Practice Problems

Today's practice was okay. I was put in the intermediate section for a bit for some reason for a while. While there, I just made the best of my time there by concentrating on my basics and making clear strikes and not bending forward. After a while, I was able to join the advanced section but it didn't make the experience that much better. There were a lot of bad habits that surfaced today, such as gravitating towards the other person after each strike instead of going through. Then, there's the issue of waza usage...

I sometimes feel like I am a one-trick pony when it comes to sparring only doing men and kote. There are other techniques that I can use to make openings like harai-waza, suriage-waza and nuki-waza that I don't take enough advantage of. During shiai, I always go for the men, kote and kote men and sometimes dou, but it's usually executed the same way. I feel like I need to begin moving away from just whacking away and using other Kendo elements to subdue and win against the opponent. I guess, just like all the men strikes I've been doing to get that down, I need to just do more of these to get used to the movements to learn the timing and everything.

As far as the gravitating towards the opponent issue, looks like I have something else to concentrate on for the next practice or two!

Kendo Update and New Anime

Okay, it's been a while since I posted something so I apologize for that. So here's a quick rundown of what's happened since the last posting (which really isn't much).

- I took the ikkyu test, but I failed it again. Quite naturally, I was pretty disappointed in myself since I thought that I did a pretty good job this time around. I asked some of the judges what I did wrong, but they ended up being the ones that passed me, but I did get some useful advice. The most important advice given to me was that I needed to control the situation better. If the person you are fighting doesn't do well, then you need to react accordingly. So while you might not be doing anything wrong, if you can't adapt, then the other person could aid in your failing as well.

- Just the general Kendo stuff. I had to skip last week due to having a sore throat late in the week. The latest practice was nice since the purpose of the class was to concentrate on the footwork as something to improve on. The main tip of the day was to improve quickly by setting a goal to improve something and try to carry it out throughout the practice. It's easy to get caught up in the swings and the movement and sort of forget what your body is doing, so it's a nice way to gain some perspective on your body's movement.

- There has been this anime series that I have been looking for for quite a while. But this isn't just any normal anime, it's an anime based on Kendo. And this isn't one of those that they just have it for a few episodes as a club activity for the characters. The whole anime is based on one's journey to become the best Kenshi in Japan. The name of it is Musashi no Ken. The manga was made in the early 70s to early 80s with the anime to follow around '85 or so.

The anime was never hard to obtain. It was just prohibitively expensive. For some reason, it costs over US$500 to obtain the Japanese version. Just days after finding the first seven episodes on BitTorrent, I found the Taiwanese version for US$30 for the whole series, which apparently has been available since this March. Naturally, I decided to swipe the series up, and it has been in my hands for about two days. Here are my first impressions.

This is the first and only series that I have where I have read the manga in its entirety and have the opportunity to see the anime and their differences. The amazing thing is that the voices that I have running in my head while reading the manga is almost spot on with the voices used in the Anime. Not really sure how that happened, but oh well.

As before, I did say that it is the Taiwanese version. But for those Japanophiles out there, the packaging, DVD menus and subtitles are in Chinese. The show seems virtually untouched from the Japanese version as the language is, of course, in Japanese. Of course, if you know chinese, you have the leg up since you'd be able to understand what they are saying. For us English speakers out there, we are out of luck. Though, even if you know Japanese, you might still have a hard time understanding it since regional dialects are used here. Unfortunately, there are very few resources available for learning specific dialects, so everything has to be taken from context.

Right now, I'm only on episode 11 or so, but I am seeing that this series is definately spot on with the manga. Even so, it's nice to have a different representation since literature and TV can express things differently. If you like the manga, I am pretty sure you will like the series though.

AUSKF Kendo Kamp: Day 2

Today ends the second day of the summer camp. I must say that it was an extremely fulfilling experience as I learned a lot today about myself and my performance of the basics. What I did realize was that it is easy to just do the basic stuff any old way in lieu of the more advanced things and forget to think about doing them. It was a nice way to look at things in a whole new perspective. Below are some specific notes that I mentally made throughout the day. After the group suburi practice, we were divided into groups based on rank. Since I was in the Kyu group, we touched on many basics from the importance of presenting yourself correctly to holing the shinai to some fumikomi.

• While swinging the shinai, it is important to remember to keep the sword alive. When the suburi is finished, don't just let it rest in position. Keep it strong and moving (only a little) to put some spirit into the shinai.
  
• For seiza, pay special attention that the back remains straight, no matter how tired you are. It is important that you don't show others how tired you are as it shows a sign of weakness. This is done by taking a half step back and lowering yourself down on your left knee followed by the right. That is when you flatten the top of your feet and sit down on top of them.
  
• When bowing after mokuso, keep the back and neck straight but also don't raise your butt in the process. The difference between bowing to the shomen and your opponent is in the deepness of the bow. The bow to the shomen is about 35 degrees while the bow to your opponent is about 15 degrees. Also, keep your eyes on your opponent at all times.
  
• In hayasuburi, the focus should be fast swings. You don't necessarily have to do shomen while doing hayasuburi. But don't forget that each swing should be strong.
  
• The wrists should be turned in while in kamae. This makes it easier to extend the left arm when swinging. Also, one way to gauge the distance between hands on the tsuka is to put the tip of the tsuka on the inside of your elbow and grab the tsuka with your hand. The position of the hand is where the right hand should be.
  

There was much more to be remembered, but it's getting late and I must rest for day three of the seminar. Besides, there was way too many points to remember that whole day so it's unrealistic to catch them all long enough to write them down.

AUSKF Kendo Seminar: Day One

Today was the first day of the Kendo Seminar. Today was just a godo-geiko with the Sensei from Japan.

There were a lot of people there so it was a great opportunity to adjust to different styles of fighting. We were seperated by rank and put into groups and did mawari-geiko with sparring for about 20 minutes. It really took a lot out of me after the first few matches, but I made sure to not give up as my arms were getting more and more tired. In actuality, I was more concerned with the sweat getting in my eyes since I was sweating pretty profusely during the whole practice.

I got a chance to have a bout with Kobayashi Sensei and Ohta Sensei during the practice. I've never been with a hachidan before so it was great to have the opportunity to practice with both for the short time we were sparring. After the five minute break, we proceded to do some jigeiko with some of the higher ranking people. In that time, I was able to go against three people. I already had the opportunity to practice with the hachidans so that freed me up to go with the others in the shorter lines.

As far as personal issues, it would have to be that I need to pay more attention to my arm as I'm not extending it enough. It really helped when I was told to bring in my wrists more to help with the extension as it was pretty effective.

Well, tomorrow's another day and the official start of the seminar. There were a lot of people there today with more arriving tomorrow, so I wonder how packed it will be. I just know that I should just show up in my gear as I didn't realize the bathrooms were so small there.

Well, time to go for now. I'll post some notes about what I learned at the seminar after I get back.

Kata...revisited

With the seminar and test coming up in the next week, I am doing whatever I can to mentally prepare for this monumental event. Of course, things are going a little slow as my life has been getting busier lately. To top it all off, I pulled a muscle on my back so I have been in pain for the past couple of days. While Kendo is very important to me, it's even more important to take care of myself so I can do it for as long as possible.

Because I want to take as much time to recover as I possibly can, I had to skip out on the advanced practice today. But, I was able to do the kata since it's easier on the body. I knew that I needed some more practice with Kata since it's been forever since I even did them but it wasn't until I was doing it until I really knew how out of touch I am.

I could blame some of my problems on the floor as it didn't allow the sliding to make things easier, but that would be the easy way out. As I was doing the kata, I felt a bit shaky doing it at first with some botched and confused moments. I eventually got the hang of things after some practice and a clarification to kata #3.

In the third kata, what I learned from a sempai is that the thrust the uchidachi makes should rotate the bokken while thrusting. Meanwhile, the shidachi meets with the uchidachi's advance before pulling back and moving the bokken out of the way. With this particular kata being the hardest one that I have practiced, I will take any sort of tip I can get.

Another thing I learned was about putting more Ki into my movements. For those not in the know, Ki (also called Chi) is the life force that keeps things alive and gives all living things the ability to function in life. It is said that those that learn to manipulate it correctly can achieve some superhuman feats. With Dragonball Z being one of the most popular Anime out there, the Ki that they use is referred to as Spirit Energy which gives them the ability to shoot stuff out of their hands. Anyways, back to the kata. Whether or not you believe in Ki, one can take the tip as putting more feeling into the moves you are doing by telegraphing your intent to your opponent. Of course, I don't have the credentials to go that much further about that subject. Even if I did, I would have to make another entry just for Ki. Once I took this tip into mind, I felt that my moves were a bit more solid, though I still have some work to do. In the end, this tip is a reminder to not get caught up in just performing the movements as opposed to giving them the meaning that they were intended to have when they were created.

What was really nice is that Robinson and I went through EVERYTHING in the kata including the bowing in and out. He made a good point in saying that people concentrate on the actual kata but for get the formalities. While it's nice to be able to effectively do the moves, it's better to have the opening and closing formalities correct to give the proper respect to your opponent and judges.

After the practice, I realize how much more work I have on the Kata. I have enough confidence to perform decently for the exam but, of course, I get those doubts people get before any exam. At this point, I just need to perform some more practice and keep everything I learned today in mind and I should do okay. Right now, I'm concetrating on recovering fast so I can get back in the game by Thursday's practice by taking Tylenol (I'm alergic to Aspirin and Ibuprofen which rules out OTC anti-inflammatories).

Seminar and Tournament Time!

I was able to negotiate with my superiors at Walmart, so not only am I able to working at Walmart, I am able to continue Kendo AND enjoy the seminar in its entirety!

Well, I just got a letter in the mail saying that they have my testing application and that I need to answer the question about either the elements of Kirikaeshi or the types of footwork. So now, all that there is left to do is to look at the testing criteria and make sure I know what I need to know to get ikkyu. When I finish the essay, I'll see about posting what I typed on here if there aren't any problems with that.

What the hell did I do to deserve this?

When I was hired by Walmart, I thought that it was the happiest day of the summer. I finally had a chance to make some extra money so I could have some freedom to spend. Later, after I had accepted the job and worked for a little bit, did I realize the mistake I made.

This is the process of the snowballing effect that occured:

1) When I filled out the application, I fixed my availability so that I could still attend Kendo practice while working. It was my assumption that they would either have me work on that day with the availability in mind, or just not schedule me for that day. BUT, because the available times are fixed, that was thrown out the window.

2) There are several days that I wanted off for the Kendo seminar, sister's graduation and family reunion. Unfortunately, because of the way they give out vacation days, I wouldn't be able to attend ANY of them. If I wanted the days off, then my only option is to switch with people, and even then, I don't think that's much of an option.

3) The general treatment of the employees is all but acceptable. When you first start, you can't even clock in on your own for the first few weeks which is a pretty annoying thing to go through. I feel like a robot in an assembly line with my "owners" not treating me, or the other coworkers, like human beings. It's bad enough that I'm working 5 days in a row (8 hour days).

Really, Walmart may think they "own" me, but they got another thing coming. I put in my 2 weeks to tell them that I'm hitting the highway. I'll take the money and just go home. The only way I can see it being possible to work there is if you need the money. If other opportunities come along, then you need to leave ASAP.

Kendo Notes 5/19/07

I have been having some trouble sleeping lately. I wouldn't go to sleep till about 3 AM and wake up at 7:30 or 8 AM. And due to the phone ringing and other goings on during the day, I tend to not get that much sleep for the daytime duration. Despite me being tired with a headache, I took a Tylenol and went to Kendo anyways. It ended up being a good decision because I learned a lot today about my Kendo.

- There are quite a few bad habits that I need to break. The most important thing is that I need to pay more attention to what my body is doing. There are times where I wiggle the shinai too much or leave myself wide open after a hit. Sometimes, you concentrate so much on making the correct swing with the perfect hit that you forget the little things. I really need to change that.

- Jigeiko was great as I got some much appreciated one-on-one today. The one thing that I got some great practice in was with the hiki-waza. I tend to falter on that one since I tend to swing and not make the hit and overall falter on the footwork. I got some tips on how to better get the center and position myself to get a better chance in hitting by doing a little rotating and pushing to the side.

- Another thing that I need to work on is making sure that I actually have the center before I go forward. There have been times where I would go on ahead and strike but then get greeted with the kensen. I can get more points by waiting for a bit until I see an opening, or EFFECTIVELY move my shinai in a way that I gain control of the center. In short, I need to concentrate more on getting that one good hit instead of making 20 ineffective hits.

- To leave on a good note, I felt happy about my Kirikaeshi. My hits seemed to make their target as my main concern was to make sure that each strike is distinct and complete. Also, before I left, Arai Sensei pretty much ordered me to take the test at the seminar next month to get my ikkyu. I am planning on taking the test anyways, and I really want to pass.

Well, that ends this Kendo report. Ta ta for now!!

5/17/07 update

There really isn't much going on in the Kendo front right now. A trip to UPS took longer than expected to I was about a half-hour late. This resulted in me losing out on doing a few drills so I had to go straight into jigeiko. Needless to say, I at least made the most out of the little time I had there. This should make the notes relatively quick this time.

- Kan Sensei from Detroit came to visit today. I didn't get to go against him very much, but I went up to him anyways after practice to see what he had to say about my performance. All he said was that I needed to be more agressive and not worry so much about hitting the targets.

- I also got to spar against a variety of people. This time, I made it a point to bump up my reaction time, which seems to be working for the time being. It's been a while since I have actually felt my hits going in at a decent speed, so it seems like there's a little improvement on the way for me. All in all, I didn't feel any big disappointments in myself.

On a side note, I should mention that, over the past few days, I have been having that sort of itch to pick up my shinai and do suburi before I go to bed. It's that sort of feeling where if you didn't do that desireable thing, then your body would explode. Not really seeing that as an issure, I just gave in to tempation and did a few suburi to satisfy my urges. Other than that, I'm trying to make sure I think of something Kendo related when I go to bed to get my mind running.

Well, that's enough for today!

Notes for 5/12/07

Here are some notes that I gathered from GKA today...

- I finally had the chance to practice some serious kata. I haven't done them in quite some time, so I was pretty rusty to start out. One thing that has been bothering me since I have been doing kata is that my body feels extremely stiff when I do them. I don't know why that happens or how to fix it, but it just happens. The end result is a lack of balance and awkward feeling movements. I don't really know if it's something that goes away with time, or if there is some other way that I can think about doing them.

- Before I move on, I would just like to say something about kata. For being as important as it is, Kata seems to be rarely practiced compared to everything else. I can definately understand why, since kata is generally only "needed" during testing verses waza being needed everytime we walk into the dojo. Even so, I would still prefer to practice it more as I can only see the complacency of the importance of kata biting me in the future once I get to higher ranks. The kata drills don't have to be more than an hour. Even 20 minutes would be nice to do some fine tuning.

- Now on to the regular practice. We did a lot of different drills that tested my endurance and drive for perfection. Without getting too specific about the lessons learned, I was told to extend my left arm more. It's another thing that I should keep in mind to make sure that I increase my speed and strenght without decreasing my style.

I really need to come up with better titles...Just some Kendo Progress Updates

I went to GKA last night and was allowed to practice with them. It was a really great experience because I actually felt like I was doing something with my life instead of surfing on the internet, watching TV, playing videogames and running family errands. My life is a little balanced now so I am able to move on. It was great meeting up with the people I haven't seen for a while and getting in some actual training.

In keeping with my promise of charting my Kendo progress, I will put down some things I noticed about my training.

- First of all, it has been about three weeks since I have done some very hard Kendo practice. In that respect, I felt a little rusty in the beginning, but quickly warmed up as practice began. I guess the small amounts of self practice really helped in at least keeping me in the swing (no pun intended) of things.

- During the free geiko, I noticed how I was able to react a bit better to someone's advancing attacks, or at least realize when I have an opening but not necessarily go for it.

- My hiki waza is okay when just practicing them one on one, but it's not so great when actually doing it while sparring. I either trip up going back or I don't have as much of the center as I thought I did and the person ends up blocking. The footwork is confusing enough as it is. Integrating the swing and the zanshin makes everything a bit harder to accomodate. Some ways of fixing that could be to be faster with movements and also not be concerned with missing. I also have the option of hiki-kote and hiki-do, which can also be useful for getting out of a jam.

- During the practice, I noticed that there were a few people that don't hit very hard. But the thing is, their hits were spot on and they showed zanshin. Of course, everyone's philosophy on what makes a point is different so I really can't say if one is better than the other. I'm not the strongest person in the world and I am continuously told that I need to hit harder and harder. While it is true that I could hit harder, maybe I can concentrate on getting effective hits in other areas. I can still use the suburito to do swings, but instead of specifically trying to whack the living daylights out of a person, I should work on using that strength to make my hits stronger in the form of being clear and crisp.

I am pretty sure that there are a few notes that I could be missing, but then I think I would be missing the point of charting my progress. I need to concentrate on the things I learned without being nitpicky about my Kendo so much. All it will do is cloud my mind as there are millions of things that I need to fix. I have years upon years to fix things so I just need to concentrate on a few at a time and move on to the next when I feel satisfied with how I'm doing them. Then I can go back to those techniques at a later date and do some more refinement when I gain some better insight to my techniques with increased Kendo knowledge and ability.

What the hell is going on with me anyways

It's two weeks into Summer vacation, so how are things going on so far?

Grades
For the second time ever (how sad is this?), I got a 3.0 semester average on my report card. And I also didn't have any Ds on it either. There was one class, AAE 440 (Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics) that was giving me the most trouble with hard exams, long homework and a teacher who is too full of herself to be that helpful. In the end, I still ended up with a C, so I am very happy about it. I am happy now that I can go through a summer without worrying about my GPA. Keep this up and I can actually graduate next semester!

Kendo
Due to my hectic schedule over the past week with turning in job applications and taking care of Grandma since her operation, I haven't gone to GKA yet. I have done some practice at night in the form of doing some waza and suburi to strengthen myself. I do plan on going tonight to ask for permission to hopefully join them today, and then I can definately start the hardcore practicing. I also need to get in contact with the head of the dojo that is closer to here to try to train with them in addition to GKA for some extra practice.

Job
I have a position at some job agency that will put me in jobs that come up. But that means that I may only have to wait a few days, or a few weeks for something to come up. I am still job hunting for something a bit more stable. If I get this job, then I should be able to go to the Kendo seminar that's coming up next month. I have the money now, but I'm afraid of all the sudden expenses that are coming up now :(

Yet another Kendo update

As promised, I am posting an update to my training. So far, I haven't joined any dojos here since school didn't really end for me until Saturday due to a few projects that lingered on after my return home. But that hasn't kept me from doing some short practices by myself before I go to bed. Here are a few notes I've made.

- This may sound a bit crazy, but I found a way to increase my speed a bit. Ever since I started, I was always told to only use the left hand to do everything and the right only guides. It is true, but I found it to be an impediment to speed since I was only moving forward with my left arm. I can increase my speed by making my right arm a bit more active by using the force from it to move out faster than with just one arm.

- I've been doing whatever I can to strengthen my wrist and arm by doing katate suburi with the suburito and moving it up and down with the strength of my wrist. All I can say is that I really need work on that. We'll see what happens since it probably won't be until a few weeks when I know the results.

- As far as cross training is concerned, I have access to some free weights (no bench) a treadmill and one of those elastic band things. I'm really not sure how I can use the weights and elastic band to the best potential and the internet really isn't helping as there's too much information swimming around so it seems to be mostly on hold for now. On the treadmill side of things, I want to run like a mile and a half every day to keep my heart pumping and maybe give me any extra energy I need for fighting. I'm pretty sure I can do more with that, and I will increase it when I figure out that I can or should do more.

- For the remainder of the summer, I know I am going to have a lot of time on my hands. I tend to spend my days in front of the computer screen (like now), playing video games and watching TV. I might as well spend some of that time practicing Kendo for maybe an hour or two a day on my own time except for the days I go to practice. My goal is to go back to Purdue much better than when I left as well as get somewhere in the next tournament and I'll do just about anything to achieve that goal.

Kendo Frustration

In searching for different ways to procrastinate from my homework, I have decided to put in a new entry in my blog.

It's been over a week, but the Cleveland Kendo Tournament is over and I leave disappointed in my progress. I lost in the first match in the mudansha division just like at the previous tournament. This time, it wasn't because I got tired, it was because my hits were weak so I wasn't getting any points from my hits. There are other factors to my performance, including driving for a few hours and having little time to warm up as so many things were going on at once when I got there. The latter reasons feel like petty excuses to me as I sometimes feel like I was trying to run away from the real reasons of my loss. Either way, I feel that I didn't give my all to the match and that needs to change.

I faired a bit better in the team match, but there are still some improvements. I noticed in the video for my match that I had a bit too much movement with my shinai. The funny thing is that I didn't notice I was moving so much. It really gives my movements away and it does sap energy faster than just moving when necessary. That seems to be a problem that I need to get over as well. I need to pay more attention to my movements.

I really feel that my Kendo hasn't really progressed much since the summer. While I don't expect to be a Kendo master or anything after only three years, I would expect to be better at Kendo than I currently am. It's really frustrating that it seems like people are advancing faster than I am. While some others are full of energy and fast, I'm still slow and weak. Trust me, I have no plans on quitting Kendo. While I am frustrated, I see this as another hurdle to go through. This is an experience that I can tell others years down the road when they are saying the same thing. But for the here and now, there are some things that do need to change.

The semester is over and now the summer is fast approaching. More time will open up for me to spend more time practicing Kendo and doing any sort of supplemental training. Last year, my goal was to be able to last longer during my matches. While my endurance can always be higer, I think that I am at the point where only time will improve that. Now, there are other things that I can focus on during these long summer months.

- Improve speed
- Improve strength

These are the new goals that I have. While these are two different goals, I feel that they supplement each other as you need speed to have strength and strength for speed. But I guess that it's not enough to just do them, I need a method of approaching that goal.

In order to achieve these goals, I need a refined way of approaching things. At first, I was just doing suburi to do the first goal, but more needs to be done. While doing suburi is necessary for becoming better, a new thought process needs to be implemented. Instead of just doing the swings and practicing the waza, I need to think about what I am doing. Why am I doing this move? How can it be refined to achieve these goals? What EXACTLY is my body doing to move and how do I fix any problems? Basically, I should be asking questions of myself and my sensei/sempai to get a deeper perspective of my kendo. Also, I should be updating this blog more to chart my progress.

One thing is for certain, I plan on visiting a few dojos over the summer. Which ones I visit depends on one thing, and that is if I get an internship over the summer. I got a call a few days ago about an internship with United Launch Alliance in the Denver area. If I go there, I know of a few dojos that are in the area that I can attend depending on the work schedule and stuff. If I don't, I can always practice with the Georgia Kendo Alliance. There are also a few other Kendo dojos that opened up in the area, closer to home, so I can go there for the time being depending on how long I will remain at home. We'll see how things go as I'll find out my situation tomorrow.

Well, it's getting late and I should get to bed for class tomorrow morning. As for the match video, I'll add a link to my youtube page on the sidebar so you can see my Kendo videos and videos of my friends. Of course, comments and questions are always welcome.

Kendo Update

Currently, I am sitting in the airport after coming here EXTREMELY early to compensate for anticipated traffic. While I did have traffic, it wasn't bad enough for any considerable delays so I essentially came about two hours early. And since I have nothing better to do with my life for the time being, I think I will put in another entry into my blog. This one may be a long entry though. Just note that I will be home when this is posted as there is no such thing as free internet at the airports.

First of all, I would like to complain about Midway's lack of plugs for laptops and cell devices. It wouldn't be such a big deal if the travel wasn't to be long, but I would feel better having a plug for my laptop while I'm stuck here.

Kendo
It's about a month until the tournament in Cleveland and that day is approaching fast. I've been doing my best to train as best as I can in whatever way I can to be prepared for it. There are some good things and bad things about what is going on.

If the tournament were to happen tomorrow, then I would definately say that I am not prepared. I don't think that I would ever be ready for a tournament if I trained 24 hours a day, but I definately feel that there are some things that could be worked over. I've been able to attend at least one practice a week so I haven't been completely sedintary. But I would definately love to have more sparring time so I can reflect on my skills and work on weak points. Unfortunately, things have been heating up academically, so there are some times where I have to skip practice and training due to academia or just being too tired after a long day of school. Optimally, I would be training about an hour a day doing the basics and stuff, but real life's a bitch sometimes, huh?

I finally was able to attend my first seminar a few weekends ago. Miyahara-sensei was teaching for the day at the University of Chicago. I could go into everything that he taught us, but then I might as well write a novel cause it was a lot that he told us. He talked about things ranging from basic shinai and bogu care to suburi and even taught us a few things about parrying effectively. The whole thing lasted about five hours and I ended up being very happy to attend. The trip would have been perfect if it wasn't for the freezing rain that plagued the whole trip back.

While not Kendo related, I did get to go to an Iaido practice to see what the training was like. Unfortunately, due to me going back and forth between Indiana and Georgia for breaks (they don't have Iaido as far as I know), not having time during school, money issues and concerns over training for a month and then having to leave, I wasn't able to join. I do know that I will be attending Iaido practices once I graduate if I get a job in a place that has Iaido somewhat close by. The dojo I visited was the Indianapolis Budokan that is run by Andrew Bryant. Everyone was very nice and eager to greet me which was nice. They did a few forms and stuff, but I was largely impressed as I was watching.

Japanese
I guess I can add something in on this as well. I've had to stop with the Japanese classes since my advisor told me that I needed to take other classes, so now it's up to myself to continue my Japanese education. It really hasn't been going over too well since I have other aspects of my life to worry about, but I try to get in a little something every once in a while like watching stuff on the AZN network, reading manga (love the Musashi no Ken) and playing video games in Japanese.

My reading is pretty decent right now. I can read a few things, but my Kanji knowledge is holding me back. When it comes to learning Kanji, I don't like using lists and memorizing them. I feel better when I learn by usage, so I'm more apt to memorize them when I read them and see for myself how they are used. For that, I am reading manga, though I would like to read other material to have a more well-rounded view on them.

My listening could most definately use some work. When people talk slow, I can usually manage. But since they talk very fast on most TV shows, I have a hard time catching anything that they are saying. I don't really know how I can get around this other than just doing more listening stuff. Anime is a nice resource, but I think I should look for more real sources to listen to.

Spring Break Plans

It seems like it was just yesterday when the semester started. Everyone hates that period between MLK Day and spring break because it's six weeks straight of school with no breaks in between. But the weeks flew by with very little warning and now, Spring Break starts in just a matter of days.

What prompted me to write this was an interesting thread that I read on 1up last week. Someone thought of an idea to take the idea of spring cleaning and bring it in the realm of video games. I thought that it was more of an idea of getting rid of the extra fluff in your gaming collection, but it was a bit different than that.

I'm pretty sure that every gamer has a collection of games that they started playing but didn't finish. This happens for a variety of reasons such as lack of time, loss of interest or increasing interest in other games. Well, this person's idea was to use the month of March as a time to compile a list of games that you bought and never finished and make it a goal to complete the games on that list within the month.

I've thought about participating in this, but due to my hectic college schedule, it's something that is impossible for me to partake in--or at least it would be difficult to complete any sort of amount of games. So I felt that it would be better for me to wait until the summer to do that sort of thing when I have more time on my hands.

What does this have to do with Spring Break though? Well, I've decided to try this out while I am at home for Spring Break. Amid the homework that I must complete, there is a lot of free time that should be better spent in making my gaming collection worthwhile. There are a few games that I would like to try to beat before I come back, and below is a list of them:

- Gunstar Heroes
- Super Castlevania IV
- Super Star Soldier
- Sonic and the Secret Rings
- Starfox (SNES) - Hard course
- Super Mario RPG

Since I only have a week, I wanted to keep the list small. The good news is that most of these games can be beaten pretty shortly despite the difficulty being high in some of them. I added Super Mario RPG for good measure, but I don't even know if I will even get to start the game after playing the other ones. I just plan on taking the games down one by one and hopefully reaching my goal of beating them.

There are also some other things that I want to do over break. There are some games and accessories that I would like to sell over ebay to clean up my overstock on games.

I also have plans to do some Kendo training when I get back home. I won't be able to make it to GKA this time around, but I have a shinai that I can do suburi with and a treadmill to do some running with to train for the upcoming tournament. I hope to get the cardio in more during school, but I'll have to see about that.

Kendo Seminar

I finally went to my first Kendo seminar yesterday that was hosted by the University of Chicago Kendo club and taught by 8th dan hanshi, Miyahara sensei.

I must say that the experience was great and worth the two hour drive (and 5 back due to I-65 being an ice sheet) to get there. I learned a lot about kendo that day--maybe too much.

Miyahara sensei himself is a pretty cool guy. Everything that he said was straightforward and made sense as to why he did what he did. One thing that I really liked is that, despite him having the highest rank in the US, he wasn't completely hung up in formalities. There's some people that expect you to treat them all special like (not necessarily in Kendo since I haven't met anyone like that), but he seemed pretty relaxed. I hope to be like him when I'm at a high rank.

As for the lesson itself, we learned a lot about the basics from tips to take care of the shinai to footwork and suburi. One nice thing we learned was how to do various parry techniques depending on situation. More specifically, I learned about how it may not necessarily be necessary to stomp when doing strikes, a way to tie the dou so that it doesn't fall off and a way to tie the shinai so that you don't have to worry about pulling so much.

There were a lot more things I learned that day, but it would be enough to write a novel on it. Luckily, there was someone else from my dojo who showed up so he should be able to recall stuff that may be foggy to me and I can do the same with him. Hopefully we should be able to pass this on to the other dojo members to spread the knowledge.

The most important thing that he stressed was that everything that he said isn't gospel. If something doesn't make sense, then we don't really have to do it. But his reasonings were so logical that you at least had to give it a try to see if it works. All I know is that I can now look at my kendo and see about adding a few things to my sparring skills. The seminar was invaluable.

Before I end this, I would like to extend my thanks to the University of Chicago Kendo Club for inviting us to join them for this. I would also like to extend thanks to Miyahara sensei for coming out to Chicago to teach for the day. This experience proved to be very interesting and I hope to train and meet with both of them agian.

Gaming Woes...sort of

I stopped at Game Crazy today and bought Final Fantasy III, Wii component cables and a system changer for $80. I'm happy that I got them, but I won't be totally happy until the balance is off my card.

After talking to the guy at the counter, it got me thinking about my situation. I have a lot of games that I haven't really played much of. I have thought about not buying any more games (except Guitar Hero 360) until I beat a few of the ones I already have. The way I want to go about it is to choose a game to play and then spend the majority of my gaming time playing that game until I beat it.

So far, I have thought about making Okami that game since I'm 10 hours into it and then move on to FF XII since I'm beginning that one. Since my roomate is TV whoring right now, I guess I can fill that void with FFIII and beat that one. Hopefully, this should help out in saving me money and making me feel better about my game collection.

Today's Practice

This morning, I finally decided to get off my lazy ass and start up the practicing. I had to miss this Thursday's practice because I wasn't feeling in tip top shape, unfortunately. This was something that I have wanted to do for a while, and the details are written below.

Right now, I'm living in a tiny apartment on Purdue's campus complete with low ceilings and cramped quarters. I could just sit in seiza and do suburi for a bit, but I felt that it wasn't enough. So I woke up this morning and went to breakfast and headed out to the corec for some Kendo fun.

I decided to do it in my uniform, sans bogu, since I just feel better about doing it that way. But I put the uniform on and did some stretches to start out. After feeling a bit more limber, I started out with the shinai for a set of 10 to get my body warmed up to moving. After that, I picked up my suburito (large bokken for weighted suburi practice) and did 50 each of zengou-sayumen, naname-suburi, zengou-shomen-uchi, suri-monogiri and haya-suburi. For the katate suburi, I just used the normal shinai. By the way, the shinai is a Bio one, which is noticably hevier than plain bamboo.

This is where the training got a little weird. I started off with footwork for a bit and moved on to various waza. The problem that I was having was that I wasn't focusing enough so I would do a few and move on to another one. That portion of the training was more of a waste of time since I didn't really get to focus on my mistakes.

After that, I went through the first 4 kata, doing my best to imagine an opponent in front of me. Sometimes, it worked out well and other times, it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Sometimes, my mind moves around a bit and the focus gets lost yet again.

After that bit, I stretched out some more and left. I did talk to some people who were wondering what martial art I was doing which was nice. I doubt that they will be future members of the Kendo universe, but at least the knowledge of it existing is out there.

One thing that I would like to fix when I go out there the next time is to go with a plan. I was fine with the suburi and the kata since those are pretty much set in stone as to the accomplishments of that. But for the waza, I need to have a better plan as to what I feel I need to work on. That way, it becomes more productive. I really hope that I can make it out there tomorrow and the following weekends. If I can fill the rest of the week with just plain suburi in here, then I should be all set. I really need to increase my practice time so I can actually get better!

On an unrelated note, I finally got a Wii classic controller. I really wasn't looking for one though. I just went to the gaming section at walmart to look around like I always do and saw one there and just picked it up. I was mainly there to pick up my glasses and contacts though.

Well, later days!

Week in Review

Wow, it has already been a week since the semester started. There are several things that are going on in my life that I would like to report on over the past week.

After working for two years at Itap, I got a promotion to Senior Lab Assistant. There really isn't too much going for me as far as job experience goes, but it should at least look good on the resume for the job description and the fact that I got a promotion. Now that I am a Senior Lab Assistant, I finally have stuff to do while I am at work. I help out the Site Ops do their thing by handing out keys and clipboards to those that need them, check the classrooms to see if projectors are working and answer questions Lab Assistants may have. It's also a nice pay increase too. I'm working 12 hours instead of the normal 15 this semester, so I am essentially getting the same pay, but at least I work less to get the same amount of pay. My main gripe for now is the fact that I work for 4 hours on Tuesday and 8 hours on Wednesday.

My classes are going fine for now. The most interesting one has to be AAE 535 which is Propulsion: Design, Build, Test. It's a class that takes you through the designing process by designing something of your choice. Right now, I am working with some people to talk about making a plasma ignitor for a hypersonic (Mach greater than 5, I think) engine. I really don't know anything at all about this and I don't understand the papers the teacher gave, but things might come together as time goes on. Some of my other classes include Astronomy, Controls lab, Aerodynamics Lab and some class where I am learning the business side of the design world. These classes seem very interesting and I think I can expect a nice GPA boost provided I put a good amount of effort into class.

Kendo is also into full swing again. There was a practice on Thursday which really goes to show me that I got a little rusty over break and I still have stuff to work on. I am still able to last during Jigeiko (sparring) after reducing my movements a bit, but I still felt very slow with all of my hits. I shall one day beat someone in a match within the club, but I really need to work hard at it. One thing that really seems to be going against me is that a lot of the work I am doing this semester is based on group work. That means that there is no telling when we will meet outside of class, so my practice time could be extremely limited. With this in mind, I really need to just keep up with my practices so I don't falter too bad. I want to do better at the next tournament!

I've also been getting more into XBOX live. I still need to play at least one game of Rainbow Six: Vegas online, but I do enjoy the Burnout revenge online quite a bit. The people I have met are pretty nice and mature so far. I had a lot of fun cause it seemed more like several friends in a room having a good time instead of going for that all out competition to win. Of course, we all want to win but there was a bunch of nice discussions. I also got all the achievements in Ms. Pac Man which brings the total amount of games that I have all achievements for to two. Maybe I'll get into the games I already own some more and increase my score a bit. Well, if you want to get in contact with me to play some games, my gamertag is Black Kendoka.

New Year's Resolutions

We still have a few days left until the end of the year, but I think that it's still a nice time to go over what my New Year's Resolutions are. Of course, these resolutions are meant to be broken so I see these more of as goals to achieve throughout the year. With the end of my college life coming soon, this would be a great time to improve my quality of life by changing a few things in my life for the better. Well, here they are.

Grades
My goal this year is to reduce the amount of Cs and Ds on my transcript to zero. My last two semesters haven't been all that great so I really need to step up my game so I can graduate on time. I feel like I was on the ball though by doing homework in Grissom Hall so I was able to get more homework done than if I were to stay in the dorm room. I need to get off of my lazy ass and go somewhere outside of the room to get homework done so I can reduce the thursday all-nighters and spend more time with Kendo (more on that coming soon).

Internet
The largest time waster in my life is the internet. It is so easily accessible these days as just about every computer you walk up to has internet access of some kind. I sometimes spend so much time on the internet that I run out of things to look at and then go to websites that I have already visited hoping for new information or threads to show up. I know for a fact that I could get so much more done by spending less time on the internet. I am not talking about totally cutting myself off from the internet or making a goal of only spending 30 minutes a day on the internet, but I could use the downtime to get many more useful things done in my life.

Kendo
My goal is to practice more Kendo this year. I feel like I am stagnant in my training so I need to spend some extra time outside of practice doing suburi, sitting in seiza (can't do that enough), working on kata and doing footwork. I could make a goal that I could practice every day but that doesn't seem realistic enough as some aspects of my life is pretty unpredictable. As a result, I just would to at least just add more outside practice until I can find a happy medium from the rest of my life. I also want to do better in the next tournament and last a bit longer and maybe even place if I improve enough. I could go on and on about what I want to do and stuff but the stuff I typed earlier is the gist of it.

Gaming
I would like to get out of my shell and spend some more time with the online gaming. I get discouraged when I am always placed against people that cheat or have years more experience than I do but I can't let that stop me. Online gaming is the future and I really need to embrace it if I plan on gaming for the rest of my life. My wish is to find a few friends that I can play against from time to time just to have some sort of "safe haven" when I need to get away from the crappy people that flood the intertubes. I also want to beat more games this year. I buy games but I hardly finish them due to waning interest and time. This will be hard if I plan on doing the above things as they can take more time, but it's a goal nonetheless.

Japanese
Despite me not being in a Japanese class anymore, I still want to improve my Kanji and vocabulary knowledge in the Japanese language. Of course, I can only do this by reading stuff, contacting japanese pen pals, and participating in Japanese forums.

Job Outlook
My goal this year is to get an internship this summer. My grades might bar me from getting one, but I can't let that stop me. If I apply to 50 different companies, there has to be one that will hire me for the summer and possible permanent employment. I will just have to do some massive searching online for engineering companies and send off my stuff. I'll go pretty much anywhere though I hope that I will be within an hour's distance from a Kendo dojo.

This is really all I could think of right now, but the list might increase later. Of course, these goals aren't set in stone so anything can change. So, what are your resolutions for this year?

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and gone so I guess I will spend this time to show off what I got and ask for a small suggestion.

Here is what I got for Christmas
- Wireless Router
- Wii carrying case
- 13 month XBOX Live Gold card
- Final Fantasy XII
- Ookami (狼 - Just wanted to have a little fun with the title :))
- Trauma Center: Second Opinion
- Rainbow Six: Vegas
- Burnout Revenge

Okay, now here's what I want to ask of you guys. It will be hard to play all 5 games at the same time so I want to choose one at a time before I move on to the next game. I am sort of going back and forth on this as to what I want to concentrate on first so I just want to ask you guys what you think I should concentrate on and why I should do so.

I have spend a little time on each game and I think that these should keep me entertained for a while, on and off line. In the case of XBL, I can't find a long ethernet cable for less than $10. Therefore, I probably won't be able to play for another two weeks. I also don't have the headset so I can't even talk to anyone if I wanted to, lol.

Update: I think I will try to settle down with Ookami first and move on from there. Though I still wouldn't mind hearing of your opinions about my choices of games, XBL challenges or whatnot.

My Kendo Match Video

After months of trying, I finally was able to post my Kendo team match video on Youtube. This was during the team matches at the Midwestern Kendo Federation (MWKF) tournament in Chicago on October 28, 2006. I do lose this match and there are some glaring problems that I really want to fix by the next tournament. But contructive criticism is always appreciated. By the way, I am the one in the white tag.

World Kendo Championships

If you haven't seen the results yet, click here to see them.

Well, the 13th World Kendo Championship (WKC) has come and gone. But there seems to have been quite a stir within the Kendo community about the results. This time around, the Japanese men's team came in third behind Korea, which took first, and the USA which took second. Before I begin the rest of this entry, I would like to hand out a congradulations to team USA for doing a fine job in representing this country. You guys have made the Kenshi here very proud.

For the uninitiated, the reason why the results are so important is because Japan didn't get first place as predicted by many people. This would be comparable to the US losing to Japan at American football. Of course, we should look at this as a learning experience and not one of those "in your face" things that occur in many competitive sports.

In the Kendo world, it is known that the Japanese have much better opportunities to be good at Kendo. There are more practices (some places might have more than one practice a day over several days of the week) and a MUCH larger pool of great people to fight against. In other places in the world, you would consider yourself lucky to be living in an area that is even a 1 hour drive from a Kendo dojo. It's considered a very special occasion when a Japanese sensei visits a dojo to the point of doing whatever is in ones power to make their stay as pleasant as possible.

The question that we all should be asking is why didn't Japan win like expected every tournament? When we put Japan and Kendo together, we think of them as being untouchable. Of course, there is no one answer to this, but the possibilities are things that we could take with us in our individual lives, inside and outside of Kendo.

There was a saying that I heard a while back. I don't remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of winning too much would cause loss in the end. What it was saying is that winning too much could cause too much confidence in oneself. When you think you are invincible, you don't train yourself as much and you lose sight of the competition who are thinking of ways to trounce the top dog. You could accuse Japan of doing this as they usually come out on top so they feel that they could get any group together and be able to trounce the competition. This reflects badly on the team in question (could be any team of course) as the overconfidence will eventually bite them in the end.

Then there is also the desire to win that has something to do with it. As we all know, if you put your mind to something, you can do just about anything that you set out to do. If you want to win and you train yourself as hard as you can, then you will eventually get to your goal. It could take 1 extra try or 100 extra tries, but it would happen eventually. For years, the USA felt inferior to the Japanese in terms of Kendo finesse. Of course, we have the desire to do the best with what we have but, compared to Japan, the Kendo opportunities are quite small. I'm not saying that Japan didn't want to win, but the drive to win might not have been as strong as other places as they have the good stuffs so to speak. The intense training of team USA and the desire to do the best they can could have had an effect on how well they did, even if Japan had the same intent.

I won't go into too much detail with this one as it's self explanitory. But sometimes, people have bad days. Unfortunately, the bad day for team Japan happened to be on the day of the competition. There really isn't much you can do about that but go along for the ride as fate takes you along.

Does this discredit the Japanese for their prowess in Kendo? Of course not. While they didn't get first place, they still ranked among the top countries in the world namely, Japan, USA and Korea. They still have the same amount of Kenshi available and the same tenacity at practicing Kendo. The only difference is that they got third this time. You must also keep in mind that Japan still did very well as this is only the men's team division that this happened to. What this does mean is that we should stop looking at Japan as the invincible person and just strive to do our best. The USA is full of good kenshi and we need to just keep our efforts to remain a strong force in the Kendo world.

Please keep in mind that I am not saying that these are actual reasonings. These are just some ideas that I came up with after the surprising results. I'm not Japanese, I don't know anyone from team Japan or USA nor am I psychic. For all I know, Japan could have chosen the best team that they had and had a very strong intent on winning. Sometimes, things happen and things turn out the way they do because of those events.

The next WKC should be set to be done in 2009. I think it's supposed to be in Brazil, but I am not sure about that. All I know is that I should make plans on being there. I will be out of college for about a year and a half and most likely settled at my future job (hopefully) so there is a good chance that I can get there with vacation time and such. One big reason why I would love to attend is that I could see this as being a very interesting tournament. Japan will be wanting to bring out the big guns to regain the title, Korea will be doing their best to keep the first place position and the US will go there knowing that they always have a chance at winning. There is always strong Kendo there as these teams represent the best in the country, but it should be especially strong knowing that everyone is in an interesting position right now.

*Note - if you want to see some of the fights, you can easily go to Youtube and look at some videos there by searching anything along the lines of World Kendo Championships 2006, or you can go to Kendo World over the next few weeks to catch some of the action.

Kendo Retrospection

Now that the semester is over, I think that it is a perfect time to talk about how my Kendo has been doing over the past few months.

Practicing over the summer really helped me in getting me out of my rut and allowing me to move on and fix some glaring problems. Being able to practice with different people and going through different customs kind of gives you a jolt as you try to adjust to the way that they do things. Doing this also helped me get into the semester at Purdue in full swing with little time for readjustment.

As far as practicing over the semester, it could have gone better in my eyes but I've had my highs and lows. The highlight of the semester, the MWKF tournament, while fun, could have gone better. I lost both of my matches in the first round (individual and team) so my fighting didn't really last long. I could feel the problems of me getting exhausted seconds into the match, but seeing the video allowed me to see what my problem was. I have been told over the summer that I move around too much and that I just need to worry about having those few extra inches that gives me the center. Of course, I adjusted accordingly, but there is something about actually having a visual of what you are doing that has everything come together. Who knew that one small thing could have your entire form fall apart?

There was also some other problems over the semester that I need to fix. The most important one is that I need to strengthen my wrist (or adjust my hits) because a lot of my hits have come out pretty weak. For those of you that don't know much about Kendo, you can't just bang and hit anywhere and get a point. The hits need to be strong enough to show your intent on making the hit. If the judges see that your hits are weak, then you get no score. I have ideas to fix that including buying one of those elastic bands to exercise my wrists and just doing more suburi when I can. Another problem is my reach. I can't decide who I will fight on any given day so I need to adjust my hits so that I can do correct hits based on my opponent's height. This will take some time for adjusting though but I think I will be able to do it in time. There is also a timing issue with reacting accordingly to someone's slightest movement, but I think that will just come with time, similar to being able to do faster songs and react to different patterns with time.

The practice last Thursday was an important one. We did some jigeiko that night so it was my time to try to remember all of the things that I have learned over the semester. This time around, I concentrated more on not moving so much so I can last more than 20 seconds in a match. For one, I was able to last MUCH longer this time. Instead of dying after one match, I was still going on until my right hand started hurting (I don't think I should be gripping so hard with that) which had to have been match #6 or something. Either that was a good day, or now I know just how much energy one spends just on shinai movement. After keeping my arms in a more relaxed position and not moving so much, I made what I believe were stronger and quicker hits though there are still some aspects that I need to fix in that regard.

Well, this semester was nice in regards to Kendo. Despite me talking a lot about my mistakes and stuff, I had a lot of fun during these months. I wish I could have performed better in my matches, but I can live with knowing what I need to learn. There is a tournament in April in Cleveland (maybe) that I plan on attending so I have several months to work out a lot of the kinks in my Kendo and hopefully place next time.

Feeling the educational crunch

I think that now is the time for me to rant about my educational status right now as it's kinda starting to get to me.

I am a senior now in Aerospace Enginnering and now I am starting to feel the exhaustion of all of this. After an abysmal semester last semester, I decided to try much harder this time to at least keep my GPA constant. But as a result, it's really starting to bear down on me with no end in sight.

Here are some of the things that are kinda bothering me now
- No matter how hard I try to get my homework done by Thursday night, it never happens. Whether it is my own laziness or something else dealing with school that comes my way, I always end up staying up till 4 or 5 AM on Friday morning getting homework done. The real kicker is that, as soon as I'm finished, more homework gets assigned 6 hours later.

- I've done things like reading the texts and studing a bit more and it seems like very little is coming out of it. For example, in my Aerodynamics class, no matter how hard I try with the homework, I seem to get no higher than a 30 on the homework assignments. But then, the TA does suck for the class so it probably has little to do with me other than going to the TA to see why he graded so hard.

- With each passing week comes more and more work. For example, this week, I have a test on Monday and Friday and reports due on Tuesday and Wednesday and God knows how long those will take. Keep in mind that this is on top of the stuff that I already have to do.

- Health wise seems to not be in that great of a state either. I have been needing to sleep during the day a lot more, which hasn't been an issue in the past. Even with the rest during the day, my overall tiredness is very high. My back has also been feeling very tense lately and I don't know why. I want to get a back massage, but they cost money that I don't have much of. I guess I could take more effort to ask around though for free ones. I'll take the ones with the happy endings if the girl is hot, lol. I am doing Kendo and Dance Dance Revolution, so it's not like I'm completely sedentary. I love doing these, especially Kendo, but my future outlook of skipping these for the sake of decent grades is pretty saddening.

- Family wise doesn't seem all that great either. I would love to call my family members, but it's hard to have a conversation for less than 15 minutes for anyone except for my dad. When you have this much demand for time, it causes strain in the form of not calling family for long periods of time. This also doesn't get any better when everyone is vocal about it as well.

- My friend and relationship status isn't bad, but it could be improved. Other than Kendo and DDR, there is very little time to do much else. I met some very nice people while playing fighting games with them last semester, but the constraints on time have kept me away all year. One of my goals this year was to get a girlfriend, but even time for that is short. Because of the few activities I participate in, it's hard for me to really go out and meet people all the time. There are two people that I'm interested in, but I'm not sure about one's relationship status and I haven't seen the other here all semester. You could say to just look elsewhere, but the point of this entry is just to say that I don't have time. I also get a lot of tips that my life would be better off without a girlfriend, but these are people that have had relationships. I have had 0 so it only frustrates me more to tell me stuff like that.

I have heard teachers warning us how hard college was to the point of scaring people, but no amount or any type of words can describe the experience unless you are going through it yourself. You could say that I brought this on myself by taking one of the hardest, if not the hardest, majors offered here at Purdue but I don't see it as too much of a problem. I wish I took harder courses in High school so I could have the study skills to survive here as I studied for a total of 3 hours throughout all four years there. The material may be hard, but it isn't boring me entirely so it's not TOO bad. I hope that my life improves after graduation.

Don't get me wrong because I have fun with the stuff I do and the friends I have. I just wish I could have a stress-free moment every once in a while. Everytime I do something, I have the fact that homework exists looming over my head. Christmas break better come soon cause I really don't know how much of this I can take before I go completely crazy.

2006 MWKF Tournament in Chicago

Now that I have a few minutes away from my everyday life (not really but I'm shoe-horning the time in my schedule), I can finally type a blog about the tournament this past Saturday.

The tournament was really fun. Four of us hopped into the car at around 6:15 and drove to Chicago for the tournament. We got there "on time" but the doors weren't open when we got there. As a result, the actual tournament didn't start until around 9 since the people still needed to set up. I didn't have much of a problem with it though as it gave us a little time to relax after taking the 2 hour drive there.

It wasn't just the 4 of us that went though. There was a total of 13 competing and another12 - 17 people that came to watch. This is the largest group that came to the tournament so that made me happy. It's like we had our own cheering section, lol. My parents had expressed interest in coming so they decided to fly up from Atlanta to see me fight. I was expecting them to be a little bored because there really isn't much going on, but they said that they had fun.

I expected the Mudansha division to start first as it usually is at the few tournaments I have been to. But they started from the top of the totem pole with the 3rd dan and up competitions and went down to the junior, senior and women's division. After lunch was when I finally was up.

My parents went to lunch a little early so they could be back in time to see my first match, but they ended up not making it due to lots of things going wrong with their situation. They were very disappointed, but I consoled them since I still had another match to go. Besides, I didn't do all that great either since my hits were very weak and cost me the match. I was shocked because I thought I did decently in the previous Thursday's practice in holding out well. There is something about tournaments that seem to tire me out quicker. It might have something to do with a lack of sleep and driving, but I'm not entirely sure.

After a few more hours of waiting after losing my first match, the team matches started up. Because I wasn't part of the full team, I had to pair up with Paul from Georgia Kendo Alliance and some people from Minehaha dojo in Minnesota. I always seem to have fun with this as I get to meet more people and see different styles of fighting. Our fight was against UW which Paul got the one and only point for the team. I wish that we won the fight though cause there is no better beating than getting one from Chicago Kendo Dojo team A since they are very good.

After that, the tournament run for me was over so there wasn't much to do but watch. There were some awesome matches in the final rounds so it was a nice treat to see what my potential could be if I practice for a long time. After everything was over, we did the closing ceremonies, took pictures, packed up and went home.

I was pretty dissapointed, but not surprised, about my performance. I wish that I was able to last a bit longer, but I have this thing called college that keeps me away from Kendo for a while due to having homework to finish. I have decided to do whatever I can to practice more though. Realistically, it might be a bit of trouble to bring my Kendo gear with me on the plane for the holidays so I can use that time to do some cross training with my wrist and cardiovascular system. It also wouldn't hurt to view more matches from different levels to see what to do and what not to do and to view my performance. I do have lots of video taken at the tournament, but due to lack of equipment and time to use the resources, I might have to wait until the Thanksgiving holidays to copy it to DVD and edit the video to make it pretty. I was still happy to be there though since I have met new people and put faces to the names of people on the Kendo World forums. It was also nice that my parents had fun although it didn't go as well as they wanted it to. They plan on going to the one next semester (usually in Cleveland). Hopefully I can give them a better performance by then so we'll see.

Before I go, as per a promise to myself to leave with some random stuff, I bought a heel pad which makes stomping a bit easier. My parents also bought me a hat that says Kendo on it. I have been wearing it for the past few days since it's so cold outside and I can leave and eat breakfast and go to class without fixing up my hair. My parents also bought some little Kendo hakata dolls to put around the house.

Well, I've spent long enough on this entry. For pics, if you are on facebook, they are in the pictures section on my account. For those of you that don't have facebook, I'll post a link to my flickr account as soon as I upload them there.

The Big Day is Almost Here!

Today's Kendo practice was the last practice before we all head out to Chicago for the tournament. It just happened that today was the most brutal one yet as it tested our stamina more than anything.

The practice started out very differently as we were able to select the things we wanted to work on for the moment we were with our partners. This was a nice change of pace as I got to do things like dou, hiki-men and harai waza which definately need work. There are some problems with what I was doing, but there really isn't much I can do about it in a mere 2 days. For now, I just take what I have with me and do my best to win.

Now onto the most horrible part. The attacker had to constantly hit men while the receiver counted how many we did. I was definately tired after about 15 or so because I lost breath. But I did make it to 69 if I remember correctly. Of course, I was winded after that round. The practice definately wasn't over yet either since there was more waza practice and jigeiko after that. Trust me, I was totally winded at this point so I had to gather the little remaining strength I had left in me to move that shinai where I wanted to for an effective hit. After that, there was more of the constant attacking except it was with kote-men hits. I felt only slightly better before starting that up, but I was still very tired. My stubborn side did kick in and I did a total of 60 passes before having to catch my breath. After that, practice was over and I finally had time to breathe, lol.

As far as personal reflection, I definately need to take up running or something cause I didn't last as long as I wanted to out there. Sure, I did survive giving and receiving all of those hits, but it would be nice if I could last like the Kendo masters that can last 15 minute fights without showing signs of getting tired (look it up on Youtube, you will see what I mean). I also realize that I can't give up when I am tired. If my body is tired, I need to tell my body to still make those hits as crisp as if I had just started. After all, the judges don't (or shouldn't) give sympathy points. Hopefully, I can work these things out before the next tournament that occurs next semester with some diligent practice. I have decided to at least try 20 minutes of practice alone a day. If I can't do anything Kendo related, then I need to train my mind by watching videos and reading Kendo literature (w00t Musashi no Ken!) and training my body by strengthening up things like my wrist, legs, shoulders and heart. I really hope I can stick with this though cause I really want to kick ass someday.

Before I go, I have something non-Kendo related that I would like to announce. A few days ago, I got a call from Rhino Videogames asking if I wanted to work with them over the summer. I had planned on calling myself within the next few days, but actually getting a call from them has me flattered. While it's no engineering internship, it means more money in my pocket to help avoid the money troubles that I have had over the past few months.

Well, wish me luck for the tournament! I will be wishing the same for all Kendoka who will be attending this tournament or any others in the near future.

Last Night's Practice

Yesterday was another practice in a series of practices before the big MWKF tournament on Saturday.  Because I have been skipping practices due to homework and such for the past few weeks, I thought that it would be very important for me to get whatever extra practice I can get.  Of course, there are many extra things I need to work on, but I don't think I will be able to get the kinks worked out before Saturday.  If I work really hard, then I might be able to improve on them for the next tournament in the Spring, provided I can go to that one.  All I can really do now is work on stuff a bit more to prepare for the exciting day.

Musashi no Ken, etcetra...

This seems like it will be a long entry since I have a lot to say. Well, let's not wait any longer.

A few days ago, I finally got my copies of Musashi no Ken in the mail from Amazon Japan. I have been looking for this manga for over a year and the answer was pretty much under my nose. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the 5th issue in the 10 part series but I have since ordered it and it should come in soon. With the slowness of my Japanese reading, I'll get the remaining manga long before I finish the second one at this rate, lol. I am enjoying the manga a lot though. There is a lot of dialect inflection here but I am getting the gist of what I am reading, which means I have made some sort of progress. I'm trying to increase my kanji knowledge to have an easier time reading manga and video games. I hope to get some more issues of Kaze to Ken which I also found on Amazon Japan, but funds are VERY short right now.

The combination of this manga and my exploits at the dojo for the past few weeks has only made my yearn for improvement increase. First of all, I need to get off of my lazy ass and start swinging that shinai in order to get things started. But I need something more. I want to practice various waza and kata to keep my ground covered. My main problem is that I have a low ceiling so that limits what I can do inside. I could go outside but I'd have to deal with rough ground. As a result, I thought about buying some tabi though I don't know if I should invest in the outdoor variety with the rubber soles or the indoor variety that's softer. I'm looking around for the answer to that, but I'll just deal with the bare feet for now. There is so much that I want to improve on but I feel that two days a week just isn't enough for me. I've never felt this way before, but it feels kind of nice.

The strangest thing happened to me at the dojo last Saturday. I was in jigeiko and I tried to hit kote. I don't remember if I hit it or not but I sure did hit something else! My shinai got lodged in my opponent's men and it launched it off of his head. It's a good thing that he came out okay though. Some blame it on the fact that he didn't tie it on tight enough but it seemed like it was the safest thing to do then since the momentum was all in the men and not transferred to the head and caused whatever damage might have ensued. We were all able to laugh it all off in the end so everything is fine.

As far as jigeiko ability goes, I need to try harder to get my speed and strength up and not make my style predictable. I want to read that jigeiko article by one of the British kendo clubs but I don't remember the name. I can find it though so it isn't that big of an issue.

I guess I should spend this time talking about my Japanese language progress. I have compeleted the last semester of Japanese that I will be taking but I don't want to stop there. I want to learn more vocabulary, but I don't want to look at lists and memorize them. As a result, I am just learining it on the way and learning Kanji compounds.

So far, I know about 300 kanji. I am going through the 3rd grade kanji list now and doing 3 kanji a day and memorizing the compounds of each. We'll see how far this will take me though. I can't wait until I get to the 6th grade ones. I don't know what I would do at that point though.

Training Epiphiny

Not sure if I spelled the word in the title correctly, but that's not the point of this post.

Over the past few days, I guess I have been having some new thoughts on my Kendo. I have known that there were glaring problems with my jigeiko for a while from people telling me and some of my own experiences.

But ever since I started at GKA, I have been having new thoughts on my Kendo. I see my problems to the point where I can see myself improving them for the rest of my life. I guess the compliments of my performance lately really helps.

For example, whenever I strike, it's too slow, not strong enough, not straight enough, not on target and stuff like that. It's not to the point of over analyzation or underconfidence, or at least I don't see it that way. I kinda see it as getting out of a plateau that I didn't know I was at.

Very hot practice

I have completed yet another practice a few hours ago. The most notable thing about it was that it was VERY hot in there. One of my friends walked out of there drenched so you can only imagine how it was with everyone in bogu. I don't remember the last time I sweated so much! It wasn't very physically demanding this time around so it wasn't too bad.

We mainly practiced a lot of waza today. I did tsuki for the second time ever today as well. I am a bit apprehensive to put any strength behind it since I am not too sure of my accuracy. The flap on the men is supposed to protect the throat from injury, but it only protects so much. For the other strikes, I need to try to finish off less "lavishly" for lack of a better term. I tend to raise my shinai high up in the air after a hit which is something that I shouldn't be doing. I have been praised for my corrections so I have an idea on what I need to do.

The practice finished off with some one-point jigeiko. I got the point for hitting men. I have noticed that I am operating a bit quicker, which is just what I want to do. But I need to take my fighing to the next level. Given I have the opening, I know I can hit the targets, but when I am fighting, I need to use harai waza and such to create openings. I need to make sure that I am faster with my hits to get the scores in. I also need to shorten my reaction time to get in a few points. I feel that I am achieving some of this in some degree, but I wouldn't consider myself totally competent in fighting. Heck, I still need to work on the agression, which should come with better endurance.

I need to make use of that suburito of mine and do some swings every day. It's supposed to be used for strength training since the feel of it and a normal shinai are completely different. But the concepts of good tenouchi still carries through. I wonder how good I would be if I did 100 suburi per day? I'll have to do it kneeling or in a horse stance since I am one of the unlucky people to not have a high ceiling.

People have been giving me good comments on my Kendo, which I am happy about. This, along with the constructive critisism during practice, is giving me more confidence in my abilities which is probably what is helping me rise to a higher level of Kendo now. Basically, whatever I am doing in practice is what I should keep on doing forever (with the necessary tweaks of course).

I wonder how good I will be when I go back to Purdue, or the next tournament for that matter. I should be able to go in with more confidence (and hopefully more agression) and get closer to my goal of placing somewhere. I also want to get my ikkyu ASAP. I was totally nervous last time, but I should be okay this time since I know the basic format of the exams.

Well, it's kinda late now so I better be getting to bed. I have a LONG day of work ahead of me!

Manga and Kendo Equipment

Well, I finally decided to make the plunge and get Musashi no Ken manga. I already have the 7th one already but I think that these are reprints so I'm getting the whole set and sell the other one on ebay. I will be missing the 5th one which is retribution for waiting so long, but I might be able to pick up the difference later. The price is pretty steep due to shipping, but this is the only way that I can get it. There are DVDs that I am interested in getting but they are well over $100 for each box set.

On the Kendo equipment side of things, I am thinking of investing in kote guards. It seems like a viable option for someone with boney wrists like mine. Pain might be part of the Kendo process but there is only so much you can take before it gets damaging. I want to do Kendo for the rest of my life and I don't want any kote hits to ruin that process. I could blame it on the kote that I own, but I don't plan on getting a new set until I graduate from college as a graduation gift to myself.

Training with GKA

It's been a week since I started with the Georgia Kendo Alliance. I must say, I am quite happy as it has breathed new life into Kendo for me. I have been training at the same dojo with the same people going over the same routine with the occasional tournament thrown in for good measure. Since I'm here, I'm going over new exercises with new people.

Doing the former isn't bad at all. But sometimes, when your Kendo feels stagnant, you just gotta go for new experiences.

After proving myslef in the beginner's practice, I was allowed to go into the advanced practices and it looks like that is where I will stay. There are a few things that I have to get used to though since things are done a little differently there like name conventions and differences in exercises. So far, I have done kirikaeshi with dou and learned tsuki for the first time.

I really hope that my Kendo reaches new heights because of this. New life has been put into this lovely activity and this should only make me go further in my pursuit to get better.

A few amazing things

There are several things that I would like to talk about, both personal and kendo related.

First things first. My sister finally graduated from the Baylor College of Medicine last Tuesday. There were a lot of people that went to see her cross the stage with her diploma. She is going into dermatology and doing her residency in Houston so she'll be there for a few more years. Another thing to note is that she is the first black person to be admitted to the dermatology residency at Baylor. So not only did she make our family proud, she made history!

Now onto the Kendo. For the past few days, I have been taking out my suburito and done a few swings while sitting and in the horse stance. I need to make sure that I am in tip top shape so I can endure longer for Kendo practices. I also went to my first practice at the Georgia Kendo Alliance. I joined the beginners group to show Arai sensei what I could do. After that, he allowed me to join the advanced class. I am so happy! Now I can continue on with my Kendo and not seem so rusty when I return to Purdue in the fall.

I also met someone off of the Kendo World forums that lives in my area. I finally met him yesterday at Kendo practice. I do hope that we can meet at some off times do practice some Kendo together. The biggest thing getting in the way is the fact that he's married with children so he can't just up and leave.

Georgia Kendo Alliance

I went to the Georgia Kendo Alliance yesterday to ask about training with them for the summer while I'm away from Purdue. I won't be able to join this coming saturday since I will be in Houston, but I should be out and about the following Saturday or so. I hope that things go well in that regard cause I want to start as soon as I can.

Cleveland Tournament

The evening of April 22, 2006 ended yet another Kendo Tournament.

All in all, I could have done MUCH better. I blame it on the fact that I have had to miss practice for several weeks due to classes getting in the way. I went to one of the practices a few days before the tournament and I was about ready to pass out for some reason (I was sick a few days earlier). After the practice, I just simply put it behind me as a bad practice.

At the tournament, I was exhausted within seconds of my match starting. I tried to get hits in but the guy I was against was very aggressive and I just couldn't get strong hits in. I won my first match due to hantei and I lost my second match due to being too slow. I have a few months before the next scheduled tournament so I shall do what I can to find a way to combat aggressive people and increase my endurance so I can last longer than 10 seconds of my matches.

Ever since I have been to a tournament, I have told myself that I was going to by some random Kendo stuff. Well, I finally kept up with my word. I bought a tiny Kendo keychain and a kendo figurine in Jodan no Kamae. I wanted to buy the tiny shinai novelty item, but they ran out before I was ready to take the third plunge. Now I am officially happy. I may buy some more stuff at other tournaments, but I can't be for certain.

The tournament lasted a LOT longer than we had expected. Due to it being in a different area, there were 4 arenas instead of 6. This made the tournament longer, thus with a lot of downtime. It didn't end till about 10 or 10:30 and we had a long drive ahead of us. Google maps told us that it would take 7 hours, but it took us a little over 5 to get there.

All in all, it was an okay tournament. There was a lot of downtime in between so things got a little dull for everyone. By time the team matches were up, we were all tired. Aside from that, everyone, participant and spectator, came out with something positive (though now I am out $11.50 for the stuff I bought.

Kendo Update

Don't worry, I'm still alive.

Kendo has been in full swing (no pun intended) this semester. It's been great except for the fact that I have to keep missing practice due to either a last-minute group meeting or too much homework that night. I feel like I haven't improved much and I don't have too many opportunities to improve because of this. The good news is that I just found out that some members are getting together every Monday and Wednesday for a little extra practice on what we think we should work on. I couldn't make it to today's meeting because of a group meeting that didn't happen, but I do have plans on attending Wednesday's practice to make up for missing Thursday's test for an Aircraft Structrues exam that evening.

Kendo, School, Website

Kendo has finally started up again. I missed the first two practices though due to communication errors. Usually, we are sent an email for when the classes start, but didn't get them. I looked at the website and saw the schedule so I knew that I already missed a class. The second one I missed was because I was not feeling too well. I have no idea what it was, but I just felt like crap for 2 days.

The practice that I went to wasn't really a practice at all. It was the callout and I just went to go help out. I did have the task of showing suburi along with all the members of the club, doing a match, and talking about the tournament aspect of Kendo. It was kind of a sudden thing, so I didn't really perform as well as I should have. The explanation for the tournaments was horribly short, though I did do the job. There really isn't much to be expected of me if I have to come up with something on the fly like that. I should read more Kendo literature about tournaments just to make sure that I know EVERYTHING that is going on when I am there and what the signals the judges are giving mean.

I am not sure if this is a problem for most people, but I seemed to gravitate towards my opponent in jigeiko to get into constant taiatari. It seemed like watching a bad movie at the theater. You want to stop watching it, but you paid the money to see it so you stay and weather the repeated tourment. I was a little more agressive, but not to the point that I want to be.

I do need to go do some cross training ASAP so I can survive training and be able to perform well in the matches for the upcoming tournament. We'll see how my studies go and such, and my roomate and I have plans (yeah, right) about going to the co-rec together as motivation for getting some exercise. For now, I am riding my bike more so at least I am not just sitting around doing nothing.

On the academic side of things, I am doing a better job at keeping up with my schoolwork this time around. I am doing homework early and making sure that I don't have to do any horrible all-nighters and understanding the material by reading the book. It's a lot tougher than I thought to do this since I am taking 17 credit hours and 13 of them are all engineering/math courses.

I am also working on my website which I invite you to visit on the sidebar. It isn't much...at all. My limited CSS and HTML knowledge prevents me from making a stellar page, but I am working on that too. Maybe if I have time around summer, I can get a professional-looking page up. For now, everyone will have to deal with the yellow background/black text thing unless I decide to change it for fun.

New Happenings

Just posting several updates to my life situation.

-My mom was laid off from work last week. She has been trying really hard to find a job years ago after she didn't like the place and felt that she was going to be laid off, yet no offers have come by. I really hope that something comes through in the next few weeks or there will be some big strains.

-Kendo hasn't started up yet, but I did set the dye. I plan on trying it on again since it should be dry after sitting in air for several days. I can't wait for practice to start up again. I really want to earn the fact that I got this new equipment!

-I just got back from a fighting game party today. There was Capcom vs. SNK 2, Guilty Gear XX, Tekken 5, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and some Street Fighter Anneversary Collection going on there. At about 11:30 some of us left to go to the bars. I got wasted yet again, but I kept my limits since I want to remember the previous night the next morning.

Back to the grind

Tomorrow, I leave the great weather of Georgia to go back to the cold weather of Indiana. More homework, more studying but most of all, more Kendo!

I do have an idea on things I can do to improve. I want to make sure that I am competetive for the next tournament in Cleveland (if I can go) and totally ready for the test.

First of all, I need to make more frequent visits to the co-rec. I am pretty sure if I run for 15 minutes or so (might just make it a mile to a mile and a half) and lift weights, I should be able to actually last in jigeiko and kakarigeiko no problem by the end of the semester. I do have plans on building a little muscle mass. I am 5'7" and 125 lbs and I would like to add a little muscle mass to it. I don't want to do too much or my kendo might suffer per what the nice folks at Kendo World has said.

There are some things technique wise that I would like to work more on. There is the hikiwaza that I want to work on. It's really hard because you have to stomp hit and kiai at the same time while moving away. The footwork is pretty hard to deal with but it's something that is extrememly necessary. I also need to work more on the do strikes. For some reason, we haven't worked too much on that particular strike and that is the one I need the most work on, clearly. But after the last tournament, we should have some more varied practices that might improve on the quality of instruction. I also need to work on keeping my back straight. It's especially the case when I go to do a hit or go backwards as a result of a hiki-waza. It's really hard to break a bad habit, but the only way that I can solve this problem is to keep that in mind as I am practicing waza. I can do it with jigeiko as well, but it would be hard.

On the kata side of things, I need to just keep doing them. For now, I can memorize the movements but I need a plan beyond that. The only way to do that is to research the meaning of each kata and clean up some technical problems along the way. I also need to learn to loosen up. Even I can feel the stiffness in my body as I carry out each kata. It might be just the fear of losing control so I stay stiff to keep my bokken from making extra movements, but it just impedes it more than it should help.

For the informational side of things, I would like to do some research on Kendo history, names, techniques, and shiai rules so I know exactly what is going on in Kendo and will be able to spout out the information to whoever wants to know it.

I got my #8000 hakama and whicking layer keikogi and suburito in the mail and it's sitting in my dorm now. I can't wait to try them on to see if they fit and use them in hard practice. For my other set, I might just sell them on ebay or to a fellow Kendo World member since I only need one set really.

For some reason, buying the new equipment makes me feel non-worthy since I don't think that my abilities don't fit with the quality of the stuff I have. The bujin bogu bag plus the equipment that I have now seems like something that someone of a more advanced or better nature would have. All I can do now is earn them by improving a great deal by improving on the things stated above as well as some smaller things that might have not popped in my head just yet.

I'm still here!

I'm just letting ya know that I am still here. I just haven't had the time to type up new posts until recently.

I have had a hell of a time though. The final project for my Aircraft design class was hell up to the final minute and it's still hell wondering what grade I got. We have done all that we could in the limited time that we have, but our plane costed $9.7 Trillion and weighed 5 million pounds. Something went wrong with the calculations, and everything was correct.

On the Kendo side of things, I had to miss the last few practices due to the final project. I need to do something Kendoey or I will end up pretty rusty by time I get back to Purdue next month. I did just buy a suburito and a keikogi and hakama since I wanted to take advantage of the sale that E-bogu is having now. I'll let you guys know how it feels and stuff later since this will be my first cotton hakama and my keikogi is the special whicking layer one.

On a final note, I have decided to try better to build up my website. What I have now is nothing, and I want to get more game reviews and kendo stuff up ASAP. If you have any ideas, then let me know.