Looking for Dojo in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada

[Seb1985]

Please excuse my bad English; English is not my primary language.

Hi, I live in Earlton, Ontario, Canada and I want to learn kendo, but after a few researches using the Canadian Kendo Federation site. The closes Dojo that I could found was Laurentian Kendo Club in Sudbury, Ontario proximately 164km from my area.....

A 164km drive is long drive, to go to a Dojo to learn something that I don’t know yet if I will like it or not. I am hoping that somebody would know a Dojo closer to my area.

I know its most likely not the best thing to do as a beginner but after reading a few post about a Online Dojo, I am thinking that this is a good solution to my problem. I know that learning without a teacher beside me is not the best way, but I think it is one of my best options right now.

I hope that somebody out there can help me with any of my question.

Have a nice day,

Seb1985

[48thRonin]

I think you're in some difficulty. It seems like Sudbury is definitely the closest. Our club here in Sault Ste Marie is even further.

There are lots of great online resources (such as the Cyber Dojo http://kendo.imafuji.info/the_cyber_dojo_news/) but in all honesty you really can learn kendo online and you definitely can't get the feel for kendo any other way than in a dojo.

Best of luck with your search.

[Seb1985]

Thanks for the fast response 48thRonin, I will keep on looking I still have not loss hope.

[jjcruiser]

Please excuse my bad English; English is not my primary language.

Hi, I live in Earlton, Ontario, Canada and I want to learn kendo, but after a few researches using the Canadian Kendo Federation site. The closes Dojo that I could found was Laurentian Kendo Club in Sudbury, Ontario proximately 164km from my area.....

A 164km drive is long drive, to go to a Dojo to learn something that I don’t know yet if I will like it or not. I am hoping that somebody would know a Dojo closer to my area.

I know its most likely not the best thing to do as a beginner but after reading a few post about a Online Dojo, I am thinking that this is a good solution to my problem. I know that learning without a teacher beside me is not the best way, but I think it is one of my best options right now.

I hope that somebody out there can help me with any of my question.

Have a nice day,

Seb1985

It may be too far to do regularly, but why don't you contact them and arrange a visit and do a class or two? Then you can work with online resources and maybe travel there once per month to go over your progress. If you love it, 160km is not that far to go once per week. If not, it wouldn't matter if it was 1.6km, you won't want to go regularly.

As to online learning, the problem with that sort of thing, besides the fact it's very hard to learn that way for most people, is that Kendo isn't a solo activity. You cannot do most of Kendo without at least one other person. So if you live there permanently, there's no dojo closer than an hour and a half away, and you're unwilling to drive that, I'd say you might want to find something else to occupy your time. Otherwise I think you will just end up frustrated and bored and having an inaccurately negative impression of Kendo. That's just my opinion, take it or leave it.

[Wesley Myers]

I have to agree with jjcruiser.

You can make the trip easier by car pooling (find someone or people who want to go to the other town to do some shopping - maybe your family?). You could also plan to do some grocery shopping at the same time (maybe there's a Costco or something there - I'm naturally presuming the town with the Dojo is larger than where you live).

Maybe take in some cultural events or go to a restaurant.

If you take the drudgery out of the trip and look forward to it as an adventure it can be fun!


There are quite a few on here, from what they've posted, that travel farther than that for their Kendo classes.

[Seb1985]

It may be too far to do regularly, but why don't you contact them and arrange a visit and do a class or two? Then you can work with online resources and maybe travel there once per month to go over your progress. If you love it, 160km is not that far to go once per week. If not, it wouldn't matter if it was 1.6km, you won't want to go regularly.

As to online learning, the problem with that sort of thing, besides the fact it's very hard to learn that way for most people, is that Kendo isn't a solo activity. You cannot do most of Kendo without at least one other person. So if you live there permanently, there's no dojo closer than an hour and a half away, and you're unwilling to drive that, I'd say you might want to find something else to occupy your time. Otherwise I think you will just end up frustrated and bored and having an inaccurately negative impression of Kendo. That's just my opinion, take it or leave it.

To: jjcruiser

Thank you for the advise and I will contact the dojo and get there schedule and see if I can try to get a class in to see what I think about Kendo, then go from there.

If I really like it I won’t really mind traveling 2 or 3 time a month.

To: Wesley Myers

You are right my home town is only a population of 1500 and Sudbury have around 157 000, that makes Sudbury a town with more diversity in stores and a lot more things. So making arrangement with other persons to go on a week end should not be that hard.


Thanks again for your opinions it really made my day