Been continuing as before, aikido during the weekend and judo during the week.. My aikido is at a plateau right now, not learning a whole lot, just kind of meandering. As for judo, I am working on 5 of the kodokan dai-ikkyu kihon techniques right now with the addition of some basic ne-waza. With the little bit of jujitsu I have done, the newaza is quite enjoyable.
I find that my cardio is pretty strong. I am doing 5 to 8, 3 minute randori sessions a class in addition to uchigomi and warmups. I keep pushing and pushing, but I need to find some more cardio building activities without running.. I think adding a third day a week to judo would be beneficial.
DivX Encoded for your pleasure.
These are all being posted on yousendit.com, so they will disappear soon. Contact me if you cannot get it anymore.
Dosshu Ueshiba’s demonstration. ( ~80 megs/9ish minutes)
Seishiro Endo Shihan 8th Dan. (~31.5 megs/3 mins)
Saino Nougyo High School. (~29.5 megs/2.5 mins)
Japanese Anthem. (~14.5megs) I couldn’t resist this as everyone with a camcorder was doing it also.
Please enjoy, put in your collection, or do whatever you will with it.. if you make any money from it, please give me some. 
More to come.
*All video dumped from MiniDV to iMovie, exported as Quicktime movie and then compressed to divx with divx converter. Any recommendations are welcome!
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5/27
I went to Tokyo Saturday to see the all japan aikikai demonstration. I went along with the high school club that I train with, they were participating as they do every year.
After only getting about 4 hours sleep and having to get up at 5 to catch the 7:30 flight, I wasn’t very awake. In fact, on the way to the budokan we stopped at a 7&i (711) to get our lunches and drinks. They happen to have a huge display for redbull. I was so tired I just grabbed one, bought it and left. It wasn’t till after I drank it that I realized that they were being sold, cheap, almost the same price as in the US. So need less to say I have a decent stash that I brought back from tokyo. On a side note, the 7&i is next to the Kudanshita, JR exit 3. I checked other 7&is and other stores in Tokyo and no others had it. I am hoping they are testing the market and will soon test in Hiroshima.
The zen taikai was interesting. This year there were a lot of foriegners demonstrating; france, spain, netherlands, malaysia, singapore and america. The shihans were for the most part interesting to watch. A few that stood out were Endo, Watanabe, Yasano, Tada and Dosshu. The students did well, in fact they recieved first place for the high school participants.
I have video. Now I just need to dump it to my laptop. Stay tuned!
Well, I have been debating for some time as to whether or not I wanted one and I finally decided to do it. I bought a camcorder, the Sony DCR-HC96. I really wanted the Sony HDR-HC3, but do to the cost and my lack of that much expendable income, I decided on the previous.
Anyways, you can see the specs. Minidv, 10 optical/80 digital zoom and a really nice form factor and direct support in iMovie and other video editing sweets. So maybe soon I will be making some sweet videos of the japanese in their native habitat. Now I just have to get over the feeling of being ‘that guy’ that takes the camcorder everywhere and records everything.
What else is going on.. heading to Okinawa on thursday for 5 days and 4 nights. Hopefully no typhoons will ‘attack’ japan. The weekend after that, I am heading to Tokyo for the Zen Nihon Aikido Embutaikai, the all japan big Aikido demonstration. Same as last year, I am going with the Saino high school club and Murakami sensei. Should be a blast and I am looking forward to getting recordings of all the different shihans.
As the last entry mentions, I went camping with the aikido club. We went to a local camping hot spot, Yorosan ( yoro mountain.) A 45 minute bus ride followed by a 30 minute car ride, or if you are a student, a 2.5 hour hike (close to 15 miles) up the mountain.
Continue reading ‘Camping at Yorosan’
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Pictures from my test are up on my flickr site. Here is the direct link.
While it looks like we are the only people on the tatami, there is actually another group behind me. Only two groups of people were tested at a time, the matspace was divided into half for this. Each half was about 12 x 20 tatami. Pretty large as you can tell by the picture.
If there was any doubt that I failed, let it be gone. I was fitted for hakama and new belt today. Plus they dropped the bomb on me telling me how much it costs to register with aikikai..
Continue reading ’shodan follow up’
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The shodan test: shodan is 1st dan, or some translations can mean ‘the first step.’ For the n00bs, this is the first of level of black belt, progression can flow up to 10th dan but usually after you die. Most people probably will never see anything above shodan outside of japan.
Anyways, I had my shodan test on July 3rd 2005. The test took place around 10:25am in HagashiHiroshima at the HigashiHiroshima Undo Koen / Sports Park.
Continue reading ‘Shodan shinza / 初段 新座’
tokyo r0×0rs..
At the budokan.. Ms Yamamoto, sanninsei in my aikido club, in the picture.
Continue reading ‘Tokyo.. a whole lot of everything’
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Tomorrow I am going to tokyo for the 43rd All Japan Aikido Demonstration. It is going to be at the Budokan. Should be fun.. the budokan is a multimillion dollar facility pretty much dedicated to the martial arts..
After that hopefully shinjuku and akihabara..
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