First acquaintance

Four years ago, during the summer after I graduated from junior high school, I was given a rare period of free time to do what I wanted to do.

Before that, I was a student who rarely exercised, and now I was determined to get in shape effectively. I spent almost all of my junior high school years studying hard to make sure I could get into the high school I desired. At the same time, I was interested in traditional Chinese martial arts, so I decided to find a local martial arts school to study martial arts.

Fortunately, one evening while walking in Riverside Park not far from home, I spotted a martial arts school that had just opened, and I was so surprised that I decided to check it out the next day.

The next morning I went to the martial arts school and in talking with the director, I learned that it was a kendo school and she gave me a preliminary introduction to what kendo was. The curator told me that Kendo is a competitive sport that originated in China and developed in Japan, which made my curiosity and anticipation for Kendo even stronger because it allowed me to learn about traditional Chinese and Japanese cultures that I was very interested in while practicing Kendo.

Although the curator warned me that practicing Kendo would be a long and arduous process, I remained determined to practice because I wanted to participate in something challenging and meaningful.