May is Killing Me. When's June Again?

May has been long and stressful. I need a break.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I decided to help Sakaguchi san get his organization off the ground. Since he decided to take Gyokufukai independent (rather, Gosoke decided that for him), he's been trying to figure out a workable schedule for all of his helpers like me. In the meantime, I've been going to a lot of his keikoba to train and help out. I ended up teaching a whole class again two Saturdays ago, which I don't mind, but the following Sunday (the 20th) was my fourth dan test for which I was hoping to prepare. I ended up having to throw caution to the wind. Everyone said that I was more than ready, which was true to some extent, but it would have been nice to run through the kata for an hour or so beforehand!

The test was over in ten minutes, but the stress of watching the other tests while waiting your turn can be draining. Normally I don't care about things like tests. But it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for me. The following Saturday (the 26th) was the Zen Nihon Aikido Embu Taikai (All Japan Aikido Demonstration). I took ukemi for Suzuki Toshio, who royally beat the snot out of me. The demo itself was a great way to relieve the stress that had been build up in anticipation beforehand.

While waiting for Suzuki san to put the smack down on me, I was interviewed again about aikido, living in Japan, etc. A sports reporter from Reuters was on hand to witness the carnage, and as luck would (or would not) have it, pulled me aside to get a handle on the largest aikido event of the year since he normally only reported soccer games. Why me? I get interviewed or asked to write about something for the Aikikai annually. Goes with the territory I guess. At least last time my buddy Oscar was doing the interviewing. He at least isn't totally ignorant of the aikido world! Demo pics to come... I hope.