First we need to go back to the dinner on day 3. We met at the Westin Miyako at 6 for dinner and the Official opening for the Butokusai (the name for the whole event). The opening ceremony was rather brief at about a half hour. several dignitaries spoke. They included Sosai, the current President of DNBK Hombu, the Deputy Governor of Kyoto Prefecture, and the Mayor of Kyoto.
After the opening we sat down for dinner. The banquet consisted of 12 courses. I don't think we even managed to finish off the roast beef. There was really that much food. And it was a fantastic meal.
So on to day 5:
Today was the Rensei Taikai. A bit of explanation for the non-Budoka. A Taikai is a competition. However, it is more of a friendly exhibition that a competition. Awards are more like most enthusiastic and best spirit rather than first, second, and third. The demonstrations that we saw today were a lot more varied. Yesterdays were from the Ryus main style. Today they did secondary arts and subsets of their main curriculum. The demos included things such as Sojutsu (long spear) and Naginata (polearm). Since it was just International participants it was over a bit quicker. But it was still an incredible experience.
After the Taikai and the presentation of awards, (We got several individual and the team award for Iai) we had a final banquet. This time it was held at the ANA Hotel. The food was as good as the Westin Miyako. There were 9 courses this time. Then there was the presentation of even more awards. And the kicker was that every participant in the Butokusai received a handmade doll. They're really nice. And unfortunately a bit of trouble to cart around Japan for 2 weeks. But I'll manage :)
I do want to complement the volunteers. The folks who did all the work to put this together and make it happen did an utterly fantastic job. I can't praise them enough for the job they did. Way to go guys. Domo arigato gozaimashita.
Shin-Fuji:
The 1st of May is our first day of vacation. Mark and I traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo where we met Jolinda and Becky. Boy am I glad Becky and I had cells. It made it a lot easier to find each other in the station. After the ladies said goodbye to Beckys cousins we took the Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji. We got to the station and walked to our Hotel.
The place we stayed was a no frills business hotel called Amus. It really was no frills. But I gotta admit, it had an internet connection and a view of Mt Fuji from our window. So all in all it was a pretty decent place. And at $80 a night for 2 it was really cheap :)
Once we checked in we decided to go to Odawara and see if we could get to Mt Fuji. Not a chance. So we went to see Odawara castle and park and we wandered around and got dinner after. I even found a special present I was looking for. After that we went back to the hotel.
The one really cool thing was that we got to see Mt Fuji.
That'll be it for this post. I'll post on the trip here to Takayama in a bit. But I think I should do some photo sorting first :)
