The Taikai finishes, the party begins..

TAIKAI PHOTOS (they're awesome, please check them out!)

^---------PICS! (it happened)

Ahhhhhhhhhh

Finally some time to breath.
The Sweden Bujinkan 2012 Taikai is now wrapped up, successful, and completely finished.
Which also coincidentally marks the end of my first week in the glorious country of Sweden.

It's been great. Albeit stressful.
It's been booked solid with meetings and interactions with people I have never met in a city I've never been in before. Quite the experience. -Thankful for it, but glad it's over.

The days have been kind to me; the weather gentle, and not too cold actually. So far the clothing I have packed is coming in at least adequate and I'm not turning into a popsicle when I step outside.
I can't say if I was expecting it to be better or worse. The only time I've been exposed to such low temperatures is when I spent a few weeks in Virginia during Christmas quite a few years back. However back then we had a car, and were pretty much inside all the time.

Swedes don't use cars.
And they throw a middle finger to the elements.

I've actually been seeing people walking down the street in tank tops and sweaters, while I am bundled up in three layers of wool and leather.
They grow them tough up in these parts. Even the children are humming along the sidewalks with nary a stutter in their stride, hardly a windbreaker to keep them warm.

Otherwise these days have been placed aside mostly for decompression.
Anne managed to become rather ill with all of the stress leading up to the Seminar, and so the free time been at a slow, even pace.

The instructors are all still in town, so we had dinner with them.
It's quite an amazing (albeit rather intimidating) experience sitting around the table with four of Bujinkan's top brass.
Even my girlfriend intimidates me when she gets going on training. She's been at it almost four times as long as I have, and has more than a foothold with where these guys are coming from. I've hardly ever felt so small and had so little to say. It's a nice and humbling situation to be in.
However, I don't need much to say, given the spectacle laid out before me; the interaction between them all is an event in and of itself.
Their stories, shared experiences, and philosophies on training swirl around together in a frenzied budo maelstrom. It is easy to get lost among them and just listen intently.
The time in which they speak of span back months, years, and decades. I hear of times when Westerners were just being allowed to learn from Hatsumi. Of times when my most revered figures in the Bujinkan were just discovering the same things I am now. I hear of the rivalries, the feuds, and the peculiar interactions they've had throughout the years.

Needless to say, a modest practitioner such as myself couldn't be more smitten.

Dinner is over; drinks are empty: time to move on.

The night was in full bloom now. A subsonic boom pierced through the humid air and writhing bodies of the club and desperately escaped into the bustling streets of downtown. The general consensus of the group hinted against joining the thundering bass, favoring tea and coffee; continuing the evenings discussions.
Agreeing on this as a decent compromise, we pulled up some chairs at "Steve's Cafe" and picked up where we left off.

The rest of the night goes as could be expected, ending with us all saying our goodbyes in front of a Best Western against a backdrop of distant drunken howls of young Swedes and electronic music.