Odessa.

After 2 days of kendo in Chisinau, Moldova, taking the bus to Odessa?a journey of about 5 hours via Starlink?quite doable, though... a two-lane road reminds me of the bus trip from Kiev to Kharkiv, not like we are used to in the West; a different way of driving.
Fortunately, I arrived safely in Odessa after a tense bus ride. For a city at war, the people are actually quite relaxed; life goes on.
Kendo is quite different from Chisinau; a free interpretation of kendo, not what I am used to. Chisinau has better technical execution, and I don't have to explain much regarding kihon. Time to wake up; in Odessa, 2 days of explanation of Reiho kendo is something you do together, not alone, so there is little kendo & naginata. If you spend an hour on shinai maintenance and putting on bogu, there is little left to practice kendo & naginata, or to socialize with each other. It is quite difficult to train safely, especially how to put on a men.

Anyway, we trained kihon ichi in bogu on how to do an ippon.
Maybe until next time.

Kendo lesson Nehalennia

Posted on April 18 2026

The annual kendo class at a secondary school in Middelburg.

The annual kendo class at Nehalennia secondary school was once again a full class; 25 children participated in the kendo introduction class. A practical coach was also present; we had a nice conversation with her about the children. Jonas and Sverre enjoyed teaching kendo; see you next year then, with some fries.