Because one of the busiest tournament seasons is now over, I finally got to join my long waited, long wanted kendo club yesterday.
Feelings are through the roof and into the cosmos! !!
I'm going to have practices every day after classes till about 6~7 o'clock in the evening.
I have already attended 2 lessons and I must say kendo is bloody difficult! Which makes it triple the fun! Behold my kendo smiley! \o(^u^)"
Everybody (except me of course) is wearing the traditional helmet and hakama too. It looks So. Damn. AWESOME. Really smells like Edo spirit.
I have held a sword before (fencing) but the feeling is totally different. Also, kendo uses totally different muscles for handling the sword than fencing, which has already taken a tad bit of a toll on me. Ahhh, I could go on and on with this talk, because kendo really was the club I wanted to join from the very beginning of my exchange year in Akita. I just can't express my happiness in pixels! ^^ Fuaa~~
Oh! There's one more thing I realised during practice.
The racket. Listening to everybody's screaming the necessary 'kiai' type of yell, I really have no doubt where Tolkien got his Nazguls from. I find it mind-blowingly interesting. Ho hum.
As I mentioned - the tournament.
There is a huge annual sports festival called Inter-high (インターハイ) in which every prefecture is represented by the best of the best high school sports(wo)men, starting from baseball and ending with swimming and more.
This year, Kita High really gave its all. In the prefectural tournament, many sport clubs got the first place in both individual as well as team games and all of the clubs were in the Top 10 at least. There are about 4 teams and over 8 individuals going to Inter-High and many more going to the Touhoku region's contest.
This year's IH by the way is held in Okinawa in August! It will be hell for those playing outside, don't you think? (Yakihito - because we aren't chicken.)
One delightful thing is that most of the IH participants of Akita are from our school, which is a first in school history. I'm really happy and excited for everyone and rooting for them from the bottom of my heart and soul. oOo"
But there are always smaller kendo face-offs in between the tournaments too.
For example tomorrow.
I'm going as well, but just to cheer on and help my friends. And of course learn from their techniques. :)
Who knows, I might continue kendo back home too. But for now, the future stays unclear.
I better make a choice soon. Not just on sports, but my future overall, so... we shall see. :) Better to be sure than uncertain, right?
PS I found out that they DO have quite a long summer vacation here. It's 1 month long, from the second part of July till the end of August. Lucky, lucky, I'm so happy!
PSS SUMMER'S HERE AT LAST! We have around 25 degrees everyday, but soon the rainy season will begin. Oh well. Enjoy it, people, whilst you still can!
How is it over there anyway? Warm inside your hearts or outside too?
As always, lots of love and thanks from far away!
