Japanese Festival

Yesterday, Amanda and I went to the Japanese Festival in Fort Worth at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, in the Japanese Gardens. We went with the BTK ladies. It was a lot of fun. We heard Taiko drummers, saw some dancing and of course, martial arts demonstrations. The first martial arts demonstration was a Hanbo-Jitsu demonstration. That was interesting. They used various grabs and arm bars. We watched one big guy pick up a girl and she showed everyone how to get out of it. She literally swung her feet up, then used her momentum to get her feet back to the ground. Then she dropped a shoulder and threw the guy over her shoulder to the ground.
We watched them, then wandered off to the Zen garden area. Amanda made an origami crane (which I put into her purse, so it got mushed) and got her name written in Kanjii. We tried to do fish painting with the kids since we had three kids, but the ladies at the fish painting pavilion said they were out of paper.

We went out and had lunch out by the Rose Gardens. There were a lot of brides there, taking pictures. It was really neat to see. I think there was at least one wedding taking place because we saw a party of people who were in green dresses and of course, tuxedos. I don't think I saw the bride, just the bridal party.

One of our members, K, and her family brought lunch for us all. She spoiled us immensely. We had a mushroom and rice dish, Japanese meatballs, an egg dish that I liked (need to get the recipe from her!) and for an end, we had cheesecake. It was really good. She likes to cook and it shows. We were spoiled rotten by her. Thank you for that meal, K!!

After that, we wandered around a bit. The weather was misty, humid and very nice. It was peaceful in the gardens. They have a Zen garden that must take a long time to get it just right. There's also several connecting small ponds that are interconnected. They have very large koi in these ponds. The koi know that whenever something is dropped into the water, it's food. They literally will swarm the bridges and the areas near the edge of the pool that are accessible to the public. The caretakers of the gardens have set out food dispensers with kibble specifically for the feeding of the koi. Those fish are HUGE!! Amanda had a blast feeding them. This was her first visit to the gardens. I've been there before, but it has been many years since I was last out there.
There's also a large blue heron out there who regularly eats the koi. From what I was told, the groundskeepers call him "jaws". He's protected, so they can't do anything about it. I got a couple of pictures of him but I was too far away for a good shot. I need to get a new camera for long distance pictures, but that's a dream for another time.

We watched another martial arts demonstration before we left. This one was a combination karate and Tai Chi demonstration. His Tai Chi class demonstration was very serene and looked nice. I would like to take classes some time. If he wasn't out in Fort Worth, I'd be more than happy to take classes. I liked the way the Sensei ran his demo. He didn't have JUST his high ranked karate students out there. He had the full range of students, from white belt to black belt. I really enjoyed seeing it. He ran the demonstration as if he was teaching a normal class. He had the students run through katas. I could see the similarities between the forms I do in Tang Soo Do and the karate kata they were doing. At the end of his karate demonstration, Sensei came down to the mats and did a kata, which I think was Bassai. It was beautifully executed.

They had the Tai Chi students come back out afterwards and they had a group Tai Chi session with the audience. Amanda participated in that and says she enjoyed it. She followed the person in front of her and beside her and did fairly well.

This was the first Japanese Festival I've attended. I think if I'm invited again next year, I'm going.

Saturday

Today was Aidan's first tournament since he joined the Competition Team. He did pretty well. It wasn't as crisp and wonderful as some of the other kids, but you know what? The little guy deserves a gold medal in my opinion because he put himself out there. We had little communication from his coach and no idea of what we were supposed to do other than sit and wait. And wait. And wait some more.
We were directed to the wrong ring to start out with, sat there for a while, then asked questions and were told, "oh you're in the wrong place". He did not get to compete in "Traditional forms", but instead was able to do his "a-okay kata". I sat there and fumed because not one person from his "team" showed up to cheer him on or see that he was in the right place. It was "meet at the convention center at 9:00 am sharp". When I FINALLY got Amanda and I paid for and our bands on our wrists, I didn't know where my groups was. I had no idea where my son was in this hall. I found him. Found the owner of USMA. Found the coach. Found a couple of other people from his team. They're all teenagers, so they were off in their own rings, waiting to perform.

After wasting a LOT of time at the wrong ring, we got to the correct ring and waited some more. We found out by accident that he'd been entered incorrectly as an Intermediate when they called him up and then told him he wasn't able to do his form with that group. Poor guy! We had to go to the front desk, where they had a computer and re-register him as an advanced belt. Apparently a brown/black belt qualifies as an Advanced belt. Okay.

So, after registering him *correctly*, it was a race to the men's room so he could use it (he was patiently waiting until they told him he wasn't going to perform at that time), then back to our ring. Then we waited for the Advanced group to go up. He did a great job of performing his form, even though he boo-booed. He stopped because he realized he'd forgotten something. Ah well. It was a great start. He earned a 9.2, 9.2 and an 8.0 from the three judges. For a first effort, I'm pretty proud of him.

They also entered him in sparring, so we had to borrow some sparring gear from one of the black belts. (Note to self...do something nice for her, she's really sweet for letting him borrow it!) He did fair--he scored one point. His opponent scored 4 on him. We need to work on sparring with him I think. Of course, I also need to get him the rest of his sparring gear IF we're going to continue this. It all hinges on whether or not the school manages to stay around after the summer. I'm still skeptical about that. I keep hearing things...

Little boy hated the sparring because his mouth guard is too big for him and it hurt, but he was a trooper and did his best. I'm proud of him.

After they released him, we took off and headed home. We nearly got run over by a rude woman in a shiny new car who thought that either I was driving too slowly or that she had the right of way to pass me *on the left* on a single lane entrance ramp. Then another oh so charming driver cut me off and tried to push me onto the shoulder as I tried to enter the highway. Is it any wonder I freak out?? My poor kids had their ears blistered because I was so stressed and angry. I'd best hope they don't repeat that stuff because people will KNOW it came from their parent!!! I didn't check out with the coach, nor did I say goodbye to anyone. It was an awkward experience but now I know that if we go again, I need to make sure I don't bring Amanda and I am prepared to be a pack mule to carry stuff everywhere--there isn't a place to put your stuff that's safe there.