Every year, the Japan Taido Association hosts four national tournaments, one each for children, students, and adults, and the all-Japan championship. The Shakaijin Taikai is a tournament for “members of society,” which can be taken to mean adults. Basically, it excludes children and undergrads, but anyone else is free to compete. This year’s event included men…
This past weekend, my dojo joined Taido students form several other prefectures in Tottori for some training and play. Tottori is a small costal city. It’s known for fishing, hot springs, and the sakyu (about which, more later). The local Taido scene is a small, loose-knit group held together by a guy named Uchiyama. Uchiyama is a neurologist and moved…
So another year has gone by, and Taido/Blog is officially two years old now. I’m pretty excited about that, and I’m also excited about the end of 2007 and all of the symbolic meaning of an approaching new year. I’m already looking forward to a ton of great things that will be happening in 2008. But…
The annual Tama Taikai is a regional tournament held in Higashi-Kurume. Participants include much of West Tokyo and parts of Saitama, Kanagawa, and Yamanashi Prefectures. It’s one of the larger “local” events, and considered kind of a warm-up for more more serious events at the end of summer which determine the teams for the four national events…
Note: Lest I come off as if i were trying to sound like an expert, I should mention here that my Japanese is not great. I am not fluent in Japanese, but I am fluid in using Japanese to the degree I understand it. My Japanese language skills are exactly as good as they need to be in order to do…
