It's Snowing

Today is a beautiful day. It snowed all morning and they say we might be snowed in tomorrow morning. By the looks of things, I don't buy it, but hey, they've lived here their whole lives and I've only lived here a few months, so what do I know?

Today is my last Sunday before winter break ends. Monday is Coming of Age Day, so no school then either. Monday, I'm going to a big kendo event, where all the high school kendo students in Kyoto City and, as far as I understand, practice. I hope they don't mix us all up and put me with a non-Toba student because I don't want to have to stop practice to explain to someone I've never met before that I don't know Japanese and ask them to please explain it a little slower. Ah well. It's a burden I can and certainly have been living with.

My Sensei wants me to be ready to test by the third month. That'll include a written test and should be considerably longer than my last test. In Japanese!!!!!! But you know. What'll be will be. I've already passed one black belt test, and I'm not sure it gets much harder than that one was. So this one will be mostly a matter of language, as is everything these days. Of course, I'll have to know a bit of kendo, but if I come to practice when I'm supposed to and work on whatever I think they tell me to work on, then I expect I'll be fine. And my karate Sensei from the States sent me a book on kendo, which has been a wonderful resource and I feel a little stupid for not buying it before. And now that I'm applying more of what I know about karate and kung fu into kendo, I'm getting much better. Learning is one of the most exciting things I can ever hope to do. That's one of the reasons why I love being here so much, because every moment is a learning opportunity.

Next week I'm going to Nara City to stay with my Hungarian friend for a day or two. That should be fun.

I'm totally going to Disney Land this month! Woo! That'll definitely be fun.