A Little Hiccup to 2013

Today was officially the first practice of the year for me! And wouldn't you know it, I had to go without bogu.

Unfortunately, my bogu was locked back at the office. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, since the spare key is hidden **********. When I went to pick up my bogu on Friday though, the key was missing. I'm sure the boss took it for safe keeping over the holidays but it effectively locked me out of the school, and my bogu out of reach! I don't go back to work again until the 11th, so tomorrow's practice as well will have to be without bogu.

The important thing though, is that I got myself out of bed at 7 in the morning and took myself down to Ren Shin Kai in Minami-ku to be a part of the action, bogu or no bogu.

I arrived about half way through the 9am children's practice which is always a treat. Kids doing kendo is adorable! They have limitless energy and tiny little shinai and the cutest kiai. I hope they continue to enjoy and advance through kendo as they get older, though I never had to do a sport continuously from childhood, so I don't know how fast it gets old to a young one.

The focus of the lesson was strong kiai and correct footwork, which is something even the adults are lectured on from time to time. Always, always, always it's back to basics, no matter how advanced, or how fancy you become.

The parents of the children were in the corner making a lovely pork soup, and frying mochi for shiruko. I got to exchange New Years aisatsu with all the adults, to many of which I had to explain my embarrassing lack of bogu. Everyone was in high spirits, however, and eager to start the New Year with great energy and enthusiasm.

Adult practice was only 30 minutes long today, to make time for everyone to relax and have some food. I was given some soup along with everyone else and asked to sit with the kids who were rough housing like boys will. It was amusing at once. They've seen me before, at the end of their practices, but we've never really spoken. So suddenly they were all looking at me like they wanted to talk to me, but were too shy, which was fine. I asked them questions about themselves, and they were happy to answer and soon I even had a minion! I commented how good the shiruko looked, and he jumped up and said "Sumimasen!" and ran off to get me a bowl. Soon he was fetching everything from mikani to snacks, and I wasn't even asking for it! Kids in Japan are so cute.

At 11am, the nihon-shu was being passed around. While this is usually too early for me to be drinking, in the spirit of the first keiko of the year, I had a few small cups, which turned out to be a big mistake later, but it was fun at the time.

I got to spend time with some of the other adults after a while, listening to the conversations all around, but understanding only small portions of them. One of my goals this year is to improve my Japanese conversation ability by squeezing time out of an already tight schedule. It's hard learning a language as an adult. I feel like I don't know where to begin sometimes!

After the party got all cleaned up and more nihon-shu than I'd been prepared to drink before the afternoon had even started) the sensei and a few of my friends went down to a local restaurant and had even more alcohol, along with some very yummy fish. The conversation was conducted in a level of Japanese that was still way over my head, so I mostly listened as attentively as I could, but understood little.

Ino-san tasked me with translating an essay from the handout that was given to everyone at the end of practice. It's a fairly lengthy essay, so I'll translate it slowly, but if I do it in small chunks I should be all right. It's on etiquette and how it separates us from animals and exalts us from normal humans. It's a lofty sounding piece.

I arrived home a few hours ago, and am experiencing the world's fastest hangover, so I think I might go lay down for a bit. Too much drinking over the holiday is possibly taking it's toll on me. I blame it on age.

One last thing, as part of my New Year's resolutions this year (a classic) I will lose 25kg! I'm getting too old to be packing around extra weight anyway, and if I hear one more person joke about how I'm pudgy, I might have to attempt a tsuki!