I have a picture of the equator i can sell you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Infernoallen:
samurai means to serve so it is in theory possible to become one without being born in to the tradition.[/QUOTE]

Yes, samurai means "to serve" but it specifically referred to a whole class of people in Japan. The samurai were the top class, controlling everything. Then the farmers, feeding everyone. Third highest were merchants who sold goods. Fourth (lowest) were the hide-tanners and handlers of corpses, a sort of "untouchable" class.

These four "classes" of people were abolished in 1868. So there have been NO samurai for 137 years.

It's like saying "Anyone could become a Civil War general, so I am one."

You can never become a samurai any more than you can become a Civil War general or an American Revolutionary War Minuteman.

You can put on the costumes if you must, but that won't change the truth.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by glad2bhere:
Boy are you in luck!!! How very fortunate that I happened to be reading this thread! You may find this hard to believe but I am the last official inheritor of the very little known Japanese art of Samurai!![/QUOTE]

I find this story highly unlikely since you don't use the term "soke" once!

Thats because bathing is a very, very private part of our training. In the art of Samurai we're are all expected to soke in the same tub at the end of training. Sometimes we scrub each other down and then just soke for an hour or so and let all the pain from the training drift away. In fact there are times when I soke so much my fingers get all prune-like. We usually don't put a lot of emphasis on soke-ing but we can arrange for a certificate which is usually awarded to the person who sokes the longest. This is a relatively new activity as we had to stop awarding this certificate after an unfortunate event not to long ago. It seem two guys became very competitive trying to see which could soke the longest in a tub of hot water. Both wound-up disloving in the tub and we have had to give them both certificates posthumously. FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

Be sure to put the washcloth on top of your head while you soke.

Actually the word samurai has its own meaning. But it comes from the word saburai, the substantive form of the verb saburau which means "to serve" or "to remain at the side of someone important". it wasn't until the Heian period that samurai designated warriors who were in the service of nobles. Then little by little it came to be known to identify the class.

But everyone learned that in Japanese 101, right?

lol

ill pay u a hundred bucks to teach me how to be a samurai.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by aikikiai:
These four "classes" of people were abolished in 1868. So there have been NO samurai for 137 years.
[/QUOTE]

So much for my chances of becoming Eta.

First off there are more than one samurai family still existing and no samurai has the name Bruce, they don't soak together, the art isn't called samurai, there isn't one art but many, emperors aren't samurai, and no one gives certificates for soaking the longest and you are not the last decendent of samurai so learn what you are talking about before you lie.

Lighten up. Bruce is pretty clearly joking. He's playing on the similarity of the spelling of the Japanese word Soke and the english word soak.