2015-06-21: Friendship has various definitions

I went into the Friendship tournament feeling possibly less well disposed towards my fellows than the name of the competition would suggest.

70 seconds and 109 seconds are the bits where I feel better about myself

 

Apparently I fight a lot better when I am disappointed in myself. I think I might be noisier as well.
Fortunately the recipients of my self loathing were lovely people and didn't hold my emotional inadequacies against me.

Gabe still has a functional throat

I made it through to the semi finals where I was matched against Peter. This is not fair. I have trained with Peter for about a decade and he knows all my tricks. How am I supposed to win if I can't win by trickery? Peter has stepped up his skills a lot since I left and it was a scoreless match. Once again the match was decided by the judges based on the prettiness of our Naginata. I tend not to be that pretty.

There were better photographers than me present

Peter then squandered his final match against a cowardly Swede.
Baptiste, our Froggy friend from Jukendo, has been starting up Naginata in Taiwan. He has a Lovely Young Lady who is 5th dan in Kendo and has had a couple of hours training in Naginata. Kendo skills often make for a quick uptake of competition fighting in Naginata.

Ewa shows no fear

Ewa drew the Lovely Young Lady from Taiwan in her first round. It was a good match but experience in competition fighting beat experience in kata.

Peter was feeling proud of himself

So we got a cowardly Swede to join us as a reminder. Didn't work.

The evening featured a sayonara party as many people will be leaving now (we are staying for the seminar)
Our sayonara parties are an eclectic mix of traditional Japanese party style blended with the local customs and the things we do when we are being silly which have become traditional for the party over the years.

Kato in the Japanese teams song and dance medly outfit

This year the New Zealand team did not perform a haka, I think that is a first. Normally Alex leaps at the opportunity and most of the naginata men now know the haka simply because they have been browbeaten into joining on so many times.

Me looking surly and french

We now have the seminar to look forward to. For me it will be the Learning to be a Judge seminar. I am not a very good judge, don't particularly enjoy doing it and would rather be fighting than judging. Needless to say I am not looking forward to the seminar with the anticipation I would normally have at these events. I know I should do it and it is good for me but I tend to avoid things with those properties as a rule.

The "T" in my first match was the only one scored in either tournament. This makes me happy.