Kamidake

Hee. I find myself bowing when I say "Thank you" for some reason or other. And my son and I went to a museum; we were at opposite ends of the gallery and he wanted to show me something and he said "Hey, Mom!" and I replied, "Hai?"

I thought the techniques were originally developed for use in combat? For self-defense? I am quite sure that is the case for Okinawan karate.

Sorry about that, didn't mean to confuse you. Where did I lose you?

Interesting. I got to where I tolerated chronic pain, but never tried what you've tried. I'll try it.

Koryu sounds like the way to go for those of us who are mainly interested in the practical applications of all this. People who are mainly interested in the sporting applications should probably look for gendai. That's a useful distinction to know. Thanks!

I stand corrected. Thanks. I know what the bujutsu are, but what's koryu?

I think Jinenkan is considered ninjutsu. After my vast experience (one whole month!), I can say it's fun, seems practical, seems well thought out, and still makes my butt hurt something fierce.

As a practicing Christian myself, I think such willful ignorance is an insult to the brethren who've gone before us, many of whom took our religion seriously enough to suffer terribly for it. And that ignorance IS willful. Christianity is one of the best documented religions on earth. You can learn about it if you want to. Being a victim of an American public school is a legitimate excuse--if you can't read, it's difficult to learn--but a lot of these ignorant Christians can be seen carrying around those silly "Left Behind" books. They can read. They're just too lazy to read worthwhile Christian material. To divert momentarily to the actual subject of this topic, no, I don't think the martial arts in themselves are a religion, though certainly budo as it was originally practiced has a spiritual dimension. Go ahead, Hobbitbob! Let's swap horror stories! (I live in the midwestern U.S., so I can probably match you story for story.)

Hobbitbob, you are so right. Christianity goes back 2,000 years, and yet a shocking number of Christians has no clue about anything that happened in Christendom before 1830 or so. You would be amazed (or maybe you wouldn't) at the number of Christians who think you mean Martin Luther King when you mention Martin Luther. The problem seems to be worst among those calling themselves "Bible Christians," but is by no means unknown in other groups. Learn about your religion, folks. You can't practice it if you don't know anything about it.

No, I never worry about things I can't do anything about anyway. I'll just do my best to put it off as long as possible.

Looks more like a heart attack to me. He may have had "silent" heart disease, that presents no symptoms until it kills you. There was a famous runner (so famous that now I can't remember his name) who died similarly a few years ago, while running. If it makes you feel any better: one night we were working on what my teacher called "arm blocks," but that, in my opinion, ought more correctly to be called "arm breaks," because that's what they'd do. My teacher told me to put more force into it. I told him I was a little concerned that in my cluelessness I would accidentally injure someone, and he explained I shouldn't worry; that by the time I had built up enough strength to be capable of seriously injuring someone, I'd no longer be clueless.

And also, remember the old Japanese saying, "Never go into battle beside a samurai wearing lace-trimmed hakama."

Padawon and Pro 2006, you have either strained Achilles tendons or incipient cases of Achilles tendinitis. KEEP AN EYE ON IT. Achilles tendinitis can be a b***h to get rid of if you don't stay on top of it. I've struggled with it for three years and it has put me in orthotics (goodbye, sexy shoes). If stretching, icing, and anti-inflammatories don't help, SEE A FOOT DR. IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT.

Our class is 2 hours, I am also out of shape, and the first night the teacher told me to drop out and take a rest any time I needed to. (I'm getting in shape pretty darn fast--he keeps us busy! ) I have not dropped out to rest yet, I figure the only way to build endurance is to keep on going as best I can, but I will admit that by the end of class my mule is a fire-breathing lizard. Anyway, if your teacher hasn't mentioned this issue, I'd bring it up with him. I'm sure he doesn't want you collapsing, fainting, or even so exhausted you're not learning anything

Whoever was concerned about starting because they were out of shape: I had the same concern. I hadn't done ANYTHING in three years. The particular system I ended up with is called Jinenkan and is structured so everybody can be at a different level and everybody can go at his own pace, so it wasn't a problem for me. You might want to try to find one like that rather than the one-size-fits-all, aerobics-class approach where everybody's doing the same thing at the same time at the same pace. Jinenkan spins off another system called Bujinkan, so you might start your inquiries with those two. They're probably not the only ones who individualize it, you might have to shop around. Yes, I was VERY sore after my first 2-hour class, although, in a paradoxical way, it was kind of nice to be sore, because it was the satisfying soreness you get from having done something, rather than the chronic pain of an ailment. If that makes any sense. I would not let being out of shape stop you. If you go ahead and start, if nothing else, you'll get IN shape. I would tell them about any chronic ailments you have, though, to make sure that it's realistic for you to do the particular activity you're interested in. Good luck!

Maybe it would help to look at it this way. A samurai didn't spend all his time fighting (jutsu), but regardless of what he was doing at any particular moment, he was always a samurai (do), and trained with that in mind. Does that help?

I would have loved to have seen them insert the following scene. Kamidake is sprawled out in front of the TV drinking beer and watching baseball. Mrs. Kamidake comes in almost wearing a bit of black lace and stands waiting to catch his eye. And waits. And waits. And waits. Finally the frustrated Mrs. Kamidake bursts out, "You're about as romantic as a log!" And Kamidake raises his eyebrow at her and says, "Well, whaddaya expect?"

How does full contact work? (I haven't got that far yet; bear with me.) How do you keep from killing each other?

One person earlier mentioned his belief that Christians do not bow. This is factually incorrect. Hundreds of thousands of Eastern Orthodox Christians bow to our Lord, in the form of the Host, whenever they enter a church. So do I; although I'm not Eastern Orthodox, it occurred to me one day that he might prefer bowing to genuflection, since he chose to spend his time on earth in a place where bowing is a mark of respect. I've been bowing to him ever since. (He hasn't complained yet. ) I might also mention the Japanese-looking lady who came into church one day, sank to her knees, and did a full-out formal bow, hands flat on the floor, before both the Host and Our Lady's altar. So I think the point the gentleman might have been trying to make was that "Most American Christians do not bow." Which I would agree with; but the world's a lot bigger than our little corner of it here in the U.S. Overall, there's quite a lot of bowing going on out there in Christendom. Just wanted to clear that up. As far as the larger issue goes, I think the people in the lawsuit were unable to distinguish between showing respect to the dojo, and to other people's religious beliefs, and PARTICIPATING in other people's religious beliefs. To me, the distinction is pretty clear. My class does formal Japanese bows at the beginning and end of class, unless our teacher's particularly pooped, in which case we do informal Japanese bows. (Teaching Jinenkan isn't his main job.) At the beginning of class, he recites a little Japanese prayer that translates to "I am ready for enlightenment at any time." He then claps twice, which is what you do when praying to the Shinto gods. The prayer seems to me to be suitable for all religions, so I too recite it. I don't clap, because I'm not a Shintoist. I also don't complain about his clapping. And he doesn't complain about my not clapping. And we proceed on with class and have a good time. It's a shame the people in the lawsuit were unable to solve it that simply. As far as bowing in general goes, I'd like to start a movement in the U.S. to replace handshaking with bowing. There'd be a lot less colds and flu going around if we could all learn to keep our hands to ourselves. Anybody with me?

Ah. That makes sense. Thanks! Of course, that marketing technique doesn't work on those of us who don't give a rat's fundoshi about belts, or ranks! Anybody else like me out there?

I sure am glad you brought that point up! I am new to this, and a little bewildered by all the discussion about "styles." I can see where it has a place in the sporting versions of the martial arts; you don't want to go to a karate tournament and find yourself disqualified for doing something that is supposed to be confined to aikido, or vice versa. But in real-world applications, why does everyone care so much about what style something is? Either it works or it doesn't.

He has my sympathy. I found a minor problem like tendinitis to be very disheartening as it dragged on and on and on; I cannot even imagine how discouraging it must be to have a SERIOUS chronic illness.

I also hate dubbing, live or animated! I much prefer subtitles. I have only seen a few anime: "Rurouni Kenshin"--nice backgrounds and costumes, but after about five or six episodes I got bored with it because the plots were so repetitive. I'd start watching, think "Yawn, another ninja," and change the channel. "Tenchi Muyo"--an incredibly weird story (rabbits that turn into spaceships?) about a nerdy high-school kid who finds out he's actually the rightful ruler of an alien planet and who collects a harem of nubile females. (Gee, I wonder what demographic this one was aimed at? ) However, there was one really well-staged scene where a couple of samurai-type characters ("knights," they were called in the subtitles) who are assisting Tenchi in his quest fight off a couple of evil knights. It was a really good fight scene. I borrowed my Internet alias from this show; one of the good knights was named Kamidake. (I used it not so much because the scene was THAT good, but because I thought it was a pretty name.) A penpal of mine wanted to know why Samurai Jack "scream((s)) like he's getting a bikini wax " when he fights off bad guys , and I explained what little I know about kiai and suggested she watch "Tenchi" for a good example, because in that excellent fight scene all four of the knights were kiai-ing like mad. "Ninja Scroll"--big-time sex and violence. I found the plot completely incomprehensible. Anybody who understood it, please explain it. That's all I've seen. I think the concept of anime is great (I love good animation), but I am not particularly impressed with the application. For one thing, the pop-eyed look of many of the characters annoys me. They look like they've been to the eye doctor and had those drops put in their eyes.

I'm a U. S. citizen, and while I have no moral objections to the death penalty in general, I think it should be immediately suspended here, regardless of whether the condemned is retarded, because the legal system is so corrupt and so haphazard. An article in the "Atlantic Monthly" last year made a persuasive case that as many as 25% of the people on death row may be innocent. And of course we have all read the horror stories about court-appointed lawyers sleeping through the trial or showing up drunk. Therefore, I believe no one else should be executed until the system is cleaned up. If we start now, the system MAY be pretty well reformed in about fifty years or so, so as a practical matter, I think everyone on death row should have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. I can't address the situation in other countries because I don't know that much about other countries' legal systems.

That's a good question. I wish I had a good answer. Certainly ki/chi/prana is real; it is essentially the way of describing the life force in those three languages. If you're alive, you have ki. The more relevant question is how, and to what extent, you can control it, and frankly, I don't have a clue. I can offer a couple of little anecdotes for whatever they're worth. 1) My son and I took a tai chi class. The first night the teacher had us in some position, I forget what--nothing too complicated--and I asked, "Are you supposed to feel a warm tingling sensation in your left hand?" (That was the hand we had uppermost, I do remember that.) The teacher said, yes, that was chi, that was what we were after. I tried to ask my son if he had felt it too, but he wasn't verbal enough to be able to explain it if he had (brain damage). 2) In Jinenkan class, we worked on a leverage technique where I scooted a strong young man across the floor as he resisted. (Great fun, I might add! ) My teacher said a lot of people would tell you that was chi, but he thought it was leverage, and added that he thought most, if not all, of what people call the effects of chi boils down to physics and the mechanics of the positions.