So long, Kyudo!

Last week was my last kyudo practice. Because it was the last kyudo practice several things happened: I got to take pictures, so I can remember everything and everyone! I got to try an a hakama; as I explained before, you have to past the test to be able to wear hakama and shoot regularly. They let me shoot in the hakama at the target (although I have been shooting at the target occasionally, never in a hakama! And finally, I had to give a sort of offcial goodbye speech. I was really quiet while I was talking because I was so nervous but I think I got my feelings across. I basically talked about how much I had wanted to join a kyudo club, how hard it turned out ot be but what a great experience it was. I also talked about how everone was really nice and helpful, and how even though I messed up all the time I felt like I learned a lot. I also mentioned that I'll probably never ever forget all this. They seemed to like it^.^

Oh, and at the last meeting everyone sat in a circle and talked about all the things they thought they did poorly...it was really interesting and confusing.

I really do beieve this club, as frustrating as it was at times, was one of the best things I've done. I should be going to karaoke with the other first years, and because of this club I've got anohter small handful of Japanese friends, even if I didn't manage to get super close to them, I know I can keep in touch! (mixi-the japanese myspace!) The last meeting was really fun because I was taking pictures, some of the girls are really silly. I like them alot.


In any case, I'm going to show you around the dojo via pictures and such:

Most importantly this is the shrine. You're not supposed to turn your back to it when your sweeping and we have to replace the water in the plants every day, three times a day. I hope I mentioned that Kyudo is related to Shinto practice....of course, its also related to zen, which is a buddhist thing, so don't ask me^.^







This mirror is bascially right in line with the people when they shoot. People can check there posititon during practice to make sure arms are strait and shoulders are down. During competitions, mock or real, they have to close the curtain.






This board has all the names of people who have been in the club. The bottom row are the current members, separated by year. My name is on here in the first year section! how cool! they did spell my last name wrong, but I didn't feel like telling them^.^




Shoes and arrows. I like these pictures though they may seem silly to you. The arrow baskets are moved depending on what we're doing during practice. First years also have to make sure the shoes are all lined up properly. Also, we can't put our shoes all the way to the far left because if a sensei shows up that wear their shoes go.









The Top black board is for keeping score. That's my favorite job. I enjoy drawing circles, writing the numbers and kanji, etc. And then you get to call out certain things during kakunishmasu. It's really fun job. You also have to say something specfic before you clean the board. The bottom board is for people to write notes (under their names) or if they can't make practice and for general things like that. I never wrote anything(-.-;


Here's a couple of shots of people doing "kakunishimasu" or calling the arrows. I nearly always make some sort of small mistake, and once I said that none were in the target even though there was one-I hadn't seen it. I never made that mistake again! Depending on what kind of practice is going on, the words and phrases are different but no matter what the second person always sits whule the first calls out. You hold up the number of arrows in the target and call it at the same time. If there are none you hold up a fist and if all the arrows shot are in you use "kaichu" as opposed to a number. I like this job but I tend to get flustered when I do it.









The final job of every practice is to repaste targets. this is my second favorite job because I was the best at getting them completely flat. I guess it's easy to enjoy jobs you're good at.




Here's me and some other people during normal practice:


and here's me in hakama with others!




and...here is the sequence for shooting:


ashibumi (positioning the feet)



dozukuri and yugamae (which includes torikake, tenouchi, and monomi-basically the positioning of the hands and body, as well as the arrow)



uchiokoshi (simple, you raise it while keeping your body stationary and your shoulders relaxed)



daisan (I like this part, you move your left arm and the right follows, but if I do it wrong I can't do the full draw because my shoulder pops out of place!)



kai (a full draw-this was the hardest part for me, shoulders must be relaxed, arms strait and pushing outward, back tight, left elbow twisted in the right direction, and you can't be using power in your wrists or upper arms or shoulders but rather in your back and lower arms-I did get pretty good at it though^.^)



hanare and zanshin (the release and then basically what is considered followed through; waiting after the arrow hits the target and keeping position)

And that is essentially kyudo. I was really sad to leave, and I kind of wish I had thought about doing school in japan so I could be in the club longer but I don't know if I could be away from home for so long. There are a ton of pictures in my photobucket under the album name "goodbye kyudo"


In any case, I had a ton of plans for this weekend but they were sort of blown away byt he typhoon, unfortunatly the typhoon didn't hit so hard so here so I coud have done some of it but it's alright...I'll get it done soon!

be ready for a heavy stream of updates^.^
Much Love!