give your meat

nishizoe & kusu wedding party

Went to a cool place, The Orbient, in Aoyama for Spike and Kusu-chan's wedding party. I was styling in my blue kimono with NYC bling-bling. Spike and his boys put on a great Water Boys show, and at then Kusu-chan changed into her naughty nurse outfit and Spike into his baby blue velour adidas track suit. Many photos taken. Many drinks drink'd.
Saw Chimi for the first time in forever. She's cranking up for the Honolulu Marathon and dancing like a Takefuji Girl. Been busting her butt at work for a couple months as she's got some big project about to go live. Don't think it's the Japanese Gold Box, but she promises it'll be something good so I have to spend lots money. She's really loving her job, which is sweet because working at Morgan Stanley was really bumming her out, and I'm glad she's found something she enjoys so much.
Mieko and Tomo are so cute together; they're finalists in the bakappuru(Baka Couple aka Pair of Loons) but have some strong competition from Will and Sachiko, and of course Spike and Kusu-chan.

spike and kusu-san wedding party

Went to The Orbient in Aoyama for Spike and Kusu-san's wedding party. Cool place and we enjoyed the Water Boys show and crazy video of how they met. I was styling in my kimono with NY bling-bling. Talked to Chimi whom I haven't seen in a while and she looked good and is loving her job. She's got some big project going live soon, so hopefully it'll be something I can spend more money on!
Took lots of crazy photos before walking back to Shibuya with Hiroko, then bussing home.

full house

Lots of folks showed up for practice at Iidabashi. Kiyokawa-kun ran the Waseda kids through kata, booming in his loud voice like only a young buck can. I focused mostly on Kawamoto-san, this being her first practice and the first time she used her new sword. Sekido-san and Nakayama-san did their thing, and I popped in on occassion to make a few points and try a few things. It was relaxed and noisy, with everyone doing their own thing at their own pace. Just the way I like it.

kill bill

Good review of Kill Bill. Will be seeing it this weekend.

muromachi

Sekido-san brought in Niina-gosoke's previous sword and handed it over. Wow. It's a Muromachi era sword with a wicked sori. 950 grams of 400 year old steel, registered in Kumamoto Prefecture, and it feels much deeper and warmer than my modern-made cold, hard blade.
Tough to describe, but that old steel is just...warmer, like thick stew.
The hamon is sugu and notare, with very subtle hataraki; mostly chikei. The polish is a working iai polish, but I might have to drop some cash and get a really nice polish, because I'm sure there's alot more going on in there.

Tanaka-sensei was late to practice so I ran everyone through basics and started kata work. Then Niina-gosoke showed up to take some photos. Spent the rest of the regular class teaching a beginner, and the last hour Tanaka-sensei ran us through the last 10 kata. Damn but that blade feels good to swing. I can feel my techniques changing, and hopefully it will be for the better!
Niina-gosoke said Oka-san in Shiga-ken called and said the repairs and polish to my modern blade will be 50,000 yen -- cheap! So I'll probably send him my other blade, my cutter, to have it repolished and have a shirasaya made.

Note: see sword blade terminology and sword glossary for definitions of terms.

grand theft auto 3

Guess I'm a bit late getting GTA3, but it's finally available in Japan and as I have a Japanese PS2, I couldn't use the English release. Anyway this game is as great as everyone says. Never mind the random street interaction, the huge city, the tiny details like newspapers blowing across the street, etc. Just stealing a car and driving around listening to the radio is fun enough, never mind killing rival gang members and pimps. Hours of good clean family entertainment!

gyoza party photos

Too much eating:
gyoza.

asthma

Ah the joys of the icy-cold grip of death on one's lungs.

gyoza

Too much eating. Hiroko and I started chopping veggies about 1pm, and by 6pm the apartment was packed; one table was a gyoza-stuffing sweatshop, the other table a gyoza-eating contest worthy of primetime television. Chie made crepes, Tomo brought his famous brownies, Amy played with empty plastic bottles, the iPod fed random tunes through the tv speakers...did I mention the gyoza? Pork and cabbage, chicken and mushroom, shrimp and onion, beef and tomato. And then the playstation 2 fired up so that Ollie and Chiori could shoot vampires. Beer and wine was consumed with wild abandon. Gyoza was made. Gyoza was eaten. Gyoza was put into ziplock bags and shoved into people's pockets; no one escaped empty-handed.

timing is everything

Sekido-san just got his sword back from the polishers and he's selling it. If I'd known this earlier, I would have jumped all over the chance. As it is, he's showing it to Takeda-san this weekend, but if I'm lucky Takeda-san won't like it and I'll have a chance to buy it. It's the same length as my sword, only about 80 grams heavier and 400 years older. I think I'll send my sword out to get cleaned up and sell it, using the money to (hopefully) buy Sekido-san's.
The one he has now and the one he's replacing it with were both Niina-gosoke's personal swords, so there's no doubt as to the quality. If only my timing were a bit better, I would never have bought my modern blade in the first place, and would have bought Sekido-san's sword when Niina-gosoke was first selling it.
In other issues of timing, getting that front foot timed correctly with the sword strike is the big issue of the day. Niina-gosoke ran us through several different kata, illuminating the simple fact that they're all basically the same; sword cuts and foot steps at the same time. If only it were that easy.

i am an idiot

So I got home from practice last night and realized I didn't have my uniform, which I usually carry around wrapped up in a cool blue furoshiki (big piece of cloth.) After cursing myself for several minutes, I got back on the mightier steed and drove all the way back to Akihabara. Needless to say, it was nowhere to be found, and the building was already closed.
Drove all the way back home with one eye on the curb, wondering if I had left it on the back of the Mightier Steed, forgetting to put it under the seat after taking my helmet out.
This morning I called the Chiyoda Park Plaza and as a matter of fact, they did have a black uniform wrapped up in a blue furoshiki. It was left sitting next to the elevator on the 4th floor.
I emailed Sekido-san about some homepage additions and casually mentioned that I forgot my uniform, and he replies something to the effect of "Yeah, I saw a furoshiki that looked just like the one you always use, and thought to myself 'That looks just like ren's. Uncanny...'" Thanks for mentioning it, buddy.
Anyway I ended up spending all bloody afternoon driving back and to Akihabara to get my uniform. Where in the hell do all these people come from, driving REALLY BADLY in the middle of the day? And how do they not absolutely kill each other when faced with the tremendous stupidity of their fellow drivers? And lastly, what moron decided to replace all the Ginza traffic lights with brand new, ultra-modern super-bright LED lights and pave the street with some magical gray-painted blacktop that is absolutely wonderful to drive on, but decided NOT to change the traffic light software, so even with the new lights and pavement, all twenty lights change to red at exactly the same time? I'm no fluid mechanics engineer, but that has got to be the least effective way to move traffic down a major artery.

things my girlfriend and i have argued about

From Ollie: Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About.
Laughing in pain (and understanding).

rain

Ah, the cold and wetness of autumn rain. Will was giving me crap for not writing about enough interesting things in my blog, so I was forced to remind him that my life is only interesting in short-lived spurts spaced far apart, and also my mom is an avid reader of G.Y.M. (the main reason I started this blog, actually, was because every now and then I'd get a "You might be dead, but would your mother know, the amount of mail she doesn't get from her youngest son..." kinda mails) so I've got to keep it PG-13 at least. So Will bought me some O.J. and we debated OS merits with Todd for a bit before those two digressed off into geekland; I was never a Commodore 64 dork like them (Atari BASIC thank you very much.)
Other than that, it rained alot today.

all day

It being the national Holiday Sports Day, we had an all seminar today in Toritsudai. Got there a bit before nine and didn't leave until almost five. Niina-gosoke ran us through the fundamentals and various kata, focusing on the simple but alusive point of timing the front foot with the sword; foot to early and you leave yourself open with your sword above your head. Foot too late and you're only cutting with your arms, not your hips. Suffice to say I am now even more confused than I was before.

happy birthday hiroko!

Hiroko's birthday, so to celebrate I let her sleep in while I went to cutting practice in the morning.
Came by about lunch time and showed her the new iMac and iPod. I will now spend all my waking hours ripping our CDs into the iPod so that we never have to change CDs again. One thing Apple definitely got right: this sucker is so simple to use. OS X is a huge improvement over OS 9, and doesn't even compare to Windows. Take it outta the box, set it up, plug it in, turn it on. It just works.

We spent the afternoon in Ginza. Ostensibly we were these to pick up our repaired shoes from Camui, but ended up swinging through Zara and GAP, doing our part to save the economy by being good consumers.

About 7:30 Kevin and Z came by and we had a fabulous dinner a t Piola. Of course, all dinners at Piola are by definition fabulous. Once the owner found out it was Hiroko's birthday, she gave Hiroko a nice plant and we got free dessert and lots of smiles. Gotta love that place.

niina-gosoke

Niina-gosoke is the man. Brutal practice, but that's mostly because I suck so badly.
After practice we went and got sushi and talked about the organization. Ohtsuka-san is now in charge of dealing with new members and those who want to become members, so he bought a Clie in order to check his email all the time. Niina-gosoke bought an eBook, and so did Ohtsuka-san, so Sekido-san has been spending all his time setting up their computers for them.

new schedule

So I'm no longer teaching the Tuesday night student's practice, and as of next week I'll be teaching the regular practice on Thursday in Iidabashi.
So basically I help teach on Monday in Shibuya, have Tuesday off for work-related conference calls, run the warmup and basics on Wednesday, and usually end up teaching any beginners (at least the last extra hour I can practice with everyone else who stays late), Thursday teaching Iidabashi, Friday Niina-gosoke's practice in Shinbashi, Saturday mornings cutting practice in Akabane once a month, and Sunday there's usually a seminar or something a couple times a month in Shinbashi or Toritsudai.