Today was a day of mixed emotions and feelings, nervousness and uncertainty.
Today, the 27th of June, 2010, was the Mid-Year Kendo Grading Examinations. I was going for 初段 (Shodan), currently 1st Kyu.
In a frantic rush the night before, I had almost forgotten to finish up the answers for the questions to be handed up upon a successful Jitsugi and Kata evaluations. Added to that i was also doing some maintenance on the shinais that I was going to use for the grading. After everything was done, it was already 4am. What a bummer..I was hoping to sleep early the day before grading, get revitalized and rejuvenated. Guess not. With only 3 hours of sleep, I tried my best to energize myself and made my way to SKC. I had only a muesli bar as my energy source for that morning.
So skipping all the details as well as the long wait before the 1st Kyu people were up for the grading, I felt that I performed well today. Focused and composed, I breezed through the Kihon component of the Jitsugi. After which came the Gi Keiko. I took my time and doubled my focus to catch opportunities. Overall the Jitsugi was well done. The Kata component also went smoothly, only with a surprise that the Senseis only wanted to test the Kendokas going for Shodan Katas’ 1 to 3. In the group of 1st Kyu, only 2 didn’t make it. Unfortunately, they will have to train harder.
Grading was done and over. There was joy and there was sadness. On the whole the NYP cohort did very well. Many of them jumped to grades that we never predicted and of course for myself I have achieved my Shodan!
To all the NYP Kendokas who took the grading today, Well Done!! Keep up the training, keep up the spirit. Congratulations you have earned it!
Packing up and ready to leave the dojo, the suggestion to crash Clara’s pad was taken up. We arrived at her place in about 30mins give and take a little. Her apartment was pretty nice, spacious, not the most decorated but comfortable, as for her room, well..its quite a sight to behold. If you are korean pop culture fanatic, you’d probably love it in there. So after the little house visit, we headed off for lunch for a good hour of so got myself cuts and bruises on the left knee and headed back to Clara’s crib to chill out for a little while. We left her place at about 6pm and it was fun. Whoever knew Angela could be tickled so easily.
It was a relatively great day. Starting work tomorrow! Ippudo kitchen here I come. I hope the environment is as friendly as Stella describes it to be.
So yeah, this wraps up today’s blog post.
Cheers and have a good one.
I’m going to save up to buy me some Gurren Lagann figures!
