Today, for the first time in two years, I held an Eikenkai session at my workplace. Up until mid-2017 I had been hosting an open kihon-based session about four-six times per year (since 2008), with attendance getting so crazy at times (over 40 people, hachidans joining, etc.) that I ended up having to limit it. The arrival of my daughter in 2017 caused the sessions to be cut drastically – from between four and six per year to about two – after which the pandemic destroyed even that.
Anyway, since we just came out of what I think was our fifth “state of emergency” here in Japan I thought I’d call a very restricted number of friends for a “mini Eikenkai” session to test the waters (ten people; four nationalities). Even if I re-start the sessions on a more regular basis the two highlights – visitors from abroad on musha-shugyo joining us and the legendary post-keiko drinking session – are likely to remain absent for the time being.
Anyway, it was nice to gather friends together for keiko, and perhaps to see some sort of light at the end of the tunnel…
Note that the text on the images say “Sept.2021” – it should be “Oct.2021” … oops!!
