(another) random kendo log
These kendo logs are acoming, because, well, they're acoming. :P
So two for the price of one today! :)
Actually, let's make that threeee. :3
This week's kendo log, have me coming back to kendo after a short hiatus of 2 weeks due to travels to the States (which was awesome, btw :P ).
So first up:
31st March 2016 (Tuesday)
Let's see what I can remember. Haha, it was the first prac back, and I was happy and excited to be back. :) What was sweet was that, I went into the dojo late, but saw Tuna-san there, and he's like "welcome back" and I said "yesss, i'm really happy to be baaack" and he looked startled/taken aback with his "oh" expression heee. Then he said "welcome back" again to me after our keiko for that day. :3
I can't quite remember who I keiko-ed anymore but hmm.... oh I think how it went was, it was mostly mawari-keiko, and I only managed to get Tuna-san for super short at the end. Lucky I got him though! :)
Then afterwards, I went around giving out chocolate to people. OH!! Lols, super funny. Natnat and Lizhi were talking about stuffs, and quite into it, and then I came up with the bag of chocolate and pretty much COMPLETELY derailed them. It was like, the convo stopped and eyes followed chocolate immediately. :P Hahahaha, and that happened to Andrew/Loic too, when I went up to offer chocolate, and saw Loic giving comments and so left again, and poor Andrew was just like -hand stretched out for the chocolate- loools.
Then when I offered chocolate to Alex, he was like "Do these have alcohol in them?
"No?"
"Then what's the use of you working at Diageo??"
"Well, you guys never come to our parties! I always bring tons of alcohol to those. Last time I brought 6 bottles!"
"And 5 of those goes to Andrew right?"
"...uh. No?"
"Heh, Loic, should we tell her about the bbq?"
Loic, from the side, "Nah..."
Me: - D: face - "But I just gave you guys chocolaaaaate!!"
XD <3 them
I also literally threw chocolate at Eli. Just because I could. XD
And Tuna-san. Heeee. Though for Tuna-san, I literally just dropped the chocolate at him. Lols. He was at first going to say "Hey, that's rude!!" then I didn't stop dropping and told him, "I think there are multiple flavours. Here, have them all." Then he went "ooooh thank you" then "I don't want the mint one"
Hahahah <3
These logs are so gonna be non-kendo related. XD Just. Kendo-people related :P
2nd June 2016 (Thursday)
So I actually was NOT gonna go to kendo on Thursday, because I already went on Tuesday and long story but Dad's here and all and blah.
BUT THEN. THIS HAPPENED.
And I CHECKED, and I was pretty much the only one he actually replied to, for his bday wishes, so I called mum to convince dad and I ended up getting the ok to go to kendo.
And of course, I was all like "if Elliott doesn't show up, I'm soooo gonna kill him", but he totally was there! So -grins-. :3
Poor Elliott had to take the training, and booooy was it TOUGH man. It was like. Phew. So many full-length gym-running and I was exhausted lols. OH. Funny note. We did so many kirikaeshi, and at one point, I rotated to Elliott, and we were supposed to do a men-men-do-do kirikaeshi. So I started, and then HE screwed up the receiving, and he was laughing and like "wtf am I doing??" and I was like "LOLS Elliott??" Internally, I was cackling so hard cos it was like "Elliott, not you too!!!" kinda thing, (in ref to Andrew's 3 missed tsukis) though I'm pretty sure it wasn't. XD and of course, had to tell Andrew after. XD Sempais man.
Then it was keiko and well, there wasn't much time and I was there for Elliott anyways, so I just lined up straight for him behind Andrew and Eli, I think. :P The matches went well, I think he corrected Andrew for stuffs, and just went to town with Eli lols.
Then it was my turn, and super sweet, when he saw me, he was like 'oooh" as he sonkyo-ed. :3 I pretty much threw myself at him, but hey, that's how he enjoys it, and maaaaaan. There's something about playing Elliott that straightens out (somehow) my kendo... :P The irony of it all. :3 But man, in that first few couple minutes, we really both went at it, and somehow, SOMEHOW, I managed to score a couple of AMAZING points. Dekote's which I've NEVER been able to hit on Elliott, also a beautiful beautiful gyakudo, which I actually set up, it landed PERFECTLY, and he doesn't touch me. *shakes head* Well, I never. My energy waned a bit halfway through, but even so, I think we were running out of time, and we ended on that keiko. :3 When I exited the keiko, I saw Marija on the side, and she looked duly impressed and gave me short bows. :3
Hahaha, after the keiko, I went up to thank him, of course, and after the bow, he didn't even say anything else and just went to "how's life?" and all that stuffs. :3 And I, of course, made sure to tell him that I came to prac specially for him. XD He grins and go "Thanks kiddo!"
<3 Dammit. I'm sure I'm slightly in love with all my sempais. Lols. Some more than others, of course.
Yes Joce, you may laugh at yourself when you read back on this post in the future. :P
4th June 2016 (Saturday)
Aaaah, saturday was a fun one. Lols, poor Andrew, I kept like, bullying him (kind of) in the morning. Cos dearest Sensei kinda slated JJ and Andrew (Wang and Wong-sensei, wth hahahahahah) to do kata DEMO of all things, and me, having way more interest in practising the actual er, keiko(?) part of shinsa, kept bugging Andrew to just hurry up and finish the damn demo fastfastfast. XD And that's in between ribbing him, and Shawn (who wasn't even there) about teaching me kata wrong. :P OMG I wish sensei totally just made Andrew and SHAWN do demo together. Maybe I should (ask Akane to) suggest that next time hmm! :3
Anyways! So the demo went off without (much) of a glitch, asides from Sensei telling them to repeat their practicing. And Andrew also forgot to sonkyo. Lols, but then that ended well and yay for normal kihon/keiko!
OH! I nearly forgot, so before prac I went to look for Sensei to ask for permission to do 3dan.
"Sensei, may I do the 3dan grading in July please?"
"What? Oh, you MUST!! You have to do it!"
"Oh, ok! Yes sensei, definitely. I'll work hard!"
:3
There were Thu-nhon, Alex, Akane, Sensei and was Brisson-sensei there too...? Can't remember... Anyhows! Daddy-san aka Alex led practice this time. (Man, I actually reaaaaally like Alex and Thu-nhon's practices. Very focused, in very different ways.)
Practice was all and good and not too physically taxing (cos Alex), so after kihon, I didn't take a break and went straight for Thu-nhon, because I had wanted to for the longest time.
Now, a little backstory about Thu-nhon and gradings. So, TN has always been awesome in my books, cos well, he's TN, and he's just awesome. Then I remembered when he was training for his 5dan... he failed the first time around, but he really wasn't on form then I think? Mentally at least. But he came around and worked super hard and focused and he finally got it and I was sooooooooo happy for him aaargh, can't even say how much.
So since January or so, I told TN that I'm going for grading, and even since then, he'd been giving me tips and so whenever I go to him for keiko. And you know me, I try to take in stuffs that my sempais say and try to incorporate those, which, I guess, is something they like about teaching me? (I hope.) But cos of time and me focusing on other things asides from grading and missed timings, I got him maybe about like 2-3 times only since then? Now it's different though, cos it's crunch time for grading and that's really my focus (after Elliott's bday lols).
So I grabbed him, and immediately it's grading mode right? And we could both tell it's for grading, and I'm trying hard, getting a few nice hits in and all while being focused and not backing up and being confident and steady and all that. A few mins in, I see that Sensei was watching at the side, and then TN stops me (this is the 2nd time. The first to tell me to keep my front foot moving and not heavy. And this 2nd one is about tsubazariai and breaking away from opponent) to give me some tips. I listen well, though I see that Sensei has come up to here, and then Sensei tells us, well, more TN than me, "She's grading. So do the 2 x 2 mins grading keiko." Thu-nhon hears, and nods, and satisfied, Sensei walks away.
Then TN turns to me and says, "Ok, we're going to carry on as we are now. Then at the end, we will do the 2 x 2 mins practice, like an actual grading." And I go, "Hai!!"
So. So I didn't think much of it then, though I knew I was surprised and touched for some reason, by it. But afterwards I thought about it, and I realized exactly why. For many other sempais, for various reasons, maybe simply cos it was sensei who tells them and they follow almost to the word (goodness knows I myself do), or cos then they can move on to the next person, my sempais would just do the 2 x 2 mins, immediately.
TN though, TN is probably one of the only sempais I know, who would (be able to) take sensei's request/command, process it, think about what's the best for ME, and be willing to spend the time to add on to that, because he knows he can teach/help me more. I think, it really really touches me (and brings me to tears almost), because of the fact that just from that one sentence alone, I could tell that he truly cares, about my grading and about me, and he's really doing it, for me.
And it brings me to tears, because I have said this 1 year ago, 6 months ago before I made myself stop thinking about it, and it was also the reason why I pushed myself hard the past year to learn learn learn and play, because where on earth would I find such sempais/sensei's again who would care so deeply and personally about my growth?
It's gonna be hard to leave, and I'm so gonna bawl like a baby lols. :P
Aaaanyways, moving on from the sappy stuffs.
We carried on and did more before the 2 x 2mins, and then it was the 2 x 2 mins, which, scarily, felt really really short.
Afterwards, I played Akane, which I had wanted to do for a while, and glad that I got to. Oh man, I need to do something about fighting Akane, cos I feel like I don't throw myself into it as much, and it kinda sucks for us both lols. She gave me a men, and I missed it and we were both like "aaaah!" (in the oshii!!! kinda way) lols. That was funny though. :P
And then lastly, I was looking around for a short line, and saw that Sensei was almost done, so I lined up for Sensei, and got him just as Alex called ippon. The match with Sensei was fun! I think I got ooooone point off sensei? Am not too sure...
Kendo Pointers:
After class! So I went to thank Sensei first, and I asked, "Sensei, do you have any advice for me?" and Sensei says, "You pass!" Lols. Thank you sensei! :3
Went to Akane, and she tells me that I need to watch out for my shinai, cos I tend to follow my opponent's tip too much. (And this is especially dangerous because I myself don't realize it.)
Also, the solidity point --> I tend to be too much on the toes, was said. So that's something I need to look out for. Really sink into the hips, and not worry too much about the arms. So much easier said than done methinks, but... Jiayou!!
Went to Thu-nhon, and for him, heee, he tells me, "So next time, we're going to carry on like we did today." And I was just like "Awww, thank you!" And other pointers, he really really really stresses confidence. Even from BEFORE entering the keiko. And he says, when we back up from tsubazariai, make sure to back up so that we are visible/parallel to the judges. (You know what I mean). Also he tells me, when I start the keiko, make sure I start using "men" instead of dekote, like I did. (I scored though. :P) He says oujiwaza can come later.
So!! There-in lies my lovely sessions of kendo for this week.
I was happy and I learnt some stuffs too, so yay! :) I enjoyed myself tons, and there really isn't much time left, but korekara mo ganbarimasu. :3
FIGHTO!!!
So two for the price of one today! :)
Actually, let's make that threeee. :3
This week's kendo log, have me coming back to kendo after a short hiatus of 2 weeks due to travels to the States (which was awesome, btw :P ).
So first up:
31st March 2016 (Tuesday)
Let's see what I can remember. Haha, it was the first prac back, and I was happy and excited to be back. :) What was sweet was that, I went into the dojo late, but saw Tuna-san there, and he's like "welcome back" and I said "yesss, i'm really happy to be baaack" and he looked startled/taken aback with his "oh" expression heee. Then he said "welcome back" again to me after our keiko for that day. :3
I can't quite remember who I keiko-ed anymore but hmm.... oh I think how it went was, it was mostly mawari-keiko, and I only managed to get Tuna-san for super short at the end. Lucky I got him though! :)
Then afterwards, I went around giving out chocolate to people. OH!! Lols, super funny. Natnat and Lizhi were talking about stuffs, and quite into it, and then I came up with the bag of chocolate and pretty much COMPLETELY derailed them. It was like, the convo stopped and eyes followed chocolate immediately. :P Hahahaha, and that happened to Andrew/Loic too, when I went up to offer chocolate, and saw Loic giving comments and so left again, and poor Andrew was just like -hand stretched out for the chocolate- loools.
Then when I offered chocolate to Alex, he was like "Do these have alcohol in them?
"No?"
"Then what's the use of you working at Diageo??"
"Well, you guys never come to our parties! I always bring tons of alcohol to those. Last time I brought 6 bottles!"
"And 5 of those goes to Andrew right?"
"...uh. No?"
"Heh, Loic, should we tell her about the bbq?"
Loic, from the side, "Nah..."
Me: - D: face - "But I just gave you guys chocolaaaaate!!"
XD <3 them
I also literally threw chocolate at Eli. Just because I could. XD
And Tuna-san. Heeee. Though for Tuna-san, I literally just dropped the chocolate at him. Lols. He was at first going to say "Hey, that's rude!!" then I didn't stop dropping and told him, "I think there are multiple flavours. Here, have them all." Then he went "ooooh thank you" then "I don't want the mint one"
Hahahah <3
These logs are so gonna be non-kendo related. XD Just. Kendo-people related :P
2nd June 2016 (Thursday)
So I actually was NOT gonna go to kendo on Thursday, because I already went on Tuesday and long story but Dad's here and all and blah.
BUT THEN. THIS HAPPENED.
And I CHECKED, and I was pretty much the only one he actually replied to, for his bday wishes, so I called mum to convince dad and I ended up getting the ok to go to kendo.
And of course, I was all like "if Elliott doesn't show up, I'm soooo gonna kill him", but he totally was there! So -grins-. :3
Poor Elliott had to take the training, and booooy was it TOUGH man. It was like. Phew. So many full-length gym-running and I was exhausted lols. OH. Funny note. We did so many kirikaeshi, and at one point, I rotated to Elliott, and we were supposed to do a men-men-do-do kirikaeshi. So I started, and then HE screwed up the receiving, and he was laughing and like "wtf am I doing??" and I was like "LOLS Elliott??" Internally, I was cackling so hard cos it was like "Elliott, not you too!!!" kinda thing, (in ref to Andrew's 3 missed tsukis) though I'm pretty sure it wasn't. XD and of course, had to tell Andrew after. XD Sempais man.
Then it was keiko and well, there wasn't much time and I was there for Elliott anyways, so I just lined up straight for him behind Andrew and Eli, I think. :P The matches went well, I think he corrected Andrew for stuffs, and just went to town with Eli lols.
Then it was my turn, and super sweet, when he saw me, he was like 'oooh" as he sonkyo-ed. :3 I pretty much threw myself at him, but hey, that's how he enjoys it, and maaaaaan. There's something about playing Elliott that straightens out (somehow) my kendo... :P The irony of it all. :3 But man, in that first few couple minutes, we really both went at it, and somehow, SOMEHOW, I managed to score a couple of AMAZING points. Dekote's which I've NEVER been able to hit on Elliott, also a beautiful beautiful gyakudo, which I actually set up, it landed PERFECTLY, and he doesn't touch me. *shakes head* Well, I never. My energy waned a bit halfway through, but even so, I think we were running out of time, and we ended on that keiko. :3 When I exited the keiko, I saw Marija on the side, and she looked duly impressed and gave me short bows. :3
Hahaha, after the keiko, I went up to thank him, of course, and after the bow, he didn't even say anything else and just went to "how's life?" and all that stuffs. :3 And I, of course, made sure to tell him that I came to prac specially for him. XD He grins and go "Thanks kiddo!"
<3 Dammit. I'm sure I'm slightly in love with all my sempais. Lols. Some more than others, of course.
Yes Joce, you may laugh at yourself when you read back on this post in the future. :P
4th June 2016 (Saturday)
Aaaah, saturday was a fun one. Lols, poor Andrew, I kept like, bullying him (kind of) in the morning. Cos dearest Sensei kinda slated JJ and Andrew (Wang and Wong-sensei, wth hahahahahah) to do kata DEMO of all things, and me, having way more interest in practising the actual er, keiko(?) part of shinsa, kept bugging Andrew to just hurry up and finish the damn demo fastfastfast. XD And that's in between ribbing him, and Shawn (who wasn't even there) about teaching me kata wrong. :P OMG I wish sensei totally just made Andrew and SHAWN do demo together. Maybe I should (ask Akane to) suggest that next time hmm! :3
Anyways! So the demo went off without (much) of a glitch, asides from Sensei telling them to repeat their practicing. And Andrew also forgot to sonkyo. Lols, but then that ended well and yay for normal kihon/keiko!
OH! I nearly forgot, so before prac I went to look for Sensei to ask for permission to do 3dan.
"Sensei, may I do the 3dan grading in July please?"
"What? Oh, you MUST!! You have to do it!"
"Oh, ok! Yes sensei, definitely. I'll work hard!"
:3
There were Thu-nhon, Alex, Akane, Sensei and was Brisson-sensei there too...? Can't remember... Anyhows! Daddy-san aka Alex led practice this time. (Man, I actually reaaaaally like Alex and Thu-nhon's practices. Very focused, in very different ways.)
Practice was all and good and not too physically taxing (cos Alex), so after kihon, I didn't take a break and went straight for Thu-nhon, because I had wanted to for the longest time.
Now, a little backstory about Thu-nhon and gradings. So, TN has always been awesome in my books, cos well, he's TN, and he's just awesome. Then I remembered when he was training for his 5dan... he failed the first time around, but he really wasn't on form then I think? Mentally at least. But he came around and worked super hard and focused and he finally got it and I was sooooooooo happy for him aaargh, can't even say how much.
So since January or so, I told TN that I'm going for grading, and even since then, he'd been giving me tips and so whenever I go to him for keiko. And you know me, I try to take in stuffs that my sempais say and try to incorporate those, which, I guess, is something they like about teaching me? (I hope.) But cos of time and me focusing on other things asides from grading and missed timings, I got him maybe about like 2-3 times only since then? Now it's different though, cos it's crunch time for grading and that's really my focus (after Elliott's bday lols).
So I grabbed him, and immediately it's grading mode right? And we could both tell it's for grading, and I'm trying hard, getting a few nice hits in and all while being focused and not backing up and being confident and steady and all that. A few mins in, I see that Sensei was watching at the side, and then TN stops me (this is the 2nd time. The first to tell me to keep my front foot moving and not heavy. And this 2nd one is about tsubazariai and breaking away from opponent) to give me some tips. I listen well, though I see that Sensei has come up to here, and then Sensei tells us, well, more TN than me, "She's grading. So do the 2 x 2 mins grading keiko." Thu-nhon hears, and nods, and satisfied, Sensei walks away.
Then TN turns to me and says, "Ok, we're going to carry on as we are now. Then at the end, we will do the 2 x 2 mins practice, like an actual grading." And I go, "Hai!!"
So. So I didn't think much of it then, though I knew I was surprised and touched for some reason, by it. But afterwards I thought about it, and I realized exactly why. For many other sempais, for various reasons, maybe simply cos it was sensei who tells them and they follow almost to the word (goodness knows I myself do), or cos then they can move on to the next person, my sempais would just do the 2 x 2 mins, immediately.
TN though, TN is probably one of the only sempais I know, who would (be able to) take sensei's request/command, process it, think about what's the best for ME, and be willing to spend the time to add on to that, because he knows he can teach/help me more. I think, it really really touches me (and brings me to tears almost), because of the fact that just from that one sentence alone, I could tell that he truly cares, about my grading and about me, and he's really doing it, for me.
And it brings me to tears, because I have said this 1 year ago, 6 months ago before I made myself stop thinking about it, and it was also the reason why I pushed myself hard the past year to learn learn learn and play, because where on earth would I find such sempais/sensei's again who would care so deeply and personally about my growth?
It's gonna be hard to leave, and I'm so gonna bawl like a baby lols. :P
Aaaanyways, moving on from the sappy stuffs.
We carried on and did more before the 2 x 2mins, and then it was the 2 x 2 mins, which, scarily, felt really really short.
Afterwards, I played Akane, which I had wanted to do for a while, and glad that I got to. Oh man, I need to do something about fighting Akane, cos I feel like I don't throw myself into it as much, and it kinda sucks for us both lols. She gave me a men, and I missed it and we were both like "aaaah!" (in the oshii!!! kinda way) lols. That was funny though. :P
And then lastly, I was looking around for a short line, and saw that Sensei was almost done, so I lined up for Sensei, and got him just as Alex called ippon. The match with Sensei was fun! I think I got ooooone point off sensei? Am not too sure...
Kendo Pointers:
After class! So I went to thank Sensei first, and I asked, "Sensei, do you have any advice for me?" and Sensei says, "You pass!" Lols. Thank you sensei! :3
Went to Akane, and she tells me that I need to watch out for my shinai, cos I tend to follow my opponent's tip too much. (And this is especially dangerous because I myself don't realize it.)
Also, the solidity point --> I tend to be too much on the toes, was said. So that's something I need to look out for. Really sink into the hips, and not worry too much about the arms. So much easier said than done methinks, but... Jiayou!!
Went to Thu-nhon, and for him, heee, he tells me, "So next time, we're going to carry on like we did today." And I was just like "Awww, thank you!" And other pointers, he really really really stresses confidence. Even from BEFORE entering the keiko. And he says, when we back up from tsubazariai, make sure to back up so that we are visible/parallel to the judges. (You know what I mean). Also he tells me, when I start the keiko, make sure I start using "men" instead of dekote, like I did. (I scored though. :P) He says oujiwaza can come later.
So!! There-in lies my lovely sessions of kendo for this week.
I was happy and I learnt some stuffs too, so yay! :) I enjoyed myself tons, and there really isn't much time left, but korekara mo ganbarimasu. :3
FIGHTO!!!