Kyudo and other adventures in Japan
If you do kyudo or tried it in IBU or wherever in Japan and want to practice in Europe here is a map of the dojos in Europe.
As a rule of thumb, Eastern Europe and the German and Italian speaking parts are usually Heki dojos, Western Europe is usually ANKF shomen dojos. Of course with exceptions and with some other ryus present in some countries.
But usually all dojos are welcoming towards all kinds of kyudoka.
because… why wouldn’t they? 🙂
Have fun practicing! That’s the most important 🙂
I’m still around. 😉
Riding the train is perfect for having time to type in a quick update for you all. The school schedule is still over stuffed and we have close to 0 time for studying. It’s mostly running from class to class. Its close to the end of the semester, I have 4 reports to write next week.
My last months were memorable and i learned a lot about myself too.
I had a few trips, I met amazing people, made new friends and more. I’ll try to get some posts out of me in the coming weeks. I have a lot of photos too waiting to be sorted, articles to be written about sadou, kyudo, competitions, life in Japan, student life, clubs, life in the country side , surfing, SUPing, and much more.
I miss writing and having time to compose my thoughts in a more coherent way. So… you’ll here from me soon 🙂
After visiting a sentou in Tokyo with Shirokuma I got hooked. It is an amazing feeling to go in to your neighborhood sentou, wash off the days dirt and then sit in the hot water for as long as you can manage it. Kind of a rebirth. Not as amazing as a good ice swimming after a sauna but pretty close 🙂
So when I moved to Katsuura I was hoping I will find one here too. Walking through the town I was lucky to bump in to it 🙂
Then one night we decided to visit with Eric
This is what you see when you enter:
and this is the door to the bath
They even have a medieval turture massage chair from a few centuries back
We had the bath for the two of us, no other guests at the time.
It was amazing! If you ever come to Japan don’t miss the onsen / sentou experience!
Since we had practice again on Sunday it was time for a treat. Especially that we cut and moved the grass on the archery field. So after the training we went to find a place to eat a nice lunch. Which turned out to be a little harder then in any other day. We checked out at least 5 places until we found one ramen place open. Its close to the Hayashi Supermarket.
It works with the same kind of menu machine that the university cafeteria or a few other places I tried in Tokyo. I really like this system. You pick what you want, pay and give the little paper you get to the staff. This way there is no question about change or any money handling. Faster, easier, better.
I tried the local special ramen, Katsuura Tan Tan Men. It is mid spicy and very good! We had a nice time with two guys from kyudo club. Even got some dorama suggestions 😀
Dont forget! If you are planning to do JLPT this year, application deadline is 28 April!
You can apply here:
Few sites to help with preparations:
http://www.tanos.co.uk/jlpt/jlpt4/
http://www.jlptstudy.com/N4/
http://jlptbootcamp.com/2012/11/the-official-jlpt-n4-practice-workbook/
http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm
http://www.nihongo-pro.com/quiz/60b9d732ca/learn-jlpt-n4-grammar-choose-the-correct-word-order
http://www.jlptstudy.net/N4/N4_kanji.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/JLPT_Guide/JLPT_N4_Grammar
Do you remember this? 🙂 Yes, I tracked it down and now I have a mato cushion in my room and its awesome 🙂
Emlékeztek még erre a képre? Sikerült lenyomoznom és szereztem egyet 🙂
Just a quick story about Japan. One day I was running back from kyudo to catch the last 20 min of iaido practice and it was not where I looked first so run to an other place but forgot my phone on the table there. After class I run back when I realized but it was already too late, the buildings were closed. So I went back next day and it was at the same place, untouched, waiting for me. Nobody even looked at it because it wasn’t theirs.
Same reason you can see umbrellas here and there and hats put on tables.
I was always hearing these stories about how people don’t touch things that are not theirs here, but seeing it real life is quite different.