OMG!

I'm in so much PAIN! I guess that's what a weekend of fun will do to you. I had no idea until just now, I fell asleep last night, I think I slept like 16 hours or so. I felt fine last night, just my feet and right wrist were a little sore, now I'm in so much pain it's hard to move. Ah but it's glorious pain, I know I'll be stronger for it. Anyway, on to the tournament!

We arrived Friday evening and had a long long practice until late Friday night, they provided our dinner, which was some crappy mexican food, there's no Japanese catering service in Cleveland I suppose. We went back to the hotel and I called Ting Ting very breifly, but I had to go to bed cuz we were waking up at 6:30.

Saturday! The day of the tournament section! We woke up around 6:30 and went downstairs to get our breakfast from the hotel, as soon as we were all done eating we went back to the gym where the tourament is being held. My division was one of the first to fight! Of course we had a two hour practice before we even started the tournament... man these guys like to practice. Anyway, I was SOOOO excited when it came time to fight. I ended up making the semi finals, although I won two of my matches without scoring a real point. One match I forced my opponent out of bounds twice, and we were already on overtime, so I won. The other one we used up all of our overtime as well, so the judges called me the winner because I had control of the match more or less. I finally lost on another close fight. This time was also an overtime match, but I did something stupid and stepped out of bounds once, so when overtime ran out, the judges called the other guy the winner. I was very sad that my fighting was over. Although at the same time my wrist was hurting, hahahaha. Too much fighting. Anyway, I spent the rest of the time before lunch watching some of my teammates fight. They all ended up losing their first fight, so I was bored most of this time, only getting to see a couple of fights of people I know. Lunch was a bento (japanese box lunch) and it was DELICIOUS. Man I love Japanese food, I was already so happy from fighting, so this really made my day. After lunch there was only the highest ranks and the team battles left. The highest ranks are all in one division. I saw one team member lose his first fight, but Hiro-san made it really far, he won his court and fought in the semi finals. Poor guy was tired, but he's damned good, I have to get way better than him. We had some crappy american food for dinner, stupid catering again. Then we got completely wasted on sake, I wanted to call Ting Ting during this time, but I didn't want Ting Ting to hear me drunk (I sound slow and stupid when drunk). They ran out of sake except for the special bottles they brought just for the sensei, so I thought I was done. Then walking back Hiro-san he waved me over using a glass of sake as a lure! So I sat with Hiro-san and Herb-san and finished off a bottle of sake for Hir0-san's ex-sensei who was apparently finished. I was so drunk at this point that I was aware we were sitting in a circle with many people, but I could only see a couple of people away. I'm not even sure where that sensei was sitting. We got back to the hotel kinda late and went to sleep.

Sunday was yet another practice before the testing. I was a bit nervous about the testing and made a couple of mistakes. There was an Iaido seminar after that, it lasted hours and hours before they posted the testing results. I'm very dissappointed because I only got yonkyuu, and I know I should have made nikyuu, but it's only my own fault because I looked like an idiot out there. They were clear about where to stand or how many times to do things, so even if I weren't nervous, I would have made many of the same mistakes again, it was rather annoying. Honestly I'm also a bit annoyed at my teachers for not warning me ahead of time, I dunno how they expect me to know that you only do four of everything in the testing rather than 5 like normal. I just LOVE making myself look like I have no idea what I'm doing. Anyway, we left... what time did we leave? I don't remember, but we got to Columbus around 6:30PM or so and stopped at a Japanese restaurant... HIBACHIS! It was delicous, the perfect way to top off the day. i'm glad we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at the hotel, it let me eat sooo much Japanese food. I talked to Ting Ting a bit when I got home, but she had to go cuz she was at school, I knew I had to go to sleep soon, though, because my body was exhausted. I fell asleep not too awfully long after taking a hot bath and now here I am, just waking up. Time to go find some food, I'm starving.