We were invited back for a THIRD time to perform a demonstration at Japan House's Matsuri Festival. In the past years, we've some memorable experiences such as no mats (we performed on the grass which was a BIG NO NO), overhead cables (it made it tough to do any high jumps), practically breaking the stage (I learned not to have the HEAVYWEIGHTS throw each other), and this year, we had rain issues. The kids were a little nervous performing for such a big crowd, but they mustered up all of their courage and did us proud. The adults were able to improvise a little bit because once it started to rain, the mats turned into a big slip and slide. The biggest crowd pleaser of all is to have the kids throwing the adults around. We've had some excellent ukes in the past who can really do some acrobatics when it comes to falling, so I had a blast watching everyone work together. Doing demonstrations doesn't really bring in any extra students -- it's more of a community service where we stamp out a little bit of judo ignorance (ex. there is no such thing as a judo chop) every time.
Thank you to Japan House -- we hope you'll invite us back again next year!
