Competition

I've attended more shiai than most. In fact, unless you help teach at or run some sort of kids dojo here in Japan (and have done for years), or have been a school kendo teacher longer than me (not the kind of people who are likely to be reading kenshi 24/7), then I've been to more competition than you. Even if you have practised kendo longer than me, or even if you are on a national team or a perhaps a national shimpan, I almost certainly notch up a high number. Not that it's a boast or anything... in fact, the sheer volume of shiai I have attended over the years has made me pretty sick of them, and this is partially why I retired from competion a few years ago, and absolutely why I actively avoid shinpan duty nowadays as well. 

I can't avoid attending shiai or renshujiai because it's part of teaching a school kendo club and an important part of nurturing a young kenshi (renshujiai are much preferable for me because of the post-shiai godogeiko sessions), but I must admit I like to delegate those duties to more junior kendo teachers nowadays (which, luckily, I have now but without which I spent many years without). Sleeping in late followed by a lazy afternoon lying on the couch chillin' with Netflix is much better than waking up super early in order to sit on a hard floor and watch (smelly!) shiai for a whole day.

For many years I made the effort to attend non-work related competition but, over time, these too got boring (YouTube with a beer is fun though). Veeeery occasionally - when I have absolutely nothing to do - I will go and watch a bit of one, like today when I jumped on my bike and cycled to a nearby sports centre to watch a bit of the Kansai University Championships. There was some nice, very dynamic kendo on display, but after about an hour I packed up my camera, got back on my bike, and cycled home. Job done!