The Kendo room floor is to be sanded and refinished on Monday, April 2nd, to Thursday, April 5.

It will take 3-5 days, so Monday and Wednesday classes are cancelled.

Kendo classes will be held as usual on Saturday.

Hi everyone,

Hi everyone,

Here’s a tentative schedule of local and not-so-local tournaments for the next 6 months or so.

Detroit Tournament: February 17-18, Saturday/Sunday (can enter this one into our club calendar for future events as taking place third weekend on February)

Cleveland Tournament: April 14, Saturday

Vancouver Tournament: April 28, Saturday

Ontario Junior Tournament: May 27, Sunday

UofT Senior Tournament: some time in June on a Saturday

University of Waterloo Anniversary Tournament: July 21, Saturday

Hopefully there will be a Quebec Open taking place May/June. The Canadian National Iaido Championships will be taking place here in Ottawa in July so it will be a good chance to see some high level iai.

Cheers,

Katherine

Michael Attard and several others from Tateyama Kendo Club wil be visiting us next Wednesday, February 21. Please come out if you can and help provide a warm welcome to our neighbours. Going out to the Royal Oak after practise is an option and should not preclude our usual beer night on the 28th.

Katherine

Hi everyone,

Ryan from the adult class sent me some information regarding an upcoming seminar in Kingston that you may be interested in attending. It takes place on Saturday, March 10. It’s a combined all-day seminar for iaido, jodo and kendo and will be attended by Kim Taylor (6th Dan Renshi-iaido, 4th Dan-jodo), Stephen Cruise (6th Dan Renshi-iaido, 5th Dan-kendo) and Goyo Ohmi (7th Dan Renshi-iaido, 6th Dan-kendo), with the possible addition of Matthew Raymond (5th Dan-kendo, Nito practitioner and Team Canada member). The amount of time dedicated to each discipline will depend on how many people sign up for each type. I haven’t received a lot of information so far but I think this should be open to bogu folks 12 and up as the Yoshida-sensei visit worked out pretty well with a few younger members participating.

Kim Taylor, Sei Do Kai (University of Guelph) http://www.uoguelph.ca/%7Eiaido/iai.kim.html

Stephen Cruise, Etobicoke http://www.etobicokekendoiaido.com/instructors.shtml

Goyo Ohmi, JCCC http://www.jccciaido.com/

Matthew Raymond, U of T http://www.uoftkendo.com/club.html

Please let me know if you would be interested in attending and which discipline you would like to sign up for (can be any or all of: iaido, kendo or jodo). I think you’ll be at least allowed to watch the other disciplines if you choose not to participate and there’s no extra charge for attending more than 1 type. I have a bokken with saya and sageo that someone can borrow if they want to try iaido. Cost of the seminar is $30 and includes lunch. I haven’t received any information regarding a deadline to get a combined list of all interested members from our club sent to the organizers so I’ll make up an arbitrary one to get people going. Please let me know if you will be attending and what discipline(s) you’re interested in by Monday, February 19.

Katherine

PS Thanks, Ryan!

Hi everyone,

If you haven’t been on TV before, here’s your chance. This email contains all the information I have for the upcoming TV shoot at the Takahashi School of Martial Arts. All kendo members from both the adult and children’s classes are invited to participate. The footage taken will be part of a 3 or 4 segment (each segment is 3-4 minutes) for a new afternoon show called "Living In Ottawa." This new show is a series of fun, imformative pieces about people and places in the Ottawa that are worth acknowledging for their commitment to better living. Most of the shoot will concern the judo class upstairs but the show’s producer has specifically asked to get footage of kendo, which I think a lot of people would be more than happy to help out with. Please be ready to start at 7pm. We won’t know the exact time that the camera crew will move downstairs from the judo class, so please make arrangements to be ready to do kendo between 7 and 8pm. As filming takes time and can be unpredictable, it may run a bit later so be prepared. Mike-sensei will be there at 6:30pm and I will be there by 6:45pm. The camera crew doesn’t arrive until 6pm and they’ll need time to set up. If you think you will be available, please let me know. We need at least two people but the more the merrier.

Here’s Mike-sensei’s schedule for the kendo demonstration:

1) Seiretsu and seiza

2) Kukan Datotsu (warmup) consists of shomen uchi from a starting point: shomen (one step forward and back), shomen (one step side to side), shomen (two steps foward, two right, two back, two left). We went over this in the children’s class last week and there’s a variation of this in the adult class. Mike-sensei will go over this before the official demonstration starts.

3) Everyone in bogu put on men. One adult will be chosen to put on men directly in front of the camera.

4) Juniors will perform the following on the adult kendoka 2 times: big men, big kote, big dou.

5) Adult sparring (tournament style or jikeiko) and possibly children too

6) Kata 1-7 performed by Mike-sensei and Satoshi Kondo

7) Seiretsu and seiza

8) All juniors do the ichi! ni! san! declaration

9) Rei and finish

Ok, I think that’s it. Please let me know if you can make it!

Katherine

Tak Yoshida from JCCC was kind enough to visit us on Wednesday, January 24 and give us a few pointers.  Mike and Dave from Tateyama also came to practise with us and it was a pretty busy keiko with over 12 people in bogu!

Photos can be seen here:

http://www.takahashi-dojo.com/kendo/photo.html

Katherine

Tak Yoshida (5th Dan) will be visiting us from JCCC, courtesy of Mike Arai.  Adults and children with bogu (12 and up) are invited to attend.  There will be some folks from Tateyama attending as well, so it should be an excellent learning opportunity for everyone.

Thanks to Mike-sensei for putting this together!

Katherine

On January 3, Hugo Renaud (4th Dan and head of the adult kendo class) will be leaving for Tokyo for three months to train in preparation for his 5th dan exam next year.  Adult kendo classes will continue as per usual.

Mike Arai is arranging a lunch party for Huey on the 17th at Du Barry’s at the corner of River Rd. and Montreal Rd.  Please contact Mike at Suisha Gardens if you would like to attend.

Katherine

Hi everyone,