How do you carry your shinai when you go to dojo?

[kendogirl]

How do you carry your shinai when you go to dojo? i mean i don't have a shinai bag or something to cover my shinai. I have order my shinai bag but it will be deliver next week. I really want to go and pratice on thursday (first time). Is it weird to carry your shinai around the city. Because i need to take a taxi in the city to be able to go to dojo.
sorry for my english

[Nanbanjin]

How do you carry your shinai when you go to dojo? i mean i don't have a shinai bag or something to cover my shinai. I have order my shinai bag but it will be deliver next week. I really want to go and pratice on thursday (first time). Is it weird to carry your shinai around the city. Because i need to take a taxi in the city to be able to go to dojo.
sorry for my english
If you are in Japan I think it is an offence to carry a shinai around without a shinai bag.
I suppose it's OK in most other counties.
And stop apologising for your English! Your English is great.

[kendogirl]

Thank you for your response
now i got more confident about my english
now i study in san francisco USA so is it legal to carry shinai around the city without shinai bag? i don't want to get kick off by carry a shinai ,it is so hard to get usa visa so better be careful not to get suspend

[kanyil]

how about wrapping it in a opaque plastic bag or some paper? although getting back may be a problem....

[kendoistheword]

i would not worry about it all that much, though im not sure on the actual legality of it. people carry around bats for baseball and golf clubs for golfing. i have carried my shinai around before without the bag, i think people just have no idea what it is and do not want to be impolite and stare.

[louisvandalen]

Because i need to take a taxi in the city to be able to go to dojo. sorry for my english
Try a taxi with a trunk next time, hand it to the driver and tell him to put it there. Tip the driver or chuck it in the trunk yourself.

You really don't need a shinaibag when you have a cab to wrap arround it.

Best Regards,

Louis

[D'Artagnan]

Tell anybody who asks that it is either -

a). An elaborate (fancy) bamboo cane for your tomato plants

b). A less than elaborate (fancy) bamboo walking stick

c). If they are clearly not a member of a law enforcement body, then tell them that it is a sword and if they do not stop asking stupid questions you will show them what you use it for.

It works for me :-)

(p.s. don't actually attempt c)., it was a joke)

[Musha]

When I stayed in Kyoto with a man who was hosting me at his house. I got a Bokuto from a shop there and did some Suburi in an old castle now a park :).
We went on the train and met an American family that we talked to for a while. The man said why don't you show them your bokuto and the family asked "Is it a walking stick?" and you can kill people with a bokuto... maybe you could get away with it hehe :wink:.

[senki-kendo-jos]

Tell anybody who asks that it is either -

a). An elaborate (fancy) bamboo cane for your tomato plants

b). A less than elaborate (fancy) bamboo walking stick

c). If they are clearly not a member of a law enforcement body, then tell them that it is a sword and if they do not stop asking stupid questions you will show them what you use it for.

It works for me :-)

(p.s. don't actually attempt c)., it was a joke)
Very funny Andy... how about

d) the leg of a chair you are making in wood class,

e) something for propping up the washing line

Ok, ok, so mine aren't as good as yours! hee hee

[Nanbanjin]

When I stayed in Kyoto with a man who was hosting me at his house. I got a Bokuto from a shop there and did some Suburi in an old castle now a park :).
We went on the train and met an American family that we talked to for a while. The man said why don't you show them your bokuto and the family asked "Is it a walking stick?" and you can kill people with a bokuto... maybe you could get away with it hehe :wink:.

Earlier this year I was lined up to check into a domestic flight. The girl who was marshalling the queue asked me what was in the long bag so I replied "kendo sticks". She says she wants to have a look so I get one out and hand it to her. Holding it briefly to her nose briefly she beams, "I know what this is! You set these alight don't you?". I'm like, "no, you hit people with them...". In the end I had no problems checking them in.

[louisvandalen]

Holding it briefly to her nose briefly she beams, "I know what this is! You set these alight don't you?"
That must be some thrill. Kendo at night with flaming shinai's. Eat your heart out Tolkien.

Best Regards,

Louis

[Haowen]

You won't have a problem in San Francisco because:

1. Very high concentration of east asian arts in the area

2. Generally liberal attitude in the area

Most people won't recognise a shinai for what it is, but nobody will even give you a second glance if you're not waving it around like a madman. Carry it with the tsuba (round hilt-guard) off, it looks less like a sword that way.

I believe California has the highest concentration of kendo dojo (i.e. many first-rate kendo sensei) in the USA. You're going to have such a treat. Good luck!

[senki-kendo-jos]

By the way... NEVER check shinai as fragile when ur going thru Heathrow airport... try explaining to three security guys that they are not
a)drugs
b)going to be used to hijack the plane
c)filled with explosives (I actually got asked this one!)
d)voodoo paraphenalia (got asked this one too!!)
at three o clock in the morning after a 13 and a half hour flight from Tokyo to Heathrow, dragging yourself, your excessively heavy suitcase with wheels that refuse to go the direction you want to, a backpack that weighs more than the suitcase, your bogu, your shinai and a rather bemused office worker from the Japanese embassy from terminal 2 to terminal 1 while dodging piles of luggage, runaway children and the salvation army (what the hell they were doing I don't know). The security guys got a very irritated reply telling them that I managed to get them all the way across Japan, and then on an international flight halfway round the world, so why the hell should they not check them... they eventually checked them as fragile, and one broke... TYPICAL!!

[kendogirl]

Thank you everyone for your answer:wink: so i will carry my shinai without tsuba and tell people it's a walking stick how do you carry it do u carry your shinai over your shoulder??? :confused2 i can imagine carry shinai with a bag but i can't imagine carry shinai without bag

[Mikeyprime]

By the way... NEVER check shinai as fragile when ur going thru Heathrow airport... try explaining to three security guys that they are not
a)drugs
b)going to be used to hijack the plane
c)filled with explosives (I actually got asked this one!)
d)voodoo paraphenalia (got asked this one too!!)
at three o clock in the morning after a 13 and a half hour flight from Tokyo to Heathrow, dragging yourself, your excessively heavy suitcase with wheels that refuse to go the direction you want to, a backpack that weighs more than the suitcase, your bogu, your shinai and a rather bemused office worker from the Japanese embassy from terminal 2 to terminal 1 while dodging piles of luggage, runaway children and the salvation army (what the hell they were doing I don't know). The security guys got a very irritated reply telling them that I managed to get them all the way across Japan, and then on an international flight halfway round the world, so why the hell should they not check them... they eventually checked them as fragile, and one broke... TYPICAL!!
Hilarious. Each time i have travelled internationally and domestically, I just leave my shinai at home and contact the dojos I will vist and ask them if I may use a dojo shinai. Saves a ton of hassle.

[Vortex]

As an airport employee I would say that leaving them at home and contacting the dojo where you are going is probably the best idea. I've seen the way my fellow airline employees handle baggage and freight and its scary stuff makes it in one piece! If you do feel lucky with airlines and want to try it, I have seen people use those hard plastic shell golf containers or those thick cardboard tubes that are about an inch thick to move the shinais in. I dont know if they made it or not but they were intact when they left.

I know this was about "From A to B in a city " but I wanted to pass along the advice.

[Hai_hai]

How do you carry your shinai when you go to dojo? i mean i don't have a shinai bag or something to cover my shinai. I have order my shinai bag but it will be deliver next week. I really want to go and pratice on thursday (first time). Is it weird to carry your shinai around the city. Because i need to take a taxi in the city to be able to go to dojo.
sorry for my english
1. If you do not have a shinai bag, you can just carry it in your hand
2. A shinai bag is an option. It's just convenient to carry multiple shinai or to protect the parts from rain by carrying it in a bag.

[Mikeyprime]

As an airport employee I would say that leaving them at home and contacting the dojo where you are going is probably the best idea. I've seen the way my fellow airline employees handle baggage and freight and its scary stuff makes it in one piece! If you do feel lucky with airlines and want to try it, I have seen people use those hard plastic shell golf containers or those thick cardboard tubes that are about an inch thick to move the shinais in. I dont know if they made it or not but they were intact when they left.

I know this was about "From A to B in a city " but I wanted to pass along the advice.
Yes, airline employees could care less about my stuff. When i opened my bogu bag, my stuff was all wet. AND they broke my luggage, the handle does not pop up anymore :(

[kendogirl]

my airline is japan airlinr. I think it wil be easier.

[Akechi]

Although I carry my Shinai in a bag (yes I could buy a Jo bag in a sports store that has the adequate size) one of my neighbors asked me if it was a fishing rod. As you can see people are very inventive.

[Musha]

Senki did you go to Japan from London?
Manchester airport seems like a giant bus station and no one seems to care what you do :D. Apart from throwing litter in a bin that is.

In Japan the thing they care about it bringing a string of sausages or pork chops for dinner :).

I rolled my Shinai in one of my towels. It was OK when I got it back, but the towel had been rolled down and quite wet. I guess that was perspiration from the cold of the plane.

On the way back the check in staff put my Shinai and new bokuto in a AJA sports wear box. I'll just say it is sports-wear next time :D, I bet people take all kinds of crazy stuff on the plane, surfboards, skies, golf clubs, walking sticks and crutches. A shinai and a bokuto shouldn’t be a problem :D.

[senki-kendo-jos]

I carried my bogu on the plane... weighed a ton and no bloody way was I checking it... my shinai they can break... easily repired or replaced, but my bogu is sacred and NO ONE will break it (grrr!)

Japan airlines were ok with them... it was just British midlands that were annoying... I like JAL... their little peanut/rice crackers are ACE!!

[Washington]

I use a shotgun sock to carry my shinai in. The fabric is oil treated to prevent moisture from building inside it and it's elastic so I don't have to take it apart.. just put the whole thing in and it's ready to go when I pull it out.

Sorta a pain with shinai + bokken + backup shinai .. working on a way to sow them together into a 3 chamber case for something to do :)

[JSchmidt]

I've travelled to 4 continents with my bogu (and shinai) and have never had a problem. I always gets asked whats in the shinai bag and I just say bamboo-sticks.
The only place where I have to open the shinai bag is ironicly in Japan, but then it appears that they just want to confirm that I really am carrying shinai's and they don't search my bags as they appear to do with about 75% of the other passengers.
In Australia it even saves you time to carry shinais, as I will declare them as 'plant material' and the line for people with stuff to declare is always tons shorter than the 'nothing to declare' line.

Jakob

[satoman]

I use a fishing rod carrying bag. Very handy, protects from spills, moisture, some rain and curious people 8) Usually I carry 3 shinai in it and has a strap to free my hands, so I can carry my super-duper-heavyweight bogu bag :D