So I've joined Melly and Kane for Kendo on Saturdays. The group is truly amazing. It takes place off of Cedar Ave in an old bowling alley that's been redesigned for Fencing/Kendo. The wooden floors are very useful in learning our techniques, and the group is (at least for those who come to Sat classes) about 16 people, 8 of whom are graduated enough to be in bogu (the sparring armor), another 2 who are least in kendogi, and then 6 (of whom I am a part) in street exercise clothes. Our sensei is a gentleman who's been involved with Kendo as a sensei for 25 years. The group itself receives visits at least once a month from Kendo teachers from Japan, and we have two that live in Minnesota and are involved with us.

I'm going to ask sensei next Saturday about it, but the group also convenes on Wednesdays and Fridays (Though these are mostly our senpais, he did mention that we beginners could come and receive instruction (our senpais are usually the ones who teach us, with oversight by sensei))

Anyways, we're pretty excited by the idea because Melly (the only one of us in Kendogi status) is about to buy his bogu, and once we catch up to him, we can literally spar in any large-enough flat surface, indoors or out.

I'm impressed how well our group follows tradition, as well. Our sensei is very firm and he's the kind of man who'll poke fun at you if you're doing something wrong, but you know the way he's saying it he wants to see you improve. When the guy teaching our n00b group of 3 wasn't doing a very good job, sensei came over to us and pushed me back EASILY with one push of his arm on my collarbone. "Matt (not our Melly) do you think he'll be able to effectively defend with a stance like this? C'mon now, you know better than this. Let's teach them right the first time so they don't have to relearn it. Osu?" "Hai, sensei" (We learn to do what he's telling us in Japanese (He's not Japanese, but spent a great deal of time there, enough to be fluent in the language))

Later on we were taught by one of sensei's favorite students, a lady who was maybe 35-45 yo. She was in full-on bogu, however, including face mask. The sport of kendo is very interesting because you learn kiais and ways of order and discipline. With her face mask on (a metal-ribbed faceplate, google the bogu to see it) she could just as well be a man, and she knew how to give orders like any trained commander. Anyways, I liked her instruction because it felt like she really gave it her all, and wouldn't let up on us if we were doing it wrong (And believe me, doing the SAME slide right foot forward, bring left foot up as you chop and shout a hearty "MEN! (lolheadstrike)" for almost 3 hours, until you are sweating like crazy with blisters on your hands and feet leaves a lot of room for error)

I am absolutely staying with this sport. From the ritual bows at the end to our sensei, and then to the "dojo"'s head, to the staying in a traditional seated pose while he sums up how our practice went, as a shogun would have addressed his underlings. From literally working your ass off cleaning the floor tengu style (you get one tiny damp mop, as do your peers. You line up one after each other and eventually clean the entire floor by running from one side of the room to the other), to the dedicated practicing and bettering yourself. This is kendo, and I can do this.