Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

Seems like a while since I've posted on here, even though it really hasn't been that long.  But there's been quite a bit going on in the world of Spokane Kendo.  First off, we had our annual Spokane Kendo Camp last weekend (yay!).  This year we had about twice as many people come out for the weekend, or just for training, and even a few people from the Seattle, WA and Moscow, ID areas.  Good times were had by all and our game of War this year turned into a 3-round battle of battles.  Unfortunately I was only able to make it out for Saturday but I spent the whole day with my Kendo family and had a wonderful time.  Also in Spokane news, on a sad note, our Valley dojo is closing.  Word is that it may resume in the future, but for now the doors will be closed indefinitely.  We had a good run, and learned a lot, but unfortunately life happens and it doesn't always happen the way we want it to, so we're forced to do the best we can with what we have....

Last night marked the return of our members that competed at the AUSKF National Championships, which are held every three years.  This year we had five guys from Spokane that went and competed. Results can be found here , butt they definitely don't tell the whole story.  I heard that our guys, and PNKF as a whole, fought with a lot of energy and courage, and definitely turned some heads and made people take notice.  I'm proud to be a part of such a strong area and I plan on doing everything I can to make it to the next championship tournament, in 2014. The energy was high in the dojo, and I think everyone could tell.  The team guys were on fire and were getting everyone else pumped up during practice, and I really felt the Kendo bar raise last night.  After warm-ups we worked a bit on Kote, specifically on striking on different "planes."  Instead of striking Kote by coming straight up and down and moving our bodies into position, we worked on stepping str...

Hey hey everyone!  We had our PNKF summer shinsa this past weekend, and if I had one word to  describe it all it would be "prepared."  Not only myself but all of our guys that went to test.  We had quite a few people in tow on this trip, since the PNKF team members went for their final team training and to head out today for Atlanta and the AUSKF Championships this weekend.  But only five of us were testing; three for Nidan, one for Sankyu, and myself for Ikkyu. We left on Friday, but due to work and other things we left late in the afternoon so we didn't get into Seattle and our home for the night until late, around 10pm.  Which meant no training for us on Friday night.  But the good thing was that it meant we would all be fresh for the shinsa the next morning.  The team guys left early for their last training, and a couple of us relaxed and prepared before going and arriving around 10:30am to get dressed and ready.  We all signed in, and ...

If all goes well this weekend, last night was my last night as a Nikyu.  We head over to Seattle tomorrow and have our shinsa on Saturday, and then I'll have time to show the judges that I deserve to rank up to Ikkyu.  I'm excited for this opportunity, I've been training for it since the last shinsa in February, and I feel confident that I'll do well.  Sensei definitely knows each of our strengths and weaknesses, and what we're ready for, and he wouldn't recommend me for it if he didn't have the confidence that I'll make it.  For that I'm super grateful, and for everything that he and the rest of my Kendo family has done for me to prepare me for this weekend.  Ando Sensei put it into interesting terms for me.  He said that it's like  I made a deposit at a bank.  I gave them something that was mine, it is mine, and now I'm just going to take that deposit back.  It's always been mine, but now is the time to go collect it.  After our kata...