Jukendo Training!

On Sunday Mr. Furukawa invited me to come and train with him and his friends in Jukendo. Jukendo is the Japanese martial art of fighting with bayonets. The techniques in Jukendo are like spear fighting. Each person has wooden bayonet and attempts to strike their opponent in the upper left chest region.

It was such a great experience. I learned the 4 main strikes of Jukendo (though I couldn’t really do them very well). I also got to spar. This is where I and another opponent battled to attempt to strike one another in the upper left chest region with our bayonets. It was so much fun. I tried very hard but it was easy for them to block my strikes because they are so experienced.

On the left is me sparring with an opponent!
After I trained in Jukendo we all went out to eat. We had noodles, Yakitori and many other delicious foods. When it came time to pay the bill they told me that they did not want me to pay. They said it was a present. I loved eating lunch with them because these were all true martial artists. There were many conversations about Samurai. They all are striving to be modern day samurai. They believe that Jukendo helps train them to be modern day samurai. One of the men told me he believed that I was "an American Samurai". I can imagine no greater compliment.




Experiences like this make me realize the limits of my own writing abilities. As I look at what I wrote I feel it does no justice to how wonderful an experience this was for me. I loved training in Jukendo. I loved eating the food. I loved being around these men. It was a great experience. I owe this wonderful experience to many people. I want to thank Mr. Furukawa and Masanao Hayashi especially. Masanao thank you for putting me in contact with Mr. Furukawa and all your priceless pieces of information prior to the trip and during the trip. Mr. Furukawa thank you for giving me an unforgettable experience. Your spirit and strength as a human being are an inspiration.