So I went to Bujinkan training last night, and I'm happy to report that I found a solution for having bruised knees after every class. Namely, I wore a knee pad on the knee I normally use to get up and voila, no more bruised knees. Training on a hard floor like that is a bitch on the knees ( Read more... )

Just had my first Osaka bujinkan class. It's actually quite convenient for me because there's an express train into the city which I can catch to get there perfectly on time. I went early today just to make sure I knew where it was, and so I could stop in and get some plain black t-shirts from uniqlo for training. I brought one with me, but it's ( Read more... )

So I have been having a blast here in Tokyo despite jetlag and the pain of walking up and down subway steps (this is the reason I lost so much weight in Korea... you just have to live with the pain for the first few days). I have been hitting the communal bath on the top floor to compensate for all the aches but soaking in hot water can only do so ( Read more... )

Bujinkan last night was focused on sui no kata (water). Sui is flowing, yes, but it's also about controlling the flow within your body. The arm comes up to block, and though your wrist moves, the crook of your elbow should still be pointing up at all times (it's the same for the strike), as you block, your back hip opens up and is pulled in, the ( Read more... )

Got to go to the first class of the year in Bujinkan today. Not that many people were there but Jack was and we sort of did basics. I say this because chi no kata, ie earth was our theme for the evening, but beyond a few lengths of the mats doing the kata by going as low as we could, there wasn't that much basic repetition. The idea though was that ( Read more... )

I was unexpectedly invited over a friend's house for thanksgiving, so I made some pumpkin eggnog pie and stored my own personal thanksgiving ingredients for another day (ie Friday). It was a lot of fun and I tried green bean casserole for the first time (which I'm sure sounds like heresy to some of my readers, but it's not all that common on the ( Read more... )

Before I jumped on the shinkansen in Kyoto, I bought a bento so that was dinner covered. I had actually made good time and expected to get to my hotel around 10pm. I needed to hope a train to Ueno and then Kashiwa from Tokyo station though, and then I discovered that Kashiwa station was hopelessly confusing at night, plus it was raining so I ended ( Read more... )

So, my trip over wasn't the best in the world (tv was faulty, headphones broke so I had to use the crappy and painful airplane ones, couldn't nap even though I had two seats to myself), but I made it into Narita airport riding the high that comes with being awake for more than 24 hours and knowing that it's only 4pm where you landed. I determinedly ( Read more... )

I find it amusing that I'm worried about running out of images for the Sauron-chan tumblr even though I have 170 unused pics in my Sauronchan folder and I take photos of him all the time. I suspect I'll stop worrying once I drag him all around Korea and Japan in August ( Read more... )

It's been nice to get back to Bujinkan in NJ this week. Ironically enough, on Monday, when I got to the class, I was the highest ranking person there which meant I had to start the class, which wasn't too hard, but figuring out what to start them training on when I hadn't been there since January was much harder. Luckily, they've been doing bo ( Read more... )