Well, my brother was the one who started it -- me playing kendo, that is. Before he told me what it was, I thought it was some type of kung-fu, but it's actually a type of Japanese sword fighting -- comparable to Western fencing. At first, I thought it was going to be painful, but it ended up being relaxing, and a good way to release your anger.
Kendo requires discipline. It's not savage sword smacking, but it's more disciplined, and requires concentration (which I have yet to achieve). My brother taught me the hard way, that if you didn't concentrate, you could be smacked or pushed around by your opponent. You have to concentrate so the shinai (the bamboo sword) goes down in a straight path, and to make sure you're not slicing at the other opponent. The footwork is hard, because you have to make sure your left leg does all the work, and your right leg is just there to balance you.
Below, you can see my brother all dressed up in his $1000 kendo gear (... goodbye money
). At first, my mom and I started cracking up when we saw him getting all geared up, because it looked like a dress, but then... he put on the mask! I'm proud to say that my brother is a samurai. ;) He's on the
UCSD Kendo Team which is apparently 1st place in all the colleges in the United States. This week, we're going to find a good dojo where I can go to take classes (I already found one, but my brother told me to wait until he came back to sign up). I went there to check it out, and man, it was like watching
The Karate Kid. The sensei looked so much like Mr. Miyagi, it was uncanny.
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