Kendo

Kendo is one of the greatest martial arts, in my personal opionion. Kendo is the sport in which our blond haired bishonen has spent his life practicing. It is a hard sport to learn and partisipating in it is a lot of fun.

Kendo is simple enough to understand. Two kendoists stand inside a circular ring. The goal is to score three (or so) points before your opponent. You can score the points in one of a few ways. The most common is to hit your opponent in one of the four designated areas. These areas are the Men (head), Kote (wrist), Do (abdomen), or Tsuki (Thrust at throat). As the Kendoist makes these attacks they must yell the attack also for it to be counted. Another way is to force your opponent out of the ring. Once a succsfull attack is compleated the two opponents must return to the center of the ring and begin again until one has gained all the points needed to win.

The following are the different parts of the Kendo armor, or Bogu. along with a gi and Hakuma the Kendoist relies on this equimpment to keep them safe.

	This is called the Men, it is the first part of the armor or Bogu I will introduce. It is actually one of the last things the Kendoist will put on before he enters the ring. The design is similar to the helmets worn in traditional Western fencing with the difference: 1) Intead of mesh over the face there are steel cage like face covering. 2) The Men has 'wings' along the side, these are for the purpose of protecting the shoulders when a strike to the head is missed. 3)There is peice over the area of the throat to protect it aginst an attack in that area, called Tsuki. 4) It is tied on. The strings are wrapped around the head a couple of times before being tied in the back. Trust me, once this is on, it's not going to come off. And like most things, right when you get it on, your nose will always begin to itch (And there is no way of scratching it).
These are the gloves/wrist guards, known as the Kote. They protect the Kendoists hands and wrists from attacks in this area and supply a firm grip on one's own Shinai.
	This is the chest armor, or Do. It is designed to protect the belly more than the chest is, since the abdomen is one of the main places of attack in Kendo. It resembles a pot belly when one wears it. Unfortunatly since Kendo was originally a male sport the Do is not made for those of the female race who have any cleavage at all..... Trust me, on this one.
This is the Tare. While it serves to protect the Kendoist from wild and missed attacks it serves more as a peice to help resemble the bogu with it's Samurai haritage.

Other than these articals, the Kendoist weilds a bamboo sword known as a Shinai.

These swords can hurt quite a bit if used on unprotected body parts (Note the note about cleavage in Do above *ouch...*). However if used properly the only injuries a kendoist will probably see are buises and blisters.