Aden's 2000 Kendo Trip to Japan

In 2000 I returned to Japan for family reasons, staying with my in-laws in Kokubunji, west Tokyo, and took the opportunity to get kendo and iaido training from the Tokyo Metroplitan Police for 3 weeks at the dojo of the Higashi Yamato police station.

(Me (facing) about to get my morning thrashing at the hands of Kageyama Sempai)

Travelling by public transport for dawn training was very tiring but it was an excellent opportunity and an honour not to be turned down. Sadly time constraints limited me to early morning kendo with only a couple of iaido sessions - I had to decline the kenjutsu and jojutsu sessions.

(Finished for the morning - note the police put their men and kote on the left, and shinai on the right - the reverse of the ZNKR format followed in Australia - this took some getting used to)

The kendo highlight of the trip was my Sensei taking me to the monthly police sensei training session - just me and 24 police kendo sensei from 4th to 8th dan, the first time I have heard a serious warning before training that this is dangerous and you can get hurt. However they were very lenient on me - watching them leg sweep each other was a revelation, once I survived I was very grateful to Ochia Sensei for taking me there, and to the senior sensei for being understang of my lack of skill :)

(Kageyama Sempai and I after my final training, you cannot even see the hangovers from the previous nights party.)