First REAL bogu practice

I'm starting to understand why Abul said that many people quit after getting their first bogu. Back then, I simply couldn't get the point. I mean, I have waited for so long to train in bogu; it's one of my life's dreams. Abul said they couldn't take the pain.

Well, yeah. For the relatively new Kendoka like me, getting struck by men cuts HURT.

Hakim's cuts, especially. Fast and vicious, his kirikaeshi slammed the sides of my head. I was shocked, but not too shocked to move. But as said in an earlier post, I couldn't stop my eyes from closing when he struck. And damn... not only was his kirikaeshi fast, but it felt like he was splitting my head...

Wham-wham-wham-wham (reverse direction) wham-wham-wham-wham-wham. Kiai, men strike, then the whams start all over again...

Then it was my turn to do kirikaeshi. My kote gloves had large holes in them, and they did close to nothing to protect my fingers. Several times while crashing through the opponent my fingers struck the faceplate of my opponents. Lets hope I get good results for SPM... If I get 12As, my parents would buy a bogu for me instead of subsidizing it! Awesome.... 12 A should be attainable. Well, trials were tougher but i managed to score 10.....

The last bit of training this morning was focused on jigeiko, or free sparring. I was up against hakim under his orders. Somehow, being in a real fight was something I hadn't experienced before. After sonkyo, we stood up and crossed blades with each other. It felt kinda awkward... Should I just rush in and attempt a men? Or should I wait for his command? It seemed useless to wait for a command to do what in combat-

-and then Hakim struck men, and and shoved straight past me.

Ouch. Okay, no waiting for commands then.

Hakim let out a scream (kiai). I loosed out another one, attempting to be louder than his. The kiai somehow bolstered my confidence up a notch. Sensing that Hakim was moving inwards from issoku-itto-no-mai, I pushed myself forward and sstruck men, shouting meeeeeeeeenn.....

The retaliation that I awaited never happened. So I let myself be carried forward by momentum and swung around to face him again. Hakim didn't move. I had the impression that he wanted me to strike him again. So idid, again and again, until I sweated buckets and he told me to stop.

Then he told me we would continue jigeiko until either of us gets ippon. I said fine.

Then Hakim went kote-men-men. And then men-men-men.

Whoa! This guy's fast! i thought.

I know we must always believe in oneself, but I never really did bellieve I'd be the one getting ippon then. My handling of my shinai  was mediocre compared to his. So fast, precise, and accurate. Not to mention confident and firm. I was very wary of striking him, for he projected a strong seme.

There was this one particular attack that really caught me off-guard. Hakim raised his shinai above his head. Reacting completely on instinct and without thinking, I too raised my shinai to block the impending strike. Then Hakim's shinai went down fast, and turned at the last minute to strike my exposed do. He turned his shinai from striking men to striking do so fast that the bamboo seemed to bend. and curve.

But, eventually, as I knew it would, Hakim scored ippon. It was a kote-ari. So we bowed, and said arigato gozaimasu!  Then Hakim was off to train my friend Mark.

Sitting at home infront of the laptop several hours after training, I think I can feel a bruise on my head.... whenever i press, ouch.

What I learnt from today's training is to not be afraid of getting struck. And also to keep your limbs supple but relaxed, not tense. Being tense limits your flexibility, and it in turns reduces performance.

Moreover, we must take the initiative to score ippon. We must seize the moment. iin life too, we must adopt this attitude. We must seize the day, for oppurtunities that are life-changing will not wait for you. You will have to go chase after them.

I'll make it a point to post something after every training, since Marcus told me this was a "Kendo Diary" after all.

Next week Arif told me that it would be the first official training session of the year! So i'm really looking forward to seeing new faces, fresh new blood that will help to uphold our beloved SJI Kendo Club in the future.......

Alright, that's it for now. Arigato gozaimashita!!!

Izzaz

Philosophy on appreciating life

Life is the greatest gift, not a burden-chosonninja

You Know You Are obsessed With Kendo If.....

1. Sometimes you respond to people with "Hai".

2. Sometimes you move around the house with ashisabaki.

3. You watch Kendo videos on YouTube on your free time.

4. You make Kendo references to regular life situations.

5. You go to Japan and somehow unintentionally Kendo over there every time or...

6. You go to Japan strictly for Kendo or...

7. You want to go to Japan strictly for Kendo.

8. You feel that you haven't been practicing because your hands aren't bleeding or the skin on the bottom of your foot isn't falling off and your body doesn't ache.

9. You never miss training every Saturday.

10. You're favorite memories are from the dojo.

11. You enjoy coming early for training just to sweep the floor and wipe it clean.

12. You feel good after feeling that sore feeling you get after 50 haya-suburi

13. You do fumikomi, suriashi, stamping, or just casually go to kamae in public for no reason.

14. You get pissed off when you see the shinai tip touching the floor.

15. You've thought about quitting Kendo before, look back on it now and are glad you didn't.

16. You have massive amounts of Kendo related stuff (equipment, books, tenugui, etc.) all over your room.

17. An endless Kendo conversation is a good conversation.

18. You can tell which kote is yours from several different ones just by the smell of it.

19. You have Kendo related pictures or paraphernalia on your facebook display picture.

20. You are nodding your head to all of this.

Izzaz

Training in bogu... my first experience

Last night was a restless one. I kept tossing and turning in my bed, my mind unwilling to give my body the rest it needed. Knowing that sleep would come when not forced to, I switched on the laptop and went onnline until 3 am, watching videos on YouTube about Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. I wish I had a PSP so that I can play the game...

A preview of Ventus in Birth by Sleep. Coming out for PSP.

Anyways I still managed to sleep and wake up LATE. It was 7.15, so I quickly bathed and rushed to school.

When I arrived Arif was teaching the newbies (the ungraded Kendoka) basics on kamae and ashisabaki. When he saw me he told me to warmup and he'll teach me how to wear the bogu.

Warm ups done, Mark And I listened intently to Arif on how to put it on. It looks so easy, but yet, as all things are, easiier said than done. First you put on the tare. No problem there; just wind it behind your back and tie it underneath the front flap.

The tare. Helps to protect your stick and balls =D

Next up was the do. Again, not much of a challenge. The trick is to keep the strings tied equally. Oh yeah, Mark's bogu looked awesome. Brand new, still untouched. Even his tenegui was still in wraps!

Then came the tenugui. Finally, the men. It takes a bit of practice to put it on, so no sweat. Even six-year olds in Japan can do it by themselves. When I first donned the headgear I felt like..... like....

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LIKE THIS GUY!!! check out the cool gedan posture.

The men was a bit heavy, and it took me quite some time to get used to it. After all, I've been training in Kendo for four years without bogu... Old habits die hard.

Once everything was done, Arif let us do some footwork. I noticed that my left heel tended to rise up half an inch more than usual. Is this normal? I was always told that left heel is supposed to be an inch above the ground... but now in bogu it's slightly higher. Let me know if what I'm doing is wrong, guys and girls.

We practiced hitting shomen suburi. Now I know why we must tenouchi. It actually hurts the head if you just potong balak like that. We did kakari geiko, do and kote strikes.

Another thing. In bogu, somehow my shinai feels lighter; but harder to control. I noticed this when doing kirikaeshi. Looks like I need lots and lots of practice for the next grading.

Hakim challenged me to get 4th Kyu in my next grading. The gap is wide, but the leap is possible. Well, Hakim did it. Then he also managed to jump from 4th Kyu to 1st kyu.

All in all, today was a very knowledgeable day. I have just started to walk on the path of the Sword, and I still have a long way to go. But slowly, but surely, I will get to my ultimate goal: PERFECTION IN THE WAY OF THE SWORD.

Izzaz

Advertlets Paintball Tourney -- The BEST I've ever had!!

Hey ya'all... !!
Last Saturday, i had the best funn in my life so far -- i played PAINTBALL!! XD

On the morning of the 17th of Jan, I went for the Advertlets Bloggers Paintball Tournament 2009 which was held at Malaysian Paintball Academy (MAPAAC) at the Astaka Sports Centre, PJ. I got there so early, nobody was there yet! Talk about being excited!! XD

So i went to a nearby mamak, had a drink and two half boiled egges, then had to sneak into KFC next door to answer nature's call. wtf =_="

By the time i got back to MAPAAC, many other bloggers had arrived. The difference 30 minutes make. *rolls eyes* Anyway, i looked around, and the 1st person i saw MissyCheerio!! I couldn't believe my eyes! I went up to her and said hi. :-P

The sweetly adorable Ellie, or MissyCheerio, as she is fondly known in cyberspace. Even her team was named after her!! LOL (pic taken whn everything was over)

Before long, Evo arrived. Siap in his flashing red t-shirt with two dogs in doggy style and a caption below them dogs which read, "I'm lovin' it". OMG EVo!! XD

Can't really see the caption, but evidently, a picture paints a thousand words. LOL. Just look at those horny dogs.. XD

EVo was my partner in crime for that event. We kinda made plans to come together gether to shoot ppl that day. We even worked our way through to get into the SAME TEAM. LOL

Then, we:

The beautiful Ras Angela at the counter to register us, witht hem forms all over the table.

EVo and i. Haisey, cudnt see the doggies on his shirt! XD

Field walking -- checking out the general layout of the field, strategizing on bunkers, getting the feel of the field. XD

Another team (whos name escapes me), trying out the snake bunker. They're all high school students, but oredy got jersey and tactical plans for the tourney, can?!

After doing all the neccesary -- filling up liability forms, camho-ing, kepohchi-ing with other people, and field walking -- i got to my car to 'suit up'. Suit up what, you may ask. Wait and see. Sounds like Iron Man pulak. LOL

Me, EVo, and Josh Lim, Advertlets' boss. Noticed my 'buffed up' shouders? LOL

Following that, we had:

A mandatory safety briefing by a Mr. Wong. He's a funny guy! Can't forget the look on his face when he told us what to do had we been marked aka getting hit or 'shot'. (you see, in paintball, we have out own language. more on that later. :-p)

Quoting him, "When you are marked, you must put your left hand over your head, put on your sorry face, and walk to the death zone."

Like zomg funny right?!! Nah, it's not funny now. I know. Don't bluff me. You really had to see it lor! XD

We all used house mechanical markers and facemasks that day. So all equal, no handicap. LOL

It was dam chun for me, cuz the markers had double triggers, so to speak. It feels kinda like you're using a e-marker (electronic) instead. Haha. EVo, sure had fun! Look:

EVo and his new found toy.. Notice his mouth go.. "fwahohohoo..." LOL
(check out a video of his shooting it, HERE)

Then it was GAME ON! We had 95 people that day, i think, which is 9 groups of 5 players. We each had 4 pre-lims games to play, the best 4 team will advance to the semi finals, and later to the finals, where the winning of the best 4 teams will play for 1st and 2nd place, while the losing teams willplay for 3rd and 4th place.

Oh, forgot to mention, top 3 teams in this tourney will be exempted from paying the RM300 registration fee for the coming Malaysia National Paintball League (MY NPL) this 14-15 Feb 2009. More info here.

Introducing, my team, YAKUZA!! XD

The name just happened to pop up in our (EVo and me) heads because we were wearing identical bandanas. Haha. Even Ashley, who we both met for the very first time, thought we were brothers. LOL. It was actually a combination of a tenugui, covered with a layer of Japanese themed bandana.

EVo, my bradda from a different mother! XD

FYI. a tenugui is a head cloth which you wrap around your head before you don your men or Kendo headgear. More about that later, too. :-P

1st team we went up against were the Dominators, i think. They oso mostly 1st timers wan. Kinda confident stepping into the field. Mana tau, either ego too big or our side of the field choi, we lost the 1st round. They shot us down like flies and managed to grab our flag.. #!@$@%^&*(!!!

Nevertheless, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, we graciously accepted defeat. Wah, so noble pulak. lol wtf T__T

2nd round, we were more prepared and played a better game; we played with P24. More communication, plus we were on the not-choi side of the field. Haha. Still we came down under fire. When they opposing team shot all of us, one of them was either overjoyed that we were all dead or thought the game was over, suddenly decided to remove the facemask!! @_@
(check out Sam and Leonard's blog.)

We were all warned NOT TO REMOVE THE FACE MASK AT ANY COST WHOLE IN THE FIELD. We won the game as a result of their disqualification. XD

3rd round, we were more pumped up than ever. We were playing against Bing Bang. A fellow friend and blogger, Uncle Josh (pic), was in there. Evo and I SO wanted to 'mark' him; and so did he with us. But, same scenario. We got beat. Then, mana taw towards the end, ALSO got someone who suddenly decided to remove her mask!! Like zomg... can?!! Again, won, but because of their disqualification. XD

EDIT NOTE: Oh, thnx for the correction Uncle Z, i think it was against P24 that you managed to grab the flag for Yakuza!! HAha. People, no kidding man, Uncle Z was the last man standing taw!! OMG.. i swear, he must have had some kind of under cover army training lor!!! XD (suddenly dam glad im ON HIS SIDE.) LOL

Well, its down to last round. We went up against Dominators. We played a good game, but we were still picked off one by one. I thought i was over. This time SURE DIE WAN. That was when i decided go crazy and rampage them! Last game ma, nothing to lose ady. LOL. From our snake bunker, i decided to do a run-by and mark anyone i see, before doing a slide into the opponents' snake bunker. I marked two of 'em! YEah!! haha.

Thinking that most opponents have been eliminated, i made a dash for the flag. I also the opponent going for our flag! Wah! Panik lor.. I made a home run to our end of the field in record time! Out of the blue, out pop the 'Green Guy' (sorry forgot name, most regrettable), as dubbed by EVo in his blog post, and sprayed me with pallets. Fortunate, he ran out of pallets! HAHA.

Damn funny right Green Guy's gesture. LOL. Im not sure if this was the match with us, onot. :-D

I ran pass him and set the flag at our starting gate, winning the game. Later, the referee told me, "You ini daredevil ah, pergi ambik flag.. tadi mereka belum mati oh. Tinggal EMPAT orang lagi!"

I was like, @_@ *stunned* lol. Then i wondered, WHAT were they doing, when i was the only one left on my team? Double @_@.... XD XD XD

Proceeding to the semis, i forgot who we went up against, but i remember we won. ^__^ because we went up with the winners of the tourney, this team, whos name escapes me at the moment.. T__T

They are semi pros, and they are good. Dam steady and mantap. LOL. It came down to Uncle Z and Din, but both were eleminated too. Again, semi pros mah, must give them face lar.. LOL. As a result, we came in 1st runner up -- which is the bestest thing ever!!

Never have we, in our wildest imaginations, ever thought for a second, that we would made it this far! As i said to my team before the 1st game, "I believe in beginner's luck!! We're gonna win!!" And indeed, we won! XD

And so you have it, what went down that day. Well, an almost accurate write up. Haha. It was a meaningful experience which i will NEVER trade for anything! I mean the game and the whole paintball concept was funn, but the company and the people i met and 'battle' along side with made the experience all the more worth wild! And THANK YOU Advertlets once again for making this possible for all of us!

To wrap up, some random shots:

Team Yakuza!
L-R: Ashley Teng (camera lady of the day), EVo, Uncle Z (En. Zahari), me, Celine Yap, Aizuddin, and Josh Lim.

Me & Simon Chang, high school senior/paintball mentor/crap buddy :-P
Dam nice guy, once you get to know him.

One for the road!
L-R: EVo, Ashley, MissyCheerio, me


New paintball buddies gorging at Oldtown Jaya ONE.
CW: Michael Ooi, Ashley (white tee), Ras Angela, EVo.

Fallen pallets like tomatoes galore!
KIDCHAN Studios really really geng lar!!

In fact, they made me from this:

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To THIS!!

Chun, no? LOL
*takes off hat to KIDCHAN and gang!*
Thanks a mil for this fantastic shot! XD

ps. sorry if the order of match teams were inaccurate. Human memory loss. =S

pps. all photos are mine, unless otherwise stated. credit to Uncle Z, EVo, Ashley, and KIDCHAN for them wonderful photos.

ppps. I nearly forgot the most important thing! Should you interested people want to try your hands at paintball, which i strongly recomend, you can get in touch with the following. They'll be more than happy to help!

Packages available:
#1. READY TO GO
RM120.00 per pax (min 5 pax)
- 400 paintballs
- paintball marker x 1 unit
- face mask x 1 unit
- field charge

#2. BASIC
RM 60.00 per pax
- paintball marker x 1 unit
- face mask x 1 unit
- field charge
- paintball -- RM350.00 --> 1 case (2000 rounds)
-- RM 100.00 --> 500 rounds

Contact:
YP Wong @ 016-332 3370 / 019-983 3370
WY Wei @ 016-332 3372 / 012-337 0775

Malaysian Paintball Academy (MAPAAC)
Kompleks Sukan Astaka
46200 Petaling Jaya, SDE
Tel/Fax: 03-7960 4724
Email: info@mapaac.com
Web: www.mapaac.com // www.my-npl.org

Try it out today!! XD

maRCus

Hard Gay: Sunrise Sunset

Man..... wth.... see for yourselves.... BLARDY FARNEE!!!! I know its not related to Kendo, but oh what the heck

Tomorrow got training!!!

I don't go to Japan Club or MKA (Malaysia Kendo Association) for training, just so you'd know. I just go to SJI dojo for my weekly training.....

The dojo there is bigger than the one in JCKL. Really. But without air-cons. Ugh. I really despise training in air-conditioned places. Really saps energy out of you. I'll ask Marcus to post a picture of our dojo soon.

So, like every good Kendoka, we must all be prepared for training. Iron hakama and gi, polish bogu, check your mode of transport... etc. Right now I'm folding my hakama for easy storage to and from practice.

Oh, and that's my back facing all of you, if you'd wanted to know.

Folding Hakama gi on the dojo floor.

The end result. And remember people: ALWAYS DO IT IN SEIZA!

Now for the shinai... We musn't forget our shinais. Always check your shinai before you practice, or else someone might get hurt. Splinters might fly off and hit someone in the eye. If you're lucky, you get an infection. If unlucky, you become blind. Safety comes first. 

Yeah, that's my name on the shinai.

If you find some splints on your shinai, use sandpaper. DON'T USE THE METAL SANDPAPER! USE THE ONE FOR SOFT WOOD.

Arif showing off some shinai oil. Its a good idea to oil your shinai every once and then; keeps moisture out of the bamboo and it retains its strength. 

Well... can't wait for tomorrow to come... After being cooped up in classes for too long, its gonna be a blast working out my suburis and ashisabaki. Night night people!

P/S: Marcus, maybe we should put posts on how to oil shinais and fold hakama gi as well....

Testing out the blog, Izzaz first post

Uh, Marcus? My name is spelt Izzaz..... not Izaz....

Anyway, that's not important. As highlighted by our dear friend Marcus more Kendo stuff will be posted up soon. All you readers can expect a new post at least once a week. So keep revisiting this page!

I hope that all of you enjoy Kendo as much as we do. Remember, you learn by doing, so keep on training!

Paintball me!

Have you heard about the paintball event by Adverlets that's happening this Saturday, 17th Jan? Well, if you haven't you gotta check it out! Brief details:

They're having a collaboration with the Malaysian National Paintball League (MY-NPL) and Malaysian Paintball Academy (MAPAAC) as their official online partner. Check here for updates about the event from Adverlets. *click click*



pssst...!

i didn't know they had an academy for paintball....!!

fwah! LOL

Here's how to get there.

*click to enlarge*

Apparently, anybody can join -- anybody without a paintball tournament experience, that is. :-) Registration fees are RM 10 for Adverlets bloggers, and RM 90 for others. And get this, "Your expenses will be fully adopted by the MY-NPL’s home field, MAPAAC (Malaysian Paintball Academy) in Astaka field, Petaling Jaya." I mean, how COOL is THAT!! Plus, bloggers will be divided into 20 teams of 5 players, so they'll be expecting 100 of us bloggers.

There will be lotsa prizes and goodies are up for grabs, so visit http://www.my-npl.org/ for further info about what you could take home if you come participate in the event! Besides the superb prizes, you'll also get to meet tonnes of super happening bloggers and... and watch some of the nation's pro-est paintballers in action on the field!!

This is SO not to be missed. haha.

...

Personally, I've only played 3 times -- a very modest amount of exposure to the relatively new and funn extreme sport. I'm really hoping to be short listed for the event this Saturday to make it 4 times. XD

In fact, i'm now serving Adverlets ads in a new blog -- gyakudo.blogspot.com -- my 2nd blog dedicated to Kendo, a Japanese martial art-cum-sport, derived from the ancient art of the Samurai, which i happen to practice by choice and interest. (this was also one of the reasons of my hiatus =P)

Swing by to have a peek yahz... but it's still in its infancy, so bear with it k? A few lines of encouragements in the cbox to lemme know you were there is much-ly appreciated! :-)

Well, i may not have (or recollectively remember) a paintball resume like EVo here does, but i assure you, i am a formidable opponent:

(Check out my turtle-squat-spider-lean pose! wth ^^)

But most of the time, end up as a victim of hit and run. Worst still, FRIENDLY FIRE!! Arrgh... =S =S =S

(it may look painless, but it really is -- esp when you get shot at point blank!)

At the end of the day, it's all for the fun and wonderful moments shared with the perfect company... One just couldn't ask for more.................. except perhaps to be shortlisted for the event this Saturday and be able to shoot some pallets! XD XD XD

(wah, can posing sumore, yes? XD)

THNX Adverlets for organizing the event! Hope to be part of it. Look forward to see you there XD

Onegai shimasu

Welcome to my our blog about kendo and hope you find some stuff to your liking here... ;-)

I'm Marcus and i blog regularly on my main blog. This is the blog where i share experiences with my buddies Kenshin -- Izaz 'Darth Vader' Iskandar and Danson-san sempoi, blog about my our adventures in learning Kendo, the Japanese term for the Way of the Sword.

'Ken' means Sword and 'do' means path or road, hence Kendo means the Way of the Sword. :-)

Oh, just you know, onegai shimasu means please in Japanese. That's also what we say to our opponents before engaging in a match or even training.

Look out for more pictures, videos, and info about Kendo soon...

Till then, do drop comments and let me us know you came by, aight?

And oh, questions are also welcomed, ill we'll do my our best to answer them. :-)

maRCus

More about Kendo coming soon...