Today was the day of my Kendo examination, which I've been getting ready for these past few weeks, and it was in the morning so it meant getting up bright and early and heading off over to the usual kendo location where the sempai from the club met me and took me over to the test location (basically just a sports hall in the area). There were three different ranks tested today, totalling at around 45 practitioners, most of them in the same grade test as me, and almost all of those people about high school age. Which should tell you everything you need to know about Japanese kendo.
The test itself took three parts. The first was handing over the written assignment, and first impressions suggested it went well. Then after a slight wait, the students were divided up and had to do 2 matches of sparing, against different people, each lasting about a minute all under the watchful eyes of the judges. Then the people who passed through that section went on to do Kata - ritualised and practiced cuts which pairs of individuals would do, again watched by the judges, and only after that were the results announced.
Every year dozens of people take these kinds of exams in the hopes of advancing to the next level, and every year few manage to make the grade. But forget those people because I passed with flying colours. I am now a Shodan in Kendo (thats a good thing). Actually that bit about "few people" was a lie too - usually around 90% pass through at the levels tested today. Only one person didn't pass, and I must say I felt sorry for that one person. Still I couldn't be properly concerned since I was too high as a kite to feel sad emotions at the time.
And after that was over, with nothing else to do all day, I headed home. I did take a quick stroll through the Akihabara market again to see if I couldn't find myself a small token to mark the occasion, And I decided to take supper out on the town, but apart from that just a nice quiet afternoon sitting in the air conditioned apartment.
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