellent flick. Asks the tough question: what's up with Americans killing each other? The murder rate in the US is 10 times more than in any other first-world country. So what gives? Violent history? How about Germany and Japan. Proliferation of guns? Canada's got 10 million households and 7 million guns, but they don't shoot each other in large numbers like Americans do.
After the flick we got some dame fine udon; fat noodles nice and al dente.
On Sunday I went to Nippon Budokan to see the 26th All Japan Traditional Martial Arts(kobudo) Demonstrations. Pretty cool; 30 or so different martial arts, from ancient rifles to spear, sword, naginata, and weaponless arts. Some cool highlights: women in kimono practicing naginata forms from 400 years ago. Best move: woman's naginata gets entangled by attacking guy's sword, he knocks her weapon from her hands and goes in for the kill, but she grabs the short sword in his belt and kill hims with his own sword. Also some cool kusarigama versus sword where the weighted chain is used to wrap up the swordsman's foot or neck.
Much of the sword work was...different than what I'm used to. Alot of it was very slow and deliberate, but maybe it was just my ignorance about other styles. Some cool samurai arts done in full armor, including knife work with takedowns.
After the flick we got some dame fine udon; fat noodles nice and al dente.
On Sunday I went to Nippon Budokan to see the 26th All Japan Traditional Martial Arts(kobudo) Demonstrations. Pretty cool; 30 or so different martial arts, from ancient rifles to spear, sword, naginata, and weaponless arts. Some cool highlights: women in kimono practicing naginata forms from 400 years ago. Best move: woman's naginata gets entangled by attacking guy's sword, he knocks her weapon from her hands and goes in for the kill, but she grabs the short sword in his belt and kill hims with his own sword. Also some cool kusarigama versus sword where the weighted chain is used to wrap up the swordsman's foot or neck.
Much of the sword work was...different than what I'm used to. Alot of it was very slow and deliberate, but maybe it was just my ignorance about other styles. Some cool samurai arts done in full armor, including knife work with takedowns.
workin' late
Went to practice and came straight back to the office. Ordered some pizza from Brendan's Pizzakaya and cranked out some major intranet turnovers. Amazingly, things went fairly smoothly. Incredible how weeks of planning and preparing can help make a project run smoothly and finish on-time.
funky dreams.
Two nights ago I dreamt I was in high school, flying. I woke up face down, right arm stretched out above my head, left arm stretched out to the side. My left clavicle hurt all day.
Last night I dreamt I was in high school (again) taking final exams. Everyone else was taking finals to get into college, but I was taking the written test for the driver's license exam. And when I was handed the test, I also mistakenly was given someone else's test that had already been graded and corrected. I managed to check out the first question, which was multiple choice: A,B,C,L. I thought the answer was either L or A, and looking at the corrected exam, L was marked incorrrectly and A was written next to it.
If flying means a longing desire for something unfulfilled, what the hell does cheating on the driver's license written high school exam mean?!
Last night I dreamt I was in high school (again) taking final exams. Everyone else was taking finals to get into college, but I was taking the written test for the driver's license exam. And when I was handed the test, I also mistakenly was given someone else's test that had already been graded and corrected. I managed to check out the first question, which was multiple choice: A,B,C,L. I thought the answer was either L or A, and looking at the corrected exam, L was marked incorrrectly and A was written next to it.
If flying means a longing desire for something unfulfilled, what the hell does cheating on the driver's license written high school exam mean?!
jack valenti
Is either an idiot (doubtful) or a liar.
Some of the quotes in that are just brilliant:
"We now lose $3.5 billion a year in videocassette analog piracy." -- but don't bother counting the fact that movie studios make more money selling tapes and DVDs than they do on theater showings!
"What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law. " -- excuse me? Copyright law Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107.
"But you've already got a DVD. It lasts forever. It never wears out. In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless." -- oh right, I forgot, DVD's last FOREVER. Data NEVER WEARS out. I guess he's never scratched a CD, or had a hard-drive fail...where can I get me one of those infallible discs?
"I think lobbying is really an honest profession...Money, however, is negative--it's corrupting the body politic." -- so he's opposed to the millions of dollars he and the MPAA spends lobbying Congress? So stop paying!
More comments from the interviewer, Derek.
Some of the quotes in that are just brilliant:
"We now lose $3.5 billion a year in videocassette analog piracy." -- but don't bother counting the fact that movie studios make more money selling tapes and DVDs than they do on theater showings!
"What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law. " -- excuse me? Copyright law Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107.
"But you've already got a DVD. It lasts forever. It never wears out. In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless." -- oh right, I forgot, DVD's last FOREVER. Data NEVER WEARS out. I guess he's never scratched a CD, or had a hard-drive fail...where can I get me one of those infallible discs?
"I think lobbying is really an honest profession...Money, however, is negative--it's corrupting the body politic." -- so he's opposed to the millions of dollars he and the MPAA spends lobbying Congress? So stop paying!
More comments from the interviewer, Derek.
cold
Last night practice was cold. Like snow flurries outside cold. Like "I can't feel my feet!" cold. As always Kanai-san and I were there, and this time Iawata-chan showed up, too, as he finals are over and she's got nothing to do for a couple months but practice and work. All the other slacker students? Most of them use finals as an excuse to skip practice in this freezing weather...shows how much smarter they are than I.
drinkin'
So Ishida-san from Iai thinks she's a hard drinkin' woman, and she's rarely ventured into that bastion of human digression Roppongi. So I rallied the troops and gave them whatfor. Kevin found a cool place for dinner called Saga that looks like an old Japanese brothel. Stevie was on time for once, and shortly after Mallardi showed, Ishida and Hanada and 2 more girls arrived. Pitchers of beer were downed immediately, and before long the mood was festive. We then lost a couple and hooked up with a couple more (including Ollie and girl) at Hobgoblin's newly opened Roppongi pub. The lager and cocktails flowed, and my Redbull kept me alive until about midnight, at which point I begged off to sleep and get ready for Sunday morning practice.
According to Kevin, they ended up at Castillo's, dancing away to the 70s and 80s music and getting rightly hammered. No word from Ishida-san yet, but when Kevin cabbed home about 4am, the girls were still raging and supposedly Ishida-san went straight to work on Sunday.
According to Kevin, they ended up at Castillo's, dancing away to the 70s and 80s music and getting rightly hammered. No word from Ishida-san yet, but when Kevin cabbed home about 4am, the girls were still raging and supposedly Ishida-san went straight to work on Sunday.
my dad is cooler than your dad
You say your dad is cool? My dad is cooler. You say your dad has a website? My dad's website is bilingual and animated. You say your dad takes photos? My dad is an award-winning portrait photographer.
My dad is cooler than your dad.
My dad is cooler than your dad.
like the cure sang: "it's never enough..."
Tuesday student practice, and I was the only one who showed up. All the students are supposedly in the middle of finals, but then again it's really REALLY cold in an unheated gym these days. So Kanai-san and I had the whole place to ourselves for 2 hours. I spent most of it in front of the mirror trying to figure out how to cut horizontally. Obviously, I failed.
Wednesday at practice in Akihabara Naganuma-sensei congratulated me for making 3dan, and then after watching me do some forms, tore me up into little tiny pieces: "Good thing you didn't test with me, I wouldn't have passed you." He then proceeded to school me for several minutes on all the little and big things I was and wasn't doing. "You're left handed, so use that strength to carry the blade. Why do you kill your own strength? Your horizontal cuts aren't; the blade is titled, making waves, and you're not using you hips. And it's slow. Your sword tip wobbles around, and when it stops it's not pointing anywhere useful. Where's your opponent? Where are you cutting? Is that how you were taught to hold a sword?"
At the end he gave his patented Naganuma Smile and finished "I've never once thought I was any good. Not once. So there's no way you should either. I don't criticize you to make you feel bad, I do it because if you think you're any good, you never will be. You get better by realizing how bad you are, and trying to fix what's broken. You have potential, you've got a fingernail grip in 3dan, and from now on it gets serious. You've shown dedication to make it this far, but the things you could get away with up until now won't cut it anymore, literally."
Wednesday at practice in Akihabara Naganuma-sensei congratulated me for making 3dan, and then after watching me do some forms, tore me up into little tiny pieces: "Good thing you didn't test with me, I wouldn't have passed you." He then proceeded to school me for several minutes on all the little and big things I was and wasn't doing. "You're left handed, so use that strength to carry the blade. Why do you kill your own strength? Your horizontal cuts aren't; the blade is titled, making waves, and you're not using you hips. And it's slow. Your sword tip wobbles around, and when it stops it's not pointing anywhere useful. Where's your opponent? Where are you cutting? Is that how you were taught to hold a sword?"
At the end he gave his patented Naganuma Smile and finished "I've never once thought I was any good. Not once. So there's no way you should either. I don't criticize you to make you feel bad, I do it because if you think you're any good, you never will be. You get better by realizing how bad you are, and trying to fix what's broken. You have potential, you've got a fingernail grip in 3dan, and from now on it gets serious. You've shown dedication to make it this far, but the things you could get away with up until now won't cut it anymore, literally."
breath of fresh air
My BlueAir 501 air filter arrived yesterday. I set it up behind the comfy chair in the living room and turned it on. On the medium setting it's almost silent, and the only indicator that it's on is the blue light on the front brushed metal panel. Very cool. I can hardly wait for the hay fever season to start so that I can breath clean air in my own apartment!
sumo
Hammer got some sumo tickets friday night, so we skipped out of work early to check it out. That's the way to watch sumo; box seats fifth row, with bags and bags of food and stuff to take home. At the end of the tournament, after Hammer had put down serious quantities of beer, the retired Terao himself appeared. He was mobbed by grandmas, but Hammer battled his way through the crowd and I managed to snap a photo with my cell phone:
glad I remembered
All day iai on Sunday -- morning was a beginners session and I thought I was going to teach but only 3 new students showed up, so I and Kanai-san and Oki-san got some hard training from Tanaka-sensei as Ando-sensei took the beginners. In the afternoon Gosoke's special seminar was tough as always. A couple of hours into it, he goes "Sekido-san! recite the member's duties!" Sekido-san got through most of them, but then couldn't remember the organization's principles. Otsuka-san got the principles ok, but couldn't remember the member's duties, and down the line it went. When he finally got to me, I managed to stumble through both. Gosoke laughed and said "Well, that'll do. Too bad for everyone else...ren, you're promoted to 3dan! The rest of you, you think just being able to do the forms is enough? You gotta use your head, too! Hah hah hah!" Ah, the seemingly frivolous but infinitely deep Niina-gosoke; he's always got a chuckle and a smile, but the key is, are his eyes laughing, too? If so you're ok, if not...so at least I don't have to worry about testing, and can focus on cutting in preparation for the demo in Kyoto this spring!
After practice went over to Nancy's Casa Feliz for a house-warming party. I brought a bunch of food from Outback Steakhouse and we chowed well. Stevie's been fired, but he hated his job and his Mormon boss, so he's actually kind of happy. Ed's collecting unemployment and doing well "consulting", Tony brought champagne and is planning a Murder Mystery Night...the usual zaniness.
After practice went over to Nancy's Casa Feliz for a house-warming party. I brought a bunch of food from Outback Steakhouse and we chowed well. Stevie's been fired, but he hated his job and his Mormon boss, so he's actually kind of happy. Ed's collecting unemployment and doing well "consulting", Tony brought champagne and is planning a Murder Mystery Night...the usual zaniness.
more cutting fun
Otsuka-san sent me some more photos from Sunday:
Yasuda-san, double-handed yoko ichi-monji through full roll.
Ishida-san, one-handed gyaku-kesagiri through half roll. First time, nice cut!
Two half rolls spaced about a foot apart, from a seated draw.
Yasuda-san, double-handed yoko ichi-monji through full roll.
Ishida-san, one-handed gyaku-kesagiri through half roll. First time, nice cut!
Two half rolls spaced about a foot apart, from a seated draw.
as bad as expected
I totally blame Kevin. He got me started reading Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and I must admit the first couple of books were really good.
Now, however, I've just finished the 10th book in the series and it's just painful.
First of all, there is absolutely no chance Jordan will ever end this stupid series anytime soon. 10 volumes into it, and there are so many characters, plots, subplots, and unresolved issues that things will culminate into the "last battle" where good squares off against evil to decide the fate of the world.
Where the first books had chivalrous knights, cool magic, and neat battles against trolls, the story now suffers from "Dragon Ball" syndrome -- the characters are so strong that the good guys wield magical swords that destroy entire armies and the bad guys are evil incarnate.
Furthermore, the complex social interaction and political maneuvering was interesting at the beginning, but now every chapter devotes far too much time to characters being stone-faced without giving away any emotion, but wondering whom to trust, what that glimmer in the eye or straightening of the skirt ruffle meant. And there isn't nearly enough fighting anymore. In fact, the 10th book takes place at basically the same time as the 9th book, but there are so many main characters that nobody knows what anybody else is doing and it takes two books to explain less than a month of nothing: One guy is looking for his kidnapped wife (kidnapped 3 books ago), finds where she is, but before he tries to get her back, goes to the nearest town to buy grain and supplies only to find that the town is haunted. Another guy spends the entire book hiding from the bad guys with a travelling circus, with the enemy princess fated to be his bride whom he kidnapped (and I can't even remember why he kidnapped her.) The main good guy spends this entire book doing what he was doing for the whole last book, and at the end finally decides he wants to negotiate a peace treaty with the Bad Army From Over There. And everyone else spends their time plotting, swearing oaths, breaking sworn oaths, wondering who's really sworn, wondering who's evil and is just pretending to have sworn, and figuring out ways to get around their sworn oaths without breaking them.
Far too much scheming women, heaving breasts, straightening skirt hems and smoothing wrinkles, looking stone-faced with a glimmer in the eye, sighing, sword-practicing with sweat glistening, creeping silently through the forest, smelling evil, respecting honor, and generally introducing too many damn characters and not moving the story along one little bit.
Now, however, I've just finished the 10th book in the series and it's just painful.
First of all, there is absolutely no chance Jordan will ever end this stupid series anytime soon. 10 volumes into it, and there are so many characters, plots, subplots, and unresolved issues that things will culminate into the "last battle" where good squares off against evil to decide the fate of the world.
Where the first books had chivalrous knights, cool magic, and neat battles against trolls, the story now suffers from "Dragon Ball" syndrome -- the characters are so strong that the good guys wield magical swords that destroy entire armies and the bad guys are evil incarnate.
Furthermore, the complex social interaction and political maneuvering was interesting at the beginning, but now every chapter devotes far too much time to characters being stone-faced without giving away any emotion, but wondering whom to trust, what that glimmer in the eye or straightening of the skirt ruffle meant. And there isn't nearly enough fighting anymore. In fact, the 10th book takes place at basically the same time as the 9th book, but there are so many main characters that nobody knows what anybody else is doing and it takes two books to explain less than a month of nothing: One guy is looking for his kidnapped wife (kidnapped 3 books ago), finds where she is, but before he tries to get her back, goes to the nearest town to buy grain and supplies only to find that the town is haunted. Another guy spends the entire book hiding from the bad guys with a travelling circus, with the enemy princess fated to be his bride whom he kidnapped (and I can't even remember why he kidnapped her.) The main good guy spends this entire book doing what he was doing for the whole last book, and at the end finally decides he wants to negotiate a peace treaty with the Bad Army From Over There. And everyone else spends their time plotting, swearing oaths, breaking sworn oaths, wondering who's really sworn, wondering who's evil and is just pretending to have sworn, and figuring out ways to get around their sworn oaths without breaking them.
Far too much scheming women, heaving breasts, straightening skirt hems and smoothing wrinkles, looking stone-faced with a glimmer in the eye, sighing, sword-practicing with sweat glistening, creeping silently through the forest, smelling evil, respecting honor, and generally introducing too many damn characters and not moving the story along one little bit.
milk does a body bad
After careful, scientific analysis, my mother finally gets to say "I told you so." I hereby declare: I am lactose intolerant. But fear not! I cannot live without my pizza and parmesan cheese and tazo chai latte. Once again the miracle of science to the rescue: lactaid. Pop one of these suckers and it's Italian gelatto with all the flavor but none of the up-all-night-hunched-over-in-the-corner-of-the-bathroom-in-pain.
chop chop
Saturday I did my standard round of stuff; drycleaners, laundry, various bits and bobs of shopping.
On Sunday we had cutting practice and I really got a chance to use my new cutter that I bought from Tanaka-sensei.
In the morning session I was doing ok. Working on jinrai, the okuden form that I'm supposed to do in Kyoto in April.
Had a couple of decent attempts, first time getting the second cut sloppy but really blowing the first cut, second attempt the first cut was ok, but the second cut was just plain off.
(Note: scowling and/or making funny faces helps your cuts...really!)
Damn, but Tanaka-sensei (quicktime move, 4.3MB, right-click and download to watch) makes it look easy.
Also getting some great advice and standard abuse from Naganuma-sensei, who said he wasn't going to teach us any more because:
1 - when he was learning to cut no one taught him and he had to figure it all out for himself, and
2 - he doesn't want any of us getting better than him (trust me, no fear of that happening...ever)
After practice we were supposed to go over to Mallardi's for a taco-fest, but he had a major meltdown at work and was spending quality time with the lawyers. So I went over to Beck's and we had some pizza and watched Minority Report -- damn entertaining flick, exactly what one would expect from Spielberg.
On Sunday we had cutting practice and I really got a chance to use my new cutter that I bought from Tanaka-sensei.
In the morning session I was doing ok. Working on jinrai, the okuden form that I'm supposed to do in Kyoto in April.
Had a couple of decent attempts, first time getting the second cut sloppy but really blowing the first cut, second attempt the first cut was ok, but the second cut was just plain off.
(Note: scowling and/or making funny faces helps your cuts...really!)
Damn, but Tanaka-sensei (quicktime move, 4.3MB, right-click and download to watch) makes it look easy.
Also getting some great advice and standard abuse from Naganuma-sensei, who said he wasn't going to teach us any more because:
1 - when he was learning to cut no one taught him and he had to figure it all out for himself, and
2 - he doesn't want any of us getting better than him (trust me, no fear of that happening...ever)
After practice we were supposed to go over to Mallardi's for a taco-fest, but he had a major meltdown at work and was spending quality time with the lawyers. So I went over to Beck's and we had some pizza and watched Minority Report -- damn entertaining flick, exactly what one would expect from Spielberg.
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