Dojo news

Today, Spreadshirt are running a 50% discount on their ‘American Apparel’ triblend hoodie in the color ash. This seemed like to great a deal to pass up, so I quickly made two new RSJ sweaters.

This offer is only valid today (wednesday 09/01) and only for the ash colored (grey) sweater. Buy the sweater over here and enter coupon code “colourblaze3“. The price of the sweater will drop from E38,90 to E19,45. Shipping costs roughly E5.

Tomorrow I will remove the sweater from the shop again.

BEWARE! Effectively immediately, we will hold regular shinai checks at the start of class. Anyone whose shinai does not pass muster will not be allowed to participate in class. Instead you will spend the duration of class repairing all of the spare dojo-shinai, fixing your own shinai at home.

So! Before each class, make sure that:

• … there are no splinters.
• … there are no other defects.
• … the tsuru is tight.
• … the nakayui is tight and cannot move freely.

Remember that we’re not doing this to annoy or pester you, these rules are for everyone’s safety!

Last saturday’s performance was disgraceful, with ~70% of the attending students needing to repair their shinai.

We would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to mr S. Tanida, who achieved the rank of 5th dan at the recent ABKF Winter Seminar in Brussels. A great achievement indeed!

Just wanted to let you know that our online calendar and the iCal / Google Calendar that go with it have been updated. Our agenda currently matches what has so far been published by NKR and a few other dojo.

Renshinjuku kendo dojo would like to wish all our students and friends a happy new year! We hope that 2013 will bring you good health, success in your daily life and many improvements in your kendo!

We would also like to invite you to our New Year’s buffet, on the 12th of january. Please join us for our communal training and the “pot luck” feast that follows.

Renshinjuku kendo dojo was mentioned in the winter edition of the tenth volume of the Amstelveen Internationaal news letter. This is the PDF version.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Dutch.

In a few weeks, at the end of January, the Almere dojo will host their semi-annual kyu gradings. While they are in no way official ranks related to the NKR/EKF, our internal shinsa are a nice way of determining one’s progress.

Our internal exams are a nice preparation for the official NKR ikkyu shinsa, hopefully lowering any nervousness or fears student may feel. They are also a nice confidence boost for our beginners to whom kendo class may often seem like an endless repetition of “not good enough!“. Getting confirmation that you are actually making progress, which you might not notice every week, is very pleasant.

Students are advised to properly prepare for the exams, as if attending a real shinsa. Read through our shinsa prep guide and then read through our various study materials.

Dear kenshi,

Please be aware that the dojo will be closed on 25/12, 29/12 and 01/01. Saturday 22/12 will be the last training of 2012 in Amstelveen. Almere’s last training was on the 15th, so they’re closed an additional week.

We will commence training on saturday 05/01.

In the mean time, we advise that all students make good use of this spare time, to do maintenance on their equipment! We don’t want to see splintered or damaged shinai in January!

Renshinjuku’s students would like to extend their best wishes to Heeren-sensei in his new commercial undertaking: iParking Schiphol.

Starting this month, Heeren-sensei now runs a valet parking company mainly targeting travelers departing from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. Their services are however also available for events and other occasions.

Should you require valet parking on the short term, you might be interested in their current introductory offer of 56% discount.