Kendo IV - A Pleasant Surprise

   This practice seems to be lost in my memory for various reasons.

   I remember that at the beginning, we spent some time practicing how to count in Chinese; sensei is fluent in Chinese as well as Japanese and considers it a part of cultural heritage and respect for the past.

   Then, because I was there, we also had practice counting from one to ten. Sensei emphasized that they needed to count loudly (to improve their memory) and watch my lips/mouth very carefully to learn to produce proper English sounds, rather than Japanese-style English. He said that it was good training for the eyes, and also for them, since as kids, they need to learn English.

   I was surprised he incorporated me into the curriculum, but grateful.

   Another thing that I remember is that he took me aside to discuss how to put on the hakama (different from aikido, I suppose because the bow in front would interfere with the tare [waist armor]), keikogi, and bogu. He also taught me about what the straps and loops on the bogu are called, for future reference.

   My major problem in this class, again, was keeping my feet straight. I kept concentrating on remembering the feeling of my feet being straight and checking them every time I was "up to bat", and eventually, a few times, I found that they were already straight when I checked.

   An interesting thing I do remember from this class is that sensei taught one of the students how to receive tsuki properly. Tsuki is the name of the attack that uses the tip of the shinai to strike the throat guard; because it's a dangerous attack if done improperly, I hear that it's not usually taught until you're more experienced, so I was surprised. Then I realized that it's probably good to learn how to receive it safely, even if you're not learning how to do it.

   One of the reasons I forgot a lot of what happened in this class is that it's all overshadowed by one thing; at the end of class, he brought out a dojo keikogi and a hakama that had been used by a former student who no longer attended; he said that I could wear them from now on. I was incredibly thrilled!

   I didn't take them home that day; one of the mothers came forward and said that she would wash/iron them for me, so I gratefully took her up on the offer. I also received an information packet with suggestions for shinai/bogu as well as diagrams of everything. In the back of the packet was information about the various tournaments and events that the dojo has... one of which I noticed is coming up soon...

   This was also the second time that the other new student came to practice; I haven't seen him since!