Hoku Tozai Taikai 2019 – Rapport

25 Swedes went to Turkku in Finland to train with and fight 27 Finns.

The trip there was by Viking Line and filled with anticipation.

Whereas the day of arrival was slightly more luke warm

We started off the Saturday with some team work wherein international groups wrere tasked with setting up shiaijo’s etc

This was followed by general Shiai and Taikai science where instructions and advice for both Shinpan and Shiai-sha was discussed.

In the afternoon we did shiai and shinpan practice followed by Ji-Geiko.

Of course no kendo event is complete without a proper after tsuki and this time was no different. Our nice hosts took us to Panimoravintolakoulu were nice foods and beverages was plenty.

On sunday we had no lesss than 80 matches where each participant did at least 3. Some videos can be found on our youtubechannel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbVKmiSh0sm7yCgOsowPXzA/

And the results are found here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1371oxpcCPppsceAI8on4LjyijIL8RcGPDqXz8OObkHc/edit?usp=sharing

We finished it all off with some ji-geiko before the Swedish team made its way to the boat and started the long journey home. Some even enjoyed balloon-keiko

All in all it was an awesome weekend. Thank you Finland for your hospitality, we look forward to hosting the next Hoku Tozai Taikai in 2020.