Sentence: Nuno Vieira de Almeida
July 23, 2018
Today we will begin practicing bamboo way in Japan. Luckily, it seems that people in the SDF will join the practice in the afternoon. Japan has been suffering from a tremendous heat wave, and you have to be careful in preventing hydration and heat stroke. Drinking plenty of water (and drinking sports drinks during practice) is very important. If you have to endure this temperature and humidity in the summer of Japan … water and Pokari are your friends (Although we advertise Pokali this much, we have not received a change from Pokari ‘s company!).
In Nagoya, in the morning ritual that became a custom every day, I started a day. Buy black ice can coffee at the nearest convenience store. Since there is no espresso, we took the balance of the caffeine level with the boss’s canned coffee. I walked around the shop in the morning of this first lesson, I heard the music. It was a pop song played in Japanese instruments. It is timeless music.
After buying coffee (about the same amount of caffeine as attention to dewatering condition, caffeine amount is important) Return to the house and inspect the bayonet armor for rehearsal. From an unfamiliar person’s perspective, the bayonet armor is exactly like a kendo armor except for a strange part (shoulder rest). Even if you look at the online armor shop, you can not easily notice it, but there are features that you should emphasize in armor doors. For example, although it is a small guitar, in a bayonet road it uses only the left hand. Since the gloves are in the closest place to their opponent in their body and are effective batting sites, it is natural that they are different from ordinary kendo gloves. The gun swing trunk has many pads on the fist part, especially the thumb part and the striking part wrist. I tried using gun Kendo and Kendo’s gloves in practice, but certainly the movement is different when I use the gun swing stick. Next, although it is vertical, I think that you will see the difference as soon as you look closer. There is milk leather, it is designed to be able to connect with a string with a shoulder. You can substitute it by using the kendo vertical together with the string, but this milk leather is convenient.
The shoulder rest is unique to the bayonet road (I also use it for spears but I think it is not common, I have seen it only in books). And, the face looks very similar to the face of the kendo at first glance, but the piercing is different. It is wider and stronger than those of kendo. Then there is no difference in thing of the bayonet road. There are more pads on the inner side of the left flank. It is protection when it is poked from the left side.
In this way, bayonet armor is different from kendo stuff. For those who are thinking about whether to have armor for gun kendo, please refer. As far as I saw, there are not many places showing these differences on firearm armor at online armor shops. To beginners and those who are practicing with only themselves, it became very easy for us to know the difference.
Stuff the armor with luggage and prepare for the first lesson in Japan! I held all the bags and wood guns and headed to Nagoya station. It is to catch the train bound for Kasugai. Three foreigners who have large bag packs and armor bags … I think they were attracting the attention of people who traveled. Let’s continue the show!
* This is an ongoing blog by Nuno of Portuguese guest writer *