In early March, one of the local fighting groups called "Avalon' held a fighting and feasting event. Fortunately, it was located not too far from Yokota Air Base, up the road just a few miles. We fought while the sun was up, in this river bed near a resturaunt.
Here is my gear, before I started putting it on. I dress all in black...the "Black Knight"' as it were. Actually, the black paint is easier to maintain than trying to buff out all the rust on non-painted armor.
There were a few foreign fighters there, but almost all the participants and fighters were local Japanese folks. We even had several female fighters...which is always cool!
The crowd gathers as the fighters don their armor.
Here I am getting ready to fight. I'm all armored up...but I forgot my favorite throat protector, and had to use my backup one. Which I hate.
One of my fencing students, Adam, also came out to fight. This was his first time putting on plate armor.
The Lady Sara and Lord Stephan, two friends of mine.
The first game we played was called "Blood of Hero's". The closest comparison I could give you is two three man teams playing football with armor and swords.
Here I am getting ready for our first match. There were 4 teams if I remember correctly, but only one was all gaigin...or foreigners. This was to help with our battle communications.
In I go, with two swords.
The goal is to get a simulated dog skull (made of foam) into your opponents net.
Here I battle Lord Stephan.
Adam has the dog skull...I'm on the ground behind Lord Stephan.
Lord Noe and Adam get past Lord Stephan and hed to the goal.
Here I am trying to get behind an enemy.
Noe keeps Stephan pinned down so he can't "respawn".
The bodies (including mine several times) litter the ground.
Everyone is down but the last two...so we watch comfortably.
And yet another round. We kept winning our matches, so we had to stay and fight round after round. The losing teams got to rest, and the winner stayed to defend.
We played till 3 points each, about 9 games total for the day I think.
Adam drops the dog skull in the net again. When asked to pick a team name, I suggested "Katana" which mean sword. That didn't go over so well, so as a joke I suggested "Hana" which means flower. They liked that one, so "Team Flower" was us....
Another team watches and waits their turn to battle us.
More battle shots...
Me and Stephan again...
I like my plastic armor's weight, but I got alot of "poo-poo's" from the folks with metal armor. Oh well...
Legged, but still fighting.
Sadly, the ground was very rocky, and I was worried about twisting an ankle.
Close combat shot...
Me and Lord Noe form a line to allow Adam to sneak around the side.
We switched sides whenever a new team came out.
It was alot of fun, but it was hot and heavy work.
But again, it was all good and fun, until someone gets hurt...
Which turned out to be me...I twisted my left knee. I tried to continue to fight, but could not. I tried to rest it an hour and fight again, but it was too badly hurt. It has taken over a month to heal, but I am ready to fight again.
So, I spent the last part of the day watching the fighting. Later that night was a big feast, dancing, and entertainment. A great day...except for my damaged knee....:)
On April 2nd, we went to Showa Park, which is right in front of our house to check out the flowers that are blooming. Here is one of the fields of flowers that you see right at the start of the "Big Field".
Sadly it was a bit over cast, and a bit cool. Also, the flowers were just starting to bloom, so they were only about 40% out.
But it was alot of fun to go on a walk with my sweet lady and our pup.
Even with the poor weather and just now blooming cherry tree conditions, there were hundreds of families out for the traditional spring picnics under the cherry trees.
Of course we took about 200 pictures of flowers and such.
Most of the scenery was like this, beaufiul landscapes, colorfull flowers and streams.
They all have a European feel and layout.
Sisko was a huge hit with the everyone, even the smallest of children!