Vancouver Branch, Canada / January 2010 - Contributor: Louie Dickens

New Year's Practice 2010 at BC Tozenji dojo-Vancouver-BC Tozenji-UBC

The members of BC Tozenji, UBC, and Vancouver branches met once again on January 1, 2010 for the celebration of the New Year. 2009 was a turbulent year, and who knows what 2010 will bring. The Olympics will be coming for the first time to Vancouver this year, a huge event. 2010 will be a year of change and opportunity also for Vancouver branch, which will go through a temporary location change while a new dojo is under construction.

This winter has been especially rainy in our area, and today was no exception. We practiced inside this year. Hashimoto Sensei and Okuma Sensei opened with a few words to bring in the New Year. After a fun warm up with races and games, we did basics and meditation. We watched a short kumi embu pair, and an impressive single form embu by one of the children. Then it was on to the main event!

Once again everyone rose to the challenge of 1000 punches, a tradition going back 26 years, when Hashimoto Sensei and Okuma Sensei began the practice in 1985. Setting up in a large circle, everyone took turns counting while punching to achieve the goal of 1000 punches. The children were inspiring as usual, sticking to it until the end. This year was especially challenging due to errors in counting, and everyone ended up doing close to 1200 punches, setting a new record!

We finished the event by gathering together for tasty traditional Japanese New Year's food, which was delicious as always. The efforts taken to prepare and serve the food each year are deeply appreciated. The food seems to get better and better each year, if that's possible

 

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