All Your Ippon!

Tsuki of the Month!

2012-01-08T21:26:00.003-06:00

Figured we all needed to start 2012 off with a bang! Or perhaps a nice vicious tsuki that gives your aite a flip-top head?
BOOM!!

Welcome to the New Year!

2012-01-08T21:22:00.002-06:00

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-12-01T23:23:00.001-06:00

Here's a bit of an unusual tsuki; a little nito in action, nice work there with the daito....POP! Right on the tsuki-dare. If this isn't a little bit of 'Merii Kurisumasu', then I don't know what is.

Kicking it old school: Showa period iai and kendo

2011-11-27T12:17:00.001-06:00

Here's a neat bit of footage from the Showa period of Haga Junichi, a relatively famous kendoka from that era. His dojo still lives one today where they continue to practice aspects of "old-school", or pre-WW2 kendo. You can see this type of kendo demo'ed in the last couple of minutes of the video. Kendoka pre-WW2 would often employ grappling and leg sweeps, as well as throws, which is part of the reason you'll hear many older hachidan and other high ranked kendoka complain about people hanging around in tsubazerai; not a good place to be for too long if you are going to get swept or disarmed and tossed to the ground.
As for the iai, I am not well versed enough in non-mugairyu iai and kenjustu to make an educated cooment about what type/school of iai that is, but it is neat to watch different kinds of iaido from many years ago. I love the old stuff, always good to see where you came from I think.

Flying the Matterhorn...in a wing suit...

2011-11-26T12:31:00.000-06:00

Flying withing 5 feet of the Matterhorn...

Jeb Corliss doesn't fall, he just pulls the earth closer to him.There's a very thin line between satori and insanity, and living if you were already dead, versus only thinking you are.Crazy, crazy stuff....

Wednesdays....

2011-11-16T16:01:00.000-06:00

Niten Ichiryu Musashi Kai Kendo

2011-11-12T13:33:00.000-06:00

As I have posted previously, there have been a series of annual seminars staged in the US that teach kendoka of all levels the concepts of fighting in kendo with 2 swords, or nito style kendo. There are probably as many opinions on nito in modern kendo as there are kendoka, but regardless of everyone's personal opinions, you have to admit hat on some level it would be hella fun to learn, or even just learn how to fight against.

What is really interesting to me is that if you go to the Musashi Kai website (mostly in Japanese unfortunately) there is a section in English about the benefits to your kendo to learn nito style first, as opposed to the typical progression of itto in chudan, then eventually jodan, then, if you are a bit of a weirdo, nito. They actually make a lot of interesting points as to why they believe nito first is the way to go. Very interesting stuff.

As far as the annual seminars go, the one for 2011 was postponed, but will be staged November 19-20th near the Washington D.C. area. Unfortunately I have to work and am not rehabbed enough yet to do kendo regularly, but am dying to get out to one of these one year soon! Here the link to the 2011 seminar for anyone that may be interested.

Traditional martial arts, meet modern technology

2011-11-11T12:51:00.001-06:00

To use a great Japanese to Engrish misquote I heard once, "budo is technology, not power." Granted, the person saying this originally meant technique, not technology, but technology has had it's effect on budo, whether we like it or not. Whether it is modern materials making their way into bogu production, the mass production of cutting blades for the average tameshigiri practitioner, or even just the ability to fly halfway around the world in less than a day and spend time training at your honbu dojo with the headmaster in your particular ryuha, technology has had a bigger impact than what we may have given it credit for. One example that just struck me as I was paying around on my iPad, was that I now have several issues of Kendo World on my Kindle app, so I can read them whenever I like without having to lug a bundle of mags around. Add to that the fact that we are starting to see translations of certain works from their original Japanese to English in digital formats and you can easily see the potential for an increase in JSA-related English version reading materials; it's a much more cost effective method to spend time and effort on a translation that has a relatively small target audience and distribute the end result digitally, thus saving money on paper, printing, and binding. So hopefully as the libroverse continues its exponential growth into the digital format, we'll see more and more previously inaccessible texts (at least for us non-kanji readers) start to become more widely available here in the West.

As an aside, I do recommend Kendo World to pretty much any JSA practitioner. Sport aspects of kendo notwithstanding, there have been a number of excellent articles in KW by high ranking kendoka that discuss things like breath control, seme, zanshin, and other concepts that are essentially universal in both koryu and gendai JSA. It's a good read, and until a few years ago, a resource like this was completely unavailable in the English speaking world.

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-11-10T20:33:00.001-06:00

That's going to leave a mark; missed the tsuki-dare and I'm not entirely sure where aite's shinai is headed to..not protecting his center-line, that's for sure. As a disclaimer, I have been on the receiving end just like this a couple of times....

Nic Cage is still everyone....

2011-11-09T21:02:00.000-06:00

Sure, I've mentioned the "Nic Cage as Everyone" Blog before, but it still gives me a chuckle....

Join the Rebellion!

2011-10-20T23:32:00.002-05:00

Luke Skywalker is part of the OWS movement?

Zazen me!!

2011-10-17T16:45:00.000-05:00

Photo of me an hour or so after we started our evening zazen on Saturday....

As part of the kyudo seminar I attended in the wilds of Wisconsin this weekend, there was a good helping of zazen, or seated meditation (although their are other types of Zen meditation from what little I understand). Essentially, you sit in a lotus, half lotus, Burmese, or some seated variation thereof, with a particular emphasis on posture and breathing (to way oversimplify) and sit like that for varying amounts of time. In silence. Doing nothing.

Just sitting.

Sounds pretty easy, well, at least it did to me, ("What? You want me to sit down and do nothing for an hour or so? Sweet!!") but was harder than it looked. Whether it was pain in your legs, hips, back, the need to fart, or jump up and start singing "Enter Sandman" by Metallica at the top of your lungs, there were/are a lot of obstacles to sitting and meditating for anything more than say, about 60 seconds at a go.

I've read a ton about Zen, and there are definitely ties to Zen in mugairyu and a lot of JSA in general, however, other than a couple of seminars that had brief sitting periods attached (maybe 10-15 min?) or some half-assed attempts otherwise, I decided I needed to do some serious sitting to get a better idea about what Zen Buddhism really is going on about, and you really can't do that with anything more than make-believe unless you actually sit. So I did. 45 min or so on Friday night, about the same Saturday morning, and something that was between an hour or so and get-the-f*ck-out I'm leaving-the-zendo-right-now, on Saturday night, with an additional 45 min to an hour on Sunday morning, and I think I have a bit of a flavour of what people that do regular zazen are going on about. Now, granted, I was ready to burn the place down until about the last 15 min of our final zazen session Sunday morning, when I had pretty much given up ever being able to get up from sitting and thinking about how much time there had to be left. Hard to describe but it seemed like the rest of the session was a lot easier than the beginning or the other sessions on Friday and Saturday. Now, I'm not about to go for a sesshin (or intensive Zen practice or anything like that) nor do I think Zen mediation is for everyone and everything, but am interested in trying a few more sessions to see what's what. Will post future zazen if/when that happens (in a group format, no interest in tracking what I'm doing when I pretend to sit at home...)

West Coast Taikai 2012 announced!

2011-10-10T08:57:00.001-05:00

Yes, it's early, but that's so you can save your pennies for airfare, hotel room, and getting your blades sharpened if needed (or new saya made in my case) for the West Coast Taikai being held Saturday September 1st, 2012. As usual, the members of Senpokan Dojo will be hosting, plus there will probably be some sort of Mugairyu gasshuku a few days before, so it's always worth going out for a few days more than just the weekend.

Check the link for future updates and more detailed information (when it becomes available) *here*

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-10-10T08:56:00.001-05:00

Here's a grainy low res pic from a Japanese newspaper I believe, with a nice tsuki delivered during a kendo tournament. Some nice bend on that shinai!

R.I.P. Spartacus

2011-09-11T22:09:00.001-05:00

After an 18 month battle with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Andy Whitfield, the Welsh/Aussie actor, star od "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" died today in a Sydney hospital. RIP Andy; your fight against lymphoma while still trying to live a full and active life was inspirational for all of us with health issues (although mine were nothing like yours mate). You'll be missed by many, I'm sure.

2011-09-04T23:12:00.001-05:00

Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's.....

2011-09-04T12:38:00.001-05:00

...insane. Check out Jeb Corliss in his custom wingsuit absolutely thread the eye of the proverbial needle after he jumps off a perfectly good mountain. Crazy.

American History, Internets Style.....

2011-08-29T00:16:00.000-05:00

Fundamentals....

2011-08-29T00:12:00.001-05:00

Good practice Saturday evening at the doj'. Spent some time working on the fundamentals, aka kihon, which is always a good thing, even when you discover, to your the growing pit of horror in your stomach that something that you thought you had a basic grasp of what to do, you were, in fact, doing all wrong, all the time. Besides being a public service announcement for the fact that solo practice should be supplemental to things you do at the dojo, instead of actually attending a reputable dojo/program, there is something humbling, horrifying, gratifying, and wtf-ing when you have that moment where, despite knowing that you have a long way to go, you find out how far that long way really is, and that you may have doubled back on your own path a little bit.....

Anyways, I had that moment Saturday when I was shown how off my noto, or sheathing the blade in the saya/scabbard really is. In the grand scheme of things, putting your sword back where it belongs isn't pretty simple, the problem being that doing it correctly really isn't. The key being, the ability to protect your centre-line, while also maintaining proper zanshin and tenouchi, is actually a pretty technical series of movements. (regardless, I imagine, of the ryuha in question). Putting a really big piece of extremely sharp steel back into the saya while keeping an eye out for trouble while also being able to respond to that trouble with a proper cut is harder than it looks, at least for this guy.

So, as much as it burns to find out that the last 7 years have been improper noto, the good news is, is that I finally know how to do it correctly.........for now.

And if you don't know what I mean by that, then spend a little more time in the JSA and you'll know exactly what I mean.

Whoa.

2011-08-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

Pretty much how I feel this morning...actually, afternoon :) Thanks to my mates for a great night!

August 2011 Midwest Bonsai Society Show

2011-08-18T22:02:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the year again! The Midwest Bonsai Society is holding their August Show this weekend (August 19, 20, and 21) Once again they have a good number of vendors slated to show, and excellent classes as always! Oh, where is it you ask? At the Chicago Botanic Gardens; here's the linky.

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-08-18T21:47:00.000-05:00

Nice little 2-hander, timed well by the photog, who used the shomen as a backdrop to boot!

Good Tenouchi!

2011-08-18T21:29:00.003-05:00

Ah, I'd say the guy on the right has pretty good tenouchi, wouldn't you.......?

The Ginger Plague must be stopped!

2011-05-18T12:48:00.005-05:00

Look! There's one right now!!

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-05-14T17:41:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh, I'm so lazy with this these days!!
Anyway, better late than never, eh?

Here's a sassy little katate-tsuki. Methinks it may have missed the tsuki-dare by a skosh??

That'll leave a hickey that wasn't any fun to get. Unless you're into bamboo and deer-leather that is.....

Like a Boss!!

2011-05-02T09:03:00.000-05:00

Chewbarka!

2011-04-21T17:56:00.002-05:00

The Power of Prayer!!

2011-04-14T20:21:00.000-05:00

Who knew??

--courtesy of PerfectlyTimedPhotos.com

Shu Ha Ri: The Bruce Lee Version

2011-04-14T20:04:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting quote from Bruce Lee, which has a number of interesting parallels to the JSA concept of Shu-Ha-Ri, which is a concept you hear of quite often in kendo and the koryu sword arts. The idea of Shu-Ha-Ri has a number of varying definitions, which I won't go into a lot of detail about, (since I'm at no level where I could explain it properly :), but I'll let the man himself give you his own spin.....

"The Three Stages of Cultivation — The first is the primitive stage. It is a stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing about the art of combat. In a fight, he simply blocks and strikes instinctively without a concern for what is right and wrong. Of course, he may not be so-called scientific, but, nevertheless, being himself, his attacks or defenses are fluid. The second stage — the stage of sophistication, or mechanical stage — begins when a person starts his training. He is taught the different ways of blocking, striking, kicking, standing, breathing, and thinking — unquestionably, he has gained the scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculations and analysis, and even worse, he might be called “intellectually bound” and maintain himself outside of the actual reality. The third stage — the stage of artlessness, or spontaneous stage — occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, the student realizes that after all, gung fu is nothing special. And instead of trying to impose on his mind, he adjusts himself to his opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall. It flows through the slightest crack. There is nothing to try to do but try to be purposeless and formless, like water. All of his classical techniques and standard styles are minimized, if not wiped out, and nothingness prevails. He is no longer confined."

-- Bruce Lee "The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee"

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-04-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

Maybe not the best example of tsuki, but aite is still going to smart on the way on down.....

Hello?

2011-04-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

Like a Boss!!

2011-04-01T16:25:00.002-05:00

Hipster Libyan Rebel was into rising up against Gaddafi before it was cool....

2011-03-27T18:45:00.000-05:00

2011-03-20T12:32:00.003-05:00

Saying of the Day!

2011-03-18T16:09:00.000-05:00

"Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake."

--Napoleon

IPPON!!!

2011-03-11T23:57:00.001-06:00

It's been a while; seems about time for some ippon....

Here's s nice gyaku doh; hard to pull off, and the timing on this one is sweet.

Japan Tsunami Whirlpool

2011-03-11T13:04:00.001-06:00

Video of a giant whirlpool created by the tsunami's off the coast of Japan, thanks to that monster quake that happened several hours ago. Luckily, it sounds like most of the mugairyu people in Tokyo have checked in, although the trains not running, and power being out created a good amount of chaos. Sendai and a bunch of other coastal cities have been hit hard, so, unfortunately, I'm sure the news is going to get worse before it gets better.

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-03-11T12:55:00.001-06:00

Just to show how fast high level kendoka can move, here is the Tsuki of the Month in live-action format.

White scores a nice tsuki on his aite (red) which they thankfully slow-down in a replay.

BANG! Right on the tsuki-dare.....nice

The Way of the FAIL: Enter the Ninja

2011-03-01T17:53:00.001-06:00

This is an oldie from Swordforum, but it made Tosh.0. All I can say is, is that this is the danger that can arise from cutting things that aren't tatami mats. Milk cartons may be the gateway drug to this kind of madness.... ;)

This is Spartacus!!!!

2011-01-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

A fight in the Streets
Uploaded by MMAFightClub. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

For those that haven't seen it, Spartacus:Blood and Sand was the shiznit. Great series, and at the risk of shilling, pick it up on Blu-Ray, as it is spartacular.

The clip above is from the "prequel", Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which is turning out to be pretty good in it's own way. No Andy Whitfield, which is unfortunate, as he totally makes the role of Spartacus his own in the first season, but overly ambitious Batiatus and scheming Ashur are doing their usual best to make the prequel rock. Plus, Andy Whitfield friended me on Facebook, which doesn't actually mean much since we aren't actual friend friends, but is still awesome anyway, as I will totally kick-ass if there is ever a "Six Degrees of Spartacus".

(I'm actually only 3 degrees away from Kevin Bacon, but then again, who isn't?)

Note: for all you MMA fans, note the tribute to a certain MMA match in this clip? C'mon, it's an easy one...

Tsuki of the Month!

2011-01-30T11:57:00.000-06:00

Late, but I think the sheer amount of flex appeal was worth the wait, eh? Spot on the tsuki-dare too.
Excellent....

Tiny, the kenshi enforcer: All Your Ippon Update

2011-01-02T14:22:00.001-06:00

Like I mentioned before, All Your Ippon how has it's own resident mod/enforcer/editor at large. His name is Tiny Kenshi, and his strikes, although often monotonous (goddamm it Tiny, I know you can do tsuki!!) are brutally effective. However, given that he was raised and trained in Japan, he didn't take a lot of time to study English, and has little regard for the effects on grammar, punctuation, and general readability that his word slaying has on these posts. He's a single minded little sword demon, so don't be surprised after you command him to fight, if he removes words like "old", "whatever", "little" (Tiny is a bit sensitive about his size I'm guessing) and "wood" (WTF?) from posts and leaves words like "bullshit", and "crap" behind.

They are permanent edits too, so we'll see what sort of tenure Tiny has before I revoke his green card and send him back to Kanagawa.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T14:06:00.001-06:00

Well, 2011 has finally arrived, and I expect it to be totally kickass. 2010 was a busy year, to say the least, but all is well that ends well, as they say.

Asides from the usual resolutions, you really need to have some sort of way to enforce them right? That being said, All Your Ippon has the tiniest little kenshi ever right inside this blog. His job is to act as mod/enforcer for any 2011 negativity that might find it's way on to these very pages. Scroll down the right hand sidebar and you'll see him there, on permanent loan from Kendo Jidai, the Japanese kendo magazine. He's just sitting patiently in seiza, waiting for you to give him the haijme! to go ahead and tsuki the crap out any bad language, vibes, or anything else "negative" that falls within his tiny little gaze.

Bullshit, you say? Well, just hit his button to fight and find out for yourself.

2010-12-24T00:01:00.000-06:00

Slow is smooth....

2010-12-23T13:17:00.001-06:00

"Slow is smooth and smooth is fast...."

Was back in the doj' last night for some mo' mugai. Even though rehab is coming along at a good clip, I still can't go out as hard and fast as I would like, which, is actually a good thing in many respects, as it has been forcing me to work at a slower cadence as I go through the kata. Going slower has forced me to look more at how I connect a lot of the different movements/waza together which is making look more at how I can make the kata more fluid. All of this is a good thing. Although iai has often been criticized in any circles as being "dancing with swords", and/or being more concerned with aesthetics rather than effectiveness, even in the most "practical" of the koryu arts, there is always an element of graceful movement in high level Japanese (and gaijin) practitioners. (even maybe in Jigen ryu too ;) As a hairy, round-eye barbarian myself, I'm lacking a lot from the grace and fluidity standpoint, which makes a lot of my waza look disjointed and staccato. Aesthetics of the kata aside, or perhaps because of the lack of a graceful aesthetic, kata that are not as fluid are not as effective. Note that I said fluid and not sloppy. For example, if you are doing a technique that requires you to perform, say a uke-nagashi type deflection, which transitions into a cut, or even at the beginning of the waza when you are drawing the shinken and performing sayabiki, if you don't move fluidly from one movement into the other and instead stop or pause at step 1, then step 2 etc, you'll either perform the technique wrong (a paused nagashi deflection becomes something of a really weak kaeshi-type block instead. Bad for you, good for your aite) and/or you'll leave a ton of suki (or "openings"/"weakness in one's mind and posture") that your opponent can/will take advantage of.

Watch a high level practitioner in iai or kendo for that matter, and you'll see someone who executes each technique distinctly while still allowing one movement to flow into the other. This gets in concepts like mushin/ the mind-of-no-mind, high level zanshin, sword and zen and things like that, but essentially being able to do the techniques distinctly while being smooth and fluid minimizes the number of suki available for an opponent to exploit. If everything else is equal between the two opponents then the one with the least number of suki will win. It can be hard for iai practitioners to work on this, given that there isn't usually someone across from you threatening you with a blade, but it still doesn't mean that effective cutting iai executed fluidly shouldn't be the goal.

Zanshin

2010-12-17T18:08:00.002-06:00

Recently heard a great definition of zanshin; zanshin being one of the more difficult Japanese Martial Art concepts to translate directly from Japanese into English. Essentially translates as "remaining mind", but what does that mean, really? Depending on where you are in you journey in a martial art, it could mean different things at different times. Probably means something a bit different for a kendo hachidan than it does for an iaido mudansha. The most recent definition I've heard phrases something like this:

"Your zanshin should not be that of the rabbit out in the bushes, afraid of any sudden movement or sound that might signify a predator; your zanshin should be more that of the tiger."

I'm paraphrasing what I heard, and I know it originally came out of something in print, but no offense to the original author or wording, but I can't remember it exactly. Either way, it strikes me as a pretty good analogy of what "remaining mind" stands for, and whether it is jigeiko, kumitachi, or just kihon waza in the dojo, I imagine you could apply this thought process to any of those areas and look for differences in different practitioners zanshin based on this concept. If I was more experienced or a better wordsmith I'd give it a stab as to explaining exactly what I think this concept means, but, as with most things in JSA, it's probably better experienced than just talked about.

RIP Maeda Sensei

2010-12-05T14:58:00.000-06:00

Having started kendo in the second half of 2001, I had the pleasure of practicing kendo with Maeda sensei over a number of years. He was older (passed away at 89), slower of course, and suffered from a number of health problems, so wasn't practicing the same way he would have 30 years ago, but then again, that was exactly the point: he was still practicing. I still remember the first time I went to the Choyokan Kendo Dojo, back when it was at the Broadway Armory in Chicago, and I saw this wizened little old dude suit up in bogu and dish out some slower but very well-timed hits to kendoka of all levels at the dojo. I still remember thinking: "You can be that old and still do kendo? I want in to this martial art!" That's how it began, pretty much. Over the years, with all my comings and goings to the dojo from health issues and whatnot, he was still there, still suiting up for the most part, still taking part in jigeiko and still kicking my ass. He was as valuable a teacher as any of the other sensei and sempai at the dojo, and I actually used to dread practicing with him. Not because he was older and slower and didn't speak fantastic english, but because I would always end up exhausted after doing keiko with him. You always had to give you best kiai and attack aggressively, but also you couldn't just taiatari with him with your full weight, or use waaay too much right hand and turn your shinai into a club either. You had to do it well, but do it with respect, which I always thought was a good lesson for keiko and kendo in general. He also always seemed to know right when my gas tank was redlining towards empty and usually stopped just at the right point where I was tired out but not collapsing. Maybe it was just coincidence, but probably not.

There were a couple of practices I attended over the years where he was the only sensei, and we would get a small glimpse into some of the hard core training he must have done when younger: before we knew it we had passed through the kihon portion of the practice and were doing several windsprints worth of kakarigeiko. I came close to puking a few times. Thankfully didn't happen/hasn't happened yet.

He taught me a lot about timing and maai, although I can't say I ever properly put those concepts into practice; the fault is entirely mine. It was more from the standpoint of either watching or, if your were doing keiko with him, experiencing him time your strikes. Many men strikes I got on Maeda sensei were actually ai-uchi, in that we hit at the same time. However, I still remember seeing him often begin to move his shinai immediately after I had committed to strike. If he had been in his 50's say, he would have hit my men first, so they weren't truly ai-uchi so much as sensei had read me like a book and was countering my attack with one of his own, and his aging muscles were the only reason we hit at the same time instead of him hitting first.

He had a pretty interesting past as many older people do once you get to hear their story, and he was one of the few remaining, now vanishing, links between pre-war and post-war kendo that we have in the world today.

One of the things I was looking forward to after finishing rehab and getting my membership reinstated at the dojo was doing keiko with Maeda sensei again. With the new valve and a future level of fitness and function that should leave the old me far behind, I think I would have been able to give him some better, faster waza to enjoy, and had more in the tank so he could have run me even more ragged.

He still would have read me like a book and moved first though, right when I would be about to hit.

Onegaishimasu! Rest in peace sensei.

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-12-05T14:15:00.001-06:00

Here's a nice 2-hander. Planted that one right on the tsuki-dare. Nice! This is a little late, since the old MacBook finally fried itself. Got things fixed up nicely, so I can actually post again, and not just from the phone!

Sweet!

Better check and make sure I haven't posted this one already.....

Way of the FAIL: Air Choson!!

2010-11-18T13:19:00.001-06:00

Well, I've been wanting to post something about ninjers here for a while now. and the Choson ninja himself has given me hours of viewing pleasure online. But now? Korean Ninjas, swords, tameshigiri, jumping, and slo-mo?? Props to some of my FB mates for originally digging up this gem. Given that there is also a samurai lumberjack out there, this will probably be a 2-fer this month as far as WotF is concerned....I'll keep you posted :)

Get your tennis shoes, or tabi on. It's time to jump!!

Back in the doj'!

2010-11-07T23:31:00.004-06:00

"It all begins with the loss of something...."

Well, finally made it back to the doj' last night; well one of them anyway. Made it back into mugai ryu and got the chance to sling some steel again. It was an even better feeling than I thought. Have been feeling good as of late, with minimal post-op issues at this time, and can finally lift my left arm over my head without too much pain or fuss, but didn't fully realize how much I missed that combination smell of hard work, tatami, choji oil, and wood, or whatever that unique dojo smell is. Seiza wasn't a big deal as I have been doing some zazen, plus the time out has been good for the knees. The kata on the other hand were a lot tougher than I thought. Had trouble with nuki-uchi gyaku kesagiri in shin, and just doing a straight makko-giri is a literal pain. Rehab hasn't really included shinken in it naturally, so although my core is good, the little accessory muscles involved in being a blade-slinger weren't too keen on all my beginning attempt to regain some skillz.
Overall, good practice, and should be able to get into the doj' about once a week.
By the way no-okuri is a pain in the ass.....

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-11-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm late, I know, but the old MacBook logic board is acting like Dave Bowman just pulled all the AI circuits out and is doing its best "HAL 9000 is dying" impression as of late....

So here it is, your moment of ZEN!

Not too shabby, a nice katate-tsuki against a bigger opponent.

Please sir can I have some more? Sure thing:

Well, this one looks like the opposite form the last in many respects. Bigger vs Smaller. What is with all these katate-tsuki's anyway? I'm on the hunt for a tasty 2-handed meat grinder of a tsuki for next month. Legal yuko-datotsu or not is none of your concern.

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T14:09:00.001-05:00

Guy gets fake boobs for his....fake woman???

2010-10-14T17:22:00.001-05:00

Well, there haven't been as many posts about stupid on here as there used to be. Sorry, I really haven't grown up, or evolved more as a human being (at least I don't think so....) it's just that things have been busy, and my threshold for things that are worthy in their retardation has gone up over time.

This one is pretty good though: some guy gets silicone implants for the breasts of the tattooed woman on his leg.

Seriously:

Saying of the Day!

2010-10-12T15:04:00.004-05:00

"The one certainty in tiger tracks is: follow them long enough and you will arrive at a tiger. Unless the tiger arrives at you first."

-- from "The Tiger: a true story of Vengeance and Survival."

Some Stathamania to hold you over till 2011....

2010-10-01T17:25:00.001-05:00

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Jason Statham is one hard working dude. No less than 3-4 films on the slate for the release in 2011. Luckily, looks like most of those involve cars, guns, martial arts, and explosions. Sweet!

Here's one of the films set to come out the earliest; "The Mechanic". Yes, film trivia experts, it is essentially a remake of the Charles Bronson film by the same name. Directed by Simon West, it will probably be the same sleazy fun that most of his other films are.

If I want thought provoking reading and a broadening of my intellectual horizons, I'll go read some Descartes. If I want to feed my brain some candy and watch cars explode and peeps getting shot, I'll watch "the Mechanic" when it comes out. Till then, it's repeats of "the Expendables".

They see Statham rollin' and they be hatin'.....

The Way of the FAIL: DEATH TOUCH!!

2010-10-01T14:57:00.001-05:00

Man, I could fill the next 2 years with monthly Way of the FAIL posts about dim mak/death touch/super chi practitioners, which would be equally entertaining month in, month out no matter how many I post. Here is one of my favourites, "Master" Tom Cameron, who has been on Ripley's, FOX News, and most recently, "Stan Lee's Superhumans".

Judge for yourself, but I like how, despite the odd goings on with the HR monitors and whatnot (pretty much the same self-induced vasovagal/fainting responses you get with people worked up at those southern revival ministries, such as "Benny Hinn" and co.) he never seems to be able to KO people who*aren't* his students.....
Mysterious.....

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-10-01T14:45:00.001-05:00

Katate-tsuki, or perhaps a katate-kote? Hard to tell, especially since I can't read kanji. Anyways I'm calling tsuki till proven otherwise....

Zazen!

2010-09-28T14:20:00.001-05:00

Retinal holes on patients all morning, the dog discovered the secrets of the automatic cat litter box and is having a poo picnic, and you suddenly discover there's a hole in the ass of the suit pants you're wearing. So what do you do? A little zazen or seated meditation never goes wrong on these kinds of days.

Looking to expand my practice in mugairyu and just generally to keep things in perspective, I've added a daily zazen period. Usually in the mornings after I first wake up, there are days like today where that didn't work out, so I close the door to office and take a 10 min quick sit. Nowhere near any sort of enlightenment, there's always a ton of mental chatter, but just doing it can be it's own reward in a number of ways. If only to realize that most of what runs through my head is nonsense, and that I really need to make sure I'm keeping down the amount of Diet Coke (or Coke Light for you non-Yanks) that I'm drinking.

Will it make any difference in my mugairyu? Probably nothing at first, but we'll see where the journey goes.....

Swedish Bathrooms

2010-09-23T16:48:00.001-05:00

Just returned from a fantastic trip to Stockholm and Paris. Traveling was a little rough as I'm still rehabbing, but all in all a great trip. Still uploading photos from the camera, and crammed more sightseeing into the trip than was probably sane, but had an absolute blast playing the tourist.

Some quick highlights:

- Croque Monsieurs

- enough creme brulee to give me diabetes

- Sitting on the hotel room bed with some people from the US State Department eating baguettes, pate, cheese, and other sundries, plus some great french wine, all from the convenience store down the road, and all of this being as equally delicious as anything else we had on the trip. And everything else we had was good.

- Everything inside the Louvre.

- Attending a wedding with a ton of Brits at a fortress built in the 16th-17th century on a island in the archipelago off the Swedish coast

- Those crazy open faced sandwiches the Swedes love. Crayfish tails, dill, and mayonnaise on delicious toast with a little salad? Maybe some egg? Yes please.

- Swedish meatballs with some retarded gravy and lingonberries? Hells yes!

-The Wasa Museum. One of the best museums I have ever been to, not counting the fact that a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan is actually an official part of one display. I have photographic proof.

- Hot dogs in Sweden from street vendors that don't give you food poisoning unlike pretty much every other hot dog I've ever had anywhere else in the world.

-Swedish bathrooms. Well, toilets, to be precise.

So, how do Swedish toilets get on this list? Well, besides being immaculately clean, they are also the TARDIS of toilets internationally, or the matryoshka dolls of the bathroom world, if Dr Who analogies don't work for you. You enter what already looks like it will be a small bathroom, only to find there are bathrooms inside the bathrooms. Yes, you go inside an area with sinks and mirrors and whatnot, only to find that each stall has it's own sinks and mirrors and whatnot, in a space that looks like it could never possibly hold all of those sinks and mirror, when viewed from the outside. Try doing it after about 2 hours of sleep, then flying, then going into one of these, and you'll understand the head-trip.

Now Swedish showers on the other hand....

Chi-tonw represents on the West Coast!

2010-09-23T16:18:00.002-05:00

Well, this is belated, but have been traveling and busy at work when not on vacation. The Hard Boyz from the doj' represented Chi-tonw even harder than anyone expected. They placed in a ridiculous number of events:

Oyabun, 3rd in batto-tameshigiri

TomTom, 1st in futomaki
TomTom 1st place in yondan batto-kata

Sanchez, 1st place in batto-tameshigiri (and rocked a ryoguruma in the process as well???)
Sanchez, 2nd place in futomaki

Sanchez, 2nd place in iai tameshigiri (I guess we know who to ask for cutting advice; 3 shizan placings?? Nice.)

The Law Dog 1st in nidan/sandan iai kata (of course)

Pow Pow 1st in shodan iai kata (just to see what it felt like)

Sorry if I missed anyone, I'll add you into the post after a reminder.

Absolutely insane. Was sorry I couldn't go this year, but that just means I have more time to rehab/train for next year's stint. Great work guys, absolutely an amazing showing.

Of course, you know what that means for next year......

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-09-02T15:08:00.000-05:00

Dodge this.

Best tsuki pic ever? No. But I hate that dodgy-dodgy sh*t you often see in kendo; if you can't get off the centerline, then don't bother with all the head movement and hip waggles. In this case, aite's tsuki-dare must have been a screamingly tasty target, 'cause the shinai just lasers right on in.

Hope that stung a little ;)

The Way of the FAIL: Swords and Alcohol

2010-08-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

You have to sit through an annoying TV host, but the payoff is worth it.

Tosh.0

Weds 10:30pm / 9:30c

Video Breakdown - Samurai Sword

www.comedycentral.com

Tosh.0 Videos

Daniel Tosh

Web Redemption

2010 All-Japan Jukendo Championships

2010-08-16T12:15:00.001-05:00

Jūkendō (銃剣道) is the Japanese Martial Art of bayonet fighting. Similar protective gear/bogu is worn to kendo, and some people refer to Jukendo as kendo with bayonets, rather than swords. As you can see from the vid though, there are a lot of differences. More on Jukendo here.

(BTW, Yamada wins the fight with an "uwa-doh" which I think might be the left-side doh in jukendo, although, honestly, I have no idea....)

Angry Cricket

2010-08-13T15:10:00.004-05:00

Mechanical heart valves all make some amount of noise once they are implanted: body mass, workload on the heart in question, ambient noise, as well as a number of other factors can all play into how loud or quiet a valve is. I chose the On-X due to its reputation as a quiet valve and as I heal it has definitely been pretty quiet to the point where there are times I can't hear it, even if I listen for it. For whatever reason, today is a "noisy" day, although with the TV turned on low volume, I can't hear it. As the heart rate gets better as I heal, it isn't much of a bother either: when I was pushing 90-100 bpm, it sounded like an angry cricket. I can only imagine what it might be like when I start working out again.

Any of this beats the older models where you can hear the "click, click, click" as you stand outside the room the patient is in.

No thanks.

My mate Bern is a sound engineer specializing in environmental sound studies: whaddya think Bern? Up for doing a sound study?

Missing Dog

2010-08-08T15:09:00.000-05:00

The Red-Headed Stepchild of Modern Kendo

2010-08-06T17:52:00.000-05:00

In modern kendo, using shinai nito-style (i.e. having a longer shinai in one hand, the daito, and a shorter one in the other, the shoto, and then attacking/using both in practice/keiko etc) is looked down upon by many practitioners, both here, and in Japan. Not sure why; I've heard other kendoka mock it as gimmicky, or not real kendo (whatever that means). Some of it may have to do with the fact that using a nito ("2 swords") approach in kendo is fundamentally different in some aspects to using a single shinai, to the point where it has been implied by some that nito kendo is almost like a different ryuha unto itself within the bigger framework of gendai or "modern" kendo. I'm no expert at all, but even so, anyone who practices kendo for a decent amount of time will realize how rare it is to see nito in practice, whether on a regular keiko at the doj' basis, or in taikai, and especially in any sort of grading/shinsa format. Of course this is the same group of individuals who practice kendo that teach kendo from the chudan-no-kamae stance for years before letting most practitioners "graduate" to jodan or other kamae. Not that there isn't excellent reasoning behind this of course. Whatever the reasoning is behind the relative shunning of nito in gendai kendo is however, the end result is that nito practitioners are sparse, and getting instruction in nito kendo is rare to non-existent here in the States (and probably in Japan for that matter). However, there is a group from the Japans, the Niten Ichiryu Musashi Kai who travel to the US on a somewhat annual basis and provide seminars on practicing kendo nito-style. Having done a little nito koryu style, all I can say is nito is the shizzle, as far as being a "fun" waza to experience.

Post-rehab, once I'm back in kendo, I'm totally hitting one of these seminars. 2011 perhaps?

Anyway, here's a good vid showing a seminar that was held in Utah in 2008.

OSS!!

Rehab shmehab

2010-08-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

Seriously, I feel a *lot* better. You guys need to let me out of this bed.

Well, rehab is coming along slowly. Although there are general guidelines as to when you can rehab post-op, it varies from patient to patient and doctor to doctor. Based on all the issues I had with inflammation post-op, my cardiologists are keeping me on a tight leash for another month or so. Good news is barring any additional inflammation, vomming blood (indomethacin and coumadin don't go together well so well in my stomach) or any other fun complications I should make a full recovery, and the heart has already begun to remodel itself (if your heart is enlarged but not at the point of failing, or even if it crossed that line a little, if the underlying issues can be dealt with, and certain meds are used, the heart tissue will actually undergo a remodelling process, essentially returning to something more "normal", or whatever passes for that in my case) Heart rate has gone down, BP is awesome, and my lab work doesn't look like the outline for a Steven King novella anymore, so things are looking good.

On the plus side, as I mentioned before, I've lost about 15-20 pounds, as well as ability to convert on the fly to metric, so whatever that makes in kilos.....so hopefully I can keep as much fat from that off as possible and only put muscle back on. Given the fact I have to watch the diet even closer now post-op, I have a better chance with that than before. A 90 day peak performance plan wouldn't hurt either, assuming I can gear it towards rehabbing the old strawberry tart....once I'm cleared of course.

That's probably one of the more frustrating things for many heart patients post-op; you feel pretty good, want to do more but can't, either because it isn't physically possible yet and you don't want to overdo it. On the other hand, the fact that you can complain about that means you must be doing pretty good.

The Real Bloodsport

2010-08-04T16:40:00.004-05:00

EDIT: Vimeo deleted (Aug 5th) the awesomeness that is Bloodsport Karma, but there should be a new link soon. Should have just ripped it from the web instead of embedding it :( I'll update as soon as it is live again.....

Okay, for anyone who is a fan of Bloodsport, MMA, and especially George St Pierre, here is a viddy that is totally full of WIN.
It's long, at almost 29 min, but is seriously EPIC.

Bloodsport Karma from LOOKOUTAWHALE on Vimeo.

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-08-02T14:25:00.000-05:00

Oh man, right when aite was about to unleash some tasty men, BAMN!! Tsuki! A nice 2-hander as well.

Enjoy.

The Way of the FAIL: Ni To Ichi

2010-08-02T14:22:00.001-05:00

Okay, this one is for all the kendoka and koryu iaidoka out there.

Enjoy the spin moves and Highlander-esque swordplay. For those uninitiated into actual JSA, what you're looking at is essentially Footloose with bokken sans soundtrack. Don't fear though, there's plenty of screamy-screamy to balance that out.

All Your Ippon; now with Swiss Quartz movement!

2010-07-28T15:29:00.000-05:00

My new aortic valve...well, not this one specifically....

There are several options you can choose from when it comes to heart valve replacement; you can have a tissue valve, which could be cow, pork, or even human donor valves. Then you have the mechanical valves, which there are several to choose from, each one with a variety of claims to fame. There are plenty of good reasons to choose each one as well. Don't want to use blood thinners forever? Try a tissue valve. Don't want to have a re-operation in the near future? Choose a mechanical. Active, not active, old vs young, male vs female, the list of possible reasons to choose one over the other goes on and on and on. Add to that, that sometimes you'll find post-op a) the surgeon had to do something different after they opened you up, or b) you get what you want, but find, due to a variety of reasons , you have to take blood thinners even though you have a tissue valve (for example). Other than being an actual cardiologist, it is a pretty confusing process. Case in point; I've had OHS (open heart surgery before) and am still finding things out about what is and isn't normal post-op after my second OHS. This is after doing my own research as well.

Just to make it even more confusing, there probably isn't a "right" or "wrong" answer when it comes to reasons to choose one valve over the other, given that there isn't really a perfect option to pick from.

All I can do is use my example as an illustration: found out I needed an aortic valve replacement about 8 years ago, and due to being fairly active and not wanting to be on coumadin or similar blood thinners, went with a human donor valve. Surgery went well, recovered (obviously) with pretty minimal restrictions after I had a pacemaker implanted (some of us "younger"OHS patients can get scarring of the natural pacemaker post-op after aortic valve replacement). Found over earlier this year that I was going to need surgery again much sooner than expected, thanks to the valve degrading a lot more seriously and much faster than expected. This time it was recommended and I agreed that we should go with a mechanical valve in case another tissue valve was needed again in the future. Trust me, you don't want additional OHS if you can help it; mortality risks aside, being out of commission for so long, and then having to rehab just to get back to where before is not fun. Of course, it beats the hell out of the alternative ;) So the idea of possibly not needing another heart surgery was pretty attractive, plus anti coagulation therapy with drugs like coumadin isn't as restricting as you might think, or as much as I used to think.

However, going with a mechanical valve means you have several options to choose from. I'll go over those and why I chose the ON-X valve in a different post.....needless to say technology is changing fast and there are options out now I couldn't really have chosen from 8 or 9 years ago.

But whatever you choose, make sure you're happy with it (you're surgeon should probably be on board as well ;) Don't second guess your choice post-op either; if you have the luxury of second guessing, it probably means things went well in surgery and you're way ahead of the people that didn't make it that far. If you can handle beer, sex, and budo post-op, then things went well my friend, very well indeed. Congratulations on your second life! ;) Or, to put it another way, why worry about reincarnation, resurrection, or anything else to do with the afterlife, if you get a second (or third) crack at things.

OSS!

More MSR: the POV edition....

2010-07-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

Here's a nifty little vid from the MSR guys; don;t worry though, it's not Way of the FAIL, because nobody is holding the camera. Which would have been kinda awesome in it's own way. Seriously though, this is a pretty neat little viddy. To bad more of the shuriken didn't within the FOV of the camera.

MSR Shuriken-jutsu

2010-07-28T12:44:00.002-05:00

Here's a nice example of one of the few extant ryu-ha that practice the use of the shuriken in Japan. Although there are videos that show them using the "pinwheel" or "ninja star" type shuriken, they are most frequently seen using the shuriken seen in the viddy below; straight, with a single sharpened point. They also throw them using a "no-flip" method, which is seen best on the slow-mo section of the video. Rather than cartwheeeling end over end on the path to the target, you can see how the shuriken starts almost vertical and then "drops" into a trajectory where the pointy bit is facing the target before impacting nicely. It would be interesting to hear what the targets on an opponent were with this ryu, although I imagine they would be any fleshy unprotected parts of the opponent. Probably not a battlefield technique I'm guessing.

EDIT: Sorry about the embed; I tried to shrink to fit as much as possibly, but the original poster on YT has this vid set in some weird letterbox format that doesn't shrink down enough for the blog. Anyway, I'm sure you still get the idea.

There's another decent vid of an embu at a temple, however the temple only provided them with a plywood target which apparently isn't the best to use with shuriken, as half the ones that hit the target fall out as soon as the next one hits. Not quite as sexy. Which also makes sense if these weapons were designed for "soft" targets on an opponent. Like maybe the face? Anyway, good stuff.

West Coast Taikai 2010

2010-07-26T14:48:00.001-05:00

Some hot yokonarabi action....

After a 2 year hiatus, the full West Coast Taikai is back up and running. in it's usual timeslot (Sept 2-4th, with a recovery day on the 5th ;) Should be an awesome event as it has been in past years. Anyone who practices JSA would find it great opportunity, whether it's competing in kata, tameshigiri, or just to get exposed to some of the highest level practitioners currently practicing the arts. I'm totally bummed at not going, but these bird arms of mine aren't slinging steel anytime soon, as I've mentioned before.

If you're interested in registering or just want to have a squiz at what's on offer, check out the Taikai homepage.

There are seminars on everything from basic tameshigiri practice to more advanced iai and wakizashi tameshigiri, not to mention the chance to check out seminars on Sekiguchi ryu, (get your best kiai on for this one peeps) and even some Araki ryu with Ellis Amdur, not to mention advanced tameshigiri with Hataya sensei. There is a serious amount of win going on on that Friday.

Of course there's the taikai itself on Saturday; futomaki, yokonarabi, and dodan oh my!

Yeah, I'm a JSA fanboy. Plus, I have to give a shout-out to the taikai with the serious amount of Chi-tonw participation that will be taking place this year (again).

Have fun guys (and ladies). Just remember, someone else is going to need to be on Sanchez supervision duties this year ;)
Seriously though, I have Sanchez pegged for best in show at futomaki this year.

For reals, although I won't be shocked if either Filthy or Robin Ramirez manage to win the overall best in show award....again.

If you don't got em, now you can roll 'em!

2010-07-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

There hasn't ever been a huge number of options to get quality tatami omote/mats for tameshigiri here in the States, or anywhere outside of the Japans for that matter. When I first started cutting several years ago, the mats we used were used tatami omote that smelled mostly of feet. That was before we soaked them, then the feet to ass smell conversion began. Not to mention that once you cut, you had better wipe your shinken off immediately, otherwise a nice patina of feet-sweat induced rust began to rapidly spread across your blade. But hey, it was all we had to cut with (if you're thinking that pool noodles, vegetables, water bottles, or other non-traditional materials are okay for tameshigiri, please send me photos for my monthly Way of the FAIL posts)

Pretty soon after Mugen Dachi came on the scene and we had a good supply of fresh tatami omote to pull from, at pretty decent prices (although shipping bundles of mats is always pretty spendy) Yay! No more feet smell!

Recently though, Mugen Dachi stopped selling direct and decided to only go through select vendors. Supplies bottle-necked a bit and it wasn't as easy to get fresh grass to cut. That has been changing a bit as more vendors get approved to sell Mugen Dachi's mats here in the States, with Meishi-ha's own Alvarez sensei/Big Tony and co, being the most recent addition to Mugen Dachi's approved vendor list. So, if your doj' is one that does tameshigiri and you've been lamenting the mat shortage, check out tameshigirimats.com.

Yeah, I'm shillin'.

Bizarre Budo: the Way of the FAIL

2010-07-24T15:08:00.002-05:00

Well, some people come out of major surgery and other significant life events utterly changed, sometimes even enlightened. I, however, am not one of those people, to which anyone who knows me can readily attest. Maybe it's my aussie background, where we treat pretty much everything with irreverence, or perhaps I am just an ass. Either way, there is some funny stuff on the internets when it comes to martial arts. For the sake of continuity, I'm going to keep this as JSA as possible; luckily, there are no shortage of great examples of utter FAIL on the webs. So every month, I plan to publish my favourite example of the Way of the FAIL. Given that I have exhibited a good amout of FAIL myself, I think I am eminently qualified to determine good budo FAIL vs budo WIN.

First up Musashi Ninkage Ryu. Yeah, you read that right. Google it if you want even more FAIL than this blog can contain. Sabutai Musashi Shihan, I am in your debt; nito is neato is what I always say.....

Roll 'em if you got 'em!

2010-07-23T16:12:00.000-05:00

Well, it's getting close to that time of year again, when the West Coast Taikai/Gasshuku is in effect. This year looks to be extra-awesome, given that there will be not only mugai-ryu training with soke, but this year the taikai portion of the week will be back. Since I'm rehabbing and not able to go this year (although I am sending the Shobu out there to wreak some heinous mat death) I haven't checked the details, but hopefully the "man package" is on offer again (the "man package" being pretty much a package fee to enter most/if not all the taikai events) Bummed I'll be missing the dodan and futomaki portion of things, and also was looking forward to the iai tameshigiri event (I will totally rock out a nukiuchi yokoichimonji from zagi at that event one day.....) but these bird arms of mine can barely lift a bokken let alone the Green Fairy. Not to mention trying to lift the Shobu would be like pulling Excalibur from the rock at this point. Don't feel bad though: feel bad for all the mats that are going to suffer my tenouchi of doom once I rehab all this meat and bone. Once I get back, it'll be time to be one of the hard boyz and work on getting my waza back up to snuff.

Missing the probable embu, not to mention the gasshuku portion of the taikai is a bit of a bummer as well, although with all the people from the Chi-tonw branch those of us that miss should get a summary of the good stuff.

Of course, there's always all the other politics and intrigue that I'll be missing out on that is always going on when a good portion of the ryuha gets together;

- Which guy from Senpokan will get the win for futomaki? Or will the literal dark horse from Chi-tonw, the Sanchez show us what the Wind and Thunder is really made of?

- Who will be stuck with the giant bar tab at the Hilton again, as everyone else rushes off right before the waitress brings by the bill?

- Will the crazy screamy people from Sekiguchi Ryu show up again? (srsly, u guys have my favourite kiai of all time)

- Will Sanchez get a menjo that says Sanchez on it? Does Soke even remember his real name? Does anyone else outside Chicago for that matter?

- Will TomTom set a new landspeed record for fastest sunburn again as he floats around in the hotel pool? Or will his nordic alabaster-white skin merely reflect the sun's damaging rays onto everyone else around him?

- Who will be so hungover on Sunday that they can barely speak?

-Will Timmeh actually show up? If not, what pictures will he show up in Where's Waldo style on the walls of the host doj'?

- Who will be so wrecked/hardcore that they are wearing their hakama and keikogi on their way to the airport, their only concession to modern dress a pair of dark sunglasses?

So many questions. I'll expect a full report, possibly with pictures.

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-07-23T14:19:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm slowly regaining most of my faculties, which means a return to some hot shinai-on-tsuki action, which has been sadly lacking these last few months. I have to admit, katate-tsuki aren't always my favourite to look at, but I like the fact that aite is back on one foot as he gets pegged right on the tsuki-dare by the shinai. Having been on the receiving end of something similar, I will say it's about as fun as it looks.

TSUKI!!

I have the arms and chest of a five year old....

2010-07-23T12:37:00.001-05:00

Well, been getting on the scale, and looks like I've lost about 15-17lbs since my pre-surgery days. Have a nice flat stomach, but my arms and chest have lost a lot of mass as well. Thanks to muscle memory, it will all come back once I start seriously exercising again, but right now I look like a 12 year old. Can't do anything serious about it for a few more weeks as well; takes about 6 weeks for the sternum to heal properly, not to mention all the muscle and soft tissue as well. Some docs will have their patients wait even longer before exercising at a significant capacity, but I'm hoping things will keep improving as they have been and I'll be rehabbing sooner rather than later.

Anyway, I'm not really complaining; there are people who are still in hospital at this stage of recovery, not to mention the myriad other complications I've pretty much managed to avoid up to this point. It's still funny to get on the scale or look in the mirror though ;)

The Clockwork Samurai

2010-07-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

Well, slowly but surely getting better. Still on a ton of meds, but bloodwork looks good, heart rate is going down as the new bionic ticker heals, chest hasn't hurt in a while, and the rest of my body rhythms seem to be getting closer and closer to pre-surgery levels. Still out of work and other activities for a while, but seems like I'm turning the corner and rehab isn't quite as intimidating as it was a few weeks ago.

Part of getting better after major surgery should always involve some sort of goal/s. A couple of big ones for me (although not an exhaustive list by any means) is getting back into teh budos. Mugairyu should be the first I'm able to get back into; shooting for a late August/early Sept start date for getting back into the ryu. Going to miss the gasshuku/taikai this year, but I'm out of practice right now anyway ;) Of course, some of the best parts of the annual get-together is the getting together with the rest of the ryuha that shows up. Plus there's always the slim chance that we can all drink off of FlyBri's and TomTom's bar tab, although I'm sure they're on high alert after 2008.

Kendo is a slightly different proposition, as far as return date. When I go back will depend a lot on what workload the ticker will take as the heart muscle remodels itself, hopefully reversing the early stages of heart failure I was entering, as well as how I react to the blood thinner. Nothing a men-pad and a few extra bruises won't be able to deal with. The good news is, with the fancy new mechanical valve I have, if the heart heals right, I should be able to engage in some serious ass-kickery. Already I feel better in many respects than before I went in; no more weird heart palpitations or off-beats. As the muscle remodels itself, I should have a far more efficient ticker than I before I went in.

So I am aiming for a late 2010, early 2011 to get back into seriously slinging some bamboo. Assuming I don't bleed out on the edge of a shinken first...;)

The trouble with Ambien....

2010-07-16T13:43:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in the prior post, I apparently trip out when on Ambien. Ambien is a sleep aid used to treat some types of insomnia, and apparently is used commonly after surgeries like mine to help patients go to sleep, which is understandable, given the discomfort most of us are in post-op.

So, as it happens, I take the Ambien and BOOM! off to Sleepy Town. Pretty soon I start having this really vivid dream where I'm in the hospital but there are skulls drawn all over the walls, and even worse, the needles have skulls on them too. I take this to be a Very Bad Thing, and realize I have to get the hell out of this skull infested room. Maybe I should go hide in a storage room till things get better. Only problem is, is that I am connected to an IV by one of these crazy skull needles. Only one way to fix that; rip the bastard out. It hurt, but I'm done, now it's time to hide. I manage to ninja past the nurses station and find a nice storage room to chillax in. That gets boring after a while, and the skulls are probably gone, plus I'm getting really tired in this dream, so I manage to get back to my room after babbling some nonsense at the nurses who are wondering why I'm going for a walk at 3am.

Needless to say it turns out this was no dream and I did, in fact, rip out my IV and trip out in a storage room for a while. Not sure how I got past the night shift nurses, and they weren't too pleased I ripped out a couple of lines, but given what I could have gotten up to, it wasn't as complete a FAIL as it could have been.

Good news is, is that I now know NOT to ever take Ambien again, which is excellent, considering I was thinking of using it on my next long flight overseas, which would have sucked for me and everyone else on board as I probably would have tried to open the emergency exit at 30,000 feet. Yes, I know, not cool. They weren't kidding when they listed sleepwalking, hallucinations, and other disturbances as potential side effects. Anyway, everything was fine after that, sleep has been improving night after night. Just counting the days till my chest is healed enough to let me sleep on my side again. Back sleeping is the suck, as far as I'm concerned, apologies to all you back sleepers out there.

Ouch....

2010-07-15T12:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I made it, more or less. Been in and out of hospital a couple of times, and on IV antibiotics for a few weeks, as well as an assload of meds for a while. Surgery was way longer than expected, and apparently I trip balls when on Ambien, but all in all, things are looking pretty good. Not going back to work for a while, so I have time to get better.

There's a lot of killing time when getting better, but it is suprising how fast it goes by. Every day is an improvement too, which helps. You always want to do a little more than you can, which can be a little frustrating, but at the same time, being able to do a little more every day is a reward in and of itself. My surgeon is pretty awesome, so my new scar/zipper looks way better than my last one, and the new valve is pretty fancy: the On-X valve is a newer type of mechanical valve that should let me have pretty much zero restrictions on my lifestyle. Pretty sweet.

Well, nap-time coming up. I'll post more later.

See you on the flip side....

2010-06-22T23:54:00.001-05:00

You know what, I think I need that part back. Srsly.

Well, may not post again for a bit, as surgery day is less than 7 hours away. Assuming I come out with most of my limited faculties intact, I'll keep any peeps interested in cardiac rehab up to date.

Anyway, see youze later.

Odoroki and the hara

2010-06-22T23:47:00.002-05:00

Hey, I did it! I finally found my hara! Ohhhhh.........

Odoroki is Japanese that roughly translates to the four "doubts/problems/sicknesses" or something like that. Since I don't speak Japanese in any way, other than the requisite budo-speak, I can't say it's accurate, but close enough for these purposes anyway.

The five "odoroki" are 1) fear, 2) doubt, 3) suspicion 4) surprise. Last weekend I had the chance to attend a lecture at the Shinjinkai dojo around some of the mind/body connection in Zen, JSA, and martial arts in general. The name of the sensei escapes me (I'll edit it in later), but the lecture was very good and covered a number of topics and concepts that I have been struggling with on and off throughout the years. Most of the lecture concerned the concept of the hara, and we did several exercises, mostly centered around breathing, to help us better understand where and what the hara is and how that can translate into being a better martial artist. Breath control and the concept of hara is a constantly recurring theme in JSA, not to mention budo in general, and the concept of odoroki was brought up at the beginnning of the lecture in order to show how your breath control can and does change as you experience any/all of these emotions, and how understanding the hara better and how you breathe, as well as how to breathe, as you move, do waza etc, can help you either prevent or help undo the effects of experiencing fear, doubt, suspicion, and/or surprise.

Not going to get into a detailed discussion of hara, as I barely understand it myself, but the lecture really helped me better conceptualize hara, the corresponding changes in our centre of gravity, and how to move in the dojo, as well as how to better utilize how we breathe, even if just doing zazen, in order to be better at budo and hopefully, if some of this percolates out, better at life as well.

The non tranny guide to pre-op.

2010-06-22T11:04:00.002-05:00

What happens after you see the hospital bill here in the States......

Besides surgery itself and recovery afterwards, doing things to prepare for surgery is also a pretty big deal. Problem is, there isn't often a lot of stuff written about just what the hell you need to do to get ready. Having been through this before, I have a bit of a leg up on what needs to be done, but there still seems to be a bit of a learning curve.

Of course, there are the requisite tests. Had several more this time than last; CAT scan, which was kind of TRON-ish and cool in it's own way, chest-X-rays, although they did that before they realized they needed a CAT scan, so I'm all up to date on my recommended allowance of rads. Bubble echo, which was weird; it's like a standard echocardiogram, but they inject a ton of bubbles into your bloodstream that travel to your heart and helps them get an even better picture of the inside. Aside from the shock factor of seeing hundreds of bubbles froth in through the IV (I was told that the size of the bubble would have to be HUGE to kill you. I made it, so I guess so.) as well as the wacky feeling as the bubbles enter your body, it really wasn't that exciting once they did the first run.

There was also the requisite cardiac catherization, which sucks. Even though you're nicely dosed on valium, they keep you awake as they cut a hole in your femoral artery and snake a cable of sorts up the artery to have a squiz at your heart. The cable, or whatever the thing is even enters the heart, which makes the poor bastard go all lambada in your chest for a few moments. All the time they're blasting X-rays through you to have a peek and make sure all the pipes are clear. Other than the psychological factor, it really wasn't too bad, although it is my least fav of all the tests. At least for surgery you're completely out of it.

Aside from the tests, there are the various meetings with the surgery team, and the labrynthine dealings with the insurance people. Even knowing how obtuse dealing with insurance can be, I still run into roadblocks and red-tape at every step. Not to get political, but anyone who thinks the US healthcare system isn't broken hasn't had to spend hours waiting for paperwork for 10-15 min tests, spend hours on the phone with hospitals and insurance companies all to get testing and procedures done that you clearly need. I have a background in health care, and it's still a nightmare to weed through.

Otherwise, make sure your affairs are in order; a lot of people hate to do this since they fear they may jinx themselves, but have a power of attorney, living will, instructions for next-of-kin and whatnot all set up. If you end up going you won't have a care in this world, but the people around you may have some serious pain in the ass work to do, so save them the effort. Additionally, it is super-awesome when you write down "I demand a Viking funeral pyre" on your will, and the executor of the will may actually have to follow through if needed. Selecting an appropriate musical accompianment is purely optional, but I highly recommend something heavy, but also something that builds to a musical crsecendo as the flames reach higher and higher. "Burn the Earth" by Dethklock, or "I tamper with the evidence at Odin's murder site" are 2 of my favourite recommendations.

In far more temporal affairs, if you are dealing with salary continuance, insurance certification, or anything involving money and third-parties who may not want to give you such monies, even if you pay hefty premium to get such monies when needed, stay on them the way the Black Plague stayed on the people of medieval Europe. Be that swollen buboe that festers on the skin of the insurance company that gives you deadlines, but fails to make any of their own. Be a suppurating lesion on the face of all the bureacracy that you have to deal with. Not that they have any bad intentions, but you are your own advocate, and noone is going to care about whether or things work out for you any more than you. Anyway, off to make phone call number one hundred and sixty three to the hospital so they can actually precertify me for surgery that is supposed to take place tomorrow. Cripes.

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-06-15T17:12:00.000-05:00

Well, instead of a pic, I decided to do a viddy instead. Here's a very nice, albeit, non-flashy, tsuki. Good solid kihon in action. Very nice.

Whoa.

2010-06-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

Well a lot has happened over the last 2 months; the divorce became finalized, so no more crazy. Might have a little PTSD from the last several years, but I am sure I'll get over it just fine. Surgery is scheduled, and right around the corner (just got out of hospital today after some more pre-op work-ups) however this has meant little or no JSA, and especially no kendo. Boo. The laptop I'm using has regained some functionality, so I can finally post again, although it's strange only being able to use half the screen. So, all in all 2010 has been full of win.

As part of that, the blog will continue to mutate: expect the usual garbage, but think of it now as more selective dumpster diving. Many more upcoming posts about heart surgery and rehab, more of a journal of sorts since me and only one other person read this, with a good amount of JSA, just more geared to getting better and getting back to regular mugairyu and eventually kendo (once I pay off all those back dues; fighting craziness in court can get a little spendy)

Mugairyu is shifting as I am starting to better understand what mugai looks like to me, as well as what some of the core concepts may be (as always, subject to change) Kendo is a little more of a rebuild, seeing as I have done little or no kendo over several months due to health, but will be coming back in far better shape than I ever was over the last few years. The fluidity, mental game, and overall kihon should be far improved over what I have shown in the past. It's amazing how much your budo can suck when life is literally killing you.

For all the 3 fans of Terminator references to married life, well, that is done. Can't say I'm disappointed really.

Well, maybe except for one more.....

The future is not set. There's no fate, except for the one that we make for ourselves.

TeChNical diFFicuLTieS......

2010-06-14T14:58:00.001-05:00

Well, haven't posted in over a month; the lappy I'm on has been out of commission, and I've been out of commission a bit as well. Missed all the usual updates, but will be getting things back on track soon enough. Took apart the laptop, tried fixing it, and ended up with the same issues. So I'm definitely no IT guy.

Well, should have things back up and running in the next few days.....

Happy Wedding!

2010-04-17T15:00:00.003-05:00

Well one of the Four Horsemen of the Chi-tonw mugairyu scene is getting married today. Having had a successful and law-abiding Tomocalypse Now, today is finally the big day of the Wedding. Our very own Viking Drummer from the Dark Northlands is tying the knot, and I wish him and his wife-to-be all the best. Congrats mate!

All Your Ippon - Glossary

2010-04-15T16:37:00.004-05:00

Aite - (eye-tay) -Japanese term used often in Kendo and other JSA to mean opponent (also taken to mean partner in some cases).

In your face.

2010-04-15T16:27:00.001-05:00

The concept of maai, or distance between opponents (being an oversimplified and one particular interpretation of the word) is a critical, but often unspoken concept in JSA. By unspoken, I mean, not that no-one talks about it, but more that it is more of a conceptual proverbial elephant in the room, and much like breath control, there aren't often in depth discussions about maai, and what it means from waza to waza, kata to kata, or kumitachi to kumitachi. From my own experiences, maai is talked about more often in kendo, and maai is a little more dynamic and of more immediate impact in say a jigeiko, than in koryu, even in kumitachi, at least as how it is practiced at our level currently (not saying maai isn't critical at all, in fact, anyone who has done mugairyu for more than a little while will come to realize that certain expectations/traditions around maai give mugairyu it's own particular flavour so to speak. If you haven't done mugairyu, then yes, I am being deliberately obtuse)

Anyway, was having a discussion with a good mate of mine the other day, and he has an interesting background in martial arts, in both JSA as well as unarmed martial arts styles, and the talk turned to maai, specifically around kata in JSA. Having participated in more than just armed combat, he is used to maai changing constantly, based on not only what weapon you have in your hand, but more importantly, the size and anatomical configuration of your opponents. His sense of maai in all his arts is dynamic, which leads to certain issues in kata, especially when dealing with the bunkai, or combative applications of kata. If you are doing kata solo, you are essential fighting an invisible opponent that is your clone. After moving x steps through y waza, you end up at a predetermined endpoint which makes sense in doing kata for shinsa, or embu, or taikai. If you are demonstrating bunkai however, with a partner, or partners, from your dojo, they are differently sized and shaped from you; the same distancing used in solo kata, i.e. assuming the opponent is the same as you in almost every way, doesn't always, or even often, work. Case in point; my friend was part of a bunkai demo in class, and the endpoint finishes with his kissaki buried in the opponents head. In order to make this the right distance he had to move his feet a little differently at the end, essentially taking a step back rather than staying in the same spot, otherwise he would end up with aite's head way deeper past the kissaki. Immediately a kohai pointed out, 'you did that wrong at the end, you moved your foot back instead of forwards', to which he replied (paraphrasing) 'my blade is in the right spot, therefore I'm in the right spot'. Upon which a mini argument around proper form in kata ensued. My point in all this, and I agree with my mate, is that there is a proper form in kata, but once you start demonstrating the bunkai, especially with other people of different sizes and shapes, it isn't really the same as solo kata, and things like maai are going to change if you want your blade to end up where it needs to be. Kata are great at teaching you how to move and the essential waza within a tradition, but applying that to kumitachi or to bunkai, may be completely different for 2 different people of different sizes and shapes within the same ryuha. Footwork is important, but only in that it gets you in the right position at the right time, in the right place to deliver the right technique relative to your aite. Worrying about whether your feet end up in the same pattern 'x' as a sensei a third shorter than you (or taller) is more like memorizing dance steps than learning how to correctly apply the technique to a "combative" situation, especially if your blade ends up in the wrong place.

Back in action

2010-04-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

Well, after a bit of a layoff from the doj', mugairyu to be specific, was able to get back in practice. Although I was laid low with heart issues and have been trying to get the old ticker up to speed, the layoff was good (and the same goes for kendo) in several respects; some old war wounds were able to heal, namely the right ankle that I totally tore apart in Feb, as well as some lingering left knee issues that were making seiza uncomfortable and affecting my form. Additionally, with suburi daily, as well as a little zazen, mentally, from a practice perspective, things are pretty good too. It is important, especially with an intermittent schedule, or one where you are only practicing once or twice a week, to enter the dojo and your practice session of getting the most out of it. As a sempai in Tokyo once explained to me, you should approach how you perform waza the same was as if you were testing, or performing at a taikai. Some of the other old timers have also explained in the dojo, and on the web as, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. So besides just showing up, you should show up in the fullest meaning of the words.

We went through some ren, as well as some mawari-gakari, which was a nice mix of seated and standing kata. Was able to spend some time concentrating on breathing and breath control during the kata, in terms of how many kokyu before initiating the waza within the kata, as well as when to breathe in and out at various points. Not to say I have that all down or anything, but definitely took the time to pay attention to it, and my kata definitely seemed a little tighter and a lot smoother when I did try to incorporate breath control throughout the kata. Looking forward to practice next Monday (TomTom's wedding precludes any Saturday practice ;)

People in the Doj': Update

2010-04-14T19:34:00.002-05:00

Well, I swore never to use pictures of what friends and family etc, really look like on the blog, but then I realized that maybe some of you have met these guys and are trying to link faces with names, or that since we are all getting older fast, maybe I should record what we look like now, for posterity's sake.

Anyway here's an update of the mugai guys; starting with the oyabun of the Chi-tonw himself,

Fly Bri

TomTom

Sanchez

Shobu

The Law-Dog

Scottie Pow Pow

Jon (heavily Photoshopped- less back hair)

So, there you go. A bunch of hard boyz in the best Koryu style, and seriously, with a beard and sunglasses, Sanchez looks exactly the same as his picture.

Tsuki of the Month?

2010-04-08T19:46:00.000-05:00

Whoops. Thanks to a massive computer FAIL, I've been trying to rebuild the HD I'm using currently, and as part of that, have been trying to rebuild the All Your Ippon archive of pics and other nonsense. As a result, it looks like I've double posted a couple of tsuki pics over the last couple of years. I agree with you that this is total BS/complete hansoku so this month and next month, you'll be getting a double shot of some hot nasty tsuki action, even if I have to armour up and take a few hits myself.

Tsuki of the Month!

2010-04-08T19:39:00.000-05:00

Not sure if that was going to be a men or kote, but either way, it was too little, too late.

TSUKI!!

Saying of the Day!

2010-04-08T19:24:00.002-05:00

If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power.

Before you obtain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special.

-Shunryu Suzuki

Now Read This!

2010-04-08T19:17:00.000-05:00

Having read "A Fighter's Heart", where author Sam Sheridan tries to break into the world of competitive MMA, I was pleasantly surprised to see him put out another book, and this one I think is far superior to his first, although I enjoyed the first one much.

This book is essentially a series of interviews between Sam and a number of MMA luminaries, where the author is trying to get to how these practitioners think about their art and how the mental aspect of their approach to their arts plays a role in their success. The nice thing in this book is, rather than the author waxing poetic on what he thinks is the "secret" to the mental aspect of martial arts, he leaves it up to the reader to view the words of the person being interviewed to try to glean their own takeaways. An easy read and there aren't exactly a plethora of "satori" moments, but in many ways that is exactly the point. He even includes an interview with an ultra-marathon runner, to get a different perspective on the mental battle that takes place as the runner "fights" his way to the finish.

As Renzo Gracie once succinctly put it, "Everybody is fighting something."

Something useful here for any practitioner of budo, especially from a modern perspective, rather than just from traditional historical sources. Good read.

OSS!!

2010-04-02T17:46:00.001-05:00

Daily OSS! Drunk History meets the Electric Jesus.

2010-03-27T21:06:00.001-05:00

Nikola Tesla is the Electric Jesus? OSS!!

Possibly NSFW OSS.....

2010-03-21T18:42:00.000-05:00

Directed by McG, starring Kirsten Dunst dancing around Akibahara in a Sailor Moon-esque outfit, with some borderline hentai and upskirt action....yeah, probably not SFW.

Still weird enough for a look though ;)