Things are interesting right now

Last Tuesday, two days after passing 9th Kyu sword and Sho-Kyu staff, I received an email stating that my iaito (training sword) was finished and had shipped to my house! The timing, less than six weeks after I ordered it, felt like a Godsend. It actually felt like a reward for my passing my weapons tests.

I tracked it through the Japanese EMS shipping site. In one day it went from the Kyoto prefecture to the Osaka prefecture, and a day and a half later was in Chicago. I received it on Friday. And wouldn't you know it - snow kept us from having a weapons class Friday night!

Grrr.

But I had a massage scheduled with Dan Sensei on Saturday morning, so he still got to see it right away. He thoroughly approved of my iaito, which I am still trying not to drool over. I L-O-V-E it. It's gorgeous. Below are a couple of quick shots I took of it.

Keith ordered his iaito 10 days after I ordered mine, so if it's made as quickly as mine was, it should be shipping early next week! And, not to be outdone, John ordered his iaito today as well.

In related news, I think martial arts have become my life. In relaxed moments at work, I find myself looking at the e-budo site, or reading Tanemura Soke's book, or mentally going over Kyu-level techniques and things I learned at the Shibu Kai.

In UNrelated news, I received my merit increase (aka raise) last week. Without going into details, I will just say that it was a very nice raise, and I am very grateful for it.