Spain!
This is my first time to Europe and Spain. I was surprised to get off the plane and see signs in Spanish instead of Korean or Japanese haha. 1st day there, I got to see Barcelona which was quite amazing. Im going to be using that adjective often in this post. The old architecture felt so grandiose in many ways. I felt like I was walking through some fantasy land at some point. One of the things about the scenery was how elaborate everything was. In Japan, I felt as if everything was simple and efficient so it was a very opposite feel.
The food there was amazing as well. I'm not a foodie by any means, I like simple and fast things, but in Spain, they make simple and fast so good and so affordable. I was surprised to see the prices of some of the things we were eating be almost half of what it would cost in NYC. If it was that cheap in NYC, I would become a foodie as well haha.
(entrance way to the core area of Barcelona)
(La Rambla, which was this long walk way that lead to the pier)
After Barcelona, we headed to Girona where the seminars/Tai Kai site was to be held. The site was at this resort area called Cala Montjoi. On the way there we drove through these mountains and the scenery was breath taking.
(view from a cliff)
At Cala Montjoi, there were great bars, restaurants even a discoteca! One of the best parts of that site was that it was right next to a beach. The beach was so beautiful and I was sitting next to there as often as I could
(view of the beach in the morning sunrise)
Now on to the training. I was very looking forward to the training. We lined up early in the morning for a big group shot.
I thought this teaching experience would be very fun for me because the students would not understand english (some did and helped out greatly!), so how would I translate what I needed to say. Even worse was first seminar was kumitachi which has a lot of explanation haha. So the challenge was to show with expression of body and demonstration. Kumitachi was also challenging because some people have not done kata with sword with another person, so teaching maai and timing to react was priority.
(Kumitachi group! It was quite hot in Montsuki...)
Next was Gekken. This was very easy class to teach because if you made mistake, well you learnt the old fashioned way why it was done a certain way haha. I showed the basic drills to start off, and then I fought everyone one by one. Afterwards I let everyone fight each other in a big group. I tried to explain to them how kata, cutting, and gekken are all linked together and then we ended the gekken seminar by doing one point matches!
(Gekken seminar group!)
After that was a lunch break and we got to meet with some prominent figures in the Spain martial arts community. We were treated to a very delicious lunch and some down time.
(Paella!!)
Next was Kumitachi round 2. This time however, there were more students who had experience with the Toyama Ryu kumitachi, so this was much more about correction and adding the little things to make it more "alive". It went quite smoothly.
(I had to change, it was too hot in my montsuki)
Final seminar for the day was cutting. Before we cut, we did suburi first so I could examine everyones swing. I tried to correct as much as possible and from there we cut. There were many first time cutters there but everyone cut quite well! It was fun to see how nervous people got etc but when they got through their first cut, that nervousness was replaced with excitement. That seems to be universal no matter where you are.
This being last seminar, was followed by testing and embu. Testing is always rough, but I think is always good to do to help teach you to learn with pressure! Following that was embu. I performed Toyama Ryu kata and did my cutting.
Next day is Tai Kai. Everyones spirit during Tai Kai was quite contagious and reminded me of the old days. It went very smoothly and no one got hurt!
After the tai kai ended, we took many pictures with each other.
(this one was one of my favs haha)
Then finally it was time to go back to Barcelona for me to get ready to go home.
Spain was an overwhelming in a good way experience. I was able to see and experience so much but sword training was made me feel most at home. What I love about swordsmanship is that it's a vehicle to meet and get to know so many people! When I was teaching and someone learnt something, you see that enthusiasm and I can really say that is contagious. Even for me being a practitioner for so long, that's what always keeps my drive fresh and Spain was just a great way to be reminded of that in an elaborate way.
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