In the name of dissertation, I missed a week. It is not possible to express how normal it felt to go back. Even with Sensei testing, it felt like coming home and I was perhaps too eager to make good on the time lost, but it grounds me.

It’s been a bad month, out of laziness and devotion to my new identity as a researcher, but this has meant that I have been averaging 50% so far, and it doesn’t look much better down the road. Today I dealt with a deathly hangover that I managed to power through, although many of the same issues and problems persist. I need to relax and smooth out whatever it is that I do. Still, I feel better with my hips and attacking with the tip of my shinai. It’s getting there, however slowly.

Return to dojo without ceremony. No menjo even. Felt a little dodgy, but somehow managed to draw Sunday Sensei and score both a makiotoshi-kote and degote on Sensei proper. Still need to work on foodwork,though. That’s life.

The end of an uninterrupted kendo month. Traveling without shinai means I will need to find other ways to keep my suburi up, which should not be all that difficult, I suppose, as long as I find a wine bottle someplace. I was to write an integrative essay, but I did it on paper instead.

Sensei told the story of what he learned from Taneda (?) Sensei his first sensei when he was 16 and the lesson he has been teaching since: that the key is kamae, and that the left fist, which should be slightly turned inward, should be one fist from the belly button.

Today’s practice, part of the thus-uninterrupted October streak, was without contacts, which was not as fun or helpful as one might think. The only insight I gained was the degree to which the aite’s monomi was salient because it was darker amid the bright fuzzy lines of the men-bars. Otherwise, I am doing well against some sensei, horribly against others, but keeping it up all month, which is all that really counts, I guess

Shinsa season is always mixed. Today, a great crowd and I felt I was perfectly caffeinated as far as the execution of kihon was concerned, but the problem with practice was that waza were omitted, and keiko cut short. A shame.

Otherwise, I have been chugging along suburiwise (Day 50 now), and going to practices though there will be an interruption soon.

So two more practices after one missed. Feeling lethargic and I need to focus more on legs and wrists than arms and abs. Or something. We’ll see.

I been remiss with a worldchampionships, absences and returns and even a few compliments. Suburi now on day 22. Of this no more need be said.

Shimpan seminar meant lots of matches and some keiko but no chance to actually shimpan, which is fine, because it feels like being sempai–something you have to just get right or else! There are many fine points that I barely remember but I suppose it was good to keiko with others from other dojos, though I have to say that wearing the old men and kote after so long felt decisively uncomfortable. My kiai was good, but my distance terrible and too much mudanuchi especially hikimen that did not score. I should probably also begin to also work on those other waza–doh and tsuki. It’s sad that my hiki-doh has been more successful than my forward doh. But is that for suburi or what?