Collin Condray’s Blog

Today was the first of the three very long Tokyo days we have. It didn’t start out too well for me, we stayed up late (but not too late) just hanging out. Then I woke up at 4:30 AM instead of 7:30 AM which I set my alarm clock to and couldn’t go back to sleep. Oh well. Our ride out to Diawa Steel was in a double decker bullet train and it was about an hour so I made the sleep up as best as I could.

At the train station we were met by Eric and Sam (their American names) who were managers and researchers at Daiwa Steel and our hosts for the majority of the day. They had arrived with the company bus that took us to the Daiwa manufacturing plant.

On arrival, we were ushered to a meeting room where we waited for everyone to assemble including Thomas, one of the chief engineers at Daiwa and a very gracious host. On one the wall of the meeting room was a letter to Daiwa from then Governor Clinton from 1987 thanking Daiwa for starting up a plant in Pine Bluff, a nice reminder of home.

Eric began a presentation about the plants that we would be visiting today. The whole complex we were at covers 13 acres with five of those acres taken up by the buildings alone. There are two main buildings each holding a production line, the first was built in 1987 and the second in 1992. The two production lines build tubing to different specs and production limits. The first can product 5000 tons of pipe a month and the second 6000 tons of pipe a month.

Daiwa produces several types of galvanized steel tubing which due to the zinc content is resistant to corrosion. The process begins with 20 ton rolls of steel that comes in from Nippon Steel shipped from Kyushu. The steel is then cut from these rolls into the widths they will be used in the pipe size.

Somewhere along the production line, they use a hot dipping process to galvanize the steel. This dipping process is called the Daiwa Z process which can apply up to 20 micro meters of zinc to the steel pipe. This precision control is important because it regulates the amount zinc used to make tubing. Since zinc is expensive, if zinc requirement can be cut, then there is a competitive advantage to be gained against competitors. Daiwa’s process also has fewer steps than competitors which reduces the price as well.

The lines function in a similar manner except for the galvanization process. The galvanization occurs at different places on each line, either before, during or after the steel has been rolled depending on the final application of the steel tubing. On the first line, the steel is treated before the rolling while in the second it is treated after the rolling is done. The latter requires a pipe drying machine to make sure that the interior of the pipe is dry before sending the pipe to the next step. The drying process puts an unpleasant smell in the area. To counteract this, Thomas suggested that they put vanilla in the machine to make the steel smell good for the customer, and for the workers and visitors as well.

The steel is rolled into a tube by using a series of ever smaller rollers. The rolls are then welded together by that application of a high voltage electric current which binds the two ends of the steel and melts off the excess metal. This excess metal looked like a strip of red hot, smoking metal and when we viewed we stayed far back. We got to hold a few of the rolls of welded steel and welding process is very effective since you can only barely feel the joint in the pipe.

The welded pipes are then cut to an appropriate length and stacked in hexagons of 100. This makes it easy to count and customer like the symmetry.

After our tour we boarded the Daiwa bus for lunch. It was served at a very swanky country club with a huge golf course set on a hill that overlooked a wide valley below. There were many unusual things to try including shark fin which Dr. Stapp had. I settled on a sampler plate of sashimi but it turned out it was just too much for my stomach.

After lunch we headed out to see some of the scenery in the area with Sam and Eric. Thomas had to return to work, so we gave him the Banzai treatment, three times in the air and a yell of “Banzai!”

After boarding the bus, we found out that our it was not just Daiwa’s bus but Daiwa’s karaoke bus. Just about everybody got their chance in the spotlight to sing something. The English list was very limited but we still had a lot of fun crooning them out. The tunes I can remember were:
Hey, Jude
Love Me Tender
I Can’t Help Falling in Love with you
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Imagine

I got to sing Love Me Tender. That’s right, thank you, thank you very much, uh huh huh! There is video, stay tuned.

We stopped at Nikko Toshogu, the ornate gravesite of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the shogun who unified Japan. Toshogu was a very impressive looking place. Since Tokugawa was a dragon in the Chinese Zodiac there were many dragons incorporated into the building designs. In one building there is an unusual room called the Dragon’s Mouth. On the ceiling wa painted a large dragon. When you stood under the dragon’s mouth and clap a pair of wooden sticks together, an eerie ringing noise was produced.

Another interesting feature of the gravesite is the “Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil” monkeys. Can you tell who is who from the pictures?

Our final stop was the Kegon Waterfall located in the Nikko National Forest. The entrance to the falls was at the end of It is the tallest waterfall in Japan and a very beautiful place. The falls were kicking up quite a bit of spray making the air very cold, about 54 degrees F. We stayed for some time snapping pictures of people and the waterfall and just generally enjoying the scenery.

We drove back down the mountain and returned to the train station to say goodbye. So we took this opportunity to Banzai both Eric and Sam as a final thank you for all their help.

The train got us back pretty late around 8:30 PM. We were all tired and hungry and after changing clothes, we had to find dinner. Tran had found a Vietnamese restaurant that sounded good. They were on the expensive side but the food looked good and we decided to stay. However, but they took so long with our orders that we finally ate at around 10 PM. I had Pho Ga, a spicy chicken noodle soup with an incredible dipping sauce.

We returned to our beds around midnight. Uh oh, there’s an early morning breakfast at the US embassy the next day.

When we got to the Tokyo station we didn’t see any of the famous crowds. Dr. Stapp promised them later though.

We checked into our own rooms in a very nice hotel called the Asia Center of Japan near a section of Tokyo called Roppangi. Unlike many places in Japan we were given a warning about this place. They have had problems with Korean pickpockets in the area so we should see to the protection of our valuables.

Roppongi was similar to the various shopping streets we’ve seen in Japan but there was one corner where large TV screen were attached to the sides of buildings making look a little Times Square. When we went down it we saw many foreigners, more than what we had seen in Japan. There were also well dressed men in suits just standing on the corners looking like they were waiting for someone. They also had a ton of restaurants but this time they included more famous ones including a TGIF and Wolfgang Puck which was pretty reasonably priced for Tokyo. There was a great deal of excitement on my part when I saw a doner kebab (Turkish gyros) stand on one corner. When Kathleen and I lived in Austria, we had this tasty meal as often as we could. We were heartened when we saw the “Hello! We’re Open!” sign in English but all the lights inside were off. We had to console ourselves by eating at a local ramen shop.

One thing we were on the lookout for was melon soda but none of the vending machines or little convenience stores had it. We finally found it at a duty free shop that was quite interesting. Most department type stores have food on the bottom floors, then a floor or two of clothes and a floor or two of electronics or housewares. This shop was no different but since it was duty free, if you bought more than 10,000 yen worth of stuff, you didn’t have to pay the VAT on it. On the bottom floor we found our melon soda and on the clothes floor we found chicken shorts. Don’t ask, trust me.

Tomorrow, the very generous people of Diawa Steel who have made my trip possible.

Today was our second totally free day of the trip. A few of us decided to sleep a little late and then make it to the internet cafe for about an hour. In response to a comment from a reader of my site, fanny packs are sexy. ‘Nuff said.

After the leaving Kameoka, we stopped in Osaka for lunch on the way to Kobe. For lunch I had a beef curry meal which again was excellent if a little bland compared to some of the other curries I’ve tasted. In the train station I also found a Swiss konditorei and had an excellent (if expensive, ¥500) piece of chocolate cake.

After lunch we headed to Kobe. According to Fodors, Kobe is the home to almost 70,000 westerners so it has more a European feel. We did see a few more foreigners than normal but it didn’t seem dominated by them.

Another nice thing about Kobe is there is a huge covered shopping center where most things can be found in Kobe called Moto-machi, our destination for the day. Supposedly, there is a section that has Japanese antiques that several of us wanted to see. We followed the instructions that we had to Moto-machi and found a long tunnel right under the main train track that was filled with dozens of little shops of various types. We walked along the way but didn’t see much that we were interested in. It all seemed like clothes, toys, and other bric-a-brac with a sprinkling of very expensive Japanese arts shops and one antique military memorabilia shop with old Imperial Army uniforms and SS uniform on display. A store of an “adult” nature with many pieces of, uh, gear on display, right next to a toy store. Very strange.

As we walked along the whole length of these tunnels, we didn’t see much we wanted so we walked back to the train station on the north side of the tracks. There were several food stores along the way including a candy shop were I managed to find a sampler pack of RitterSport.

It turns out that with only a few hours left, we had realized we had missed Moto-machi proper which was on the south side and only saw the old leftovers. Moto-machi was actually very nice. We a big hunk of our time in the English section of bookstore and did a little catching up with what’s happening in the world. The shops in Moto-machi were very nice with a wide variety of clothes, electronics, food, and other things but only Rebecca scored a shopping victory with a pair of pink sparkly shoes. Hooray for her.

We also found something we hadn’t seen much of in Japan, pizza. Near the mouth of Moto-machi was a Canadian pizza place with all the usual stuff you see on pizza, corn, little fish, etc. We stayed with something more traditional, cheese, pepperoni, tomatoes, and green peppers, but no Canadian bacon. In spite of that, it was still pretty good.

At this point we had run out of time at Kobe. We still had to pack for our trip to Tokyo the next day. I will attempt to put five days of clothes, including nice clothes for three business trips, into a carry-on bag and a backpack. Not much of challenge for me at this point. Theoretically, if I have enough Woolite I can live off only one change of clothes.

Tomorrow, Tokyo!

Today’s outing was to the farm of Dr. Stapp’s former landlord Hitomi-san. Hitomi-san is a gentleman farmer of sorts. He was born and how lives in a house that his family has owned for over 300 years. His family used to be known for their archery prowess and his family crest still has arrows on it. His house also displays several antique bows along with other weapons.

Hitomi-san has has left one of his rice fields unplanted for us to complete. The rice comes in standard sized trays that have to be loaded onto a specially made tractor for planting rice. Each of us got to plant one row rice with the tractor, and for a bunch of city kids, we did OK. There were a few places where the tractor wouldn’t go, so several of us, including myself, took off our shoes and waded in to get blank spots. The cool mud felt good on my feet but I kept stepping on something that wasn’t quite mud and which sometime felt like it moved on its own. I tried not to think too much about though.

As we planted, we tried to find some good country songs to sing but we couldn’t find any that we all knew. We eventually hit on TV tunes that had country themes such as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Green Acres.

After planting Hitomi-san’s place, we walked around to some of the neighbors’ farms. Most were rice farmers, with a few barley fields, but one little old lady owned a beef ranch. It consisted of a smallish building where the cows stay all day long. They don’t move around much at all only changing the pens that they lie in most of the day and are cord fed. Music is pumped into the building to keep the cows happy. Today’s music was a mix of the 80′s and 90′s, perfect music for cows.

Today’s Japanese lesson is from the title of this post. The word for green is midori. However, no I wonder what the Japanese word for redneck is?

Tomorrow, make more stuff up!

UPDATE

After planting, we went back to Hitomi-san’s house for an old fashioned, country meal of sushi and teppanyaki just like Grandma used to make. I think that I had one of the weirdest things that I have eaten so far in Japan, fish eggs. What can I say, they taste like tiny salty grapes. I guess it is an acquired taste.

During the meal, we got to meet Hitomi-san’s son and his family. Dr. Stapp was on the ball with many Arkansas presents for them.

After dinner we played dress up a little. Hitomi-san owns a set of samurai armor. He took out the helmet and let the guys pose for a shot in it. Although it was really neat to wear the helmet, the ladies had a much more fun time with the various kimonos they tried on that night. I think I heard one of the most frightening sounds of the trip when all the girls were in the changing room cackling maniacally while they were getting changed. It still gives me the creeps just to think about it.

This morning was a little sad. Our host families came to see us off and I got to see Hiromi-san, Naho-chan, and the boys for the last time. I gave the boys one last piggy-back ride and twirled them around until none of us could stand up. Before too long, it was time to load up the bus. We said our last farewells, gave out a few hugs and handshakes, and waved a lot when we left the bus. Our last view was of Kajihara-san waving a final good-bye.

The trip back to Kameoka was quite a long. Fortunately a few of us decided to stop in Osaka to see a game of soccer. The match was Cerezo Osaka vs. the Yokohama F Marinos (and I still have no earthly idea what that is). Of course none of us had a stake in the game, we just wanted to have the same experience and scream and yell a little just as we had at the Hanshin Tiger’s game. When we got there, Rebecca freaked out because the team colors were pink and blue and she is a Kappa Delta whose colors are pink and green.

The stadium was a fairly large one with a capacity of 50,000 or so. Today, it was at most about a quarter full. We sat in the home team section a couple of sections down from the hard core fans. They didn’t seem as excited as the Hanshin Tiger’s fans. Of course, soccer is different than baseball. In baseball you know when your team is up and you can organize group cheers a little bit better. There was one cheer that was familiar though. Whenever there was a kick off or when they had to throw the ball back they would make the “whoo” sound and even raise their hands just like the Hog Call. When the ball was put into play, everyone when “hey!”

I kind of wish we had sat with other team, they had a great team spirit. It seemed as if they were cheering and jumping up and down for the entire game and they usually were louder than the local fans.

It seems like we are the harbinger of doom for the local teams. As with the Hanshin Tigers, Osaka lost 0-1 to the Yokohama team just like the Tigers. Maybe we’re just good luck for Yokohama.

After the game we worked our way back to Kameoka where after a little laundry we played a little poker. Not a good night for me though, I swear I never got anything better than a 4 of clubs and a 9 of hearts. Maybe next time.

Tomorrow, down on the farm Japanese style.

Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding’s facility was a truly impressive place. One of the things that distinguished this factory from some of the others we’ve seen is scale. The main production building is a huge, 80 year old facility. All of the tools and workspaces are is much bigger than those we’ve seen to build cell phones.

The shipyard we toured uses 5000 tons of raw steel a month. The typical ship uses 5000 tons of steel to construct. It takes six months from steel cutting to delivery of the ship

To cut the steel, they used powerful cutting equipment plasma torches and lasers. Plasma torches can be used to cut through more steel and aluminum but laser cutters offer better precision. After the steel is cut it is bent into the proper shape using a combination of heat and water. This process requires great amount of skill. Of the 1000 workers at this factory, only 7 are qualified to perform this step. What is finally produced are a series of modules. These modules are sent to the drydock where they are put in place with a series of huge cranes then welded together and finally painted.

MES had two ships in the drydock we visited, a bulk carrier and the biggest aluminum ship in world. They were designing the latter as a catamaran which uses a special alloy to keep the weight down.

In dock they also had a Japanese Navy supply ship. We were asked not to snap any pictures of the ship but I did get a shot of the rising sun flag on its stern. For the Japanese Navy, MES works only on the superstructure, the US provides the weapon and sensor systems.

Our next stop was one of a pair of almost completed ships, a medium sized bulk carrier named Clementine. We got to walk across the deck and up the main superstructure to the bridge. They had quite a few sophisticated instruments including the helm. I got a few shots of the hold but I don’t think they gave the full idea of how big a space these ships hold.

After lunch we visited our friend from last night, Soba-san. He is in charge of manufacturing parts for the big diesel engines that the ships use for propulsion. The engines are so powerful that they are often used by MES’s clients for power production.

We saw among the part we saw in production were such items as the valves, fuel injectors, fuel pumps, special device that improves oil consumption, a precision driller that uses electric voltage to drill holes. All these parts are very expensive. Soba-san gave us some of their defective parts. We were told that the part Dr. Stapp received was worth $500, a very expensive paper weight. The machines in this part of the factor were highly automated requiring only 5 workers to maintain.

Much like Toyota, almost all workers in the plant were male, we saw only one lady working in the plant during our entire tour. In spite of that, Rebecca really wanted to work here. I told her that she needs to know how to swear, drink, and whistle and since we’re in Japan, she needs to know how to do kendo.

The final leg of our tour was their engine testing area. They were huge, immensely loud, and pumped out a lot of heat. I asked Kajihara-san what the differences were between car engines and the engines built at MES. He said that the scaling factor is basically the same as car engine except the cam is 98 cm wide.

After MES, Kajihara-san and our group headed to the ocean for the next activity of the day, a boat ride in the Seto Inland Sea. The Seto Inland Sea is a very shallow area of ocean between two of Japan’s main islands. The area is dotted with thousands of little islands and a ton of shipping goes through it. There is a series of huge bridges that connect two of the main islands, one of which we were told by Kajihara-san, was built by MES.

We first stopped at a small museum overlooking the sea to watch a short film about the area. After posing for several pictures in front of the sea and the bridge, we headed down to the boat. It was an older boat but it moved fast across the waves. Everybody was snapping pictures like crazy at all the beautiful scenery, the islands, the fish, the boats, and the bridges. The had been very warm and uncomfortable but once we got moving on the boat, we cooled down very quickly. The boat ride was about an hour long and over way to quickly.

We returned to the hotel to clean up and get dressed up for dinner with Kajihara-san and his wife Miki-san. Our meal was teppanyaki style with a wonderfully smooth salmon sashimi. It was delicious, of course, but a bit more undercooked than I’m used to.

After dinner we gave Kajihara-san the banzai treatment, throwing him in the air three times. Since this is the fifth or sixth year JSAP has visited, he was prepared. One of our group members saw him removing the items from his pocket before he came outside.

Since it was our final night by the ocean, some of us walked down the beach to a set of observation decks overlooking the sea. We had a great nighttime view of ships passing, the moon, some of the first stars I’ve seen in this country, and people shooting off fireworks from the beach below. We did get a little lost on and unmarked trail since we only had one small flashlight among us but it was a very nice night.

Tomorrow, “home” to Kameoka and maybe a bit of soccer.

I think I now have some sort of inkling of what a rock star feels like. Our destination for today was Hibi Elementary, an 80 year old school located in Tamano City and they absolutely loved us there. The kids at this school spent weeks preparing for our visit. We were warmly welcomed by the faculty with a special speech of greeting from the principal. Dr. Stapp reciprocated by with his own welcoming speech and by presenting an American flag that had flown over the US Capital.

Then the entire school assembled to greet us in the gym. We individually introduced ourselves and a couple of the Hibi students, in a carefully practiced and choreographed manner, gave us a speech of welcome and friendship in both Japanese and English. They then sang the School Song and we responded with the U of A fight song (which only two of us knew all the words to).

Next, the the JSAP group was divided up among the first three grades. Our group was taken in hand and led to our first stop, the 3rd grade. We joined in with the activities of the day. The first was card slapping game where one student calls out the English word and you have to slap the matching card lain out among the rest of the players. I had a hard time with this game because of the previously mentioned finely honed twitch muscles but also because I had to translate from the Japanese pronunciation to English pronunciation. I didn’t do so well. The only card I took as a prize was “Poo Poo.” Parse that as you will.

The second activity was a tiddlywinks type game that the students had made out of cardboard, discarded milk containers and other common items. The board was divided into out of bound pits, ramps, re-shoot areas, and, at the end, a goal area. Beginner’s luck served me well on my first shot and I got a goal right off. I won a little Shrinky Dink dragon. My follow-up shots were not nearly as good though, I got one in an pit and one was just short of the goal.

Next came a yarn wrapping lesson. Several students used my hands as the basis for a variety of cat’s cradle type yarn wraps. Since my hands were relatively big and I kept moving my hands, I always wound up spoiling the shape so the kids had to show me on their hands. The favorite shape to make was a broom which really works since one kid looked a lot like Harry Potter to me.

The final thing we did with the 3rd graders was a calligraphy lesson. We were given brushes of various sizes and instructed on how to write several things in katakana and kanji. That was nice since I need all the help I can get with my Japanese characters.

Lunch was up next and it sure didn’t look like anything I had ever eaten in a cafeteria in America. The students had prepared lunch, as they do every day, and for being school food, it was not bad and all. Afterward, I whipped out my notes from Japanese class. They were very surprised that I understood any Japanese and they were very helpful when I told them I didn’t know much kanji. So they taught me the kanji for man, otoko男, and woman, onna女. Everyone wanted to help me and they offered me great advice on how to draw them.

For lunch recess we played a huge game of dodge ball. There were approximately 47,542 kids on both sides and an even number of JSAP people were on each side. I got a few shots with my camera right in the middle of the action. We didn’t get close to finishing the game but we did have a lot of fun.

Afterward, it seemed like every kid wanted to shake our hand or high five us or be picked up or have their picture taken with us. At one time I was carrying 3 kids, one in each arm and one on my back and still more wanted to be picked up and carried. Most of them had made homemade name cards which we traded for our business cards. They were incredible friendly and incredibly cute.

We were again split up among the 4th through 6th grade classes. The afternoon class we visited was the 6th grade. They all lined up in rows and introduced themselves to us, shook our hands, told us what they liked to do or eat and sometimes what they wanted to be. One girl told me she wanted to be a trimmer. It was very cute because I think she meant she wanted to be a hair stylist. After introductions, they split us again, Kelli and Sergio in one group and me by myself, for two different activities.

In the first group, I was given a Japanese lesson with a few valuable phrases such as “good morning”, “good evening”, “thank you”, and the like. Then to reinforce the lesson we played the fly swatter game. On the chalk board, a card with the Japanese word and a little drawing of the activity behind the phrase was attached to the board. When the teacher called out the phrase, you were supposed to hit the matching card with the flyswatter. I played against a series of students and, since I don’t speak Japanese very well, was given a handicap. The student I was playing against had to stand a few feet away from the board. Again, I think I did OK but those kids are smart and fast.

The next thing we did was probably the coolest thing we did all day, the kids showed me how to write my name in kanji. Since there are several different kanji that have the same sounds, my name could be spelled in multiple different ways. The 6th graders spent a month looking at the various kanji to find a set of kanji that makes sense when the symbols put together. The kanji for Collin Condray is 虎林 根努伶. Collin means “powerful forest” and Condray means “very hard, wise, smart root” which is pretty cool. Since most Japanese names have a specific meaning, they were very surprised to find out I knew what my name meant. We did have a bit of trouble translating “the young fox” into Japanese though.

The next activity the 6th grade had for us was a pop quiz. They asked us several questions about Japan and Hibi Elementary such as “Does Hibi have a pool?” “What is the nearest country to Japan?” “How many prefectures are in Japan?” etc. Some I knew and some I didn’t and some weren’t really fair such as the “Does Hibi have a pool?” question since we were never given a tour of the school. So after the end when we had some spare time I turned the tables on them and started asking them questions about Arkansas. Some of the questions I asked were “Where is Fayetteville?” “What is the state that is closest to Fayetteville?” “What is the capital of Arkansas?”

The final event with the 6th grade was a fan that we made ourselves with personal kanji and our names in kanji on it. I chose the kanji for sword, 剣. It was a very great gift.

One of the last things we did at Hibi was planting an apple tree, the tree of the state of Arkansas. We planted two trees and hopefully it will be there for the JSAP group of 2005.

We got a mammoth send off from the kids at school. As we carted our gear from the school, the kids had lined up along the path from the front door of the school to our bus. We shook hands, high fived, traded business cards, hugged kids we go to know well, and even signed a few autographs. I was suddenly reminded of the video for the song “Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi, especially the scene where they’re all exhausted on the bus. I think some of the other people in my group had the same idea since we broke into a few bars of the song.

For a moment, we confused them as we called the Hogs. But around the 3rd time we called them, they joined it. As we drove away from the school in the bus, we leaned out windows waving goodbye all the way down the driveway of the school until we couldn’t see the kids anymore.

We returned to check into our hotel which was right on the beach of the Seto Inland Sea. The place was very luxurious and I had a fabulous view from our room. There were balconies that ran along the entirety of the hotel where you could pull up a chair and just stare into the ocean.

We didn’t have much time to enjoy our room at this time. We had to meet the challenge laid down by last year’s JSAP group, namely jumping into the Seto Inland Sea which almost everyone took up. The water was cold at the beginning but after you were in for a little while you got used to it and it wasn’t that bad. The water was very salty and had a very awful taste but it was quite buoyant and I was able to float in it. Several of the locals walked by with amused expressions on their faces. They thought we were crazy since it was another 6 or so weeks until swimming season. In a down note, Shannon got stung on her face in a few places by a jellyfish.

Our final event of the day was the Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding’s (MES) Kendo Club. Just about everyone who was there worked for MES and was very high ranked 4th dan or higher. Our host, Kajihara-san was 6th dan and had been practicing kendo for 35 years and has a great kiai (kendo yell). When we arrived at the dojo the members were already practicing so we saw amazing spectacle of kendo prowess. After their warm-up, we got to see two formal bouts, including one with Kajihara-san, and also, the first set of kata done expertly by a couple of instructors. I got most of it on video so I could watch it later.

Our group also got a introduction to kendo from another of the instructors and manager of one of the constructions facilities at MES, Soba-san. He gave us a brief rundown of kendo, the history, the gear, the targets, etc. Then he showed us his katana with an edge AND LET US HOLD IT AND TOUCH OUR HAND TO THE EDGE. If my iaido instructors ever saw this I think they would have a fit. Since the katana is a slicing weapon and not a cutting weapon, we weren’t hurt by merely placing our hand on the edge. The katana has to have a sawing type action to, similar to the act of cutting bread, before it begins to cut. I like my classmates very much, but I had a very queasy feeling when a few of them held the live sword. No offense guys.

Later we were allowed to do a bit of hitting. Alisa, Nhan, and I had had a little kendo before coming over here and I think we surprised the club with our kiai’s and hitting (puny as they were compared to the rest of the club). Our group’s kendo expert is Alisa and I think she got her share of kudos.We got to hit various targets: men (head), kote (wrist), and do (belly). My do strike is not the best and I gratefully received some instruction from one of the instructors on how to make a better do strike.

Tomorrow, MES.