A sprain, a pancake, and a shodan ranking

Well, I got back from my first day of class as a shodan... Wee! *happy Josie dance* It was a long, long weekend. First, on saturday I watched then uked for the brown belt kid, who is now (thanks to the ranking fairy) a black belt. After his test, I'm giving him a new nickname- Ukekiller. He hurt three kids on the test. One of greenies he kicked so hard, he made him cry *roll eyes*. The funny thing was, he was so cocky, and when it came to the vocab section of the test he nearly bombed it. Ah well.

Then after that, they announce instead of going to lunch as planned, they were going to do my aiki sensei's nidan test and get it over. Well, funny thing happened then. As an uke in aiki class, head sensei likes to joke that a tori can hurt anything on me, just not my sword hand. So, the first move that my aiki sensei does makes my wrist pop like a bowl of rice crispies. I get wrenched all the time in aiki- it's a result of being so flexible, people forget I have bones. I didn't think anything of it. I thought the horrified look on my sensei's face was funny.

So then, we finally break (2hrs behind schedule) for the chinese restaurant next door. Eating with 30 kids is quite an experience. I beared witness to the biggest garbage guts elemetary school had to offer- average eating was 3 plates and 5 (yes, 5!) bowls of ice cream per kid (with cookies on the side). So then, we reconvene for the aiki clinic, and we pick up a few moves. Head honcho sensei taught us the difference between jiujutsu and aikido ways of doing some of our moves. It was interesting how the aiki class is making an obvious shift from the judo and jiujutsu to the old-style aiki. It's gonna be a headache to relearn this stuff.

So after that (4pm) my family picks me up and we debate for an hour where we want to eat. I suggested the IHOP because I was dieing for choco-chip pancakes. The problem was the nearest one was an hour away. So, we go there, and after a merry misadventure finding it and a bathroom on the way there, I promptly devoured my pancakes. It was then I noticed my wrist was a bit sore. It was ten by time we got home and I wen to bed after that.

I only slept 4 hours. I was so wired and anxious for the test, which was scheduled to start at 10am. My family roll out of bed at 9:20. I panically kick their butss out and we head to the school. Head Honcho sensei arrives at 10 and we don't start for twenty minutes. I finally stood before three of my teachers; head honcho sensei, head sensei, and sword sensei. It took 2 hours. I was nervous. I had some problems with my saya being too far out when I did my notos, but I think I hid them as well as I could. I had one sticking point when I couldn't spit out that a tsuba was a "guard". I explained it using every word by that. The funny thing was, head sensei told me not to worry about vocabulary! Then I did all my wazas and katas and then he had me do cuts and cuts in iai goshi. I did okay, though I could have worked it more. Head honcho sensei had me doing some stuff off the nidan page too. Then I did my kumitachis, with (not head sensei as we'd planned it to be) sword sensei and that threw me, but thank god I only was asked to do 1-3. After that, it was over.

Head honcho sensei gave me some constructive criticism, including how I needed to get my shomen uchi cuts more in the center, and how I needed to draw faster. I was awarded a red stripe to signify that was a shodan on my hakama, and I received a new beautiful brown kaku obi, which ties very nicely. After that was a short clinic, and we cut gozas. I cut beautifully the first time around, but my second times suffered a bit due to my wrist blowing up like a balloon. Lastly(4 1/2 hrs later), we lined up at the kamiza, made an offering, and downed some sake. that was the best Japan memory-triggering moment I have had in a long time. I was even happy that the sake was still as I remember it- like lighterfluid. I gave the people who attended my test a postcard, which I think they liked, and my gifts to my senseis of daruma dolls received rave reviews. I was happy, and extremely relieved. I had a long talk with a friend of mine the night before to burn off the excitement before finally turning in.

My wrist though, finally had it. It turned puffy, and I could no longer move it. Today, it's better, though for future reference until the sprain goes away I should refrain from punching, reverse shutos, and kiriage cuts. I feel strange, though not much has changed. I think the gaggle of greenies could care less about whether or not I'm a shodan in sword. One thing is for sure. Now I can assign pushups to Nerdverd! *evil grin*