Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tsuitachi" which refers to the first day of a month. Just as how in English we say "January first" instead of "January one", "tsuitachi" is used in Japanese instead. In my case, the most important date in the first quarter of this year is March 1st. That would be, as I've just confirmed tonight, when my next grading is. I certainly don't intend on failing but it's not going to be easy. Especially because I'm determined to grade under the most scrupulous of testers, those in charge of the Tokyo area test.

To that end, in September I started training once a week at Takagi Sensei's Guseikai dojo. It helps that he's one of the people on the grading panel so I'm trying to take in as much as I possibly can in the next two months. However, it's still difficult mainly because while the grading itself only requires me to do all the basics, two kata, and two pre-set partner drills, I don't know which kata or drills I'll be required to do until the day of the test. And because they're choosing two kata out of 4 and two drills out of 10, I essentially need to know all of them....... =P

And while it sounds stressful, it hasn't stopped me from enjoying my time here. For example, this weekend I...

... went to the 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon.

As usual, I'll be putting up a couple noteables in a separate post.

... took part in the Shiramizu Arukou-kai, their annual new year walk to a shrine. The name actually comes from "aruku" (to walk) and "kai" (a meet/event), hence the name "arukou-kai".

Here are some pics from Arakawa Sensei's blog.

That's Arakawa Sensei at the head of the line.

It was a cold but bright morning and about 120 dojo members (Shiramizu has nearly 450 students!) came out for the walk which was about 1.5hr each way. At the temple, we prayed and had a short 5 minute "practice". At the end of the walk some parents had hot soup ready for us so it was great fun all around.

... went again to the Kagami Biraki at the Nippon Budokan. Like last year, it opened with an exhibition showing how the head of a samurai clan was given a feast followed by martial arts demos. I managed to catch the kyudo (archery) and karate demos, both of which were quite good.

Following that was the "First practice of the year". Nine different martial arts on the main floor of the budokan all practicing together. It great fun.

These next two pics are, again, thanks to Arakawa Sensei.

That's Carl, the current intern, right behind me.