yon, shi, shichi, nana

For the past few weeks, sword sensei has been trying a new warmup for iai class. It hasn't been going well. Basically, all twenty of us take turns announcing whatever cut in the happogiri sequence we are at, and counting to ten...in Japanese. Problem is, nobody can remember their vocabulary worth a shit. The sad thing is that Sneezy, Doc and professional mom and son have all done other Japanese arts before this one. How the hell do you get to be a black belt in Shotokan and not know how to count to ten?! I don't get it.

Shi is a funny word- it can mean "four" or "death". Shichi is "seven" unless you say it like half my class, "seechi". Oh, my ears burn. Nana is the other word for seven, as in nana-ju - seventy. Seechiju sounds like a cow chewing cud. Or my other favorite blunder- hashi, not hachi- hachi is the number eight. Hashi is a pair of chopsticks.

I started a new karate kata called "Tensho", or "Sanchin" to most other styles. It is a short, but exhausting kata. It's all about breathing properly. They ought to call it the Tomato kata, because it turns you red in the face.