Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

Photo by C. Parsons Last weekend was the opening ceremony of our annual Japan Week here in Spokane.  All week there are fun things going on all over town for people to participate in and learn more about all things Japanese.  This year our dojo shook things up a bit by hosting a dinner at our dojo the night before the opening ceremony, as a kind of "grand opening" of our new location. The fun with dinner kicked off a week prior, when we were told that there were about sixty people signed up for dinner (not including kendo members).  We were all pretty happy hearing that, but in a couple of days that number doubled to around 120, and then finally when the day came we were sitting at 200 people and counting!  I think we exceeded any goals that we had for dinner.  We had planned not only a dinner but various martial arts and taiko demonstrations during the time, as well as some other fun things such as door prizes and a movie afterward for anyone that wanted to stay. My

Ever since the shinsa back in February, I've been thinking of ways to improve and step up my training.  I want to be the best that I can be, and I know that there's always room for me to improve.  But how do I do that?  I had a nice talk with my sensei about it last week and after getting some advice and guidance I have a lot of new ideas. The main things that I want to work on (and am working on) right now are moving from my center and being more explosive.  I believe that I'll have to put in a lot of work to move with my whole body before I can start making it faster, but that's ok.  I want to be able to strike with everything, not just my hands and upper body, and I want to be able to do it in a split-second.  To go from relaxed and pressuring in to striking and flying through all at once.  The first step in doing that is to change my mindset.  Sinclair Sensei put a big emphasis on changing my mindset to begin to improve the rest of my body.  If I want more spee

**After a crazy month or so, with our dojo maintenance and visitors and the taikai this past weekend, I think I might actually be able to get back on schedule with my posts.  For anyone out there that reads these on a regular basis I'll be back to my normal weekly posts next week. This past weekend our dojo attended the 36th annual invitation taikai at the University of Washington.  We had a small group this time; only six of us went to compete.  We were also all in the same division, competing in the 1-2 Dan category, so the taikai was already shaping up to be an interesting one.  We decided to not train the Friday night prior to the taikai, as we usually do, and instead opted for a more leisurely trip to Seattle and a bit of relaxation at the hotel that evening.  After a night of fellowship and rest we were ready for the taikai on Saturday morning. We arrived, warmed up...and then waited until after lunch.  The way they had the schedule set up our group was not fighting unti