Kendo Federation women's shinai?

[Tamaki :)]

Hello everyone long time no see! I recently came back from a trip to Canada where I couldn't practice Kendo, which was sad, but now that i'm back (yay! ) My sensei told me that I will be testing for go kyu this March however, I'm not really sure as to which type of shinai I am supposed to use, as I am a high school girl I believe that there was a post about this sometime ago but I can't seem to find a clear answer I currently have a standard 39 and a women's 39, but I've mostly been using the standard as I like to challenge myself quite a bit. My question is, which shinai do I use when testing? or does it not matter? sorry for the run around way of phrasing it my mind is always all over the place

[Neil Gendzwill]

Whichever you are comfortable with.

[Tamaki :)]

thank you Neil Gendzwill :3

[futabachan]

Where did you go in Canada? We have kendo here, too, y'know....

[Tamaki :)]

haha :3 yeah i know its just that my sensei was supposed to talk to a fellow dojo that was in Toronto or around the area i think but if i were to go to the dojo there I wouldn't have my bogu or even my shinai! (my parents didn't want to pay for the extra expenses) but my sensei was really busy so he wasn't able to contact anyone and he might have also forgotten lol but oh well I enjoyed my time in Canada none the less I got to see snow too! I was really happy about that hehe :3

[dillon]

Where did you go in Canada? We have kendo here, too, y'know....

on frozen lakes with skates and netted goals

your avatar ironically looks somewhat like a hockey player

[Electronegative]

on frozen lakes with skates and netted goals

your avatar ironically looks somewhat like a hockey player

YUP!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRVK85Ky_b8

[dillon]

lol, fantastic!

Actually Japanese TV is full of this kind of "challenge". Last weekend there was a TV show where TV "talents" (talent meaning being a comedian, photogenic or having a social life that fuels the gossip industry) competed against each other in various skills other than the ones they are on TV for. This included playing the piano, arm wrestling and kendo. The kendo players wore men where the middle half of the mengane was replaced with a plexi-protector. It's similar to the ones from Hasegawa but with a much larger non-grill area so the players' faces are more easily recognizable. The shiai were ippon-shobu and a couple of days ago they aired another competition with practically the same format. If I find a video online I'll post it on the media forum.

[dillon]

follow up: what videos that were posted were taken down due to requests from Fuji TV or are behind a subscriber's only section (which may or may not have been removed). The show was called 芸能人Teppen (Performers Summit). The players were usually 2-3 dan, which seems to be more entertaining to watch for general audiences than the blindingly fast players of the AJKC.

[Electronegative]

I'll check out that show!