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I had to get up on a Saturday morning at 9am.
It was worth it, though, for the "Japan Day" held in Manchester Town Hall and sponsored by the Japanese Embassy and Japan Airlines. It was absolutely heaving when we arrived; I don't think the organisers had expected the turnout they got.
I got to watch Taiko drummers (a godawful racket from the other end of the hall, beut incredible to watch and with subtleties that were lost in the acoustics of the building at a distance), a kendo demonstration, iaido, silk embroidery (and now I need the kit to go with the book I got in Hairy Git), shibori pleated scarf making, kyudo (and got to draw one of the bows, which was very odd coming from a western-style background), and sushi making. They even had a display (not even behind glass, tied down or guarded particularly well) of ancient weapons, from daggers to wakizashi and katanas (all so beautiful and delicate, and so slim and elegant compared to the collections at th Royal Armouries), dating back to the 13th Century and still looking as new.
While kendo is spectacular, and the school is very close to where I live, I really don't enjoy sparring. Iaido, on the other hand, is nothing but katas :) Lovely, lovely katas, and discipline, and etiquette, and precision, and imaginary opponents. As the representative on the stall said, kendo is too much like hard work, and not much fun for people without excess energy :) The iaido club's based in Bolton (and meets on a Saturday morning, of all the antisocial times), but it does seem to offer everything I want out of a martial art. Even the bokken they use are beautifully made.
I might have bought three large boxes of pocky, but I maintain it was to cover my disappointment in the manga & anime stand - which was 2 greasy-haired students with their comic collection. Not Impressed.
Then I must have eaten half a crispy duck, most of a chicken and a good chunk of Mr. Whippy at the oriental buffet restaurant*. I'm exhausted, sleepy, and have to be at the City of Manchester Stadium at 9.30 tomorrow morning to slide down a washing line.
*They had a basket of fortune cookies, so I had three. Apparently, I "will make a sudden rise in life" - well, if climbing onto an 80' corproate box tomorrow isn't a rise, I don't know what is - and "something nice is coming to [me] in the mail". The third cookie didn't have a fortune in; does that mean a blank slate, or that I have no future?
It was worth it, though, for the "Japan Day" held in Manchester Town Hall and sponsored by the Japanese Embassy and Japan Airlines. It was absolutely heaving when we arrived; I don't think the organisers had expected the turnout they got.
I got to watch Taiko drummers (a godawful racket from the other end of the hall, beut incredible to watch and with subtleties that were lost in the acoustics of the building at a distance), a kendo demonstration, iaido, silk embroidery (and now I need the kit to go with the book I got in Hairy Git), shibori pleated scarf making, kyudo (and got to draw one of the bows, which was very odd coming from a western-style background), and sushi making. They even had a display (not even behind glass, tied down or guarded particularly well) of ancient weapons, from daggers to wakizashi and katanas (all so beautiful and delicate, and so slim and elegant compared to the collections at th Royal Armouries), dating back to the 13th Century and still looking as new.
While kendo is spectacular, and the school is very close to where I live, I really don't enjoy sparring. Iaido, on the other hand, is nothing but katas :) Lovely, lovely katas, and discipline, and etiquette, and precision, and imaginary opponents. As the representative on the stall said, kendo is too much like hard work, and not much fun for people without excess energy :) The iaido club's based in Bolton (and meets on a Saturday morning, of all the antisocial times), but it does seem to offer everything I want out of a martial art. Even the bokken they use are beautifully made.
I might have bought three large boxes of pocky, but I maintain it was to cover my disappointment in the manga & anime stand - which was 2 greasy-haired students with their comic collection. Not Impressed.
Then I must have eaten half a crispy duck, most of a chicken and a good chunk of Mr. Whippy at the oriental buffet restaurant*. I'm exhausted, sleepy, and have to be at the City of Manchester Stadium at 9.30 tomorrow morning to slide down a washing line.
*They had a basket of fortune cookies, so I had three. Apparently, I "will make a sudden rise in life" - well, if climbing onto an 80' corproate box tomorrow isn't a rise, I don't know what is - and "something nice is coming to [me] in the mail". The third cookie didn't have a fortune in; does that mean a blank slate, or that I have no future?
