polished up and standing in a row
April 16, 2013 (火)
Q: What's a political issue that interests you?
A: Gun control is definitely on my mind a lot recently, but also North Korea (for amusement purposes).
April 17, 2013 (水)
Q: What do you think is your biggest shortcoming?
A: There's so many. Where to start? Well, one of the big ones is that I don't trust people very much or often.
April 18, 2013 (木)
Q: Write down a problem you solved today.
A: If x/y=3 and x=12, then x-y= a) 3, b) 5, c) 6, d) 8, e) 9. (Algebra is the only math I'm okay at.) Answer the
SAT Question-of-the-Day. :D
April 19, 2013 (金)
Q: What famous person would you bring back from the dead to have dinner with?
A: Oooh...So many. Edith Wharton perhaps. She kept her life so private...
April 20, 2013 (土)
Q: How many times did you curse today?
A: Well, that's hard to say. Mainly, I cursed myself for not studying more for the kyudo test tomorrow.
April 21, 2013 (日)
Q: What do you want to say when someone asks "What do you do"?
A: "Whatever the hell I want. *evil laugh*"
Random Ramble:
(Has become a regular feature, but it still is random and definitely still rambling...)
Today was the
kyudo test. I was trying for 3-dan (3rd degree black belt - if kyudo had such a thing as colored belts). The test consists of two parts: shooting and writing. In order to be promoted to 3-dan, you have to answer essay questions about certain aspects of kyudo, both from the book and your personal feelings. For shooting, your form is evaluated, but you also need to hit the target at least once out of the two arrows that you shoot. If you do well on the written test, but don't hit the target, you can't be promoted.
Today was a day of firsts: I wore divided hakama for the first time during an exam (I've usually worn skirt-type hakama until now), I tied the obi right the first time (for the first time). But most excitingly, I did my first real "yugaeri*" ever. After three years of practice - finally. And during my final shot, too. It was beautiful. It felt beautiful. If nothing else, I will remember this first time. Finally, another first: the first time I haven't been promoted after taking the test.
Well, I didn't hit the target, so there was no way for me to be promoted. So I'll be returning to the states ranked as 2-dan. Nothing to sniff at, but for the serious kyudo practitioner, it is not much to brag about either. 2-dan is fairly easily attained as long as your form shows improvement over sho-dan and you can answer the essay questions.
To be honest, I'm not all that surprised I didn't get promoted. Even if I had hit the target, I'm not sure my written test would have gotten a passing score considering I only studied for a total of about 3 hours the night before and wrote it almost entirely in English (instead of all in Japanese, which is preferable). Still, I'm a bit disappointed. I'm disappointed for a couple of reasons: first of all, this is the last kyudo test I'll be able to take. Secondly, while my first shot was not so great, my second shot was beautiful. The form felt like probably one of my best yet. I could tell it was good - and that really says something. I missed the target by a couple of centimeters. To not get promoted feels kind of a shame to that form. (To quote from the textbook: "After having acquired the right inner intention and correctness in the outward appearance, the bow and arrow can be handled resolutely. To shoot in this way is to perform the shooting with success, and through this shooting virtue will be evident." Guess I must still be missing something...)
In some ways, I feel like I didn't deserve to get promoted and so it's been hard to wallow in self-pity too much. This feeling is mainly due to the lack of studying and also to the lack of physical practice. There is the aforementioned 3 hours of textbook study and then there is the fact that I have barely picked up a bow over the past four months. There was too much fresh powder snow this winter to snowboard in to stay inside and practice kyudo. After that, I had injured my wrists and thumbs while snowboarding and so have been easing (needlessly slowly, I have a hunch) back into practicing. (I still haven't touched my clarinet because my left thumb is still wonky and painful...) I think I would have been more surprised if I had been promoted. Still - it was a bit sad to not pass the test knowing that it is the last one for me (at least for the foreseeable future).
Another caveat - I have caught something. A virus of some sort that has pretty much knocked me on my butt. I'm thinking about calling in sick to work tomorrow for the first time in almost a year. We'll see if I have the balls to do it tomorrow morning or if I'll drag my butt to work anyway.
*From Wikipedia: "Resulting from the technique to release the shot, the bow will (for a practiced archer) spin in the hand so that the string stops in front of the archer's outer forearm. This action of "yugaeri" is a combination of technique and the natural working of the bow. It is unique to kyudo."
Labels: Random Ramble, Today's Question