[Book Reviews] Spooks and Sticks

[thewronghands]

Comments

[digitalsidhe]

Funny, when I saw the title about "Spooks and Sticks", I assumed the spooks referred to espionage or intelligence operatives. Silly me. :)

There are plenty of kanji slung about that I can't yet read, and some discussion of associated concepts based on those.

I've found the Monash University Kanji Dictionary to be useful on occasion for looking up kanji. Usually I start by going to "Find Kanji in the Database", then use the "chart of radicals" link to find the radical from the kanji I'm wondering about, then go back and use Selection Type: "Radical (bushu) number".

For example, if I'm looking for 忍, I'll click the radical chart, look under "4 Strokes" for the &#x心 radical, note that its number is 61, go back and search for "Radical (bushu) number" 61 to get some search results that I can't link to because they used a POST submission. But that one has a link to a page all about the shin/nin kanji.

There is probably an easier or more efficient way to do this, but I haven't figured it out yet.

[thewronghands]

I should be less lazy. Normally either English is provided, or I decide that I don't care that much and skip the character. (My kana are all right, but I've sort of viewed learning kanji as this giant daunting endeavour and have never made a serious attempt at starting to learn.)

[digitalsidhe]

It helps to take them in small, easy chunks. (Remember the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single visit to the travel agent's office... no, wait, that's not right. Anyway, you get the idea.)

I've found the first grade kanji charts at Nihongo o Narau to be very helpful in forming "a single step".

[thewronghands]

"A Year in the Life" and "Shinto Norito" have both been recommended to me before; I'm slowly filling in the gaps of my knowledge there.

[tobyhush]

For good materials on stick techniques, I'd generally go for Chinese styles for staff and Filipino styles for short sticks. You'll find tons of good videos from both and the movements will likely be the same.
I'm curious about the notion of a "ninja diet" since from what I've read, it doesn't seem that ninja really existed except in as much as there was a secret police function that tended to be skulky and use weapons like heavy flutes. From what I've *heard* (noting that it is second-hand) all the various schools taught some amount of nastiness, but "ninja" are a purely fictional concept.
One of the references I've seen about this: http://web.archive.org/web/20030202135534/http://koryu.com/library/ninjutsu.html

[thewronghands]

My interest was prep for upcoming seminar so as to be less clueless when Knowledgeable Instructor shows up. So, this or the basic book within the style are the best references for what I was trying to achieve. Also, not convinced that $foo style is better than $bar style, and not really interested in debating that. If I wanted to be Stick Champion of the World, maybe, but that's not what I'm going for

[thewronghands]

"I visited New Jersey in America in the summer of 2003 to teach martial arts, bringing to an end my global musha shugyo (martial training). I was also curious to learn more about some of the major problems facing the world today, like international terrorism, global warming, and environmental destruction, which I explored in many discussions with various people. When I returned, my doctor was amazed at my medical test results -- my blood showed an extremely high blood sugar level of 320 and hemoglobin of Ab-A1c 9.2. However, when I had a second test one month later, my blood sugar level was 160 and hemoglobin 7.1. Why? Because I quickly returned to a Ninja lifestyle, leaving behind a Western diet, which includes large quantities of mean and alcohol. Upon returning, I cut out salt and sugar and followed a strict Ninja diet of tofu, sesame seeds, miso soup, and vegetables. I also ate brown rice cooked with red beans (azuki), black soybeans (kuromame), and shiitake mushrooms. Furthermore, I was careful to not eat so much that my

[kyra_ojosverdes]

"a Western diet, which includes large quantities of mean and alcohol"

So true.

(Sorry! Love you! But it made me laugh!)

[inanna]

i just LOVED "Kami no Michi: The Way of the Kami"! i am glad you got some good information from it, too.

[thewronghands]

Thanks. Yeah, it was a nifty read.

[rimd]

You going to be at home next week? Looks like I'm heading back to BWI again.

R

[thewronghands]

I will be! Other than Tuesday evening and the weekend, my schedule is open. Let me know what day you want to hang, and if you want to drag verticalface along or not.

[rimd]

Word.

I arrive tomorrow morning and leave sometime on Saturday.
Email is ryan @ nuclear-rabbit.com.

Shoot me a note, and i"ll send you my phone number. I think I'll pretty much be working bankers hours. And I'm staying down town on Saratoga and St. Paul.

And don't worry, Alainna is next on my To-Contact list. :D

R

[thewronghands]

Sent! Let me know what works for you.