And it's all well and truly over... Part one

Two things happened this weekend, and I want to talk about both of them in detail... But I haven't the time this morning, so I'll talk about the part that is easiest.

On Monday (Which was a national holiday here), I tested for NiiDan (Second Degree Black Belt) in Kyudo in the Capital. I passed (There were three from my dojo there, and I was the only one that passed). I am now, officially a NiiDan in Kyudo.

The important thing is; all of this struggling to get to the next test is over. The next test is in late May, after we return from Japan. Thus I can't test for SanDan (Third Degree Black Belt) From this point forward I can just maintain my skill. But it means no more struggling.

--Niidan

Beating the system

for the last three years I have had a real problem with Blogger. A long time ago it detected that I was in Japan and it decided to make all of my controls in Japanese.

With some fenagling, I figured out where the language section was and managed to switch it back...

But then it decided to cycle my computer's cookies. Which means that every month or so it "forgets" that I set it for English, notices I'm in Japan, and gives me all of my controls in Japanese... again.

I have to admit this has led me to not post as much... mostly because it's a real pain to figure out what all the controls mean (Remember folks, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to read...)

Well, somewhere along the line I started using Google documents. I uploaded many of my projects to it so I could work on them anywhere.

Well, somewhere along the line, Google bought Blogspot... so my Blog suddenly appeared in my Google Docs mainpage...

In English... :D

I just discovered that using my Google Docs mainpage I can get to my blog without having to login (Which is good, I never remember which password I used for my blog, and since "Aabh" was taken, I had to login as "Aabhnormal" or "Aabhsent" or some other name which I never remember as well). AND it's all in English... an amazing accomplishment.

In other news; I go for my 2nd degree Black Belt in Kyudo (Niidan) on Monday... It's the last test I'll be able to take here in Japan (The next test opportunity will be a month after I return to America)...

I do have stories... but I've been archiving them to my "Memories" file, where I have been putting the kids real names in -I don't want to remember them as "Genki-chan" in 10 years- but since I've been doing that, I have to convert them back to post them here...

Time until NiiDan: 6 days
Time until End of school : 4 months
Time until Return to America: 5 months

The Word for the day is "Beard"

So, over the break I decided to grow a beard and mustache. Now, it should be noted that I tried to do this once before about 10 years ago and ended up with a beard of such amazing redness as to make my mother call me "Redbeard" for a month... The thing is; I don't have red hair! I have no idea why my beard decided it needed to be red, it just did.

Anyway, I figured since I was on summer vacation, I'd grow a beard.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that whatever gene made my beard red before has been damaged by cosmic rays and this new growth seems to be blond-ish brown like my head-hair with salt-and-pepper grey (Of course). It actually looks kinda nice.

So, Maia doesn't really like the beard thingie, so part of the reason I grew it during the vacation was because she was going to head back to America to visit her mom, I figured no one was going to kiss me during this time, so no one could complain! It was perfect!

I was wrong (Not about the kissing... but about the complaining...)

I go to Kyudo and Sensei takes one look at me and cracks up. Totally looses it. "Guy, that's no good!" he says, between gafaws... "The Mustache can stay... but the beard... no..."

I smile at Sensei and explain the why of it and go into practice.

Now it's a month down, and I have trimmed my beard neatly (I do not believe anymore in the bushy soupcatcher that men often wear. I like my fathers' beard; very neatly trimmed), and it actually is looking rather complimentary.

Maia comes back... and she likes it. So, I decide to keep it for a little while longer.

I go to class and Sensei starts laughing at me; "Guy," he says, "This is no good; you look like a foreigner."

Woah...

There's an interesting thing...

----

As a side note; my kids love it! I run into a bunch of girls in the hallway and they start squeeling and only Junior High girls can do, saying "it's so cool!" then one suddenly says in English: "Beautiful!"

They all giggle and run off...

Ah, such simple lives they lead.

---Me.

How does it feel?

When I took my shodan test, one of the questions that they planned on asking was "How do you feel when the arrow hits the target?"

This is a loaded question and I know it. As I have said in earlier posts, Kyudo isn't about hitting the target, it's about correct form... At least not until much, much later.

In practicing for the Shodan test, I got to actually fire on the target a little... the only time I hit the target was when my arrow hit the next target over... most of the time the arrow flew high or low (Remember, the targets are 28 meters away... that's a looooong way away). I've never hit the target...

Now, I'm preparing to go for my Nidan (Second Degree Black Belt), so tonight Sensei says "Guy-chan, go one more round on the makiwara (The practice target), and then you are going for the targets."

OooooooOOOooooOOOOooooooo.... Says me... (Mostly because my stomach just clenched up and forced all the air out of my lungs...) Great... I know I have to practice this, but I liked it better when the target was less than a meter away...

I get up to the line... and fire my first arrow....

Let's say, I'm glad I can recover that arrow...

The second arrow is fired... it hits the curtains way above the targets and sticks there, shaking loose all the cicadas that are sqweeeeee-sqwee sqwee sqweeeing.... (When you shoot an arrow near them, they chatter... kinda like really mad Jawas or something... betcha didn't know that... I didn't)

Then it's time for round 2... First arrow; waay to the left... but hey! In the dirt near the targets at least!

Then the second arrow: waaay right... I'm trying so hard to remember where my bow was when I released... I keep forgetting... it's really irritating... I can't seem to sight in on anything (A Yumi doesn't really have much in the way of sights).

We go to tea (Which, since it's 7,000 degrees in the dojo is actually Mitsuya cider on ice). Sensei talks about our trip to Kyoto.

"Guy-chan, where do you want to go in Kyoto?"

"Shin-kage-school dojo" I say. Appreciative eyebrows raise, I continue, "Yagyu Castle, where Yagyu Jubei lived."

Sensei smiles at me, "Yosh!" he says, "Guy-chan, only one more year, ne? Then you go home..." He sips his cider, "Only one more year... I'm going to miss you."

Heads nod around the circle.

"Okay, back to shooting! Last round! Guy, you're up, again!"

So here I am, back on the line. I draw back the bow... I let the arrow go...

And I make more cicadas mad...

I don't know... this is a lot harder than it looks.

I nock my last arrow...

The cicadas are looking at me with evil eyes... they have just settled in...

I let the arrow go..

THAK! -- the sound of arrow hitting bamboo and paper.

everyone in the dojo yells "YOSH!"

"Of course, the last one..." Sensei says, grinning, "Last Samurai...."

How do I feel?

Relief.

Erm... another shocker...

This is a page from the sports section of the Prefectural paper:

This is (And no, I'm not making this up) my name in the sports section of said prefectural paper:

(In a sea of kanji there are those lone katakana characters... woah...)

I think when the wheels of that lovely 747-600 (And it was a pretty aircraft I would like to add at this time) touched down at Narita airport, the furthest thing in my mind would be that I would be listed in the sports section of a Japanese newspaper... Heck, being in the sports section of any paper would be among the last things I could imagine ever doing in my life...

If you are curious, that's a list of those that made Shodan (Black Belt) during the Kyudo tests (Apparently it's a much bigger deal than I thought...) two weeks ago.

But now... (And I really can't believe I am saying this), I can add "Listed in the Sports section of the newspaper" as one of my accomplishments in my life...

Of course, this paper belongs to Mr. Graves, and I'll have to give him the original back... I'm going to see if I can't find a copy at school tomorrow (It's only a couple of days old). If I can, I'll save it for you, Dad. :D

I am rather stunned... Sure, it was hard... but I never thought it was this important... perhaps it was better that way: I know I would have blown it if I knew that it was this big of a deal...

-Spending my 15 minutes of fame in rather unexpected ways

And....

I am now a Black Belt (Shodan for those of you who are nitpicky).

Anyway, I'll post more later, but for now, I'm going to go get dinner! :D

Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target

So here we are, almost at a real turning point in my life.


See, on Sunday I test for my black belt in Kyudo. I thought it was my halfway to black belt, but no, that's called something else... we adults, we don't test for red, green, blue, purple... whatever, no no, we simply test for Black and then you go on from there... Had I been in High School I would have been passing through all those other belts...

I have struggled with this all of my life... I would get to a pretty high belt in something, then quit before I could make anything of it...

So now we are actually about to do it... and do it right. You can't get much more authentic than testing for a black belt in Japan...

Anyway, I digress. Sunday I drive to Mito (The capital) and take my test.

It's a two parter, a practical and a written test.

"You can write the answers in English" says Sensei, "But they will ask you the questions in Japanese"

Nice.

So, now we prep to do the test, and for the first time I'm actually doing the complete competition procedure (And I thought the 8-step firing procedure was tough... step with your left foot, step with your right at a 45 degree angle, bow to the judges, step to the Waiting line, kneel, bow to the target, stand, move to the firing line, kneel, turn, kneel, put the bow in front of you, pivot the bow... no, take the string at no more than 10 centimeters from the bottom of the bow, load the bow, turn the other arrow counter... now wait....

That hurts... I'm sitting in what's called "Kiza", this is like Seiza (The traditional Japanese sitting posture of "kill your toes", but instead of having your feet flat on the floor, you are sitting upright on your toes (As in kneeling more like how westerners are kneeling). You can't move so much as a muscle as the other archers go through the firing procedure... approximately 3 or four minutes. If you think that's nothing, you should try it... it HURTS.

Now, and this is the part that kills me every time, you must go to the next "wait-point" when the person 3 archers before you fires... not 2 archers, not the guy in front of you, no... the timing must be perfect...

Man... suddenly I'm forgetting everything... Worse, I forgot to do the stepping procedure, a "day one" thing that you learn before you even learn to not wear rings on your fingers (Ha... that is a brilliant thing to learn)... I'm getting all kinds of tangled up in the procedure, Sensei is yelling at me... boy I'm pretty down.

Then Mr. Graves says "Good. You'll do fine" and I feel the weight of 10 tons lift off my shoulders...

Here's an interesting thing to note:

I have been at the Dojo for 19 months now (78 weeks, 150 or so classes), I have been to class an average of 4 hours a night twice a week (I have been less times and more times, but on average it was twice a week), for a total of some 600 hours of practice. I fire at the makiwara (Practice target placed about a meter and a half from the archer) approximately 5 times a night, or about 450 pulls. I had one seminar where I shot at the Mato (Real target) probably 16 times (It seems it was four sets of four arrows). The target was at short distance, about 10 meters or so.

After all this time, last Tuesday was the first time I actually fired at the target at 28 meters. My first arrow went very, very wide, hitting the burm about a meter to the left and 2 meters too high... the second... HIT!

Everyone stops and looks at me with shock...

"Was that a hit?" Asks Mr. Middle. The targets are paper, and they make a very distinct "snap!" when the target is hit.

"I... think it was" says Mr. Graves...

It was! I hit the target at position "2"...

Of course... I... I um... I was at position "3"...

"Don't worry, you are only testing for Black belt... no one expects you to hit the target."

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, pretty much sums up Kyudo, right there.

Now lets see if I can not really mess up on Sunday... and lets see if my toes will stay attached to my feet as I sit on them...

--ShodanMae

A Life Update

So, it occurs to me that I have a lot of little things to report, but nothing really big, so I'll consolidate:

1) Kyudo: This is pretty much eating up all of my time. I am going to class five times a week now... but the test for Shodan (Which I recently discovered is "Black belt" for those of you not accustomed to the Japanese system) next Sunday. I have to answer questions (Luckily I can wrtie the answers in English... but I have to listen to the question in Japanese... I'm not sure that helps much). This is the primary reason I'm not getting anywhere on my major Hiroshima blog post.

2) School: School has started and my new first years are so cute. I have a girl in my second years who is wonderful, but she has a problem staying conscious... (I'm not sure what it is, but it's medical). Last year she passed out once a month or so... but this year she has passed out every day so far... and sometimes she is out for many hours... it's unfair but the teachers are thinking she's going to be remanded to a care facility... Which is a shame, except for this problem she is a perfectly normal little girl (I say little but I had to lift her from the floor a couple of times... Perhaps "Perfectly normal teenage girl" is more appropriate. She doesn't seem so little when you have to lift her up...). This is unfair considering we have a third year boy who has punched a teacher (Not me) and we can't get rid of him (He also fights every boy he gets near and he insults me simply because I'm American... he hates Americans, see...). He stays, she goes. Next time people talk about the wonders of the PTA, I'm going to remember this. It's because of the PTA that we can't ship him out.

3) Drawing: I am getting some drawing done, but because of Kyudo I am a little behind. I am in the middle of an interesting side story for Tamerlane which I think is cool (But don't we all think our work is cool? I mean, who would purposely do uncool work? I guess whether it really is cool or not is debateable) :)

I've started watching the evening news in hopes to get better at my Japanese. Maia is going to help me on a weekly basis with Japanese as well... see, a few weeks ago Sensei looked at me and said "Your Japanese is awful! I would have expected more from you after two years! You are slacking! Get to it!" It stung, but it was really refreshing to hear (Most Japanese people look at you and say "My goodness! You are almost fluent" when you can barely say "Sayonara"), he added, "If you go back to America without speaking Japanese fluently, it will not only be a waste, but you won't be able to keep the language." He is absolutely right. One of my goals while I was here was to become fluent in Japanese. Not so that I could watch Anime without subtitles, but because I firmly believe it is important to be bilingual. Any language... but there is sufficient evidence that says bilingual (Or quadlingual... ahem... DrMal) people are markedly sharper mental-processing-wise, and have a lower risk of Alzheimers.

So, soon DrHeimlich is moving, Good luck to you on that one, my friend! I'd love to say "I wish I was there"... but really... that would be lying... a lot... But at least I have a hell of an excuse :D I wish I was there for the "after-moving-pizza and a movie"!

Also Good luck to Tia for her Job hunting this coming weekend! :D

And.. er... Gads, Mal... what ARE you doing? (Noting nothing on your blog recently, hint hint)

Okay, so... I twisted a muscle in my neck somehow sleeping crooked so I'm going to go to bed, read a little more "Musashi" and go to sleep I do believe!

Okay, I finally hit THAT point.

I quit.

I am getting nowhere on Japanese, everyone (Including Maia) talks rings around me and I am completely clueless.

I am getting nowhere in Kyudo, every night I go there and have the exact same problems I had the nights before... no wonder I'm not ready to test yet...

Whew!

Okay, now that THAT is out of my system, it's back to the books for me. Everything should be a lot easier now that I'm no longer in my own way.

Why do we make everything so difficult for ourselves? I mean, couldn't I have just skipped this step and gone on to being an excellent Kyudo-ka and fluent in Japanese without having to throw in the towel and get the pep-talk (which, by the way, I've skipped for expediency-sake), and then return to the ring? Man, it's like we are built to live our lives like a bad 80's Karate-kid knock off...

Anyway, I'll be back in Japanese class on Tuesday and back in the dojo on Thursday, don't worry. :)

--Frusterated with language and martial arts.

The Large Kyudo Meeting (Honest, that's the name)

So I am at practice one night and I say to Sensei: "Sensei, sometime I want to take pictures of you."

"Okay!" he says in reply, "On January 6, I have to do a presentation, please take pictures then."

Cool. I say...

When, where, how long? These things are completely unimportant, this is martial arts, I will go wherever, whenever, for however long...

So, Saturday rolls around and I go to practice.

"Sensei... Um... where am I going tomorrow?"

Sensei starts laughing, "You don't have any idea, do you?" He says.

I nod...

"Okay, You will be with Mr Center (The other newbie... though he's been with the Dojo for about a year and a half longer than I), Just follow him."

"Hey Guy!" Mr Center says, he and I are great friends, actually, and I'm glad to be assigned to him, "Okay, I'll be at your place at 6:50."

"6:50..." I say, feeling the cold leetch into my bones, my last few days of vacation and I'm spending them getting up at 6... "Okay, I'll be there!"

So Sunday morning comes along and I'm up before false dawn... I shower, prep all the cameras (I'm using both the Video and my SLR for this), and I go out to get the ice off of the car.

Now, I should mention, I'm no stranger to ice, but this area has the approximate climate of Houston, and so though I can get ice off of my car easily... it took me some time to get a good ice scraper... because these people believe that there is no ice here...

Anyway while waiting for Mr Center, I look at a little printout that Mr Grave (Another of my favorite people) gave me. It shows Highway 50... a highway I'm simply not familiar with... So I pull out my driving map.

It's in a city I've never been to before... And it's an hour North... well, at least Mr. Center is leading the way...

Mr. Center shows up on time (And apologises for being late... It's a Japanese thing), and we are on our way, Mr. Center in his White plate car (Big engine) leaving my yellow plate (Small Engine) car in the dust. I struggle to keep up with him... and I manage it, barely...

We make it to Far Out There City and we go to the dojo...

It turns out to be the Greater Western State Prefectural Dojo Competiton. And there are kids from schools all over the area there...

I set up my camera, and Sensei goes onto the stage and opens the ceremonies... It turns out he is the ranking master, so he is the head judge. (This means I don't actually get instructions from him...Luckily I guessed correctly and he was happy with my results).

After the opening ceremonies, Sensei does a lovely presentation for all gathered. Kyudo is such a beautiful martial art, full of ceremony and precise actions. Sensei makes it look simple.

After the ceremonies, the first of the High school kids gets to shoot on the target... And suddenly I recognize one of the kids up there...

It's Bow-chan! She is here with her schools' Kyudo team! She is wearing a strange purple headband... which I soon learn means she is a first year (Because she is)... with her is another of my girls from last year... who I even remember her name (An amazing accomplishment since all kids wear nametags... but they are written in Kanji, so I have to work extra hard to remember anyone's name). I say hello to my ex-student, who bows to me (That's why I remembered her, she was very, very polite... and as a third year, that was a rather rare trait). She talks to her pals, her other students (She was also wearing one of those "First year" headbands), explaining that I was her teacher last year, and she goes off...

It should be noted at this time that I really REALLY stand out... I'm the only foreigner... I'm not kidding, I am the sole foreigner here. Of the probably 500 people here, I'm the only one with blue eyes... I am a sensation, everyone wants to know who I am... Sensei makes a point of asking how I am every 10 minutes (I still have that stupid cold, week four for those counting... but Maia brought me NyQuil... It's half gone, but I am much better now. I love my Maia.) and my dojo-mates are all into explaining in detail all about me...

Now I have Bow chan to talk to. She chats only a little, because she is a first year, and that means she is in charge of stringing everyone's bow, wrapping everyone's bow, and taking care of the arrows... and they are snapping at her when she so much as looks out of line... but she did manage to chat with me twice... I was so happy. She talked to me in English... I am a proud teacher.

I took 300 pictures at this meeting, and I noticed the early ones were not so good... I seemed to have "Warmed up" as time went on... literally and figuratively... it was pretty cold that morning.

I am having a real time with focus. I turned off the auto-focus a long time ago because it was bothering me (It had trouble guessing what it was that I was focusing on so it would just bounce all over the place). But I have trouble seeing whether it's clear in my viewfinder... I have a focus light in my camera, but I don't always see it (Because of the angle)... so the early shots are just slightly out of focus...

I haven't really sorted the pictures yet, but I will. When I do, I have some pictures to send to Bow-Chan.

5 months until my Sho-dan test.

---Me.

Another day...

I don't often talk about the people in my Kyudo dojo... I don't know why... It seems that they are everyday people doing everyday things.

Even if that is everyday Japanese things, it is still everyday things...

Last night an everyday thing occured that I wish wasn't everyday.

A while back, one of the members of my dojo got married. The woman he was marrying was pregnant with their child, and so he got all organized and went through a long-arduous process of preparing for, and having an elaborate Japanese wedding.

Of course, the dojo (Sans me... I'll explain why later), went to the wedding.

At the wedding, this Fellow performed a Kyudo firing procedure, and I believe Sensei did as well... Certainly Sensei joined in and was a very big part of this wedding. The Fellow is a beloved member of our dojo, and one that Sensei picks on mercilessly.

When the little boy was born, the Fellow and his new wife brought him into the dojo with all of us and officially declared Sensei as the Godfather of the child (There was even paperwork...). Something that made Sensei's entire week.

The little boy died Wednesday night from SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Which people still know so very little about, and there is nothing that can be done.

And is... in a very sad sort of way, an everyday occurance on this planet.

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