Kendo photos

Most of you who read this blog know that I do kendo, but for the benefit of those who don't, I've uploaded some shots of training this past Monday at NUS. It was also another attempt by me to take kendo photos, which I consider to be the toughest subject for me to take photos of.

My apologies for the blurry photos, I was trying to avoid using the flash because I didn't want to disturb the training.
















Putting on the men (head armour) at the start of practice.















But first the tenegui (towel) goes on before that to absorb sweat.























Finally the men goes on.


















Nicholas briefing the group before starting training.















Training starts with some men uchi (strikes to the top of the head armour).















It's really hard to catch moving kendoka (kendo practitioner) on camera, these are some of the 'ok' shots.
















Zibin landing a strike on Kitt.

















My best shot of the day. Kitt striking Zhen Yuan's men.
















Zhen Yuan and Zibin having a go at each other during jigeiko (free practice).














Kitt attempting a men kaeshi dou off Zibin.

















Clean men uchi by Kitt.
















And to end things off, just a wallpaper I made sometime back from a photo I took.

Will probably be uploading a few shots from the Inter-Zone games day next.

Day 5: Kyoto

Day 5 was once again spent at Kyoto itself. We headed first to the Nijo Castle, the summer residence of the Shogun. Next was the Arashiyama area in the west of Kyoto, a forested area with several shrines, including a bamboo forest.

After that, Daniel and I headed for the International Manga Museum, while OCX decided to wander around by himself, since he wasn't too interested in manga. Lucky for him, because when we got to the museum, we found out that it was closed on Wednesdays...

So Dan and I wandered around too, coming across a small shopping area where there was a trio of musicians from Europe performing some classical music on a piano, violin and flute. After meeting up with OCX again, he brought us to what was to be his favourite shop in the entire country: Kyoto Coop. Basically a supermarket with cheap prices.
















The main entrance to the Nijo Castle.

















The main building in the castle. Too bad we weren't allowed to take photographs inside. The floor of the corridors were made to squeak whenever someone was walking on them, the so-called 'Nightingale' floors. This was so that intruders could be heard at night.
















A small pool in the garden next to the castle.
















Even swans get to have their own castle in the inner moat.






















Some of the plants were so old, their branches needed walking sticks.
















This being late spring, it was rare to see any other colour but green.










































Another part of the garden.
















Part of the bamboo forest path at the Arashiyama area. The entire path is several hundred metres long.





















The bamboo themselves are several stories high.






















The view from the observation point on a hill in the Arashiyama area.
















The 2 avid photographers check out their shots.
















Daniel making it worth his while lugging his 5 kg camera bag around all day.
















The river there had a hydroelectric generator installed, you can see the waterfall on the right.
















Some buildings on the other side of the river. I like the reflections.






















Dan wanted to go to this forest path where there are lots of monkeys; this sign pointed towards that area. We only realised that there was an entrance fee of 600 yen to enter when we got there, so we chose not to in the end.

The rest of the day was spent going to some souvenir shops, and going to another sushi shop to eat, all thanks to our local guide for the day, OCX, since he had spent time exploring the area earlier in the afternoon.

I don't have much photos of my time in Tokyo, you can look at Daniel's photobucket for those, since I didn't go to Disneyland with them. So here's what little photos that I do have as a bonus:
















Packing up and getting ready to leave Kyoto.
















Arrival in Tokyo after 3 1/2 hours on the Shinkansen. We slept most of the way.















Dan and OCX get ready to conquer Tokyo!
















Jedi Knight OCX is all prepared to slice down anyone who gets in his way at the queue in Disneyland.


















Next update will be on some Kendo photos I took at last Monday's training at NUS.

Day 4: Iga Ueno

At Daniel's request, we headed for Iga Ueno, home to the Iga school of Ninjutsu. It took us an hour plus to reach there by train, but thankfully we had the JR pass, so it cost us less than 500 yen to get there and back from Kyoto.
















The view of a town in the countryside from our train towards Iga Ueno. Really peaceful looking, isn't it?















The train we took to Uenoshi, where the Ninja Museum is located. Not sure if you can see it clearly, but there are pictures of little ninjas on the train.
















The Ninja museum and village are located in a park along with a castle. Here we were walking in that park towards the museum.















Before we could reach the museum, we came across a Ninja technique demonstration show at 200 yen per person, so we went for it. This is the stage, and the words above the white background simply read: "Ninja Stage"
















The 3 of us waiting for the show to start. Since all three of us take photos, you'll hardly find pictures with all 3 of us in them.






















The apparent leader of the Ashura Ninja group performing some rite before starting his demonstration, cutting through the straw mats you see behind him.
















According to the explanation given to us, the straw mats were soaked in water, making the thickness of the mats similar to that of a human body, i.e. if you were able to slice through the mat, you were able to slice through a human limb.





















The ninja had to disguise himself, so they usually made use of everyday items such as the sickles above used to harvest rice as weapons.





















Another member of the ninja group telling us that it was a lie that ninjas carried large number of throwing stars, since each weighed about 200 grams.
















A display of some of the equipment that the ninjas used. The round wooden thing in the upper right were special shoes used to cross swamps.
















A collection of various throwing stars that were used and some of the methods of throwing them.















A group of primary school children who were at the park.













































The Ueno castle, not to be mistaken with the Ueno in Tokyo.






















At the upper floor of the castle, there was an interesting grill made of arrows.
















On the way back, we stopped at a nearby town where we had to switch trains. Thinking that since it was an interchange, there would be places to eat nearby. We almost ended up getting lost and thankfully a lady at the nearby tourist information centre pointed us to a family restaurant where we had an early dinner.















We dropped by Kasaga on the way back, cause eagle eyed Daniel spotted a sign for a natural hot spring in the area from the train in the morning. The hot spring was good, with several pools, including one outside and a jacuzzi.
















The train station at Kasaga. Trains only come about once every 45 mins, and we had just missed the previous one, so that gave us lots of time to waste there.















The place is so ulu that the locals can take their dogs to walk alongside the train tracks.















Once back in Kyoto, we headed to the sushi place for dinner.















Staring intently at the belt of sushi, waiting for their favourite beef sukiyaki to arrive.













What can we say? OCX's still a growing boy.


Our last day in Kyoto would be spent at Nijo castle and the Arashiyama area, a scenic forested area west of Kyoto.