I feel like a big pack rat as I walk on the streets with a big sports bag, long bag which has 3 bo's inside and 1 smaller bag which has my wooden tai chi sword in it. That sword arrived awhile ago and it really does make a big difference whether I use that or a jo for practice.
There usually isn't a lot of people in our kobudo class on Saturday's, it was also like that today. Besides me, there was only another white belt and our sensei (+ a lot of iaido people). Our sensei spent most of the time dealing with the iaido guys so he told us to do quite a lot of paired bo work and it's first kata - Shujii no sho. All of them were the things which we need for our yellow belt exam.
At the end of the class, we tried a bit of sai kumite (against bo), but we didn't really have much time to try as the class seemed to end pretty fast. Then me, an iaido guy and our sensei stayed in the dojo for some tai chi. It's quite relaxing, but the sword forms can be quite complicated. And the stances with the sword are usually really low. I think fan forms are supposed to be even more complicated... oh the joy.
Last Saturday, after the kobudo lesson, my sensei asked me if I wanted to try out tai chi. I was a bit unsure at first, but since I didn't have anything else to do at that moment and I was a bit interested in it, I decided to give it a go. There didn't seem to be a lot of people interested in tai chi, so there were only 2 other people besides me, including our sensei. Thanks to that, it was a really peaceful atmosphere (though tai chi relaxing motions helped with that too). Weirdly enough, after one lesson, I was hooked. I think I'm way easy to become addicted to something.
Today was my second day in tai chi. It was my first time taking a bus through the city during a rush-hour. I thought I would have enough time if I started 1 hour before the start of the practice as always, but boy was I wrong. Instead of me arriving earlier then everyone, I barely made it in time, because I rushed as soon as I got off the bus.
I guess there really aren't a lot of people who like to do tai chi in our club. As I got to the dojo, there was only my sensei in there. The lesson turned out pretty great though, I finished learning the first weaponless form and after that, I learned a part of a form that used a sword. Since I didn't have a jian (we start with wooden ones though), my sensei gave me a jo and made me use that instead of the jian. The sword form had a lot of low stances that would make my knees hurt a bit, but not as much as the stances in kobudo first made me feel like when I first started with that. I guess my knee-muscles (or the muscles around it, whatever) have gotten a bit stronger.