Uchideshi Experience

Back to the timeline--after we all left Hombu Dojo for the last time, shopped near Shinjuku Station, and ate, Lin-san liked the idea of going to Ueno Park together with her friends instead of shopping with them.  We ended up meeting them, randomly running into Kato-san at the station (in a city that large, running into a dojo member on a subway platform 45 minutes from the dojo is unlikely), and then heading to Ueno Park.  At Ueno Park, the cherry blossoms were mostly finished.  We took some photos as a group as we wandered the park, then I opted to head out as I had to get several projects done yet that afternoon before the final uchideshi going-away party, and it was already quite late. Once back to the dojo, I packed, did some other preparation work for my departure the following day (final projects like translating, buying drinks for the party later that night etc.), and eventually ended up heading to Kodaira to Shun-yi's house for the uchideshi-only party for me an

I want to share about an incident that occurred awhile after I had injured my knee.  It was a fairly striking moment for me personally.  I'm not 100% sure when it happened, but I am fairly confident that it was the 23rd of March. I had been using my knee in gradually increasing increments after the initial injury.  It would get better enough that I would legitimately wonder if anything was still wrong with it, but then I'd use it a bit too much and it would let me know that it was definitely not ok.  After one of these times where I'd pushed it a bit too much, it was hurting quite a bit.  I think I'd just gotten back to doing certain types of ukemi (falls), but in a different style than usual to protect it, and now I was bummed that I may have to go back to not falling.  It wasn't possible to know until the next day when I woke up (to see how sore it was and how much it could move).  For some reason I was at Kodaira extra late; Anya had gone to prepare to go to b

My last week in Japan was extremely full; I wish there had been opportunity to post on here as things happened, but there truly wasn't.  My last week of classes was freeing and vaguely wistful as I realized these were the last times I would get to do some of the classes that I really enjoyed. It was also strange physically--I was in the rhythm of life there long enough that practice was no longer a physical workout even though I had made it back to full ukemi for all intents and purposes despite my knee injury.  I would sweat, sure, but I never really got exhausted--even when working with partners who were pushing the pace hard.  It's true that I never did get back to doing kneeling technique again while I was still in Japan (my knee hadn't healed enough for that kind of strain or for high breakfalls, though I didn't end up having any of those come up so I never had to take alternate ukemi the last week), but actually doing standing technique as a substitute was mor