When I left Vancouver Saturday, enormous, fluffy snowflakes were falling onto the open cherry blossoms.
The trip to Vancouver was mostly a family visit. I stayed with my lovely Oma (German vernacular for grandma), and reconnected with my step sisters and their children.
On the day I arrived in Vancouver, in solidarity with all you buyu who train the day you land in Japan, I joined the Amebushi Dojo at Trout Lake on Vancouver’s East Side. A tight group of dedicated people with B sempai get out there in the park in all weather, and that evening’s training looked more like mud wrestling than budo taijutsu.
On the weekend, I caught up with my friend and sometime roommate DL for breakfast at Bon’s Off Broadway for a leisurely breakfast and a catch-up about intentional community and co-housing. DL and many friends are planning to develop and live a co-housing arrangement somewhere in southern British Columbia. On my side, I’ve been researching about alternatives in Japan, including a cooperative housing building in Tokyo. I’m imagining that, if I settle here permanently, I would live in a community that I can share my labour, skills and good will. As it is, I feel a little bit more a part of the local community I live in, and anticipate volunteering a bit this year. This is something I like to do in order to give back when people have been so generous with me.
After breakfast, DL and I trained with the Choy Lai Fut Martial Arts Hall , a southern form of Kung Fu, in the neighbouring city of Richmond. Sifu C led a dynamic, fun, intense training, and the first set of forms were presented as drills to get us revved up and worked out. After, she put each student to work on a few forms, and even gave me two forms to feel and figure out. The school does lion dance and drumming, too, and has appeared in festivals in Vancouver. The movement made my back and hips feel really relaxed and free.
For lunch, we were joined by Sifu H and many of the students who are training. I really liked the feeling of the dojo - these are two grounded, fun, committed women who are passing on their martial style to students who are also dedicated and spirited. In conversation with Sifu H, we found a lot of common ground between our experiences in martial training. Like me, she got very positive messages from her teacher, was told that heart and guts meant more than fighting, and that this martial training was for the rest of her life. Her Sifu passed away last year at an advanced age, but she talks like he’s right with her.
The next day, I joined the Ame Bushi, the Rain Warriors, again at Trout Lake. B sempai and I worked on some ideas I brought with me. It was a treat to be able to give some of this stuff, however incomplete my understanding of the shape of Togakure Ryu, to B who beat on the shapes and challenged me to find out how the waza work. B pulled out the camera and shot some video which turned out to be very valuable. Although my movement felt easy and flowing, I could clearly see where I could improve on my rotation through the spine and with footwork, and cleaned it up.
It was like a purging of ideas, too. B allowed me to just keep moving, no expectation of particular ideas, just keep going, no grab, no power, but no fixed idea of form. Things just came out slowly, and we could pick one and putter with it.
In the last few days of my visit, I got to make dinner with my Oma. I made her okonomiyaki and she got hooked! It’s a very easy, healthy meal to make. Later, I made miso soup and chahan, which is Japanese style fried rice. I only ate out three times in 10 days, and really took time to cook and savour foods from home. I’m hoping to cook at home and keep up my bento making. I’m hoping to make healthful, tasty food this year, inspired by my Oma and Japanese cooking.