Saturday was the last training officially for the semester since at our uni this coming week is StuVac (study vacation) before exams. Thanks to this we can not get hall hire as they use it as part of exams.
We also had Womens training at the same time where Shoko Bunder from Woollongong came up and lead a women only training session at our club using half the hall. This left the male half of our club to do our regular training. We did share warmup which was slightly different to our usual warmup in the sense that there was more different stretches and different cuts. Also more running holding onto the shinai; to me it felt like we were practicing and re-enacting the old days of running to battle carrying our katana by our sides as we jogged to the battlefront lol.
For our training on the club side, we did our usual 30 second blocks of hayasuburi where I managed 53 in the first set and then 46 in the second, then we had 1 kiai hayasuburi before getting into rotational waza. We did kihon men, kote and dou cuts without stepping in with the right foot, then the same for small cuts. Then we practiced hiki waza before a tsubazeriai punching waza (as written about in my kendo blog). Then we finished with jigeiko before there was a little bit of a farewell Shiai practice between our club coach and the person leaving.
Wasn't too heavy, but tiring still and I was still working on gripping very hard with my left so it was quite sore. Additionally, it was the first time I went "traditional" in wearing the hakama LOL If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. If you are still curious, think about one of Arnold Schwarznegger's classic movies and the title of it..... Hahahaha. Anyway, I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon because while it was initially fairly comfortable, once I got moving around and sweating, it definitely was not so comfy.... But, you have to try it once I guess. That is probably also why some people traditionally also had fundoshi for this purpose, to deal with sweat.
After training, a small group of us went and had lunch at a place called Chinese Noodle King just off Harris St, in a small laneway behind the Argincourt Hotel on the corner of Broadway and Harris St. It was quite small in terms of inside space though it had an upstairs and outside seating area, but it wasn't dirty or anything. The menu was okay though they had lots of dishes not on offer anymore since they struck them off the list with black marker.
I got a fried hand-made noodle with lamb, while the others had hot and sour noodle soup and lamb skewers. The price wasn't bad for the volume $10.80 for mine for a big plate. It wasn't too salty or spicey either having a lot of chopped green chilli that gave a bite but not a bad hot burn. Actually a pretty well balanced dish.
Post lunch (where we discussed geography, school subjects, superannuation and other stuff) we wandered downtown to Town Hall area and had some window shopping since one of the girls wanted to get new shoes for winter. A few stores later we ended up at Myers where they had a stocktake sale going for the End of Financial Year season. She eventually found a pair of brown calf length boots for $69 on sale. We had a look upstairs also at some "hip" clothing and menswear in terms of suits/jackets/coats and accesories but no-one bought anything else.
One interesting thing though was their announcements where they had some very "clipped" voices, sounding almost robotic/automated/computerised telling people about their special discounts for "today only". I wonder if anyone ever bothers coming back each day to see if they are truly only for that day or not....
Afterwards it was back via the train stations (with a stop at the Town Hall Woolworths for a drink and muffins for someone who was hungry) and back to uni where my car was parked before I went home. Long day, but a good day with some fun conversation and company.
We also had Womens training at the same time where Shoko Bunder from Woollongong came up and lead a women only training session at our club using half the hall. This left the male half of our club to do our regular training. We did share warmup which was slightly different to our usual warmup in the sense that there was more different stretches and different cuts. Also more running holding onto the shinai; to me it felt like we were practicing and re-enacting the old days of running to battle carrying our katana by our sides as we jogged to the battlefront lol.
For our training on the club side, we did our usual 30 second blocks of hayasuburi where I managed 53 in the first set and then 46 in the second, then we had 1 kiai hayasuburi before getting into rotational waza. We did kihon men, kote and dou cuts without stepping in with the right foot, then the same for small cuts. Then we practiced hiki waza before a tsubazeriai punching waza (as written about in my kendo blog). Then we finished with jigeiko before there was a little bit of a farewell Shiai practice between our club coach and the person leaving.
Wasn't too heavy, but tiring still and I was still working on gripping very hard with my left so it was quite sore. Additionally, it was the first time I went "traditional" in wearing the hakama LOL If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. If you are still curious, think about one of Arnold Schwarznegger's classic movies and the title of it..... Hahahaha. Anyway, I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon because while it was initially fairly comfortable, once I got moving around and sweating, it definitely was not so comfy.... But, you have to try it once I guess. That is probably also why some people traditionally also had fundoshi for this purpose, to deal with sweat.
After training, a small group of us went and had lunch at a place called Chinese Noodle King just off Harris St, in a small laneway behind the Argincourt Hotel on the corner of Broadway and Harris St. It was quite small in terms of inside space though it had an upstairs and outside seating area, but it wasn't dirty or anything. The menu was okay though they had lots of dishes not on offer anymore since they struck them off the list with black marker.
I got a fried hand-made noodle with lamb, while the others had hot and sour noodle soup and lamb skewers. The price wasn't bad for the volume $10.80 for mine for a big plate. It wasn't too salty or spicey either having a lot of chopped green chilli that gave a bite but not a bad hot burn. Actually a pretty well balanced dish.
Post lunch (where we discussed geography, school subjects, superannuation and other stuff) we wandered downtown to Town Hall area and had some window shopping since one of the girls wanted to get new shoes for winter. A few stores later we ended up at Myers where they had a stocktake sale going for the End of Financial Year season. She eventually found a pair of brown calf length boots for $69 on sale. We had a look upstairs also at some "hip" clothing and menswear in terms of suits/jackets/coats and accesories but no-one bought anything else.
One interesting thing though was their announcements where they had some very "clipped" voices, sounding almost robotic/automated/computerised telling people about their special discounts for "today only". I wonder if anyone ever bothers coming back each day to see if they are truly only for that day or not....
Afterwards it was back via the train stations (with a stop at the Town Hall Woolworths for a drink and muffins for someone who was hungry) and back to uni where my car was parked before I went home. Long day, but a good day with some fun conversation and company.
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