Do you know tai chi has some styles? I’ve practiced tai chi called Yang Ming Shi style for nearly four years.

     This year marks the 10^th anniversary of becoming an NPO for the style and a big ceremonial event for was held at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on July 2. I participated in it with my teacher and some of my classmates.  

     I don’t know how many people do the same style tai chi or belong to the association, but nearly 6,000 people got together to the ceremony. They were divided into some blocks by regions and about 2,000 people performed together each.  

     It’s easier to move closely together if the number of performers is around 200. But it’s difficult to keep pace together for more than 1000 people. The participants had to wear a karate-gi, the formal costume, or an official T-shirt and black pants at the event. So when the performers synchronized their movement, it looked so beautiful.
    
                                                                                                                                                            Look at this!

     They are over 80 years old. The oldest man is 96! They looked very energetic and stronger than youngsters on the street. I’ve heard it’ll have been for 50 years next year since Yang Ming Shi started his style of tai chi here in Japan.

     So, I thought that I’d keep on doing tai chi until the 100^th anniversary and wanted to perform with others aged over 80 at the ceremony 50 years later while seeing those senior performers’ dynamic movement.