This year's 2008 training theme is Togakure Ryu Ninpo, all things Ninja, so break out your Shuko, Shuriken, Ninja-To, Kyoketsu Shoge and anything else you got hidden in your Gi pockets. I already had a feeling that it would be tied into Ninjutsu this year it should be an exciting time for us this year.

Stay tuned for more updates ~ ~

A word about Training Themes in the Bujinkan
Many students get excited about themes, perhaps they are thinking this year is the year they will actually learn some secrets about a particular school or technique. I've learned long ago that Hatsumi's training themes don't always match up with the training being taught. In fact, the training theme almost always ends up something not necessarily related to the theme title at all.

  Every year the Training Theme is always Shinken Gata regardless of the name or theme it is called. It's always been Budo Taijutsu (whatever Sensei want's to show us) this is what the Bujinkan training theme is.

Sensei doesn't want us to get caught up into any one school of thought, he may even sometimes change or re-write the theme the very first day of training. No matter what we are working on, there is always a natural flow and a basic feelling of the Taijutsu and then Sensei takes us to the next level breaking the sound barrier.

  My feeling on Sensei's Budo
The training feels a lot like Sniper training, one shot (technique) - one kill (10,000 henka - variations) with very little time to think in-between, just the way I like it. You might get to see half a technique before he moves on to the next one, great training it is.