Korean Kendo

In order to up my marketability as an all around awesome dude (obviously just going to China isn't enough), I've taken up Kendo lessons.

The whole thing was found by Aaron, one of my coworkers. It's taught by Koreans who speak no English and very little Chinese. My Chinese is slightly above nonexistent, and although Aaron's is significantly better, it doesn't really help much. But when you see how awesome you look in the full on get up, holding a bamboo practice sword - you know that you're willing to work through the language barrier to pick up some incredible new fighting moves.

The place where we take the lessons is also worthy of note. It's on the top floor of a somewhat legal technology market in downtown Dalian. You enter the market and go up three floors on an escalator. Then, you come to two nonworking ones. You climb the first one, and if you're lucky, the second one also. Things weren't that easy when I went though. The way to the second stalled escalator is blocked by a gate, so we had to hop the escalators (narrowly avoiding a deathly technological fall).

Of course, I wouldn't have had it any other way. It's all part of learning a Japanese sword fighting martial art that's been co-opted by Koreans who claim it as their own in China, despite speaking no Chinese.

Updates on this latest endeavor will be forthcoming in the next few months, with pictures to boot.

- Shawn