2015-05-22: Use the Pointy end

We got dressed up and ready to find dance partners. When they arrived it was a little intimidating. Wave upon wave of old guys with happy expressions greeting each other enthusiastically. That many guys that know each other that well have been doing things a long time.

New Clothes! Heavy heavy clothes. They weighed a lot more at the end of training due to increased Pocari Sweat metabolic byproducts

Most of them had 7's or 8's on their sleeve. I used to think this was some kind of military insignia, like their unit number or something. Unlike Kendo or Naginata where there is no visible symbol of rank jukendo uses numbers on their shoulder, so this is their rank in jukendo. The numbers of stripes is the honours side of the grading system. Very few of them had less than three bars and a lot had 4.

And as a bonus two of the sensei we have trained with under Terada sensei came along as well. Presumably to act as fifth columnists and report back.

As mentioned previously 8th dan hanshi (an 8 with 4 bars) is such a stupidly high rank that it doesn't really figure in my scale of thinking. In the past I occasionally got a chance to train in a dojo which has one of these guys way up the other end from me.

New armour means we both had that distinctive Bouncer on roids that can't stand with straight arms look. I doubt this will catch on.

When there are loads of them wandering around in the morning things get a little worrying. When the rest of the dance partners arrive in army jeeps and fatigues, well let's just say anxiety levels go up a bit.

I think when there was no opportunity for camouflaged parking they went for the No cover to the Perimeter approach

Then you notice the boys in green mostly have 5's and 6's on their arm and you realise they are here to receive training things seem to have escalated way too quickly.

The smile on the receiving guys face does not bode well for the young strong guy....

They do not give out zeroes so we didn't have a badge. This will have to be rectified. Train hard, get grading. Or I guess I could make us badges with zeroes.

And they keep smiling when they poke you with their sticks

We spent most of the day training with Baptiste and a lovely Japanese Lady. And constant interruptions from smiling guys with large numbers on their shoulders. Most of them appear to find the idea of a tubby Gaijin doing jukendo sort of sweet and amusing in a mascot type of way. So sweet and amusing that it was worth poking him with a stick a few times. Kind of like those kids in Stand By Me "Hey a body, that's fascinating, let's poke it with a stick".

Drinks Corner needed Pocari Sweat restocking

The idea of a Lady Gaijin joining in and training hard is so damn cool that Ewa got lots of attention. I think there have only been a couple of Lady Gaijin willing to join in and do it properly over the years.

5.5m above sea level? pffft I am used to way scarier.

Military guys, in my experience, tend towards the train hard, drink hard mentality in a way which I suspect only the most dedicated IT guy with years of experience can keep up. Fortunately I am one of those guys and at the evening welcome party I managed to keep up with the 4 styles of beverage which every thought I should try repeatadly.

I think I liked this one and I took a photo so I could find it again. Alternately the volume of beverages and toasts made my photography skills ambiguous.

We are a great team, between us we have almost all the skills needed to cover most social situations.