We have also made arrangements for two hotels downtown, Linköpings City Hotell och Vandrarhem (10 multiple-bed rooms, total of 29 beds) and Frimurarehotellet (a total of 30 double rooms, some with possibility of one and two extra beds). As soon as you’ve registered, we will provide you with the booking codes for the hotels. Please note – there are several conferences going on in Linköping the same weekend as Tai Kai 2012, so don’t be late in booking your rooms.

147 people from 15 countries.
We have support from 19 of the 24 Swedish Bujinkanförbundet dojo’s.

I’m on my way to Arlanda to pick up Duncan and Steve soon, tomorrow I’ll pick up Sveneric and Rob on Friday. So everyone is coming. I will be pretty busy from now on and i won’t have time to update this blog any more. Follow us on twitter @taikai2011, use the hashtag #tks2011 or mention @taikai2011 if you tweet about the Tai Kai.

See you all soon, and Happy traveling!

/Mats

The last Kaigousru Taikai 2007. We will use the same dojo with tatami mats

Hello, here is the last newsletter for the Swedish Taikai. If you feel I forgot something, please respond immediately so I can get that out in time!

Right now we have 143 people from 15 countries signed up. We have room for many more, so please try to make it. Don’t worry about signing up, you can do that when you come! If you don’t come we will miss you!

Payment: From now on please pay cash when you come to the Tai Kai. Note we only accept Swedish currency, and cash (no credit card!).

Friday extra training: The training is at Bujinkan Bushin Dojo (Svea Kampsportcenter) on Sveavägen 130 in Stockholm. We will start around 15:00 and finish around 20:00. This training is free for everyone attending the Taikai. If you come late, please don’t disturb the class, wait for the first short break or until the instructor invite you to the mat.

Saturday Tai Kai: We will open up the registration soon after 09:00 when we are ready. Meantime you can change downstairs. Please do not come the last minute if you can avoid it, we want to start on time.

Sleeping in the dojo is free for all participants. If you come on Thursday already, come to either To Nan Dojo or Kaigozan Dojo after 18:00 when it is open for training until 21:00. If you come later, someone probably already got the key and can let you in (use the door bell!). If you can’t get in, then please call (phone numbers is not posted on the web). If you come on Friday or Saturday, please come to the training and get advice from there. The central station have lockers you can use meanwhile. Also please clean up after yourself in the dojo, including dishes, taking care of the trash etc. This is why it is free sleeping in the dojo.

Saturday dinner and party.Unfortunately we was not allowed to use the training place for even dinner (like we did a few years back), our dojo is too small for serving food to 100-150 people. So it would be best if you all took care of eating on your own in smaller groups, and then join everyone else at the Kaigozan Dojo Pub Evening from 19:00 until 24:00. We will make a list of restaurants in the area.

When you are outside any of our dojo’s please do not disturb our neighbors with loud noises, when you see someone from our group do that please tell them to calm down.We have a good reputation among our neighbors and like to keep it that way.

Training schedule. As you see it is very short lunch break on Sunday, so bring something with you to eat.

If it is your first time in Stockholm, please see the official tourist information page here! You can find everything from transportations, hotels, things to do and much more. 

Please study and print out the map!

This Tai Kai is sponsored and possible only by the Svenska Bujinkanförbundet. Without them we could not keep this very low seminar price and such excellent instructors. 

Head organizer for this years Tai Kai is Mats Hjelm from the Kaigozan Dojo, with the help from Kaigozan Dojo members and other Bujinkan members.

If I forgot to bring something up here, please don’t hesitate to post a comment here (or e-mail me)!

Happy Training!

/Mats

Hatsumi Soke with the Shindenfudo-ryu Sword in STHLM 1998

We updated the web site with a new video of Steve Olsen who will be one of the four Shihan teaching at the Sweden Tai Kai in September.

We have the venue booked now. We wanted the bigger venue, but it was fully booked. But we booked another gym hall we used many times before (same place where most of the Kaigousuru Taikai in the past was). The address is…
Lilla Alby Skola, Humblegatan 19-21, Sundbyberg, Stockholm, Sweden.

Apparently Hatsumi Soke started teaching Shindenfudo-ryu Iai, as a second theme for this year in May. In 1998 Hatsumi Soke taught Shindenfudo-ryu taijutsu and sword, you might want to check out the videos from 1998 to see how Soke used this big sword. However, he might teach with a different sword now (I don’t know). However there is still three more months for the guys in Japan to figure it out. I’m sure the Taikai will be interesting for everyone attending, I hope you can make it.

The sign-up form will be available later in July.

On the Facebook event page we can see that there is 51 attending, 118 maybes, and 776 people who hasn’t made up their minds yet. This is interesting for us to see, but from experience we can’t trust this system. People have confirmed before and never showed up, it is to easy to just say yes without meaning it. The only way to confirm your place is through our sign-up form that will be up later in July.

We also updated the Information page, please read it before sending us questions!

Edit: I also added a new video with Duncan Stewart.

Pictures of Sundbyberg and Stockholm

Happy training!

/Mats

For the full seminar list which is chronologically sorted to each month we still recommend you check out this page or this once on a while. If you use facebook, add this Facebook application.

Web sites (all is hand coded)
kesshi.com
kaigozan.se
taikai.se (runs on Drupal)
budoshop.se (runs on MagentoCommerce)
bujinkan.me

Blogs (all is WordPress MU with different skins)
bujinkan.me/blogs
kabuto.bujinkan.me/blogs
kaigozan.bujinkan.me/blogs
seminars.bujinkan.me/blogs
taikai.bujinkan.me/blogs
selfdefence.bujinkan.me/blogs
budoshop.bujinkan.me/blogs

todo (sites that need something)
budo-taijutsu.net (maybe? low priority)

I need to do a Site map of all my/our web sites is necessary, to keep track of them all, anyone have any ideas? Please comment!