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I actually got some sleep last night though it wasn't enough for me not to be tired when I woke up around 8:30 this morning to go to the Hombu (main) dojo for Bujinkan training. It was a tired mess of travel through various train lines, but I did it before last time I almost made it to training so it wasn't too bad. I got there early and ended up chatting with this shy Swedish guy until they would let us in. The dojo is really small, and the walls are covered in weapons from naginata (long spears) to sub-machine guns (replicas). There's also dusty suits of Japanese armour, and really random pictures (most of which were of the Soke). We all paid our fees then squeezed into the dojo (it was about five tatami wide (along their ends) and four tatami long to give an idea (well, if you know what a tatami is...)).
Masaaki Hatsumi, the soke, just jumped right into the class after the bowing in. He chose a bo, and demonstrated a move, and we all grabbed bos and tried to recreate it with a partner. I trained with a guy from Spain who was very nice and only gave me one nasty bruise (pinches are a bitch). We couldn't do much since there wasn't enough room to really hit out with a bo or even throw someone. The highlights of that first hour were really watching the soke do his stuff. He's got a very light touch, with almost no force behind anything he did, but a hell of a lot of power. He demonstrated some pretty weird weapons like one long pole with two weighted bags attached to chains on one end. Another was a four ft long pole that was hollow with a hook fitted on one end. A long string was attached to the hook and stuffed down the tube. He then proceeded to casually string up his uke(s) without so much as getting close to them or using much force. (He did have a lot of fun demonstrating places you could use the hook... like ripping out someone's jaw or gouging out their eyes. I can see where my own sensei gets it...). It was fascinating to watch though we had no chance of replicating it what with not owning the weapons nor having any room to train. We "played" a bit more with the bo, then took a break during which everyone got Hatsumi to write and draw calligraphy for them (I was rather surprised). I used the time to chat with a random Jewish guy, and then with a guy from Florida (who lives in Japan) called Rob. He knew my sensei quite well, and consequently invited me to his own training/class later that afternoon (main dojo training is from 11-1, the class was from 4-6). This was great, and I wish I'd known him before now since I could have got some training done last time I was in Tokyo after all.
After the break, our training was knives for a bit (neither I nor my partner had one (mine's in America) so we just pretended), followed by palm strikes to the thigh, neck and head which are interesting, though my partner's pinch was a hell of a lot more painful than the strikes. We did have a pretty good time playing around with the moves. And then it was over far too quickly so I packed up, and followed Rob to the train station. There were five of us total and we all caught a train back to Kashiwa station where we had kaiten sushi for lunch. We then hit up the 100yen shop, then caught a train further west, where we got off and hung out at McDonald's for awhile until training time. I should mention that all these guys are tall with nice bodies and most of them were pretty handsome. I felt kinda the odd man out hanging with them (what with being short and a woman *L*). It was hilarious to watch them try to hit on the Japanese women though.
We caught a bus to a nearby sports centre where we were met up by another guy and trained like mad for two hours. Rob's focusing a lot on shinnenjutsu which translates vaguely to "mind control" or "heart control" and is what the soke is focusing on atm also. It's all about getting your opponent to see and feel only what you want them to feel. It requires almost no force, is all about pushing, not pulling, and can be pretty strange to an outsider (One of the funniest techniques we tried was shinnenjutsu hugging which was basically hugging someone into submission without them feeling it. Bet you didn't know you can bring someone to their knees by just hugging them the right way, ne? (and absolutely no force)). It was good training, even if I've forgotten the names of half the kihon happo and I made at least two very beginner mistakes (*sigh* you get so rusty). Had a lot of fun with swords since Rob told me to cut lose on this other guy and use any attacks I wanted. These guys were a lot of fun to train with, and it was nice to be treated as an equal since as a woman, I'm often side-lined one way or another.
Afterwards, they talked me into going out to dinner and karaoke. We had Italian food and I had a pretty decent salmon creme pasta plate. The karaoke place was actually pretty cheap compared to Shidax, so we just went all out and sang for two and a half hours. I was kinda younger than them so I had to search a bit to find songs we all knew, but we could all do Bon Jovi and Queen, and The Who etc. I even managed to slip in Flow's 'Go (Fighting Dreamers)' which I can almost fully sing, excepting one verse. Damn that is fun to belt out^_^ I caught a train back to Ueno then with Levi (who looks like a thinner Alan Rickman, and is from Texas) and had such a great time, I'm seriously regretting that I'm leaving Japan.
Of course, they kinda closed the showers by this point at night so I've had to make do with a sponge bath, not to mention my muscles are aching from the four hours of training and my voice is pretty hoarse, but I've agreed to go back tomorrow in the afternoon to train again. Need to visit the STA office tomorrow morning and go manga shopping, but then I'll go back to training so yay! (Yes, I know I'm insane, but damn, when will I get this chance again?)
Masaaki Hatsumi, the soke, just jumped right into the class after the bowing in. He chose a bo, and demonstrated a move, and we all grabbed bos and tried to recreate it with a partner. I trained with a guy from Spain who was very nice and only gave me one nasty bruise (pinches are a bitch). We couldn't do much since there wasn't enough room to really hit out with a bo or even throw someone. The highlights of that first hour were really watching the soke do his stuff. He's got a very light touch, with almost no force behind anything he did, but a hell of a lot of power. He demonstrated some pretty weird weapons like one long pole with two weighted bags attached to chains on one end. Another was a four ft long pole that was hollow with a hook fitted on one end. A long string was attached to the hook and stuffed down the tube. He then proceeded to casually string up his uke(s) without so much as getting close to them or using much force. (He did have a lot of fun demonstrating places you could use the hook... like ripping out someone's jaw or gouging out their eyes. I can see where my own sensei gets it...). It was fascinating to watch though we had no chance of replicating it what with not owning the weapons nor having any room to train. We "played" a bit more with the bo, then took a break during which everyone got Hatsumi to write and draw calligraphy for them (I was rather surprised). I used the time to chat with a random Jewish guy, and then with a guy from Florida (who lives in Japan) called Rob. He knew my sensei quite well, and consequently invited me to his own training/class later that afternoon (main dojo training is from 11-1, the class was from 4-6). This was great, and I wish I'd known him before now since I could have got some training done last time I was in Tokyo after all.
After the break, our training was knives for a bit (neither I nor my partner had one (mine's in America) so we just pretended), followed by palm strikes to the thigh, neck and head which are interesting, though my partner's pinch was a hell of a lot more painful than the strikes. We did have a pretty good time playing around with the moves. And then it was over far too quickly so I packed up, and followed Rob to the train station. There were five of us total and we all caught a train back to Kashiwa station where we had kaiten sushi for lunch. We then hit up the 100yen shop, then caught a train further west, where we got off and hung out at McDonald's for awhile until training time. I should mention that all these guys are tall with nice bodies and most of them were pretty handsome. I felt kinda the odd man out hanging with them (what with being short and a woman *L*). It was hilarious to watch them try to hit on the Japanese women though.
We caught a bus to a nearby sports centre where we were met up by another guy and trained like mad for two hours. Rob's focusing a lot on shinnenjutsu which translates vaguely to "mind control" or "heart control" and is what the soke is focusing on atm also. It's all about getting your opponent to see and feel only what you want them to feel. It requires almost no force, is all about pushing, not pulling, and can be pretty strange to an outsider (One of the funniest techniques we tried was shinnenjutsu hugging which was basically hugging someone into submission without them feeling it. Bet you didn't know you can bring someone to their knees by just hugging them the right way, ne? (and absolutely no force)). It was good training, even if I've forgotten the names of half the kihon happo and I made at least two very beginner mistakes (*sigh* you get so rusty). Had a lot of fun with swords since Rob told me to cut lose on this other guy and use any attacks I wanted. These guys were a lot of fun to train with, and it was nice to be treated as an equal since as a woman, I'm often side-lined one way or another.
Afterwards, they talked me into going out to dinner and karaoke. We had Italian food and I had a pretty decent salmon creme pasta plate. The karaoke place was actually pretty cheap compared to Shidax, so we just went all out and sang for two and a half hours. I was kinda younger than them so I had to search a bit to find songs we all knew, but we could all do Bon Jovi and Queen, and The Who etc. I even managed to slip in Flow's 'Go (Fighting Dreamers)' which I can almost fully sing, excepting one verse. Damn that is fun to belt out^_^ I caught a train back to Ueno then with Levi (who looks like a thinner Alan Rickman, and is from Texas) and had such a great time, I'm seriously regretting that I'm leaving Japan.
Of course, they kinda closed the showers by this point at night so I've had to make do with a sponge bath, not to mention my muscles are aching from the four hours of training and my voice is pretty hoarse, but I've agreed to go back tomorrow in the afternoon to train again. Need to visit the STA office tomorrow morning and go manga shopping, but then I'll go back to training so yay! (Yes, I know I'm insane, but damn, when will I get this chance again?)
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