It's Been Too Long

Damn, I haven't posted since early January.

Well, it's now almost the end of another school year and I will be saying goodbye to all my favourite 3rd years, which I have to say is a lot of them. The last couple of months has flown by. I had my Iaido grading on the 13th of January and passed my Shodan grading. (Yah me) You can read more about it on my martial arts blog.


A couple of weeks ago, we had our first real snow day here in Konan. We don't get a lot of snow here but for a boy from Queensland, It is still pretty amazing. The photo is from the balcony of our apartment.

Iaido - my first steps

When I came to Japan, one of the things that I wanted to experience, was to train in one of the Japanese martial arts. Once we were settled, I started to make some enquiries. One night I was talking to Mel's boss and I mentioned that I was interested in seeing Iaido. The next thing I know, I had an invite to watch a class at a local dojo.

Mel was especially nervous when we went because she had to do the initial introductions. The sensei was very welcoming, but he was surprised that we even knew about Iaido. After the introductions were over, we were given seats to watch the training.

We were both blown away by the grace, power and almost meditative state of the practitioners. After the session, I was asked if I wanted to train. I immediately said yes!