Ippoippo

Kendo is proving to be most enjoyable. This week, did some more foot work, plus started to introduce using the shinai in some moves. Right at the end of the evening, we had to start shouting kiai [気合]. In this case, it was simply ‘men’ because we were simulating a blow to the head.

Still haven’t worked out if I should just shout it in a gruff manner, or go for the full blown Mifune Toshirō accent!
I need to ask an old work colleague of mine for advice on the later

Anyway, with all this Kendo going on at the moment, I spent some time looking around the net when I came across an old National Geographic programme about the 8th Dan tests for Kendo. This was a programme I saw a while back, and seemed to have sparked a little bit of interest in it.

What is more impressive, is a small segment about 10th Dan kendōka (people who do Kendo). There are no 10th Dan graded people alive, and nobody has recently ever been granted 9th Dan status!

“OK, so it’s only a small mountain, but it’s a mountain nonetheless. Not thinking enough about what’s needed for mountain climbing is inviting trouble.”

Apparently, the accident rate for Mt. Takao has doubled recently, and in most cases it seems like it’s because of Japanese women wanting to keep wearing ‘kawaii’ or ‘cute’ clothing… no matter what!! I mean, who wants to be seen wearing uncool clothing, even on a mountain

More here.

This last week, Yuko and I saw a couple of films. First up was “The Sun”. Well, actually, I saw all the film, and then Yuko decided to watch it from half way through. It’s sort of like a companion piece to Downfall.
Certainly not the most amazing film I’ve ever seen, but still pretty good.

The other film we got out at the time, but didn’t get around to watching until last night was Cursed ['Chô' kowai hanashi A]. Yuko likes her horror films, and I quite like a number of Japanese horror films.
This one… pile of excrement! Avoid at all costs… unless you have a thing for ex-model Sato Hiroko.

[Ouch, slap from Yuko!]

Here’s todays other random links.

Porn producers arrested for filming at McDonald’s in Saitama…

We didn’t think it would be a problem as long as nobody noticed what we were doing.

ROFL!!

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Japan, good old Yasukuni Shrine related stuff is stirring things up again.

And finally, I see WordPress 2.5 is out now. I’ll guess I’ll hold back from the upgrade until I do my site theme redesign.

Unless you’ve been away from the TV, you’ve probably been seeing scenes like this on the TV.

According to Uncyclopedia, what we are actual witnessing is a new Extreme sport, called Extreme Torch Relay. As you can see, France is currently leading the scoreboard!

Seriously though…

Part of me thinks these protests are great. Given Chinese actions in Tibet (though, it’s not all a one-sided issue), then it’s all well and good.
However, I think some of the French protesters took it a little too far when they went for the torch at a stage when it was being carried by a lady in a wheelchair.

Also, I get the feeling that a large number of these ‘protesters’ are actual just a bunch of troublemakers who’ve found a nice excuse to kick things off. It’s a real shame because this is a real chance to have a very public protest against the Chinese government.

I also see that in Japan, they don’t want the Chinese security runners there, when the flame gets to Nagano.