Dormitory Party and Kyudo

Before I came to Hakuoh, I had decided on entering one of two clubs. I wanted to try my hand at either the wind orchestra (as I have already had musical experience before) or a more traditional Japanese club on campus, Kyudo. Today, I decided to check out Kyudo to get a better perspective on the club and what they do.

When I arrived, many were surprised that a foreigner had shown up (later, I would learn only one other westerner has ever came and practiced with them). It was my second week here and I still couldn't understand much of what was being spoken to me, though I have made efforts in my speech and I got my point across using what I knew or what I could look up in my dictionary on the DS. There were a lot of first years that were learning the trade so I got to see the training practices that they go through.

Basically (this is also research from my later experience) this is the levels of training you go through:
1. You start with basic training of the movements involving stance, the way to get the bow leveled, how to pull back the bow, and what you do after you fire the bow, all without using any equipment.
2. The next level is where you use a gumibow or a grip that has a rubber "string" that mimics the actual pull on the real bow. You practice again all the movements with a few new movements done to add the bow.
3. The third level is actually using the real bow. You learn the full movements regarding the bow including entry to the positions of kyudo along with the exit positions. The gumibow does real well in mimicking the real bow, however, but the real bow's weight is not like a western bow and is slightly lop-sided and you must adjust for that.
4. The forth level combines the bow and the arrow, but you cannot enter the normal firing positions yet until you master firing the arrow. You practice mainly the arrow and bow positions in this level; the goal being you successfully firing the bow in such a way that it will not go astray. To help with this, your target is a straw mato (target) that is within 20 centimeters of the end of your bow when you fire the arrrow, therefore always insuring a hit.
5. The fifth and final level is where you have gotten to a good point with the arrow and bow and are ready to enter the normal firing positions. The targets (not straw, but paper) are about 25 meters (80 feet) away.

The firing positions are also have a certain custom to them:
Normally there are five firing positions, but there can be many has there are targets and few as 3 if needed.
The positions are always from right to left. It might be based from how Japanese kanji were read during the early Meiji period and before.
The positions are (from R-L): omae, mideki, naka, ochimae, ochi. Mae means before or first as in the case with the first position being omae and the position before ochi being ochimae. Naka means middle, as it is the middle position. Mideki, I am not sure what it means exactly.

During the firing process, the person that is writing down the score will announce the position about to fire and add the suffix "pon" to it, the counter for counting long thin things in Japanese (arrows fit into this group). Everyone that's not firing repeats whatever the scorer says. After the scorer sees the position in full stance ready to fire, the scorer yells "saippon" or "ready to fire". This I think more or less stems for safety reasons than old ceremonial practice. If a target is hit, everyone will yell "Hit!" (sha). You sometimes get times where an arrow grazes a target and everyone will try to decide whether or not it is a hit. The people in the firing positions fire a total of 4 arrows per round with a specific grip that allows them to hold two arrows at once. Once all positions are done with firing, the archers that just completed firing all step back together and the scorer calls "Please verify the results" (kakunin onegaishimasu) with the lead runner (someone that leads a group of people equal to the amount of targets that yells out the hits) clapping twice and responding with "I will enter the range" (hairimasu) and leads the others to the end where the targets are located. Each other person (not the leader) kneels in front of the target with the target clearly visible as the lead runner points to the targets and confirms each hit by saying how many hit the target. After that is over, the runners grab the arrows and returns to the dojo.

I had a few things to do before I could join the club (I had an entry fee of around $100 for insurance and bow rental fees, then would have to pay for my uniform down the road), so I couldn't quite join yet. But, it looked fun so I decided on joining as soon as I could.

After the match I was over with, I returned to the dorm to find out that the dormitory party was already underway. D'OH! I really forgot about it! Brian was already there and he showed me where I could find my name tag. Most of the good sushi and food was already gone, but I found some karaage and french fries still left so it was all good. I couldn't understand a lot of the guys that were talking/talking to me, but a guy named Yuusuke came up and talked to me in a mix of Japanese/English and it was pretty interesting. Slowly but surely I am really getting used to life here. After the party was over, Yuusuke, some other guys, and I took the remaining chuuhai and ran off to our rooms with it without letting the landlord know! It was one of those "Everyone was doing it, so I could too" situations that are infectious among the youth here. Definitely feels like home in that aspect.