[Ettiominiw]

So, tonight was my first night in bogu. It took my sensei a while to find gear in my size amongst his substantial collection of training bogu. But, he came through in the end. Since we're about the same size, I ended up with some of the first gear he trained with in Japan, way back when. So, while were lined up to bow in, we're faced with an unusually small class, no doubt due to the nearness of the holiday. Sensei wanted to go through the warming up and then work on kata, since we had a few new people. Nope, the seniors wouldn't hear of it. They were getting me into my bogu and I was going to get beat on.

I think I presented myself fairly well, though I started to run out of gas pretty bad by about the fifth or sixth jigeiko. It was just such an amazing thing to be down, getting out of my bogu, instead of at the other end of the line, watching.

My right forearm is sore from missed kote, my legs feel like wood, my voice is raspy from kiai, and my head feels like its been massaged by a ballpeen hammer.

I'm so excited I can barely sit still enough to write this. Now I have judo to look forward to Saturday. Life is good.

Namo AMidha Butsu