U all better watch out a New SHOdan Is in TOWN

Muahahahhaha.... i have finally been promoted to shodan... i recevied my hakama in the 2nd class on monday... while i was training i saw Jong, Guna, ALex and Junko in their brand new hakama.... if only i had not injured myself last monday i would have gotten it last week .... now mynext purchase would be a brand new Tozando or Bujin hakama and it will suck me dry ...

i was surprised that so many ppl was congratulating me after class ... it took me nearly 7 yrs of training to get to shodan where else ppl took 4 yrs ... i guess i am abit slow but wat the hack i still got it .... getting this new hakama from sensei brought back fond memories back when i first started practising aikido..

it was back in 1998, i was at tanglin CC with a couple of my friends waiting to collect our dogi... When i recevied my uniform, i turned and asked guna where is the black warrior pants... and he gave me this disbelief look and told me that we had to earn it... back to present time, in 2005 febuary 28 i finally earned it....

Being a shodan does not mean that i have reach mastery of the art... it is just a small step towards the Way... My sensei said that 'shodan is like a newborn baby starting to learn how to crawl'... the path to enlightenment is a long one...as new shodans we must not be complacent, the only way to attain harmony is thur continous training and learning new things as my sensei once told us 'aikido techqiue is never ending, there are thousands and thousands of variation to just one techqiue and even in one's lifetime it is impossible to master just one' .... he always love to say that it takes 20 yrs just to learn ikkyo(first tech) and yet to find that there is more to it, the only thing acheived is a deeper understanding of that movement...