The Brandon Open Shiai will take place on Oct. 27, 2007.

I went to the University of Manitoba kata practice, and had my 1st three sets of nage-no-kata reviewed by one the black belts there (Bill? I can't remember his name). Sensei Oye then walked me through, showing me little things to bear in mind, and then had one of the other black belts show me and another gent, Jeff Paar (sp?), the first set of ju-no-kata. I think I'm going to need to find out the narrative behind ju-no-kata before I can really learn it properly; it's a very slow, deliberate, methodical kata, more so even than nage-no-kata, I think.

But, as everyone points out, it's good to get in some face time.