This past Saturday I also had my first lesson in 弓道/Kyudo, or Japanese archery! The practice of Kyudo is practically unchanged since waaaay back! Which is cool, to do something that has such strong tradition and strong history.

I had expected there to be a lot more people there, but only three (myself included) showed up! Which is awesome for us, because we get more time individually with the teacher, as well as we get to shoot more often than if we had been more people. Only 5-6 people can line up at once to shoot, and you have to wait until everyone has shot before you can go and collect your arrow. With 5-6 people focusing their shot, .. that can take a while.

In the first lesson we got to try out the bow, which was simply incredible. The bow itself is about 2 meters, so it’s taller than me

But I do need to train my arms and hands more I’m pretty sore

Photo by Josh Dionne

AND, I finally booked my plane ticket to Tokyo! I had been contemplating it for a while, whether I was going or not going. And then after a very quick search for tickets, I saw that they weren’t as steep as I had originally expected, so I thought it would be best to get a ticket right away, before the prices soar! I can’t wait! I’ll be in Japan for 3 weeks. I haven’t decided where I’m going yet, but I’ll of course travel a bit in Tokyo.Yaay!

Has spring arrived yet where you are?

As for my progress with the 101 in 1001 list, I haven’t progressed much.

I did sign up to try/do something new (#33 on the list), namely Japanese archery, so I can soon cross that off! I also attended a seminar (#52) about accessibility on the web, as it is now required by law that public websites are accessible to disabled users. And this relates to my work because I work as a web developer. I’m also attending two seminars in March, one about social media and the other about understanding what your users think/want.

Hopefully it’ll get a bit warmer in March, so I can get to work on some of the other points on the list!

Have a great Sunday, and a great last day of February!

One of those new things is that I the other day signed up for a beginner course in Japanese archery (弓道/きゅうどう/kyudo)!  There’s an organisation is Oslo that’s holding the courses, and for just 700 kroner you get to borrow equipment, you get lessons in archery, history lessons and more!

Photo by colodio

I signed up because it sounds like fun, and I’m always interested in learning more about Japanese culture! I will probably need to get new glasses before I start though I don’t see very well with these, lol!

How about you? Have you tried something new lately?