Tora no Maki - day 2 - 11/6/14

Thursday 11/6: still on the bus. At least my odyssey is almost half over. ALMOST HALF OVER???! After stops and layover in Jacksonville, Lake City, and Tallahassee, I finally arrived in Perry at 2:30pm. A few minutes later Sensei Jimmy Bowden came by in his pickup truck to take me to the hotel. He said there was a tournament prep class later that day. I asked if he'd mind my getting on the deck to stretch out some kinks from the ride. He agreed to pick me up at 5:30 and then we'd hang out/socialize with the others.

Sensei Bowden came right on time accompanied by Pat and Rick Schmidt, brothers from Nebraska Kenkojuku.Two easy going, fun loving big 'kids' with easy laughs. At the dojo it seemed everyone knew of my epic bus trip. Sean Padgett, a senior black belt and doctor of chiropractics, brought in his table and gave me an adjustment. Those who know me will be skeptical, but I can now claim to be a well-adjusted person. Met Jackie Koeller; she's the black belt apparently organizing the weekend events. More than a dozen dojo members introduced themselves. Sorry to say that the mind-numbing bus trip made my usual mind of mush incapable of remembering names. It was an honor working out with you all, watching your kata, and 'mirroring' shobu kumite. The class then surprised Sensei Bowden with a cake,as Sunday is his birthday.

We went out to a Chinese/Japanese buffet place. Good food and plenty of it. Surprisingly, nobody new was there. Seems Okano-sensei, California, NJ, and the other Kenkojuku contingents were coming in well after 10pm. I'll meet them tomorrow. I didn't know that the Chinese and Japanese buffets were different. The waitress apologized and said she'd have to charge me double. The total bill came to $15.08! Florida prices are certainly different.

Many photos from this Tora no Maki trip can be found on our dojo's Facebook page next week.