It's that time of year again! Time for the Rose City Taikai, hosted by the Obukan Kendo Club in Portland, Oregon. Our dojo took some very excited members down this year and participated in the kendo fun this past weekend. As I've mentioned before, this is always a special trip for me. It was the first taikai I'd ever participated in, so I always use it as a watermark to see how far I've come since the last year. It's also a great extended trip with my friends and dojo mates. This year we were only able to take five competitors, due to work or school or personal schedule conflicts, but I believe that the five of us showed strong kendo all weekend. We started the trip early on Friday morning, departing from our home here in Spokane and made a ton of new memories in the AC-deficient kendo van (yes, the AC was out in the van, but that didn't kill our spirit!). We made the long drive down to Portland and arrived in time for training with o
One man's Kendo journey