kendo-bum

Whats your idea of the ideal summer vacation? Six days and five nights on the beach, sipping on a frosty beer whilst relaxing in one of those net hammock thingys? That would certainly make my top 5 list. But alas, in this month of August, the hottest period of Japan’s oppressive summer season, I have had to settle for a number further down my list of idyllic summer gettaways – the Taidai Summer Camp.

As I write this (somewhat overdue) blog on the trip home, I am riding ...

Almost a year to the day, I was once again subjected to long waits, sharp needles and difficult decisions…nope, I was not on the set of the latest “Saw” horror flick, it was in fact, the annual taidai student health check.
After last year’s debacle of wondering aimlessly around the school campus looking for the next place to be poked, prodded and measured, I had convinced myself this year that I would play silly buggers with some of my tests…in an attempt to ...

Having finished up with kangeiko in mid-February, the powers-that-be made sure that any cobwebs accumulated during the brief time off were well and truly blown out with the spring training camp. Truth be told, from a technical point of view, it makes a lot of sense to pack two gasshuku together in this way, considering the nature/menu of each event.
For example, kangeiko is aimed at wrecking you with ridiculously early starts and an awful lot of hard yakka. The spring gasshuku on the other ...

Its over. Its finally bloody over!
By far the longest 15 days of my life and without a doubt, the hardest physical training I have ever been a part of, kangeiko (winter training) is over!

Characterized by rituals of colored men himo (helmet strings) depending on age, and tsubushi or 3 on 1 beatings, the training menu went as follows:

Morning training
5:15am Running & warm up
5:35am Kirikaeshi (repeated striking drills) for 40 minutes ...

Contrary to popular thought, hell is not a fiery pit of pitchforks and sunburn, reserved for those of us who have lived a life of sin. Nay. It is in fact an icy dojo floor in the early hours of the morning, in the coldest month of winter, reserved for those of us with serious head issues.

As most people are more sports tape than human at this point (day 5 of 8), only the very sick and twisted would voluntarily rise at 5am each morning with the knowledge that the following 2 hours ...