Past, Present, and Future
Flury reminded me that I haven’t updated this journal in a while the other night, so here I am. Not much of note has happened recently. I spent the last two weeks at Shidouka doing seminars and preparing for seminars that I won’t be around for. I also messed with them a little. Harmless drawing or grrrriiiim prediction of the future? I hate going into Shidouka. While there, I discovered that they kick us out of our apartments on the last day of work. That seems like a real rotten thing to do as there is no chance to prepare and such before being booted out. It’s pretty irritating.
Last weekend, Justin, Katie, and I went to one of my favorite areas of Japan: Iga Ueno. It’s a small town off in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful mountain range. The town’s entire theme is ninja and ninja are indeed everywhere. After grabbing a quick snack and admiring the cherry blossoms, we went to the ninja house. The ninja house looked like a normal house, but it had a number of hidden doors and compartments. Afterwards, we took our time going through the ninja museum. It was filled with tools, information, and subtitled videos all about ninja. We then watched a live demonstration of the various ninja techniques and skills. It was mostly cheesy and humorous. I managed to record almost the entire performance, but my camera’s battery died right before the final showdown.
After the ninja stuff, we went to the castle. The castle was rebuilt by a private individual in its original wood. This is notable because most Japanese castles were rebuilt by the government out of concrete. It had a museum inside which contained some rather unique helmets and vases amongst other artifacts. The pottery was rather ugly. I don’t understand why Japanese people love ceramics that look like a 5 year old made them. We also spent some time wandering around the park the attractions were in. It’s rare to find a real park in Japan that doesn’t resemble a parking lot. It was a good time.
With Flury’s wedding approaching, I’ve been looking forward to going back to South Carolina and seeing everyone again. I’ve also been rather nostalgic. I definitely miss hanging out with everyone and having a real social life. So this, along with a discussion with my mother, has also led me to think about my plans for the future. I really want to be with everyone, but it’s starting to seem that will be impossible with the directions everyone seems to be going in. My mother also made some good points about it being a little smarter to start my dojang in Maryland rather than South Carolina because I have more assistance in starting up in Maryland than in South Carolina. So I’ve been trying to figure out what I should do, where I should live when I return from Japan. The ultimate decision of where I will stay for the rest of my life basically is not far off because once I start my dojang, I’m pretty much stuck wherever I open, so I have to make this decision carefully. If anyone has any advice or wants to make an argument for me going somewhere in particular, feel free to comment. Regardless, I plan to stay in Maryland for at least a little bit when I return from Japan.
Last weekend, Justin, Katie, and I went to one of my favorite areas of Japan: Iga Ueno. It’s a small town off in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful mountain range. The town’s entire theme is ninja and ninja are indeed everywhere. After grabbing a quick snack and admiring the cherry blossoms, we went to the ninja house. The ninja house looked like a normal house, but it had a number of hidden doors and compartments. Afterwards, we took our time going through the ninja museum. It was filled with tools, information, and subtitled videos all about ninja. We then watched a live demonstration of the various ninja techniques and skills. It was mostly cheesy and humorous. I managed to record almost the entire performance, but my camera’s battery died right before the final showdown.
After the ninja stuff, we went to the castle. The castle was rebuilt by a private individual in its original wood. This is notable because most Japanese castles were rebuilt by the government out of concrete. It had a museum inside which contained some rather unique helmets and vases amongst other artifacts. The pottery was rather ugly. I don’t understand why Japanese people love ceramics that look like a 5 year old made them. We also spent some time wandering around the park the attractions were in. It’s rare to find a real park in Japan that doesn’t resemble a parking lot. It was a good time.
With Flury’s wedding approaching, I’ve been looking forward to going back to South Carolina and seeing everyone again. I’ve also been rather nostalgic. I definitely miss hanging out with everyone and having a real social life. So this, along with a discussion with my mother, has also led me to think about my plans for the future. I really want to be with everyone, but it’s starting to seem that will be impossible with the directions everyone seems to be going in. My mother also made some good points about it being a little smarter to start my dojang in Maryland rather than South Carolina because I have more assistance in starting up in Maryland than in South Carolina. So I’ve been trying to figure out what I should do, where I should live when I return from Japan. The ultimate decision of where I will stay for the rest of my life basically is not far off because once I start my dojang, I’m pretty much stuck wherever I open, so I have to make this decision carefully. If anyone has any advice or wants to make an argument for me going somewhere in particular, feel free to comment. Regardless, I plan to stay in Maryland for at least a little bit when I return from Japan.