This past weekend was packed! I went to a swing dance on Friday night in Tokyo (Swing Jack at the Aoi Heya), and there was a great trio playing live. A guitar, a string-bass, and a trombone called Bogalusa. The ABSOLUTE FUNNEST BAND to dance to, EVAR! These guys put the Bulwinkle in Moose, just lively fellas.
The trip was paid for by the Mistubishi Research Institute because I was part of a panel discussion about tourism in Japan. The Ministry of Tourism wants to revamp how it sells Japan overseas, so they did a web survey and 10 lucky folk got to come to Tokyo to talk about their new ideas. They paid for my bullet train back and forth, and also gave me a $50 gift certificate good at any bookstore. Talk about crazy nice!
Anyway, this dance was simply super fun. I hadn’t danced since I was in China, so getting a chance to move and interact with people in a playful way was perfect.
And afterward, a Puerto Rican cat named Jaime introduced himself to me. He’s over here for about 10 days on business from New York. I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so I suggested going for some food and tour of Shibuya (the area in Tokyo we were in). So, we talked about my funny bastardized accent (which apparently has lost all American resemblance) and all the strange new things he’s noticed since being here. I showed him the dinosaur building in Lost in Translation (and a squatting toilet) and he kindly bought me a beer from a convenience store. We walked around for a while and eventually stopped at a ramen shop to get some food.
He still had some work to do and so he returned to his hotel, and me to my capsule hotel (welcome to the Matrix). The next day was the interview, but I managed to do a bit of shopping in Harajuku beforehand. Buying clothes isn’t too expensive if you know where to go. There’s a great used clothing store called “Chicago” that sells a wide range of stuff. I even found some Denver Broncos hats (with old OLD “D” logo) for sale. Instead, I chose a military style jacket with “Colorado State Prison” patches on the shoulder. I have NO IDEA how that jacket got here, but I’ve got it now!
After the interview, I met Aroop for a quick coffee and cake as he was in town for another party, and then I headed back home to Shizuoka because the next day (Sunday) was my shodan blackbelt test in iai.
Starting the day at 7am, and carpooling to another car pool (2 people became four - so I guess I car puddled and then car pooled). After about a half hour of warming up, the ikkyu tests began. There were only 11 people taking those, so my turn came pretty quickly. There were about 40 testing for shodan, and I was right in the middle at number 20. We had to do 5 of the 12 forms that the testers chose. When our group finished, they tested the sandan belts because the nidan were too numerous to do before lunch. After lunch, every tester took the written exam, which is different for each dan. Finally, the nidans tested (all 35 of them), and they were followed by the yondan and godans.
I noticed that the yon and godan testers often did a different ‘non-standard’ first form (or waza). I asked Mizuno-sensei about it and he explained that there a few accepted styles for the first waza. The one that I’ve learned is the main/basic/most simple one, but there are others (and now I’ve seen them) that are much more difficult, but still manage to include the same basic motions.
Once everything was said and done, the judges grouped everyone together and shared what they found - both the good and the bad. Finally, they started writing the results on the blackboards. In Japan, rejection would never be so direct as by name (instead you don’t find you number posted - my high school does the same for its entrance exams). Well, in the end, I found my number (#20) and everything turned out ok. Now I’m a shodan black belt in iai! And, Mizuno-sensei said that he would start teaching me the other styles for ipponme (the first waza).
Phew! So now, I’m home and resting a bit. This week I’ve got to plan the next year’s curriculum (the school year starts in April here), and I’ve got a screening for the documentary this week: the film is being shown at my school for the teachers on Tuesday morning. huttah