We attended the International Festival on Saturday. The children were very excited to go. They were to perform Aikido during the festival.
The prep work for performing began three weeks ago. Egee had an extra practice at the dojo every Wednesday evening. On Friday, we had to go to the dojo and clean the mats to take to the festival. Three other dojo members joined us in the cleaning of mats. (It is a big job to pull them up, vacuum, wipe down, and load onto the trailer.)
After we finished loading the mats and other items, we celebrated with a late dinner at Wild Wings downtown.
Saturday morning arrived early! We lugged all the gear to our tent site and began setting up the booth. It was a pleasant day with temperatures in the mid to upper seventies and a breeze.
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| The Spartanburg Academy of Self-Defense booth! |
Little Man was obsessed with the ping-pong table next to our site. This kept him occupied.
Once the mats were set on the ground, the children began falling and rolling to warm up. Hubby and the other adult black belts changed into their hakamas for the event. Everyone was having a grand time.
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| Little Man tying his obi (belt). |
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| Warming up. |
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| Hubby and Mr. K talking. |
Manami (a dojo member that is from Japan and orchestrated the dojo participation) had brought two kimonos for Little Man and Egee to wear. They were so excited and readily changed into the garments.
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| Trying to figure out how to put on the kimono. It is harder than it looks! |
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| Little Man's was easier to put on. It tied just like his gi. |
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| Two blonde haired, blue eyed, Japanese children! |
Our dojo performed an adult rank demonstration at 1 pm. Many stopped to watch and get information.
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| Mr. K and Mr. R performing technique. |
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| Egee's turn in the attack line. |
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| She may be small, but can put a grown man on the ground! |
The children performed their demonstration at 3:30 pm. This generated much interest from parents and children.
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| Little Man and A-Man performing during their demo. |
The big demonstration came at 5:30 pm on the World Wide Stage.
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| Bowing in to start the performance. |
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| Hubby and Mr. K |
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| Hubby and Egee |
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| Sensei and Mr. K |
Everyone did a wonderful job. We were tired after the festival and had to go back to the dojo to drop off the gear and clean the mats. However, we can't wait to do it all again next year!
