It was strange.
Strange to see everybody in street clothes standing on the line in the dojo ready to bow in.
Strange as in everybody looked out of place not dressed in dogi and hakama.
But tonight’s class was a bit different.
The instructions were a bit vauge as they came down from the senior students in the dojo.
Saturday’s class would be in regular street cloths, wear what you normally wear during the day.
Make sure you have your bokken.
After class the dojo would be going over to the movie theater in town to watch a specific movie with lots of swords, the last showing at 10 PM.
The dojo would be paying for the tickets and everybody was invited regardless of rank.
If street clothes in the dojo were out of place, the large speaker system in the corner seemed to highlight it further.
The first half of class was just like any other class, foundation movements, partnered drills, stuff one needed to know for the upcoming rank tests.
The second half of class quickly detoured and was rather different.
Light off, movie music playing, partnered sword drills.
The music was cool, but it just didn’t feel right practicing in my jeans and leather jacket.
After class when I had finished wrapping my bokken in its training bag and was going to place it back on the rack, one of the senior students gave me a nod.
Did I notice?
Notice?
The group was getting ready to head over to the movie theater and one of the senior students was collecting all of the bokken and putting them in an over-sized golf club bag.
Waiting on line in the lobby of the movie theater it was strange to see my teacher talking and laughing with one of the movie theater managers, as I rarely saw him outside of his teacher role.
The movie was great, better than expected with lots of sword work, and after the ending credits rolled and the light came back on, I noticed that the only people left in the movie theater were us from the dojo.
Signaling one of the senior students, the golf bag materialized out of nowhere and one of the senior students began handing out bokken.
I had just gotten mine in hand and out of the storage bag when the light in the theater dimmed and the ending soundtrack from the movie came started playing.
Who wants to live forever? asked my teacher.
Class was back in session.
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