With the least attendants so far, the Survival® seminar, by which the School for classical Japanese martial arts is well known, was successfully completed. Of a total of five members of our dojo that attended, everyone completed this seminar.
This time we were lucky enough to avoid the heat characteristic for this time of the year in Macedonia, but we met another obstacle. Namely, according to the locals living nearby mountain Lipac, yesterday night was the coldest summer night until now. Between the hours of 02.00 and 06.00 the temperature descended to just a few degrees celsius above zero, and the humidity of the air was so high that our sleeping bags got entirely wet. In such conditions, the night was indeed long and hard.
During the Saturday, besides the lessons in
shelter building, shidoshi Igor Dovezenski taught the students knife-fighting techniques, as well as techniques of unarmed self-defense.
Sunday morning, traditionally was reserved for kenjutsu, followed by a meditation by the small waterfall, which is also performed each year during this seminar.
After this, the attendants of this seminar headed towards `Stari lozja`, a place of big importance with the locals until the beginning of the 20th century. After that period, the place was abandoned, and the rituals performed there completely forgotten. Because of this, the members of Bujinkan Macedonia, during last year`s Survival decided to help restore this place, and this year the work was completely finished. With that, `Stari lozja` again gained it`s stone cross buried deep beneath the ground (and broken), and the holy oak tree was completely cleaned of bushes and thorns around it. With this action, we proved that the members of Bujinkan Macedonia wish not only to study classical Japanese martial arts, but are also taking care of the Macedonian culture and tradition.