Last weekend I was in Riga, Latvia. I was invited by my friend Juris attend his birthday party. The party was nice, and the food was excellent.

On the day after (Saturday) we also had some informal training. After the warm up with ukemi, we went through the nine Santo tonko techniques rather quickly. After the lunch break we did henka.

It’s nice to see the people in Latvia progressing, and always showing big interest in learning the art. Keep up the good spirit, and good luck with the new dojo!

Ganbatte kudasai

Oh the “thing” I’m wearing on the photo is clothes to use when doing the sauna that the guys had put the 兜, Kabuto embroydery on. I found the helmet with horns specially funny , thank you!

Class started out tonight with a demonstration of one of the first techniques of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu by Noguchi Sensei. Soke then did his spin-off thing and soon had the full class in a state of confusion. Nothing unusual about tonight in that regard.

We did a lot of work with “fist changing” tonight – using multiple strikes against the opponent, changing the strike from one form into another along the way. From a shishinken to a boshiken to a shutoken for example, 3 consecutive strikes with the same hand. It wasn’t as if we were just standing there hitting the other guy repeatedly with one hand though. Sensei stressed the necessity of *walking* through the technique. With every step, a strike would be applied. A step was used to power every strike. Sensei often uses the term “juppo sessho” (’10 ways of interacting’ is one rendering of that phrase) in relation to this “fist changing.” The number 10 represents infinity and circularity, continuous, never-ending change. The martial *artist* must be able to continually adapt his attacks and strategies to best fit continually-changing circumstances, “changing as change is necessary” to accomplish that which [s]he wills to do.

From the number 10, Sensei went on to talk about the “bugei juhappan”, 18 martial skills to be learnt by the common Japanese warrior (bushi). (“Ninjutsu practitioners also study Bugei Juhappan alongside with Ninja Juhakkei (the 18 Ninjutsu fighting art skills).”) Sensei said that by adding this extra dimension, we arrive at the number 36, which is a significant number in ‘fuusui’ (風水, pronounced ‘feng-shui’ in Chinese). He didn’t elaborate, leaving it up to the listener to figure out for themselves. (I could turn it into a ‘93′ by turning it around, but…) He did leave a hint though by stressing the *simplicity* of the concept, stating that its simply a continual circulation in two (or more) directions at the same time, much like the simultaneous circulation of blood through both the arteries and veins through the body. Once again we were left with the teaching that budo is simple, but its simple on a grand scale.

The past weekend I went to a seminar with Bujinkan Shihan Manuel Serrano from Spain. It was a very good seminar I wish that more people would have attended. Anyway there was about 35 people in total, Serrano brought seven students with him.

The first day Serrano taught variations of Taihenjutsu ukemi from Togakure-ryu. And some Taijutsu henka, along with (strange) fun and games. One guy in the middle was jumping on one leg and chasing everyone else and when he whip someone with the belt every one attacked the guy and whipping him with their belts until he got to the safe zone. Then it was his turn to chase the next victim.

The second day more games, and some techniques from Zanto Tonko no Kata. Also some interesting techniques using a rope, since most people didn’t have a rope we all used belts instead.

Thanks to Serrano Shihan for coming and Patrik Johansson and the staff at the Bujinkan Gefle Dojo for organizing this seminar.

You can see the pictures at http://kaigozan.se/album/ I also uploaded pictures from the last two seminars at Kaigozan this year.

This weekend I will be going to Riga, Latvia