Fall Announcements

Hello everyone! I hope y’all had a great summer. There is a LOT of things to discuss, so I’ll cut right to the chase.

I recently caught wind that Ariga-sensei, the regional federation president, might be close to selling his home, so Miami Valley will be holding a farewell practice and party on September 2^nd. Practice will be from 11 AM to 1:30 PM and the party is currently planned to be at Deja Brew, located directly across the street from the dojo. Keep in mind that this falls on a Sunday, thus, Saturday practice is canceled. If you have any extra time between loads of homework and stuff, please come and say goodbye before he moves away (though he’ll still be the federation president :P) And while we are on the subject of Miami Valley, for the past few weeks, the times had been altered to accommodate the Japanese Language School in Columbus while they were off for their summer vacation. It looks like it’s over now so, starting this Saturday, practice will be back to its normal time of 11 AM ~ 1:30 PM.

On the home front, UC Kendo practices will be starting up again this coming Monday on August 27^th in Multipurpose Room B from 8:30 to 10:30. Whether you’ve been practicing for 10 years or barely heard of Kendo until…now…all are welcome to join us for some fun times. We had some great events over the past year so let’s try to keep that going!

I’ve been hearing about quite a few tournaments down the pipeline. If you have bogu, you are eligible to participate. Here’s a brief rundown of the ones I can think of:

Cleveland Student Tournament - Eligible for those that are currently in college or recent grads scheduled for September 28^th-30^th at Case Western Reserve. There will also be a shinsa for those testing up to 3^rd Dan on Saturday with the tournament happening on Sunday. Based on the information packet, the due date for turning in testing applications is September 21^st and the due date for the tournament is up in the air (but safe to assume that it’s due on the same day as the testing form). For more information, you can go to http://www.clevelandkendo.com/student_cup and download all the necessary forms and stuff. If we can, we should try to send everything to them at once, so please find out if you’re able to go ASAP so we can plan stuff out.

2012 SEUSKF Tournament – The tournament will be held in Atlanta on October 7^th and promotion exams will be held on October 6^th. This tournament is available for everyone that is wearing bogu. I will have to clear this with my parents, but since the tournament location is about 15 minutes from my parents’ house, then we can possibly stay there and save some money. The tournament and testing (up to 4^th Dan) application deadline is September 10^th, so we’ll need to decide on who will be able to go quickly and arrange money and stuff. Please see the link (http://www.atlantakendokai.org/2012/08/01/2012-seuskf-tournament/) for more information and the tournament packet.

Midwest Kendo Tournament – The annual tournament will be held in Madison, WI on October 29^th with applications due by October 18^th. Word has it that we might have our Johnson Cup/Testing around the same time, so this tournament might be a no-go for us. Nonetheless, the PDF with the application forms can be found here (http://www.midwestkendo.com/images/Forms/mwkf%20taikai%20madison%202011.pdf).

Johnson Cup/Testing – This is more of a heads up than anything, but we are planning on doing the annual Johnson Cup and testing in late October. Details are still being formed, but I will let you know as soon as I get more information.

I will try to update the calendar with all the dates and information (can be found on the sidebar to the right) as soon as I have the opportunity. Let’s try to make this year as successful as we can!

--Chris George