Katori Shinto-Ryu

Well, now that I am here I need to find some stuff to do.  Not finding baseball and typical things.  What the heck can I do?

As my father is a bit of an odd ball and is into foreign things like Bushido, we have signed up for Katori Shinto-Ryu, which pretty much means Samurai school.

http://katorivietnam.org/en/

This particular school dates back to approximately 1447, now that is old.  This looks like it may be a lot of fun.

I have my dad's two swords ready to go, what am I getting in to?

Well, here we go, night one.  The man to my right is Sensei Malte.  Sensei  is from the Netherlands and looks after the school in Vietnam on behalf of our Japanese Sensei.

Woa, Mr. Hiep is swinging a sword at me.  This stuff is for real.  Mr. Hiep is a Sempei, (those who came before) and will be working with me as I learn this stuff.

Looks like I better learn quickly how to block Mr. Hiep when he comes at me with his sword.

Week two and I am starting to understand this attack and counter attack stuff.

Being short has its advantage.  With my longer sword and shorter stance I can get underneath Mr. Hiep.

When he tries to get under me I can bring my sword down and knock his away.

Katori Shinto-Ryu teaches the art of war.  As I study Bushido with my dad I learn the warrior way.  This is very complicated to learn but it really gets down to slice where you can and where you can't "stick em with the pointy end."

School Orientation and First Day of School

Today is the first day I go to see my new school for orientation.  It is the United Nations International School, Hanoi.  There are only two schools like this in the world.  I wonder what it will look like.

The main orientation was held in the gymnasium.  They started with the Head Master (like Dumbledore) banging on this huge drum to call everyone's attention.  Then they gave some boring speeches....where is my class?  Like Hogwarts the school is divided into Houses.  Unfortunately, no wizards and no Gryffindors.  I have been assigned to the Buffaloes.  What is that about?

This meeting is getting more boring, a bunch of new parents standing around talking to themselves. Not much happening.  But.....as I look around the gym I see that what looks like a balcony is actually a running track.  I wonder what I can do with that?

Look I am running so fast I am a blur.  If I keep this up I am headed for the Olympics.  The people below cannot even see me I am running so fast.

Hey, look......

This school has a pool.  Things are finally starting to look up.  I think I'll sign up for that.

Now, where is my class?

After a long tour of the campus they take us to one of the 5th grade class rooms.  These are all the new 5th grade students for the year.  They come from lots of different countries.  Korea, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, USA (me of course), India......but this is not my classroom.

Finally, my class room.  That is Mr. Daniel my new teacher showing us around.  The boy to the right is Adam, my new German friend (more on him later), to my left is Ms. Annelie, Adam's mother.  The girl in the pink shirt is Tara the new girl from the Netherlands.  The Vietnamese girl is Mr. Daniel's teaching assistant.

Mr. Daniel sits us around in a group and starts telling us the rules, teachers.....what can you do?  Mr. Daniel is from Australia.  He seems OK but I think he may be strict.

OK, this is looking better.  After the rules Mr. Daniel begins to show us around the class room.  This is looking pretty good and sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Tomorrow starts the first day of class.

We have not had time yet to find a house or apartment so I have to go to school from the Hotel.  I could get used to this, the hotel has a shuttle to take kids to school.  No big yellow bus for me.  But like all things I still have to wait on the bus.  This lobby certainly beats standing in the rain though.

Finally, the bus (shuttle) is here and we are loaded up and ready to go.  Not a bad way to start the school year.

First Days in Hanoi

Well, having arrived it is time to start walking around the city.  There are millions of people in Hanoi and everywhere is crowded.  When we first arrived we stayed in an apartment hotel, which is kind of fancy.

The entrance has big glass doors and a guy to open them for you every time you go out and back in.

The elevators have mirrors all around so when you look to the sides it like there are thousands of you going into infinity and beyond.

Of course no hotel can be truly cool unless it has a pool.........

Our first trip out we took a taxi to go explore.  There are cars everywhere.  But.... most people here ride scooters.  There are thousands of them like big motorcycle gangs.  They jump all over the place and weave in and out of cars.  They also can carry all kinds of things on them.

The city is very pretty and has trees everywhere, which is kind of strange for a big city.

There are also little parks all over the place.  You see people there in the morning doing Yoga and Tai Chi and little exercises.

What is really cool though is that everywhere you walk there are coffee shops and juice bars.  On our first big walk we stopped in to have a fresh juice.  It was Passion Fruit and was the best juice I ever had.  It tasted just like eating the fruit.

After our juice we went walking again, it was a really long walk and very hot.  But.... just as I was getting really bored this big amazing rooster was suddenly walking down the side walk.  It reminded me a lot of my little rooster in Aurora "Chicken Joe."

Turns out there are animals all over the place... I'll say more on those in a different post.

Everyone Loves Krispy Kreme

The night before we flew out we went to get Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  As part of that I carried six Krispy Kreme all the way to Hanoi and had them for breakfast when I got there.  I always like visiting the shop and watching the donuts made.

The Departure 7 August 2013

OK, having finally arrived and settled in Hanoi I have time to update my blog.  We started our journey to Hanoi from Springfield.  We are high up over Missouri, heading for Chicago.

We have landed at Chicago airport and are driving the plane around looking for a parking place.  The airport is really busy and there are other airplanes moving all over the place.  Once we park we get to go to the Business Class lounge to wait for our big airplane to go to Seoul, Korea.

The airport is so big that to move between terminals we have to take a train.  This from the front car of the train we took to the international terminal to find our big plane to go to Korea.

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Finally, after the train ride and a log check in at the international counter we are in the lounge waiting for our flight to Korea.  Just outside the window is the really big plane we will fly on next.  It is huge. The airplane holds hundreds of people and will be very crowded but............

The airplane is full with lots of people but I get to fly business class with my dad so there are only two seats with just us.  As we wait for take off the flight crew serve us water and orange juice.  This is going to be a long plane ride.  I hope there is lots to eat.

Finally, lunch is served.

I get to eat Orange Roughy, deep sea perch, with mashed potatoes.  There was also an appetizer of shrimp and smoked salmon, even dessert.  It was huge.

My dad had duck breast with rice and green beans.

Now that dinner is over I am going to try out this cool business class seat and relax.  The flight is 14 hours long between Chicago and Seoul.  Should I watch movies, read my book (I doubt it) or sleep?

You guessed it..... I am laying this sucker back and get some shut eye.

This is traveling in style.

After 14 hours of flying, three meals, two movies and loads of sleep, we finally land in Seoul.  There are Korean Air planes all over the place.  Once we get off this airplane we have to wait in the lounge for 4 hours for the airplane to Hanoi.  There are showers in the lounge, loads of chairs, and food.  We hang out there playing games on the internet and going for long walks in the airport.  Finally, we load up for another 5 hour flight from Seoul to Hanoi.

Finally, it is 10 pm on Thursday night.  We had to wait for an hour for our luggage to come of that huge airplane.  We had a driver pick us up at the airport with my dad's UN Truck, to take us to the hotel where we will stay.  It was a very long journey and a lot of fun but OMG I am glad to get off the airplanes for a while.