Taikai

Just as planned, this morning I went to watch the junior high school kendo taikai (tournament—I have to figure out what the difference is between "shiai" and "taikai"). There were so many students that I was super lucky to just happen to run into my student, Kenta, who I went to watch. Lucky because I didn't know the kanji for his school name (that I could have asked someone about though), and I also did not know his last name, so looking for him once he put his men on would have been impossible. There were 4 courts too, and a whole bunch of parents, so I am very lucky indeed that I happened to be on the same court he was fighting on, and also that I wasn't late, because his fight was pretty early.

It was so interesting to watch. I always wondered what his kendo would be like, and I guess it's somewhat the way I expected it. Although I thought he'd be more agressive and attack more than he did. His kamae was really strong though, I thought. He didn't win his first fight, which is too bad, because I wanted to see more of his kendo.

Yesterday, during my junior high school lesson (that Kenta is in) we talked about everyone's daily schedule, and do you know how much Kenta practices kendo every week? He has 1.5-2 hour-long practices 6 times a week... O_o..... Yeah.... I want to play him some day, but I wonder if that's possible, seeing how we go to different dojos.

Today I was surprised how short he was. During class all of my students are sitting down so I never notice they are so small. Plus, compared to my 5-6-year old students, these guys seem so tall, so I sometimes forget they are still kids. I forgot how old he is, I think 12 or 13, but for some reason he looked like an elementary school student in his bogu (haha, of course I'll never tell him this). Anyways, he is a cool kid, and I am glad I woke up early today and went to see him play.

Here's a picture. I don't think you can see Kenta too well here—I don't have a zoom on my camera phone, but at least you can see my dojo ^ ^. This is where I practice every week.
Of the two people competing, Kenta is the one on the left, he was red (you can't see his tasuki, but you can see the other guy's is white). You have to click on the picture to see a bigger version.