Sue was extremely happy to take home her new karate blackbelt (kuro obi).
When you are passionate about something you do, like karate, then the quality of something that has meaning to that activity is important.
Sue passed her Shodan (1st Dan blackbelt) last July after nearly a 10-year journey. It meant a lot to Sue to achieve kuro obi (black belt) after so many years of hard work, training at every opportunity.
For many karate-ka, your black belt holds your sole in karate - it represents the many years of hard work and sweat that it has absorbed during your time as a blackbelt.
Thankyou to Kuroobiya for the great service as usual.
So for something that means so much and what you will wear around your waist for most days of rest of your life then it having something of quality matters.
Sue today picked up her new Hirota blackbelt - embroidered with the kanji for the SKIF association on one side and with Hanshi Asano's name on the other (showing respect to our chief instructor).
The silver embroidery is absolutely stunning and I'm sure she will cherish this for many years.
