Tamachi and Asakusa for Valentine's Day

Gosoke has been leading a regular kata practice on Saturday mornings in Tamachi since the beginning of this month. So far, the practices have been just as he promised: nothing but the basics.

As far as my iai training goes, I tend to be manic depressive. I have a great practice one day and then the absolute worst practice imaginable the next time I show my ugly face in the dojo. This week was no exception. Tuesday night I went to help Mugaido Tencho Sakaguch sent up for his cutting practice. I cut about six rolls... poorly. Sure my gyakugesas land so cleanly at this point that the wara hardly moves (the video from the previous post withstanding), yet yoko-ichi has continued to perplex me. It's so damn SIMPLE though! I have the blade angle, but the mechanics of the cut still aren't right. Nuki-chi gyakugesa refuses to cooperate as well. I cut, and one layer of the roll is left. It's taken me over two years to get to this point. It's never taken me this long to learn anything before. I was so upset that I almost quit iai entirely. I did compromise, however, by making the leap to join Hataya Sensei's dojo in March.

This afternoon I went up to Asakusa for the first time in a while to look around. I ended up getting a flower arrangement stand hand-carved out of kiri ("paulowina" in English) for Kei for Valentine's Day. She just couldn't control herself with all the excitement of receiving roses - or any flower for that matter - for the first time (I'm the man) that she wasn't sure what to do with them. I took this picture just in time to stop her from devouring my romantic endeavor.