Black Dragon Serves Swords

~Thanks to the arcane new rules on video verification over at Google Video, the fireworks videos will be delayed for a day or two. Fear not, loyal readers, for I have plenty of backup material. Today, I present a fascinating T'ai Chi demonstration from the festivities a few days ago:

^ I knew two of the people demonstrating T'ai Chi. One was a student of mine, while another was one of my co-workers. As you can see, they're all wearing red shirts and are more-or-less synchronized. After the open-hand movements, it was time for swords!

^ The sword demonstration was amazing. They used Chinese Ch'ing swords, which are used in Kung Fu and T'ai Chi.

^ A box o'swords. They let me hold one of these, and believe me when I tell you that it was no toy. It was also very sharp and could probably cut you in half with a sufficiently powerful swing.

Of course, I made a couple of videos for you to watch:

^ The open-hand performance.



^ If this looks too slow to you, imagine it ten times faster. I like swords.



^More swordy action.

Practicing martial arts is excellent for your health and can help you defend yourself, but there are more intangible benefits than that. I practiced Okinawan Kempo karate and tae kwon do for almost a decade and enjoyed them a lot. Martial arts can improve your balance and help you to focus. Besides, there's no better way to beat stress than by launching an all-out assault on a punching bag.

Here in Japan, martial arts are actually on the decline, but judo, a martial art invented in Japan that emphasizes trips and grabs, is still practiced by millions. Another local combat art is kendo, a sword-based martial art that basically involves hitting your heavily-armored opponent on the head with a wooden sword. Several of my students are in their school kendo clubs.

Yes indeed, there's always something interesting in Japan. Stay tuned for more festival and fireworks pictures and occasionally-sarcastic commentary. ~Oyasumi!