Winter Naginata Seminar

Another week has gone by and it's nearly semester's end. Last night was the first session of the Winter Naginata Seminar hosted by the UW Kendo Club. Returning again from the west coast was Lead Guest Instructor Sensei Helen Nakano accompanied by Sensei Jean Yien. Although all of us were beginner's in this graceful martial art, because a few new comers have joined in, we started from the beginner-most basics.

Naginata and its modern form was traditionally a women's form of fighting but have become more popular in today's training. I found it quite beautiful but much harder to wield than the Kendo weapon--not particularly unyielding in any case but more intricate in practice.

After finishing the first session, we invited our guests to dinner at the Wasabi Japanese Restaurant on State Street before I had to run into work for the overnight shift. Working and nearly sleeping at DoIT wasn't much of a hindrance for me but the few people who called in during the middle of the night was a bit annoying.

In the morning I left work with Alex and stopped by the Hoofer Snowboard and Ski Sale. I picked up a new Rossignol District 156 snowboard and a pair of boots at a great price. As we waited in the ever backed up lines to the register, I noticed a problem they were having with the printer for receipts. Jim Rogers was out there busy unplugging and plugging things back in so I stepped up to the table to help him out. After restarting the print queues and other troubleshooting steps, we checked the ethernet cable running to the network printer--the connection was loose to the switch so I plugged it into another port. Just as quick as the print jobs spit out of the printer, the long line of people began to move again.

After dropping Alex back off at work, I went back to the Natatorium for the second Naginata session. In this session and the next, Sensei starting to teach us the more complex kata as well as uchi-kaeshi or warm-up practice. Unlike kirikaeshi in Kendo, which means striking practice, uchi-kaeshi was explained to me by Sensei Nakano as "to return home." I took that information as practice to ground one's self back to the basic of movement.

We took a break for a light lunch at New Seoul, a Korean restaurant, before returning for a third session. Near the end of practice, Kiyota Sensei stopped by to check in on our progress. Everyone of us cleaned up our striking and appearance in his presence and we finished strong. That is the affect he can have on you--he makes you strive harder to define what you have on the inside.

With all three sessions done for the year, we invited our guests to one last dinner with Kiyota Sensei at the Imperial Garden in Middleton. There was no holding back for any of us for appetites were duly earned. Conversation was light and cheery and we thanked our guests for coming and teaching us the art of Naginata.

Fei-O-Meter
Activity: 3 | Energy: 2 | Friends: 3