chocolate sundae
Traditional New Year's Denny's run with Hiroko's childhood buddies, shown here destroying a cholocate sundae as only a pack of rabid Japanese girls can.
not. stop...ing
In Japanese, tomeru/tomaru "to stop" is (less commonly) written as "
". However, if we add sanzui ("three waters") to the left, it becomes tameru/tamaru "
" "to collect, gather, store up". (the -eru forms are generally transitive verbs, the -aru forms intransitive.)
The difference is crucial; both tomeru and tameru imply the absence of movement. Stopping, however, is the end of action. It may be immediately followed by a new action, but the flow is lost. There are two thoughts, to movements. No matter how quickly in succession they are performed, they are not one, but two, and that disconnect, even if only a fraction of a fraction of a second, is an opening to be exploited.
The water radical on the side of tameru implies flow, continuation. A river of course is flowing. But even a still lake, with a calm glass surface, stores up the water that flows in from tributaries and ground springs. Even if there is no particular movement at the moment it is observed, it is in a state of preparedness. Like a frozen stream, it has not stopped flowing, it's just pausing, to freeze and thaw, before continuing on.
A more modern analogy: run the battery in your cellphone down until it stops working. That's dead. Now plug in your cellphone, recharging the battery whilst using it. Hang up. Now make another call. The battery drains, charges, drains and charges.
This is hard to explain, especially in Japanese, where the word hayai means both fast (as in speed) and early (as in time), but it is important in making a distinction between merely moving quickly and repeatedly, and moving at the right time. If it is not yet time, you do not tomeru, you tameru. No matter how quickly you move, if you move too early, the enemy merely waits and counters. If you move too late, well your speed doesn't matter; you're already ready.
Just like the famous quote "The slow blade penetrates the shield", a well-timed strike is more effective than the fastest cut at the wrong moment.
In practice, there is no suki, no opening, in atomic movements, nor in the time between atomic movements when there is tame; storing, building, energizing, waiting. A single atomic movement from the moment the hand moves to draw to when the sword has completed its cut. And then...tame, patiently, sword pointed at the enemy...in another instant the sword is readied overhead and then strike quickly immediately or...tame; pressure, closing, tempting, holding, until the enemy moves to fight or flee and then strike, react in an instant no difference between his movement and yours, no opening in time or space no difference between movement and stillness and movement again.
". However, if we add sanzui ("three waters") to the left, it becomes tameru/tamaru "" "to collect, gather, store up". (the -eru forms are generally transitive verbs, the -aru forms intransitive.)The difference is crucial; both tomeru and tameru imply the absence of movement. Stopping, however, is the end of action. It may be immediately followed by a new action, but the flow is lost. There are two thoughts, to movements. No matter how quickly in succession they are performed, they are not one, but two, and that disconnect, even if only a fraction of a fraction of a second, is an opening to be exploited.
The water radical on the side of tameru implies flow, continuation. A river of course is flowing. But even a still lake, with a calm glass surface, stores up the water that flows in from tributaries and ground springs. Even if there is no particular movement at the moment it is observed, it is in a state of preparedness. Like a frozen stream, it has not stopped flowing, it's just pausing, to freeze and thaw, before continuing on.
A more modern analogy: run the battery in your cellphone down until it stops working. That's dead. Now plug in your cellphone, recharging the battery whilst using it. Hang up. Now make another call. The battery drains, charges, drains and charges.
This is hard to explain, especially in Japanese, where the word hayai means both fast (as in speed) and early (as in time), but it is important in making a distinction between merely moving quickly and repeatedly, and moving at the right time. If it is not yet time, you do not tomeru, you tameru. No matter how quickly you move, if you move too early, the enemy merely waits and counters. If you move too late, well your speed doesn't matter; you're already ready.
Just like the famous quote "The slow blade penetrates the shield", a well-timed strike is more effective than the fastest cut at the wrong moment.
In practice, there is no suki, no opening, in atomic movements, nor in the time between atomic movements when there is tame; storing, building, energizing, waiting. A single atomic movement from the moment the hand moves to draw to when the sword has completed its cut. And then...tame, patiently, sword pointed at the enemy...in another instant the sword is readied overhead and then strike quickly immediately or...tame; pressure, closing, tempting, holding, until the enemy moves to fight or flee and then strike, react in an instant no difference between his movement and yours, no opening in time or space no difference between movement and stillness and movement again.
jesus was a jew party
Conan and Millie (and various other adults) came over for the traditional too-much-food at the Kuroda house. There was much eating and drinking and general silliness, though somehow we ended up with more wine than we started.
More photos from the Ishiharas.
Spiral glazed ham. One word: MAGICAL!
More photos from the Ishiharas.
Spiral glazed ham. One word: MAGICAL!
bonenkai
Literally "forget the year party", the tradition of the end-of-the-year bonenkai is a celebration of all the stuff you want to leave behind you as you look forward to a new year. Then again it seems like all the silliness you want to forget about is what you end up doing at the bonenkai itself.
After practice I hooked up with the SCT posse in shinbashi and closed out the evening walking home from Roppongi at 1:30am. At least this time I wasn't assaulted by Russian Women of the Evening. Instead I had a lovely conversation with a girl dubiously named Ichigo (strawberry) who was a dumb as she was cute, but her tips were pre-paid by the generousity of my coworkers and therefore she was perfectly content to talk about the benefits of a buzz cut, being able to speak the language as a foreigner in a strange land, and why pachinko never took off in the USA.
After practice I hooked up with the SCT posse in shinbashi and closed out the evening walking home from Roppongi at 1:30am. At least this time I wasn't assaulted by Russian Women of the Evening. Instead I had a lovely conversation with a girl dubiously named Ichigo (strawberry) who was a dumb as she was cute, but her tips were pre-paid by the generousity of my coworkers and therefore she was perfectly content to talk about the benefits of a buzz cut, being able to speak the language as a foreigner in a strange land, and why pachinko never took off in the USA.
reach? lean?
Today we worked on distance, specifically closing the distance between the Other Guy. The basic idea is go-no-sen: move second. First see what he does, and once he's committed to attacking in a certain, respond. He goes high, you go low, etc. The key is move decisively, quickly, and close. The other key is to wait long enough for his attack to be committed, but not so long that you get hit. Move to early and he'll simply adjust his distance and hit you were you're going, not where you are.
All of the kata assume many things, most of them totally 'unrealistic'. Then again kata were never intended to be actual mini-recreations of possible real-life encounters. They make assumptions and promises in order to define parameters within which you can learn something; some technique, a theory of response, the eye to see and judge distance, timing. Most of the kata start with the assumption that you are getting attacked where you are. Therefore, you have to wait until the other guy has actually attacked you, where you are, before you can evade and counter. And obviously, you have to evade before you can counter.
We worked in pairs with wood, trying to understand how a millimeter difference means evading or getting hit, understanding speed and reaction time, checking distance. I am a big believer in working with someone else in order to really feel what it's like to evade and deflect, to focus counters on target, and to verify distance. Ultimately though if you cannot imagine the enemy, see him standing there in space, and hit him consistently, then you are his mercy, because you are only capable of reacting, and therefore he is in control. Ultimately, we strive to overcome such control, by the enemy, by the environment and situation. Ultimately, we are simply part of it, neither controlled nor in control, neither action nor reaction; simply there.
But that's far away, and right now it's hard enough to keep from getting bonked on the head.
All of the kata assume many things, most of them totally 'unrealistic'. Then again kata were never intended to be actual mini-recreations of possible real-life encounters. They make assumptions and promises in order to define parameters within which you can learn something; some technique, a theory of response, the eye to see and judge distance, timing. Most of the kata start with the assumption that you are getting attacked where you are. Therefore, you have to wait until the other guy has actually attacked you, where you are, before you can evade and counter. And obviously, you have to evade before you can counter.
We worked in pairs with wood, trying to understand how a millimeter difference means evading or getting hit, understanding speed and reaction time, checking distance. I am a big believer in working with someone else in order to really feel what it's like to evade and deflect, to focus counters on target, and to verify distance. Ultimately though if you cannot imagine the enemy, see him standing there in space, and hit him consistently, then you are his mercy, because you are only capable of reacting, and therefore he is in control. Ultimately, we strive to overcome such control, by the enemy, by the environment and situation. Ultimately, we are simply part of it, neither controlled nor in control, neither action nor reaction; simply there.
But that's far away, and right now it's hard enough to keep from getting bonked on the head.
big lunch bad
Wasn't necessarily that busy, but didn't end up having lunch until 2pm. By then of course I was really, really hungry, and ate way too much. By 7pm I was still feeling really full, and kind of over-salted, too. Not the best condition to hit the dojo, but I went anyway.
After the first half-hour, I went to the back and sat down with my water bottle, where I remained for the remainder of class. Moral of the story: listen to your stomach.
After the first half-hour, I went to the back and sat down with my water bottle, where I remained for the remainder of class. Moral of the story: listen to your stomach.
crab
Went to the quarterly antique faire at Heiwajima but didn't really find anything too exciting. There was this one kind of cool small box, seemed quite old and the dude selling it was telling me it was 300-400 years old. I pulled all the drawers out of it and on the bottom of one of them was written "Meiji 20" which is 1888. The dude was surprised; he'd never looked at the bottom of the drawers. Then I flipped the whole thing over and on the bottom was the date and the maker's name. He offered me a discount but it was in such crappy shape it wasn't even worth thirty bucks.
After the antique fair we defrosted the crab we sent to ourselves from Hokkaido and had hand-roll sushi.
Oh yeah, and damn it got cold this weekend! What's up with that? Oh right, winter, eh.
After the antique fair we defrosted the crab we sent to ourselves from Hokkaido and had hand-roll sushi.
Oh yeah, and damn it got cold this weekend! What's up with that? Oh right, winter, eh.
genghis kahn in shinbashi
Ah, the joy that is grilled lamb. Went to Shinbashi to check out an authentic Genghis Kahn BBQ. Not quite as good as Hokkaido, but damn fine. Excellent meat, plenty of stinky smokiness, and real charcoal.
driving in tsukiji
Anyone know what these things are called? They're all over Tsukiji. And I think they're deisel.
lucky mama
Hungry after practice so I got off the bus early and walked down to Lucky. Mama was there with a bunch of her friends, and they were all welll on their way to drunkedness, so I joined their table and stuffed myself silly. I am not just a regular, I am somewhat of a legend ever since I translated their menu into English, so everyone there already knew all about me. Kind of spooky, but the Taiwanese garlic noodles were great, so no complaints.
sushi
Japanese Sushi: The Documentary.
Brilliant. The dudes who made this are a comedy team call Ramenz. They are brilliant.
Brilliant. The dudes who made this are a comedy team call Ramenz. They are brilliant.
danger:do not upset kiev girls
See the pained expression on my face? I was physically and psychologically violated by a woman from Kiev in a Sketchy Place on a side street in the bowels that are Roppongi.
There are two possible reaons why she abused me in Russian and slobbered a big glitterly lipstick stain on the collar of my favorite blue shirt:
1) She really, really liked me and took offense when she discoverd that I was married and the feeling was not mutual.
2) She was upset that she wouldn't be making a few last extra yen before 4am closing because I turned down her offer to show me her various body piercings in the privacy of the back room.
Moral of the story: if you must go to a Sketchy Place, bring someone who speaks Russian. Or even better skip the Sketchy Place and go straight for the late-night/early morning ramen. Even if the waitress abuses me, at least I get to eat.
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