Shingu & Anno sensei Update and More

Some of you may have heard that the Kii Peninsula in Southern Japan where Shingu is located has been hit by a very powerful Typhoon/storm. The Shingu River has overflowed its banks and flooded much of the town. The dojo itself experienced some flooding but apparently the mat area inside is okay. Anno sensei and his wife are said to be fine. They live in Mie Prefecture and have several houses on their property. Their main house was flooded but they have moved into one of their houses on higher ground. Hopefully the dojo and the people of Shingu will do fine through this. In my time there there was nothing to compare to this recent event.

As you are probably aware the 911 event in Ben Lomond has been postponed. But we are having our own event on September 11. No charge. Just donations for food and drink requested. 4pm training which I will teach. 5 pm demos. After that food and refreshment which we will send out for once we get a count. My friend Dianna and Vladi will be there and we will do a new version of 'Blade Horn and Wolf' as a part of the demo.

With all that is happening in the Shingu area I thought I would put on another video from my early time there. This is some footage of Tojima sensei that has not yet appeared on youtube. It makes me sad because after this and a little bit more there will be no more new videos. Here is some footage of irimi nage counters with yours truly as uke. Notice how natural he is. This is not rehearsed at all. Not refined or staged. Just like a Chet Baker solo played entirely in the moment. That is definitely a reflection of the training there at that time. I included a photo above of Anno sensei and myself at Tojima sensei's grave in Mie Prefecture. This was taken during the 2006 trip to Japan.

Of course I have a vivid imagination. But I often wonder what he is up to on the other side. I have a definite feeling he is with Osensei and probably quite active with whatever Osensei is involved in on the other side. I do not get that either of them are non-existent or inactive. As you can tell I had quite a time during the filming of this. The rest of the dojo was upstairs watching some recently shot videos, many of which have appeared on my youtube channel. So Tojima sensei felt relatively unrestrained and put on quite a show. Now let's take a trip back in time to 1973...........