I finally got my kendo uniform the following week and Miwa sensei gave me a brand new kendo stick to use so I make sure I take care of it. I really enjoy Kendo Club because I get to learn along with the students but because my Japanese is so limited, I'm usually following what the students do. Miwa sensei is great and has me lead many of the skills and treats me as a teacher as well as a student. It's not often that I would allow a student to take a stick and try to strike me in the head with it. Luckily, Miwas sensei showed me how to block it so I'm able to practice with a few students.
Today, during the fourth grade club, Miwa sensei told me we were going to teach the students something new and asked if I knew what a "Katana" was and I told him no. He had something wrapped in cloth and you could tell it was old. He unwrapped it and there were two sheaths. He took one and grabbed the handle and...he pulled out an amazing shiny sword. I thought to myself, "You've got to be kidding me!" I had visions of my head rolling on the ground but instead he handed it to me and wanted to see how I handled it. I felt like Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai" and just stood there with this amazing sword in my hand. I asked him how old it was and he told me that it was over 200 years old.
It was so cool because after he let me hold it, he took it to each student and had them hold it with supervision of course. Miwa sensei went down the line and as each student held it, you could tell they were in awe and it is something that they will always remember. He then opened a practice sword that wasn't as sharp and let each of us practice our skills using the sword instead of the bamboo stick.
What an awesome day!
¥¥¥Januck¥¥¥
Miwa sensei took this picture of me with the sword!
My amazing teacher, Miwa sensei!
The 200 year old sword out of its sheath.
OH MY GAWD! That Katana is really freaking A-MAY-ZAAAAAH! I hope you are having a great time there in Japan!
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