Kendo VIII - Pain

   I had a bad feeling going into class.

   My foot was hurting a lot -- I found out that it wasn't just the open sores from abrasion, but also bruising from the hard floor, which made it hard for me to walk, let alone put all of my weight on the ball of my foot, which you have to do for a proper stance.

   Still, I was determined to try my best, and even more determined after sensei told me to let him know if it started hurting. Of course, having heard that, I couldn't tell him that it hurt and I wanted to take a break!

   Practice was kihon renshuu -- a lot of it. I did well on my men strikes and I still haven't got the hang of proper dou strikes. I was in a lot of pain and couldn't hold my stance properly, let alone move or turn around. I was limping my way through practice a lot and felt like I was doing absolutely terribly.

   We had three guests -- Miyasaka-sensei and Tozuka-sensei, who are both fifth-dan, as well as a new person I'd never seen before named Koike... not to be confused with another Koike who sometimes comes! I get nervous practicing around Tozuka-sensei sometimes since he works at the same junior high school I work at...

   After doing terribly with sensei for a while, he told me to practice with Koike, who I later found was the same age as me. Koike spoke simpler and louder, so I found him much easier to understand. My major problem this time was that I didn't raise my arms high enough when I struck, which apparently makes it harder to strike accurately. I must have misunderstood something before when I was talking to sensei... but at least I know better now.

   By the end of the practice session, I just wanted to go home; not only did my foot hurt, but my calf was starting to cramp up terribly from the pain and I had a headache as well. It was one of the most grueling practice sessions I've been through so far.

   I had the opportunity to talk to Koike a bit more; he'd studied abroad in England, so we talked a bit in English. He looks amazingly like the curly-haired Kimura Takuya from Change, something that I told him. Very, very friendly guy. We traded e-mail addresses and he invited me to a culture fair that his school is having this weekend.