Ian Benedict

The fall semester is drawing to a close with only a few assignments and the exams remaining. Overall, I think I enjoyed my courses a lot more than I thought I would. Computer graphics was a pretty interesting course and actually put those dull linear algebra classes to use. I hope next semester is just as good, if not better.

On the gaming front, I finally got my hands on a PSP slim. It has opened a huge door to multitudes of Japanese RPGs and an assortment of other PSP exclusive games. My favourites so far would have to be Crisis Core and Initial D: Street Stage. Being able to play PS1 games on it pretty much sweetened the deal for me. As well, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix finally hit Xbox Live! Being the huge Street Fighter dork that I am, I had to pick this up. This game has been rebalanced by David Sirlin, who is a competitive tournament player and Capcom employee. It’s a must-have if you’re into fighting games at all, and it’s available on both XBLA and PSN.

I’d better wrap up now and get back to studying.

The long and excruciating semester continues. However, I have managed to take some of my free time and dedicate it to a new interest which I’ve always wanted to pursue, Kendo.

First off, let me go into a little bit into Kendo. Kendo is a Japanese martial art. It is a fencing art, where each kendoka (Kendo practitioner) wields a shinai (bamboo sword) and attempts to strike the opposing kendoka in one of four target areas. These targets include the men (head), do (body), kote (hands) and tsuki (throat). They also wear the bogu (protective armour). Here is an image of what a standard kendoka looks like with the bogu and shinai, as well as the target areas which are marked off. This fencing style isn’t exactly the way samurai wield katanas in battle, rather it is a derived “sport” form from the actual technique known as Kenjutsu (much like how the sport of fencing was derived from older fencing techniques).

So how do Kendo competitions work? In a shiai (competition), the first kendoka to reach two ippon (points) is considered the winner. An ippon is awarded by not only a valid cut to one of the target areas, but also by a kendoka’s display of intention and control during the cut.

I’ve signed up to my university’s Kendo club for the semester to try it out and see if it’s something I’d like to pursue. So far I am enjoying the training and the drills. I even went so far as to buy a practice shinai of my own after the second class because I was so enamoured with it.

Well, other than Kendo, I’ve been up to pretty much nothing else but studying and strength training. I’m considering getting back into tennis, but that will have to wait for now. I’ll leave you now with a nice video that pretty much sums up Kendo.