Nihon Matsuri wrap up
It was great to see the turnout on Saturday for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Toowoomba-Taketsuki Sister city relationship. The weather mostly held out till the end though we were not able to undertake the jujutsu demonstration due to the thunderstorm. The food was lovely, the drummers awesome, and it was gratifying to see Toowoombans get out there and support an event such as this.
Many thanks to Dylan, Peter and Tracy for the load up and unpack into the dojo on the day, for Tom Johnson sensei for the loan of the yumi and ya to add to the general display and coming up to observe proceedings, a big special thanks to Raymond for not only driving all the way from Kingaroy for the day, by stepping into the breach when no other Toowoomba-district kendoka were available to assist Michael with the demonstration, and to Eric for being a stalwart and staffing the information booth along with Tracy and Michael in the heat (and his marshaling of kids during the kendo demonstration and his Jodo demonstration under time pressure).
It was also lovely to see Lauren Ole and Dave Johnson in the heat, and many thanks to both of you for assisting in the hurried pack up as the rain hit!
We had quite a bit of interest in folk wanting to do iaido, kyudo and kendo, so we will look forward to seeing that translate onto the dojo floor in coming weeks.