Stumbling Through Summer

It’s really starting to heat up now as summer slowly sinks in. The combination of heat and humidity are a kendo killer, especially for someone who is used to Vancouver’s relatively mild seasons. Summers in Vancouver rarely get above 32 degrees, yet here at summer’s height, it can push up to nearly 40 degrees, plus a choking 60-70% humidity. I remember practices from last summer like a distant nightmare that’s recurring again now. I’m trying to increase my stamina in the summer heat by pushing myself up Tanukidani’s 250 stairs in the morning, but morning temperatures are no where near as hot as it can get in the afternoon/evening, and can’t compare to being in a small, stuffy dojo wearing a full set of bogu. Sports drinks, water and salty candies are becoming a necessary part of my bogu bag.

I was definitely slowed down at practice today. Ironically, after the first warm up, putting on my men is one of the best feelings of practice, because it’s still cool on the inside before it’s been used. That feeling doesn’t last long.

Kata, at least felt rather good today. One of the reasons I like testing season is that it gives everyone a good reason to step up kata training. I love practicing kata. I love acting out the interplay between student and teacher and the ability to take the time to think about the technique, to sync breathing and movements with ones partner is something that I think is overlooked a lot when people are practicing kata. The point of kata is to reinforce the purpose and form behind the waza we perform in kendo. I also really love how beautiful kata is, when it’s performed between two people who have a good rhythm together.

Unfortunately, my poor balance is still one of the things that trips me up in kata, as well as the tendency of my feet to stick to the dojo floor when I’m trying to glide my steps forward. There’s nothing more jarring that being completely in the moment, eyes locked on your partner’s matching his motions step for step, anticipating the counter strike and then suddenly sticking to the ground and tumbling forward. Especially when you have an audience watching you practice. I’m sure it looks hilarious.

Losing Confidence

Argh! This summer heat is probably the most frustrating thing I’ve ever had to deal with in the entire 5 years I’ve practiced kendo. I’d just started to reach a level of comfort and confidence in my kendo ability that is incredibly needed just weeks before my exam and suddenly I can’t even lift my arms in a damn drill practice!! What happened?! It’s like the heat adds 10lb weights to my elbows or something! It’s very discouraging to feel everything that was last week working fine, suddenly be completely broken. I really, really hope I can fix this before the test.

Gaining Confidence

Practice tonight went quite well. I’m starting to feel a bit more confident about the shiai portion of my test, which is good, since the shiai portion is always the portion that I worry about the most. The written portion I’m fairly confident with; as long as I’m diligent in studying, answering the questions, even in Japanese isn’t very difficult.

Kata as well I’m usually not too worried about. When I study kata, I study it very seriously. Koyama-san is a great kata teacher. He explains each form point by point in terms of what is considered a high level focus or a lower level focus. He also explains things patiently and humorously, which makes learning under him very enjoyable. Further, when practicing with Koyama-san, he is very serious, and completely in the moment, which makes it easy to fallow suit. Subsequently, being graded in kata doesn’t bother me very much.

The shiai portion of the test, however, causes me a lot of stress. I’m not a person of incredible stamina for one, so matches that last a long time can be difficult. Further, my performance in any shiai type match can never be accurately predicted. What feels great one day can, the next day be in complete shambles. I can never tell, one day to the next whether my kendo is going to be great or mediocre. As well, who exactly I’m fighting is a big portion of how I will perform as well.

The nice thing about grading in Japan, however, is that the pool of eligible participants is so high that you are almost certain to be matched with some one of the same gender and similar age, as well as same rank.

I had a bit of a running commentary going during my last keiko today. People were watching and commenting among themselves, which is great, because they can tell me if I’m doing something wrong later. They didn’t seem to have any criticisms though.

I’ll keep studying for the written portion of the test tonight. Cramming all this into my brain makes my eyes hurt, but it’s great for use outside of kendo too. I’m learning a lot more kanji and phrases which I’ll be able to use in day to day life.

On Studying Kata

The final question on the ni-dan test is going to kill me. The answers are incredibly long, and many of them are similar to each other. I hope I don’t confuse them during the test if they include it.

３）日本剣道形を実施するときの『足さばき』で気をつけることを書きなさい。

−足さばきは、すべて『すり足』で行い、踏み込み足は使わない。重心を上下動させず、滑らかに行うことが大切である。

−足の運びは、原則として前進するときは前足から、後退するときは後ろ足から動作を起こす。

−足のさばきは、原則として一方の足に他方の足が伴う。特に打突時の後ろ足は残さずに、前足に 伴って引き付ける。

3) What should you be conscious of in regard to footwork in Japan kendo kata?

- All footwork should be “suriashi” (gliding) and you should not use “fumikomi” (stomping). Keep your balance and don’t bob up and down.

- Generally, when moving forward, start with your front foot and when retreating, start with your back foot.

- As far as footwork, one foot basically leads the other. Especially when performing a thrust or a strike at your opponent.

Must keep studying hard! Unfortunately I still haven’t been sleeping very well. It’s a symptom of pushing myself very hard with the knowledge of a rapidly approaching deadline. Oh stress, how you mess up my life.

It's nice to see a kata question on the test, though. Kata is one of my favorite parts of kendo. I know a lot of people find it to be boring, but if you have a good partner to practice with, someone who can really get into it, it's really exciting. It's re-enacting a teacher and student re-enacting battle techniques. Also, having the time to carefully consider and execute movements makes kata a lot more refined to me. When you take the time to really try to do every motion with the perfect rhythm, the perfect distance, the perfect timing, smoothness of motion and breathing, kata actually seems harder than kendo in many ways. The fact that there are many very good kata teachers in Japan makes it even more fun to practice it here.

On the Finer Points of Kirikaeshi

I’ve just finished memorizing the second question and its set of answers for the test. I’m moving right along on schedule now. I have another week to memorize the final question and answer sent and then I’ll use the final week before the test to completely solidify them all in my brain by random, repeated self testing. As long as I can remember all these new kanji, I should be all right to remember the sentence structure.

2) ｢切り返しで気をつけること｣を五つ以上書きなさい。

- 立合いの間合いでは姿勢、構え竹刀の握り方などを正しくする。

−初心の段階では動作を大きくに正たしかに行う。

−肩の余分な力を抜いて柔軟に左右均等に打つ。

−連続左右面打ちの角度を４５度ぐらいにする。

−左こぶしは常に正中線上にある。

2) Please write at least 5 things you should be aware of when doing kirikaeshi.

- Keep your posture correct and make sure that the distance between you and your opponent is suitable.

- All movements should be large motion.

- Keep your shoulders relaxed and strike your opponent’s men evenly and with flexibility to the left and right continuously.

- Strike the men left and right at roughly a 45 degree angle.

- Make sure to always keep your left fist in the center.

Kirikaeshi at Fuchou is different from doing standard kirikaeshi. Itou Sensei has us do sayu-men from one end of the gym to the other, sometimes twice. It confused me so much the first time we did it because I'm so used to the four-five rhythm in standard kirikaeshi and the partitioning of breaths needed to keep the whole thing running smoothly (and correctly).

Luckilly, the above points that I'm studying I already knew about kirikaeshi so if I can remember what the words mean in Japanese, I should have no difficulty with this question.

Sick Break

The ni-dan test is only 3 weeks away, and my carefully laid out training and studying routine has been derailed! Of course, it’s hard to plan for things that just come up in life, things you can’t help, things like getting sick a week after you begin serious training.

From experience, colds quickly turn nasty in my body if I try to gamansuru – to continue to push myself despite being sick. I've had bronchitis dog me since childhood, and it doesn’t take much in Japan for a simple cold to go straight to my lungs and cause me all sorts of problems. Last year, after my shodan test, I came down with bronchitis so hard, I was out of practice for almost two months.

With this in mind, when I got sick two weeks ago, I stopped all my training immediately, and spent most of my time in bed. It was frustrating, though, knowing I didn’t have the time to be laying around when I should be training for my test, but what can you do?

Almost immediately after my cold had finished, insomnia came back. Can't a kendo-ka catch a break? I blame the heat, like I do with most grievances in the summer. At least I didn't get worse.

So my training and studying took a two week hit! I was pretty stressed out this week, for sure, but I’m getting back into my training routine with three weeks left to go.

I’m practicing three times a week at the moment, and taking it slow when I feel sick. My nose has a habit of draining back, instead of out, which restricts how much I can breathe. In some ways, it’s a useful breathing exercise, forcing my to breathe slow and deep from my stomach, and not quick and sharp from my chest, but it also tends to make me a little over cautious.

It’s difficult finding the balance sometimes. When I go to practice, I always know that I want to be there, I want to have fun, I want to learn and I want to try, and the times when the body just isn’t feeling it, for whatever reason be it exhaustion or stress, or illness, it’s hard to determine the line between just enough and too much, especially when it’s coupled with the frustration of knowing what I can do when I’m feeling my best.

The important thing though, is to keep trying, little by little, which has been the motto of my time practicing in Japan. The people I’ve met here, the teachers all seem to espouse this. Little by little we’ll succeed together. I think this is what has made me enjoy kendo so much in Japan.

Zombie Kendo

The current stress of work and the upcoming exam are keeping me awake at night. Having an overactive mind unfortunately makes me prone to insomnia, which only adds to the stress that started it. 悪循環.It’s a vicious cycle.

However, this lack of sleep seems to have had an added bonus to my kendo though. Being so utterly exhausted from lack of sleep, studying, and a long day at work, I find that my timing in practice as improved. My brain is so tired that it doesn’t take the time to think about performing a strike or a counter strike, it simply moves my body at the first sign of motion from my opponent. Maybe this is what having an empty mind feels like, though it's a lot harder to turn off all those thoughts when I'm fully awake.

It reminds me of something a friend told me way back when I first started kendo: “When you’re exhausted, that’s when real kendo starts.” To some extent this is true. When you get to the point that you react on muscle memory and instinct alone, then you’re getting somewhere in kendo. This state is easier to fall into when you’re so tired you can barely remember your own name.

I think I’ll take my boss’ advice tonight and have a bit of alcohol before bed to help me sleep. Itou Sensei’s ume-shu is some of the best ume-shu I’ve ever had, and strong enough to punch me out without any difficulty.

おやすみ！

Round 1 Complete

I’ve memorized the first question and answer set for the exam! That actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I’ll have plenty of time to get through all of this. No sweat! I was really getting worried for a while, with how late the questions were coming out. I seem to remember having a lot more time to study for the shodan test, but maybe that’s just my memory playing tricks on me. In any case, here’s the first question:

｢基本打突や技の練習で注意すること｣を３以上書きなさい。

- 正しい姿勢で気力を充実させ互いの攻め合いから打突する。

−適切な間会をとって確実に気剣体一致の有効打突となるようにする。

−打突後は身構え、気構えなどの残心をとり、次の打突に構えする。

1) Please write at least three things you should be aware of when performing the fundamental strike and thrust techniques.

- Attack after pressuring your opponent with high spirit and correct posture.

- Create an opportunity and strike your opponent boldly, from the appropriate distance.

- Try to strike with certainty, combining body, spirit and sword, and always hit with high energy.

Since these three points are on the written portion of the test, I'll be working on strengthening them in the up coming practices as well. There are so many little things that you can do to improve kendo. It's not always about jumping over the biggest mountain the fastest.

Palm Sized Kendo

I should be studying, but I've already been studying for almost two hours. I needed a break so, I made a little kendo-ka out of children’s modeling clay! Here he is observing my messy kanji with all of its spelling mistakes. I’m sure he’s shaking his head and tsking at me in his men. He’s super cute!He'll be my inspiration now, whenever my motivation for studying starts to lag.

There's a lot of new kanji for me to learn again. I forgot a bunch of them since my last test, but it's to be expected. The ones I did remember though, were the ones that I was able to use in every day life, particularity when I'm teaching. 

Studying for the written exam in Japanese has helped me understand the instruction in practice more, though I guess that's natural. Though fluency in the language is still a long way off, studying kendo concepts in Japanese is helping little by little. I hope to remember more of these kanji after the test is over, but for now, just putting them into my head is daunting enough.