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.

Antwerp kendo training

Posted on April 08 2026

After Covid, we visited Antwerp again to train kendo.
It is tough training at speed again, that could also be due to my age, good to pick it up again and catch up until next time!