kyudo test!

Sunday, I took the kyudo 審査 test (shinsa), for 初段shodan, in other words 1st dan. I was really nervous, and it was a looooong day. The test was at the budokan where I usually practice, which I was happy about--sort of a home dojo advantage, if you will. At any rate, it was nice to not have to be all nervous in a new place, on top of everything else.
I had to get over to the budokan by 9am, so the plan was to wake up at about 7 to have time for some coffee and breakfast, hit up the ATM, grab a bento (cause sensei said I should bring one), and get to the budokan before 9 to beat the check-in rush.
As I said, that was the plan. What actually happened was that I woke up at 8 (the time I'd planned to *leave* the apartment originally), frantically threw on some clothes, had no time for coffee, grabbed my stuff, and ran out the door. To find that the ATM was inexplicably closed. Grabbed some food (and coffee) from the combini, and still managed to make it to the budokan right at 9am. A feat of which I am actually quite proud.
Of course, getting to the budokan at 9am was just to check in. The actual testing is done by number. And I was #386. Out of 387. Suffice it to say, I had a sizeable wait. Shodan is a fairly beginner rank, so it was basically me...and 300 high school students. They're, well, I'll stick with energetic.
I wasn't actually scheduled to begin my testing until 2pm. But that was the written part, so it gave me some time to study.
See, the kyudo exam for rank has both a shooting part (obviously) and a written test. At shodan level, the written is fairly simple, but given my severe lack of studying and the *small* fact that the test was in Japanese (of course), and sans dictionary, I was a little nervous. It turned out all right, though. The main essay question--thank goodness!--was basically, "what good effects kyudo has had on your daily life," that sort of thing. Basically the same sort of thing I've been writing for speeches and compositions for class all year. And I have to admit, it was pretty gratifying to see the sort of taken-aback look on the test proctor's face when little old gaijin me handed in a full page of Japanese. ^_^ lol
Then, the shooting part, which I was nervous about, a little bit, but mostly just COLD. I missed both my arrows, but the shots were all right. I guess it must have been good enough, cause I PASSED!!! ^_^
And here's the picture to prove it! They posted the results by stamping 合格 (pass) or 不合格 (didn't pass) above everybody's names. I'm the second from the left column--second to last, like I said. I took a picture of it with my cell phone. Cause, well, all the high-schoolers were doing it, so it seemed like the thing to do. hehe.