Calgary Japanese Festival 2013 Blooper Reel

Some of you on Facebook liked the idea of seeing a blooper reel of my Calgary Omatsuri footage. Well, here you go. Technical issues and sliding guitars make for an interesting time:

The 2013 Calgary Japanese Festival was a grand success. There were more displays, more tents, more food and more cultural programming. It was too bad that some of the indoor programming was cancelled, and that some sessions happened out of sequence. I was really disappointed that the sword making session was cancelled.

If I have one suggestion, it's that the indoor programming repeats. Then attendees wouldn't have to choose between indoor and outdoor events.

Organizers are looking at larger venues for next year. Sugoi, desu ne?

Calgary Omatsuri 2013 Interview with Dave Rathnow

At this year's Calgary Japanese Festival, I had the opportunity to interview Dave Rathnow, an Iaido practitioner and instructor at Shin Ken Kai Nobara Iaido Club. Iaido is referred to as "the art of Japanese swordmanship" or "the art of drawing of the sword". It is the sister art to Kendo. Unlike kendo, iaido is a non-contact martial art.

I must come clean, when I started to watch Bleach, I became interested in weapons-based martial arts. The Agent of the Shinigami arc remains, in my eyes, one of the strongest storylines I've come across in the shounen genre.

However, I digress. I wanted to learn kendo, but the cost of the equipment scared me off. I turned my attention to iaido. After watching videos online of how smooth and fluid the iaido kata are, I was hooked.

See for yourself the rhythm and flow of iai. Here are excerpts from the Iaido demonstration that Dave Rathnow-sensei, Allen Yee-sempai and Brent May-sempai did at the Calgary Omatsuri:

If you want a bit more of an introduction to Iaido, please read my article entitled "An Introduction to Iaido". I also have published a few more articles on Iaido for The Iaido Journal: "Rhythm and Flow", "Tempering Fire" and "A Special Box for a Special Club"

Now, for my interview with Dave-sensei:

Here are some of the websites I checked out when I first researched iaido:

Aoi Budo Gu: where I ordered my iaito

Ka Muso Kai Iaido Club: my dojo

Shin Ken Kai Nobara Iaido Club: Dave-sensei's dojo

SDK Supplies: where I ordered my beginner iaidoka set and my Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu (Musashi's two-sword style) bokuto 

Sword Store: many of my sempai ordered their iaito from here

I currently have three katana and samurai-related books in my library. The are: The Book of Five Ringsby Miyamoto Musashi,The Life-giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori and the Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

Here's a trip down memory lane for me. These are some photos of when I studied Iaido:

Sadly, training nights moved to prime teaching nights for me a while back, so I had to stop training. I do hope to get back into it someday. For now, I'll just try to keep regular with sword cuts. After all, it's a lot of fun to hear my iaito go "whoosh".

About the featured image: Allen-sempai demonstrates the first Iaido kata from the Seitei Gata Iaido at the Calgary Omatsuri. Photo credit: Christine Kohl. Publisher: Kathleen Boucher.

Highlights from the 2013 Calgary Omatsuri

The 2013 Calgary Japanese Festival - the Calgary Omatsuri - has come and gone. It was a splendid event, with a wide range of programming, entertainment and demonstrations to give attendees of a taste of Japanese culture, history and traditions. We could not have asked for a better day. It was sunny (most of the time) and it was hot on August 17, 2013.

As I mentioned in my last post, Omatsuri Entertainment Director, Kathleen "Irulanne" Boucher asked me to document the Japanese Festival and to interview as many performers as I could. It made for a long day, but I had a blast! たのしかった です。

I did a bit of an experiment with the recording. My gear for the day comprised of my GoPro Hero2 camera, my keitai (used as a wi-fi remote/viewing screen) and my Zoom H2 portable recorder (used as an external microphone). The fish eye effect was rather neat with the GoPro. I even managed to film while dancing the Tanko Bushi, although I got motion sickness from just watching the clip when I started moving the camera as a shovel. Not to worry, I didn't include that part in my vlog.

The interviews were great. I managed to interview Martial Simard (shakuhachi), Dave Rathnow, Roku-Dan Iaido practitioner and instructor at Shin Ken Kai Nobara, Midnight Taiko Kai, Mizue Asai-Kaufmann and Kaori Akiyama (koto players), Anything Goes, the Kotobuki Senior Group, two musicians from the Jpop and Anime Talent Show and finally, the Minyo Dancers from Lethbridge, They will form the next few posts.

I was quite sad to hear that the the sword making demonstration was cancelled. In hindsight, it would have been very difficult for me to cover that session AND all the programming outside.

The children's games, such as this one pictured below, sold out quickly:

Inside, there were several booths, showcasing Japanese handcrafts, tea, snacks and the Calgary Japanese Community Association's history project: Okage Sama De ("I Am Because of You"). Some of the events that took place inside included an ikebana demonstration as well as a green tea presentation.

Making its debut at the Calgary Omatsuri was the Shogun Grill Food Truck, run by the family that owns Foster's Bakery. The takoyaki was so flavourful and tender:

Gomen! I forgot to take a food porn shot of my okonomiyaki and my mochi balls.

All right, without further ado, here's my first vlog of Calgary Omatsuri highlights on my new otaku/geek awesomeness channel on YouTube, ChibiSamuraiTV: