The men is too small?

[Kyu_Karashima]

Hi everybody, it's been a while since my last post, and it's also been a while since I last did kendo. I hope that everybody is doing well.

I just returned to kendo since last week, after a year long break because of school and work, but I came back. I never got the right to wear a bogu, and I still don't have it, but I'm on a tight budget. So when I saw e-bogu's back to school special for the 6mm Bogu (don't tell me that it's crap, it's cheap I got what I paid for. Eventually, I'll get better stuff.). I feared that the sale would end before I got back to the dojo so I jumped on the offer. I ordered that on the 8th, Kendo started on the 11th, and I received it today.

I feared that the Do would be too small, and that's the first thing I tried, and I think the Do's ok. Same thing for the tare. The Kote are a tight fit, but still ok.

The Men is different tough. I see a place for my forehead and another one for my chin, but I cannot put it in both at the same time. Also, when i put my chin at it's place It hurts the chin a little.

I shall bring bogu to the dojo tonight and see what's up with my sensei and sempais. I'll only show it to them after practice tough, I don't want to be arrogant. I expect that I'll be told that I should not have bought that bogu so soon.

I expected that I would have gotten something too small, that's why I ordered it in advance. Better safe than sorry they say.

[h2o]

You should insert and secure your chin first, and then your forehead. Trying to do both once will fail and probably make your men fit badly.

The men is too small if it hurts really badly when worn (duh!) or if there is no room at all at the top of the men. And trust me, you do not want to practice with a men where the top is in direct contact with your head. It will hurt. I have tried :eek:

As you said yourself. Take the stuff to dojo and get instructions how to put it on. It's a bit more complicated than putting on a sweatshirt ;)

Edit: The men could hurt a bit in the beginning since it will adjust itself to the shape of your head. So "hurts a little" is not a sign that it is not fitting properly. Hurting very much even after a few weeks might not be a good sign though.

[Kyu_Karashima]

I bring it to the dojo and 3 sempais (Shodan and up) and a visitor (He's a member here, he told me about this topic, was kinda strange. :P He's from UdeM). And they all told me that it was really too small.

Heck, I ordered a 66cm one when I should have a 70cm one. Rest of the bogu is pretty fine tough. I just messed up when I mesured myself. Instead of mesuring from the back of the head, like they showed me, I mesured from the middle of my head like they show on e-bogu.

e-bogu are really nice, as long as they get the Men, they'll send my a other one that's my size.

And I like their trouble report system, who looks alot like the one we use at Sympatico when people have issues. :D

What you gotta learn from this is to never do things by yourself the first time*. The saying "ask your sensei" or "ask your sempai", must take precedence over great deals. I'll have to pay for shipping and customs again. (The only thing I don't like about e-bogu, is that they use UPS, and UPS charge custom fees, unlike FedEx or Purolator)

It's too late for me now, but I hope that others won't do the same mistake as I did. I'm one of the two sempais of the beginner's group in our dojo and I hope they won't do the same mistake I did.