Is this Good or Bad news?

I just got word from the publishers of our kendo book that they are now the EX-publishers of our kendo book ... they are apparently going out of business! Well, that was fun while it lasted. It doesn't really affect me since they paid me up front, and in fact it solves the potential problem (more or less) of having people recognize me as the author. (Did I mention that I saw the book for sale in a bookshop in Tokyo?)

In other news, I have contacted the local iaido group here in Fukushima. Unfortunately, they don't start practice again until January. The good news is that I think they are quite strong and they are also Jikiden - woo hoo! Their head sensei is hachidan hanshi, and they also have a very young 8th dan kyoshi (about 56 years old?) who won the 8th-dan taikai last year. So, I'm guessing he's pretty good! I'm looking forward to practicing there. I just hope it's not too ridiculously cold in the gym. It's funny ... I can be practicing hard enough that sweat is pouring down my face, but my feet are simultaneously so cold that I can't feel them. Poor circulation or what??

This month's "Kendo Nippon" has a feature on Tominaga Sensei (Fukuoka jodo) so I had to buy it. Argh... those Kendo Nippon's always get me that way... two or three pages that I want to read so I end up buying the whole magazine. I wish they would just collect all of their iaido and jodo articles into one annual "Special Edition". Hmmm... I wonder if I could make that suggestion to them... hmmm...

Anyway, doing a whole lot of nothing right now. Are you planning on doing a Toshigoshi-geiko this year? Or some sort of crazy 1000-waza practice? I'm so glad I always manage to miss those things...