Up and Down and Here We Go...

I had a chance to practive with Mr. KMura last Saturday at Skyline. He has just arrived in Jakarta a couple of weeks ago and I have not had too many chances to practice with him.. One thing I noticed right away is that his versatility and his liberty in his kamae position. He seems to have taken a lot of (more than most, at least) liberty in changing the position of his kamae, up and down... I have to say this confused me and made me susceptible to a few of his attacks. It took me a while to TRY to adapt to what was going on. You see, I think my kamae is pretty much straight forward, I don't try to do anything drastic for the fear of breaking my form and opening myself up for attacks. So, what I did instead was to readjust my maai, so that it will create some sort of distance and timing barrier, preventing Mr. KMura from having too much of his way with me... I was successful for a few times and failed for many more times. This is definitely a work in progress for me. I am a bit happy that I have the chance to work on this though...

Renewed Interest

It was a happy moment when I saw BigBlackWilly back at practice. It has been at least 2-3 years since he moved to Bali for his job. I guess he's back now...
You know, I am actually quite surprised that from all the people of his generation, he's the one that (so far) to actually have a keen interest in Kendo and the desire to learn. He's a bit wild, but talented... A valuable asset comes tournament time. He's been out of Kendo for a while, he's a bit wild with his swinging and kiai, but given time he'll get it back, his speed, his spirit and that wild eye look grin on his face.
The clubbing I did on Friday took its tool for the whole weekend for me. I was sore all the way through, I think I didn't have enough rest or something... My shoulder was sore and worse of all, I think somehow I hurt my ankle on Sunday. I don't know what happened, I didn't sprain it, I didn't remember anything happening. All of a sudden, my left ankle locked up and it was painful for me to stand on. The idiot that I am, I kept on going. I took a short break and went back to keiko.
I went to the traditional healer this morning to got it fixed, it was painful but it was short and cheap. I have to lay off it for a couple days even though I don't really feel the pain no more. I hope that it's nothing serious, I really hate to get injured right now.

How Long Was I Gone?

I had to go to this club last Friday, because Provocateur was in town and she wanted to go meet some of her friends at this particular club. I have not been to this particular club, but from what I heard it is one of the most exclusive place in town where all the models and movie stars hang out, or something like that...
You see, I haven't been clubbing in a while and have not been inclined to go out either. I found it tiring and I think I've had enough partying in my lifetime and it is all behind me now. The moment I walked in there, however, what I found was rather disappointing.
Sure there were a few good looking girls, but most of the crowd were dubious looking old men, and I mean old, not just too old for the club, but old in general, like in their 50s, disgustingly dancing with much younger girls. Not only that, I dunno what happened, but one of these old guys were picking a fight with some white guys as well...
I was kinda hoping the fight would happen, just to see something interesting in an otherwise dreary nightclub. So, I took Provocateur back to her hotel... she did invited me up to her room, but I didn't do nothing, I didn't want to, I chose not to... It was late, I needed to rest and plus, I REALLY didn't want to...
Little did I know, I would pay for this late outing for the next few days...

Skyline Fight Club

As I was watching Mr. KNGae talking about the enjoyment of a kendo match as opposed to the pressure of having to win or score points, I realized that there's something to this group that I have not seen before...
These are Japanese people who have practiced Kendo all their lives, sometime not by choice and only after they have come and practice in Jakarta that they began to develop a deeper understanding, desire and enjoyment to Kendo.
Many of them have done Kendo for decades but found it something they were either good at, or had to do. It is ironic that many of them found Kendo after they have left Japan.
I feel lucky that we have such a wonderful dojo, which I sometime take for granted. We have 4 7 Dan senseis, numerous 5-6 Dans and many other. What's more amazing is that somehow we have an open environment where everyone passionately discusses about Kendo without worrying about too much etiquette or protocol. Everyone is open to questions and everything is open for discussion. I don't know how long this will last, of course I do hope that it'll last a while.

That's What She Said...

With Avatar in hiatus until later this month, my new favourite show is The Office (US version). I got nothing against Rick Gervais, it's just that the cast of the British version is just to damned unattractive to watch. So crazy that I went and bought all DVDs for season 1-4 last week and I finished them all in one week, staying up until 3 AM watching them... So addicted that I actually watched The Office at my office at one point. I began to link characters of the show to people I have worked with, especially during my employment tenure in Boston. I think I got a man-crush on Jim Halpert... although if I was him I would have picked Karen instead of Pam...
So now that I've finished watching The Office... I actually had time to re-work on learning to play guitars again. I actually figured out how the play the song Sempurna by Andra and the Backbone, I think... I omitted a few notes in each repetition because I just couldn't figure out how to place my fingers to play them. A professional guitar player friend of mine actually laughed when he heard me play the riffs over the phone because he immediately realized that I wasn't playing the complete version... Of course it took him only around 5 minutes the figure how to play the complete version.

Concentration through Repetition

Mr. TTKuma and I started practicing kata again this week after last week’s demonstration at Hotel Sahid Jaya. I was not very satisfied with last week’s demonstration, I thought I was a bit too eager and made a few mistakes in the process. With our target for October’s demonstration getting closer, we keep trying to focus on our kata practice.

Strangely enough, these weekly kata session with Mr. TTKuma, Sergeat H or even Mr. MM, kinda reinvigorated my interest and passion in Kendo. I even feel tired after one session from kata number 1 – 10. The attention to every little detail, not only our swing and timing, but even the way we walk, how we position our off hand fingers, demands every bit of concentration and effort at every moment. I used to think that kata is boring and is purely of ceremonial purpose only. However, the more I practice it, the more I realize that, just like shinai kendo, it trains your focus and concentration on every detail at every moment.

This past Sunday, I had a shiai training with Teacher K at our JJS dojo. Even though from the outside, the match seems evenly fought, I didn’t feel or see any possibility for me to score an ippon during the match. Rather I didn’t create or see a good enough moment during the match for myself to score an ippon. In the end, I lost by a narrow one point to Teacher K. I always enjoy my matches with Teacher K and I am looking forward to fighting him again in the near future.

'well wishes'

I don’t know what the hell is up this last week. It seems that everywhere I turn, I was reminded with my failed relationship with Queen of Diamonds. Perhaps I have backtrack a bit here to get story straight… Last month was my birthday, strangely enough Queen of Diamonds was the first one to wish me a happy birthday, she even sent me a cake! So when it was her birthday, it was my turn to send her some flowers (our birthday is only a week apart). She also mentioned that it was her mother’s birthday this past week. Out of courtesy, I decided to give her mother a call to wish her happy birthday. I guess I got a bit more to that. On the phone, she kept me talking for a good while about how I and her daughter broke up, and how she wishes that we would still be together, etc. I didn’t say a lot, only gave her some ‘verbal nodding’ over the phone.

That was one thing, the other one was, my friends it seems kept on telling how they saw Queen of Diamonds with her new guy, who is short, ugly, or whatever… I don’t know if they were trying to make me feel better, but seriously it didn’t feel good at all.

The last straw was when people let me know that the word on the street for the cause of our breakup was that she was cheating on me. Honestly, I don’t think so and even so that was the first time I ever heard of such thing, but still such kind of unnecessary information just makes you feel… eh, you know?

On one hand, I am glad that I don’t need to deal with the walking and talking mess whom we call the Queen of Diamonds and that I came out as the ‘good guy’ out of this mess. On the other hand, I am saddened that someone or something that used to mean a lot to was suddenly exposed to be a possible sham… In any case, I am sooo ready to walk away from this… I just wish that other people would just stop reminding me of what has passed…

these are not the droids you're looking for...

So, I’ve been going out with Belly Dancer for the past few weeks now. It seems we’ve gone out every weekend now and talk to each other on and off every few days as well. So far I’ve managed to establish some sort of a ‘comfort’ level with her… I like having her to call, to watch movies with, to have dinner with, yet we have not had any improvement in the ‘barriers’ department. Not that I have any problems with that either. Honestly, so far I haven’t had any inclinations to dig in deeper into her, not literally… nor do I have any inclinations to share any more of me to her. Although I do have a feeling that she knows enough about me as it is… In fact I don’t even know how much she knows about me… If that makes any sense at all.

Well TONIGHT, after lunch, movie and dinner… Hancock was just so-so by the way… We were actually talking about some stuff from our previous relationship and family issues… Let’s just put it this way, I think she implied that she still have some family issues in regards to her relationship that needed to be sorted out. With THAT, she also mentioned some bits and pieces about the nature of our ‘relationship’… Well, it’s safe to say that she isn’t expecting more than what I expected of her in the first place. I feel fine with that, in fact sort of a relief really… Of course, due the complicated nature with a woman, I won’t know what that actually means until the next time I ask her out…