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This is a follow-post, check out part 1 here. I just came back from a crazy long-overdue (and too-short) kendo trip to Tokyo. Well, more kendo-related actually, as the main purpose was to visit a friend (more about that below). Living in Japan, you might think it’s relatively easy to hop on the Shinkansen and travel to […]
I picked up my first nama-kiji dou in 2015, as a sort of present to myself. Up until that time – unbelievably – I’d never had a bamboo dou. There were a couple of reasons why I didn’t get one: the main one being economic, and the second that I thought that (somehow) a bamboo […]
Last weekend I took some time out of my super busy schedule to visit a kendo friend in Iwate prefecture, in the north of Japan’s main island. I’d been promising to go for years, but with this and that, I’d never managed to quite find the time and make good my promise. Realising I’d probably […]
For perhaps the fifth year (or maybe it’s the sixth) I find myself going through ramadan. Well, not exactly ramadan, as I am an atheist (though not irreligious), but I co-opt the month to do my own sort of spiritual and physical discipline (for the same reason I have tried Lent before). During this period […]
Just under six years ago I published an article entitled The Kendo Lifecycle. It was quite popular at the time and, based on my site stats, is still visited regularly by people from all corners of the Internet. As an extension to this I started, from about two or three years ago, to attempt and […]
At the very end of July this year I took some time out of my normal schedule and headed to Tokyo for a Musha Shugyo, that is, I went on a “warriors pilgrimage,” with the aim of polishing my kendo. In the short time I was there (I stayed five nights in Tokyo) I visited […]
For today’s article, I – for the first time in ages – present a translation piece. I used to do translations semi-often, but it is something like, let’s see… two years since I did my last one. It’s not that I’ve stopped reading kendo books or anything, it’s just that life gets in the way. Also, […]
Happy new year everyone! 2024 ended without my usual end of year review post because, well, it was a rather quiet year article-wise: only 16 posts, 7 or so about events. I also had a lingering cold at the end of the year that sucked energy from me, thankfully that is gone now. I am […]
In less than three month’s time I will turn 50. How I got to this age so fast I have no idea: I certainly don’t feel 50 (I look about 70 though!!!). It also feels like I arrived in Japan only a moment ago when, actually, I’m in my 22nd year here. Something that does feel […]
When I started putting this article together I was a bit unsure how it would end as I was in the throes of deciding whether I would leave a dojo I’ve been a member of for two decades. In the end I did decide to leave and I feel better for doing so. [ Places […]