So, Okinawa

[swan_tower]

I made reference to this in my previous post; I’d forgotten that I hadn’t actually said anything about it before now.

I’m going to Okinawa in July. Every few years, on an irregular schedule, Shihan and various other people put together an intensive karate and kobudo seminar, bringing in people from a variety of countries (Germany, Spain, Denmark, the U.S.) for about a week in Naha and on Kori Island. It will be my first time going; the last one was five years ago, and I was much too low-ranking to attend. Sometimes there’s a tournament, but apparently Shihan got tired of waiting for other parties to get their act together, so this time it’s a seminar only.

I made the decision to go before I knew I was having ankle problems; I paid the fee before I got told I was going to need surgery. But honesty compels me to admit that before I went to the doctor, I told Kyle that I didn’t care what the prognosis was, I was going to Okinawa anyway. Because it’s bad enough to have to do this again: I will be damned if I let it take away my chance to experience that kind of intensive training. I’m going to be sweating to death for 4-6 hours a day in an un-air-conditioned budokan, and that isn’t exactly a thing to look forward to — but I am.

And then I’ll come home and have surgery and not go to karate for a month or more. But before then, I’ll work my butt off.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I so get this. I put off knee surgery after my nidan test (practicing for that is why I tore my meniscus) so that I could go to a seminar with Mary Heiny Sensei, one of the major aikido practitioners. That was several years ago. This year, when I'm so tied up due to MS that I can't do much aikido at all, all the senior students and teachers went to Japan to honor our dojo's sensei, who was made seventh dan, and this past weekend they all went to another major seminar. I wish I could still practice aikido.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That really sucks; I'm sorry.

I totally understand the decision to put off fixing things -- these kind of problems already take some things away from you, so you cling harder to the ones you can keep. It looks stupid to other people, but from the inside it makes sense.