I have to go to bed soon but I wanted to tell you that I have just been through two very long days of intense sword and taijutsu training here in Tokyo. It has been amazing, too much to explain right now.

Last night, after four hours of training at the Budokan, we went across town to another class in Kashiwa with Shireishi sensei. He is this little man, 61 years old, and always smiling. He speaks pretty good English, and explained things so gently and poetically. It was a good class because only 30 people were there instead of 120. Shireishi sensei is just an amazing martial artist, and was so nice to me, a white belt.

That is another reason I love the Bujinkan. I am the only white belt at this event. White belt is the equivalent of `no belt.` But there is no ego (usually) among the students, because everyone knows that everyone started with a white belt at some point. The black belts are eager to help me, even of the highest ranks. Rank doesn`t even matter that much, because everyone always has something they can learn from someone else. The spirit of our art is of kindness to eachother, even as we are destroying our enemies with stealth and deception.