Everything has been so busy in my life this year that the last few months have kind of whooshed by me … and all of a sudden the summer seminar was upon me! I took an overnight flight to Scotland on the 16th of July, arriving on the 17th, then did kendo everyday until I […]
Back in 2014 I wrote how I made a deliberate change in my kendo life by deciding to focus on asageiko more. I had attended morning keiko since about 2009 (well, 2005, but that wasn’t few-and-far between and doesn’t count), but I went full-morning-mode in 2014 (Mon, Wed, and Fri: three times a week). After […]
[ While you are here: please note that registration for the 2025 Edinburgh Kendo Seminar is open. Please check here for more information. ] It has been a while since I last posted, the reason for which I will write in an article soon, but don’t fear, kendo stuff is going on! Anyway, last weekend, […]
Just slightly over five years ago I wrote an article about a katana that found its’ way into my possession. If you read the article you’ll see that at first I wasn’t sure what to do with it, but in the end I replaced parts of it and made it into a useable sword. Originally […]
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, […]
This year’s first Eikenkai session was held last Tuesday, the 11th of February (a national holiday here in Japan). About 35 kenshi or so gathered (I didn’t count) for what ended up being a marathon three-hour-long session. Some of us actually came early and did about 90 mins of koryu keiko before kendo. Participants included […]
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 […]
Almost exactly 15 years ago I wrote an article entitled “A brief investigation into the shogo system” in which I discussed not only the shogo system itself, but the history behind the dan-i (normal grades) we use as well. The article was indeed brief and didn’t really go into detail about how to acquire the […]
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 […]
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 […]