Olin Tallinnassa treenaamassa naginataa, se oli kivaa! Tunnelmia reissun varrelta. Tuttuun tapaan määrä ennen laatua ”:P / Some memories from a naginata seminar in Tallinn. Fun times! Quantity over quality, as always…

If you want attention, carry a long stick with you in public.

/ Do you have flag poles there? / Are you girls into javelin throw? /
/ Girls going fishing, ha? / Looong stick – cool..! /

On tying an obi

/ The movie Memoirs of a Geisha has this line: She doesn’t know anything about tying an obi! / For a long time it made me think only this: -Oh dear. Anakin, no. /
/ But now I find myself to be in possession of obi – and I don’t know anything about tying it! /
/ May I help (not question) / … /
/ There! -Do you leave the ends loose? Bennet says it should be a bow. / Oh it’s because the Japanese don’t have butts! /

It was in fact the second time ever I was training with full bogu armour.

/ Strike, regroup, step, strike again, regroup and go on! / Ooooh shiiii… /
/ I’m so slow no everyone is watching aah what was I supposed to do my pair must hate me /
/ And now let’s pretend we’re tigers! -So unfair! I’d rather be there! /

On importance of correct words / Puhu äänellä jonka kuulen, sanoilla jotka ymmärrän

/ Flip your opponents naginata and strike sune / *lightsaber noises / Please use correct words! /
/ Sensei, question! -He doesn’t hear us / *in French: question! (-> a Belgian) /

/ And here are Ina’s naginata comics– -And so much Turtles fanart !!! /

/ Check-out day! We must eat our stuff from the fridge. / What are you having for breakfast? -Sauerkraut. You? -Borscht. /

/ We’re leaving! Bye! -Bye! Hope everything works out with the taxi! / Is it just me or did that sound a little ominous? /
/ Five passengers? There’s no room! -It was supposed to be a van! / Right, let’s get a bus. / Change on the next! /
/ No no no you can’t enter with those sticks! -We have a ferry to catch! / I googled another route! Where’s the stop?! /
/ Phew, we still had six minutes marginal! / I’ve nothing smart to say really except do be careful with those taxis. /

/ …some sort of kendo maybe / Yass! Golden star! Wohoo! /

One of Kirsi-sensei’s animals was war horse. Here’s how I imagine a horse would use naginata.

Horse’s qualitys are strength and stamina and it can attack forcefully with swift movements. On the other hand, it’s attacks are easy to predict which can be used to your advance.

^This is humour. It’s how I imagine war horse would work. I didn’t hear Kirsi-sensei’s reasoning about animals as I was dying of cringe inside the bogu ”:D Too bad… (next time baby)