Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 21:45:54 +0900
From: Michael Kimeda
Howdy folks,
Let me start by saying that just because I took about two weeks to write
this report on the seminar doesn't mean I didn't like it. It was in fact great.
Three cheers for Peter the bum. I mean the Budo Bum. Not only did he arrange
the accommodations, the training facilities, transportation and directions.
But he also supplied a real sword, straw targets, and a sword smith. He
found the coolest Japanese bar I have ever been in. AND he brought the anpan
(sweet bean buns) in fact he brought 10 of them. While I am not a big fan of
anpan, his mother-in-law's was good. Good enough that I ate three.
I am not going to rewrite Peter B.'s report so just let me add my bits:
The highlight for me was definitely Kawahara-san the sword smith's workshop.
It was an amazing old styled workshop. The wall were made in a traditional
clay and straw style, the floor was dirt. There were hunks of steel hanging
around, and large heavy tools (no idea what were supposed to do) that made
you feel like banging stuff. After a couple of minutes of explanation
Kawahara-san got the bellows going and the fire roaring and woowee he threw
a hunk of steel in there. got it red hot (literally) and let us pound away
on it. The pounding wasn't easy. Kawahara almost lost his hands a couple of
times.
But the benefits - Kawahara said our hunk of steel would surly be pounded
into one of the finest, sharpest, hardest, most wonderful swords ever made.
The whole time I was there in his shop I was thinking "I have got to learn
this shit" and "how can I build one of these in Toronto"
Next on the list was the swinging of swords. Peter the bum (whoops I mean
budo bum ;) set up the stands with rolled tatami and let us go at it. We had
a nice sharp sword that made me nervous to be next to and very alert while
holding. I wouldn't have trusted the bunch of us with pointy sticks or thick
string, but we went a hacking away - and we didn't loose a single finger.
The tatami is supposed to be soaked well so it will cut cleanly. I know
Peter almost frooze his fingers off preparing the mats, but some how _I_
always seemed to get the tatami that wasn't soaked all the way through. This
prevented me from being able to cut nice smooth hunks of straw. Damn straw
was too dry! well there was the cold, and the wind and the sun in my eyes
and hmmmm a bunch of other things. About 90% of my cuts got lodged in the
middle of the roll.
The aikido was great too.
It was my first exposure to Tomiki style aikido. The only thing I knew about
it before the seminar was that it was "competitive aikido" and somehow it
was always implied that because they had competitions it wasn't "real"
aikido. Well that is wrong. I was very impressed with Peter R. and Michael
M.'s stuff. The technique was a bit different from what I'm used to, but not
foreign. The first intro class was hard to figure out, but the second day
when Michael M. showed up it all seemed to click. No offence to Peter R. but
I could see the connecitons and the similarities between Tomiki and
Yoshinkan much more clearly on day 2. Too bad it was FREEZING cold on the
Sunday. It was too cold to really get into the training, and too cold to be
flipping around alot.
I must say though that the apres-aikido on Saturday night was a bit wimpy.
After the sword smith visit, where we all had A beer, everyone but Mark,
Peter B. and I went to bed!!! Unbelievable. I hope everyone will make up for
it at the Budo Seminar at IBU.
Michael 'Spike' Kimeda
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