We had an awesome Trip to Japan, I was finally able to bring a student w/ me.  Erick (who will be taking over as the instructor for the S.C. Dojo) was able to come.  I am very glad he was able to attend.

The training was excellent, of course! and we learned alot.  I hope everyone makes their way to japan to get the feeling, and more importantly stays on the correct path, and follows what Hatsumi is teaching.

I am glad that my students here have been able to experience true bujinkan training, everyone is growing and getting better, over the past year there has been significant and visible development within the school.

We are looking forward to Training in Japan in May and I am Glad Erick Will be coming with me to train in Japan.

We are also Planning another seminar Around the end of June with Shihan Carbonaro.

The training theme  may be based on the Shinden Kihon Gata, with advanced level taijutsu, and both Chris and I will have recently been to Japan.  If you are interested in attending the seminar please contact me.

There is no fixed time or dates yet, so if you want to let me know what the best time is for you, if you would like to come, then pease let me know, i would like to plan for the best weekend so that everyone who wishes may attend. 

I am also trying to keep the cost very low.  At most the seminar will be $100 per person for the entire weekend. but i’m sure this will lower as we get closer to the seminar, i am trying to make it $25 per person. for the whole weekend.

I truly believe in spreading this art to everyone who wihes to learn it purely, that is why I sacrifice my time to help make my seminars as cheap as possible, becuase people already have to pay enough in travel expenses, as well as saving for a trip to Japan!!!!  So If you Happen to read my blog or stumble across it, and are interested in attending please contact me so we can work out any details.  THANX!!!

More too come as we figure out the dates for this seminar!!!

Feb 6th-8th 2009 Seminar feat. Shihan Carbonaro

We had an awesome seminar and a great turnout especially considering we are the only Bujinkan school in S. Carolina.  Most of our students were able to attend as well as Doug & Michelle Tweedy from Virginia and Shihan Karl Koch and his student Jerome (which i need to give a very special thanks to!)

Shihan Karl Koch taught Friday night training with a review on Kihon.  He was able to provide us with some excellent training advice.  We went over a unique form of striking, Jodan Uke and Uke nagashi differences and select techniques thru the Shinden Kihon Gata.  He also demostrated movement from each of the 4 Shihan.  Karl Koch’s movement is excellent!  I highly recommend him for training!  I hope my students and I will have the opportunity to visit his Dojo in the future!

Upon Karl’s arrival to the dojo, I was very happy and overjoyed by his preasance.  While waiting for the dojo to open, Karl and all of the students meshed well together, as if old friends seeing eachother once again. 

Karl’s has a trully knd spirit, friendly personality and awesome Taijutsu- He is a true Shihan and it was an honor to finally practice with him and have another Buyu who follows Hatsumi Soke’s teachings.

On Saturday and Sunday Chris provided us with some excellent training with the feeling of Japan as always.  If you are looking for real Japan like training from someone who teaches what and how things are done in Japan, look no further…

This was a great experience for the Dojo and I was finally able to have my students exposed to real Bujinkan training.  I know after this seminar our training level will jump a up a notch! 

Specail thanks to Doug and Michelle for the Tameshigiri demo!

And tanks to everyone who attended the seminar!

The Bujinkan InYo Dojo is moving Jan 2009 to;

www.coastalkenpo.com

Coastal Kenpo Karate and Martial Arts

Crowfield Executive Park

108 Greenland Drive, Suite B

Goose Creek, SC 29445

I think everyone is excited about the new Dojo.

We have changed our training location.  The new Dojo will cost less $$ for the students each month:

$80 per month / $50 with the Law Enforcement Discount.

40% of all the money earned will be saved to host seminars each year.

This will be very good for the progression of the dojo, we will be able to guarantee atleast 1 seminar a year or more and the students save some cash!  It will also allow us to keep a low cost for others who wish to travel and attend our seminars.

After all, this is what Soke has asked, for us to build a strong Bujinkan Community.  We are trying to help everyone who wishes to take part.

I hope other dojo’s out there could do something similar to this effect, or see how they can pull there funds to support there dojo (having part of the training fees going directly into the dojo)

Please check out the *EVENTS* tab for current Seminars!

Gambatte!

I am posting this here as my next blog entry- it is my response i gave on the Bujin forum on the topic of Sakki.

I would also like to recommend- especially for my students to get a login to the Bujin forum, there is a link to the right for it. ask questions, and share your expieriance!

I don’t ever really feel comfortable talking about my war time expeirience, but i feel it’s necessary for the growth of the people who read this blog.  I would like to add that i wish everyone in the military learned our art, i think studying bujinkan can also help prevent PTSD – and correctly prepare an individuals heart and mind for war.

enjoy-

I hope nobody here takes my words the wrong way, and i don’t claim to fully understand everything about Sakkijutsu/ the 5th DAN test, nor am i trying to undermind or demean anyone here but -

how many of you here who have posted on this topic have taken the 5th DAN test?
it looks as though there is alot of anylization going on from everyone’s [u]own perspective [/u]here…

sietan wrote in the being a good uke post; “I have an innate sense of danger.” but then talks about charasmatic people – don’t get confused about sakki and charisma and energy.

Nagato sensei once had a friend along time ago in the army or somthing, anyways they were going to a south american country to teach that contry how to fight.  Nagato sensei was asked to go, and he wanted to but he had a vision that said, DANGER! so he did not go, anyhow, the plane crashed and everyone who went died.

maybe now it’s a good time to talk about my own expieriance-
If i had not taken the 5th DAN test when i did, i would be dead.

When i was living in Japan, me and a friend, shihan Carbonaro were told by Nagato to take our godan test, excited about it, we went to a friday night class which we did not regularly attend- the feeling was much different this night.  when it came time to take the test i went up sat down, felt like i was going to die, so i looked back and tried to roll -and failed.
No one passed the godan test that night.

the next sunday we went for our godan test again, the feeling was much different- i was sitting with my eyes closed, relaxed – the feeling was more of a gust of wind blowing behind me, i was so relaxed i even breathed out- not of my own accord- but, as if something breathed out for me – my lips even rattled then i was rolling out of the way and passed.

I do believe there are 2 different ways of applying the sakki test.  The first is this REAL sakki of the killing intention and the second is excactly as Nagato explained above in a previous post.

I was in the Air force for 8 years as security forces i have extensive law enforcement expierience especially during my 4 yrs in Germany – during that time i have spent about 2 years in Iraq/afganistan etc…So i’ll share a couple stories here-

Once i was at a bar in Kaiserslautern, i was sitting with my friends- of course we were all drunk, having a good time laughing- suddenly someone from behind me threw a glass at the back of my head, my friend told me, “You just stop laughing, froze and then my hand flew up at the side of my head and i had thrown a shuto and broke the glass in the air as it fell to the ground.  There was a stupid drunk guy with a bad attitude, i looked back and i stared at him- he froze, got a little scared and put his head down. later his friend came over and apologized- then we drank together and shared some laughs….

While i was in Iraq, during december of 2004 there was a bomb on a military installaion at the chow hall which killed alot of solders, over a period of time parts were snuck into the base by local nationals working there. I was conducting fly away missions back and forth out of qatar at the time, (providing aircraft security and escort prisoners, DV’s etc…) after landing on the base, we had a few ours of free time, so my partner and i went to the chow hall to eat instead of having a ‘box nasty’ from the plane.  while we were sitting down eating i felt ill, my partner was talking with some other people at the table, luckily i was in charge of the mission- i had to make him leave, and we whent back to the plane- as soon as we got back to the plane the chow hall exploded. -my only regret was not having some super spider sense to be able to save everyone…

This to me is sakki. and to really good life experiences i would like to share with all of you.  I’m not claiming to understand everything about it, but i do know about it first hand.  During the time i spent living and training in Japan with chris i think we built this ability to understand this from training with Soke and Nagato- our level of feeling grew to an advanced level during this time- even though we were still beginners in this art- our feeling was at a high level that superseeded our physical ability.

I hope everyone who reads this can understand what i am trying to say here.

On Aug 23rd Shihan Carbonaro taught a seminar in NJ at his dojo.  While in Japan Noguchi sensei had a special class covering bujinkan basics.

After attending the seminar i can finally understand Hatsumi’s new book!  Before learning the correct basics the translation of the basic techniques posed more questions and left me unsure how well I knew the basics.  And now, especially looking at the top 4 shihan (Nagato, Noguchi, Oguri, Seno) You can clearly see this foundation within their movement.

Having correct basics and understanding of how to use them is vital to mastering this art.  I also know there are alot of schools, especially here in America that are always saying not to train in advanced things, and there are alot of dojos out there thinking they only should train in the basics.  I just hope, for everyone, that they find the means to learning the correct and true basics of this art!  This is something which should be mastered and known inside and out.

For dojos out there as i stated above, (and for those lacking a good teacher/ training in Japan) I hope they realize even though they train in the basics, they look at how they are growing and getting better, if you just go to practice and go thru the movement and never correct it, and your taijitsu is not developing then what’s the point? can you see the problem here?… don’t be too fixed to what you learned before, and leave some room for improvment and growth.  I just hope everyone has the opportunity to learn how to correctly do the basics! This is my overall point I would like to make clear.  Please go to Japan, or find a good instructor to teach you the correct basics as they are being taught this year.

Buyu is an important aspect in our training. A very close friend and Buyu of mine is Shihan Carbonaro.  We were both stationed in Japan together, and grew up learning this art in Japan.  Every day to and from training we would discuss principles and concepts together or discuss what was done or talked about during class to help solidify our understanding, with this it allowed us to share, grow and learn from one another.  Without this I don’t think we would have excelled as well as we both have.

Having Buyu, discussing and sharing information is important.  I hope everyone can share there experiences, thoughts and ideas with one another and help each other to grow within our art.  This feeling and lifelong friendship we have developed, I feel, is an essential part of my own training and I hope everyone could experience this.

Even though Chris and myself are like opposites, we each have differences within our Taijutsu, yet we can still do the same thing and our connecting goal is learning this art and to pass it on as we were instructed, we both share a passion for what we do, this essence is one of the founding reason as to why I named my school InYo, it is about this connection.

Recently Hatsumi Sensei has been discussing this Bujinkan Community he would like us to develop.  I hope all Bujinkan practitioners can let go of their ego, let go of politics and purely train in our art.  Politics are only create by ourselves.

My own personal hope a vision of this is everyone being able to come together to share in a circle of Budo, to share are views with one another.  This is my hope for future seminars especially in America.

If you would really like to experience this, please check out the seminars link, Shihan Carbonaro puts on excellent seminars and the feeling is just like training in Japan.  We have begun to build a very strong Bujinkan community and I hope to see it grow and spread across the country.

Gambatte!

A connection, a deep sense of belonging, the Passion!  This word doesn’t fully describe what i am talking about here…

This art is not for everyone, but for some of us, there is a deeper connection that goes beyond feeling, beyond what words can describe.  For people who I have spoken to who grew up in Budo the same way as I have, they can understand what I am referring to…for others this may be a bit more difficult.  I grew up in Budo in Japan, having lived there and studying this art directly under the grandmaster, Nagato Sensei and Kamioka Shihan I feel I have developed an inner connection with the art.

When you study this art (especially once you start to reach the higher Dan ranks) you should have a feeling of Love and passion for it, a sense of wanting to transmit it truthfully in its entirety.  When I don’t practice, or there is a time in my life where i cant get routine training time in, there is a sense of a part of my soul missing.  Budo is not just a hobby or something I practice a few times a week, it becomes a part of your life, a way of living.  It takes commitment, sacrifice, dedication that comes from within ones self.

I also believe in this way, Takamatsu Sensei was the last living ninja, and Hatsumi Soke can be considered the last living ninja becuase he applies all these teachings to his life, although we do not live in an era of combat, he still lives the ninja way.Once, Kamioka-san told me, “Danny you are like a reincarnated samurai (now that I came to japan and was studying under Hatsumi, I found my way home).”  I feel this is where I belong–in the Bujinkan. 

Everyone has their own philosophy or agenda when it comes to training in this art, some may say you’ll never be the grandmaster, so don’t worry about making ninjutsu your whole life.  To me this merely depends on what your definition of ninjutsu really is and how much you understand, …we have all heard this before, “The martial arts are not just about fighting, but a way of life.”  But how much of our art do you really apply to your WHOLE life…

I could go on and on about this, so on an ending note, please look deeper into the phrase of “Holy am I alone, throughout Heaven and Earth.”  I hope that everyone can feel this inner peace and the happiness, love and passion for our art.