Japan Travel - Part 4: Buying a Katana in Kyoto, Sword Training at Yushin Dojo

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Day 15 was the last full day in Japan. My main goal was to buy the custom katana that I saved up for since my last visit and try a tourist samurai sword (katana) experience. It was a great way to end the trip and I plan to buy the companion wakazashi sword next year!

A few things to note. First of all, I'm a karateka (karate practitioner) but love martial arts from all over the world - including sword arts like katana, longsword, rapier, etc. Also, I practiced kendo for a few years with my kids and hold ikkyu (1st kyu) rank, so a katana based class REALLY interested me.

Tozando Shop
@TOZANDOINTL
This is my second visit and have made several purchases now. Last year when my son and I visited, we talked about buying a sword but wasn't sure on price. However, we explored and learned from their professional staff. While the swords we wanted at the time were outside of our travel budget since it was unplanned - we did buy some hand forged knives. After that, we talked about what we wanted to do in the future and he's next to buy his custom sword. In the future we will also buy wakazashi and finally a shinken (sharp katana).

Let's Ask Shogo
On the YouTube channel @LetsaskShogo he explores many different katana sword arts of various schools and styles and never claims to be an 'expert', but a student just like me. In addition, Shogo-san is an actual Pro YouTuber (unlike me), who creates a ton of high quality content teaching many cultural and social aspects of Japan as well.
I very highly recommend his channel as it's entertaining as well.
Shogo-san also is involved in another style of martial art under another instructor that I will try on my next visit to Japan... Stay tuned!

Yushin Dojo
I will not claim to be knowledgeable on these topics as I'm still learning. I'm still trying to learn the names of sword components. I can tell that Yushin Sensei is very passionate about swords and I actually feel like I walked away with a lot of of new knowledge! He and Osayo Sempai are a really good team! There is so much more that I want to learn and in the future would like to continue training at his dojo as a regular student with my son. After his robotics competition season ends, we may enroll in his dojo together. It's something to try.👍

The link to the AirBnb and TripAdvisor experience is here for those interested. This was so much fun and the price is so reasonable! I highly recommend it:

In conclusion, I'm so happy to have been able to experience this. It's actually given me motivation to improve my martial arts knowledge, appreciate katana arts more, and improve my Japanese language skills even more!

Chapters - Feel free to skip anything you want:
00:00 Tozando Shogoin Store (sword purchase)
01:10 Yushin Dojo & Shogo's Channel
01:39 How to Handle Katana -Shogo
05:32 Learning Kata - Yushin Sensei
07:42 Solo Kata - Me!!!!
08:16 Mat Cutting Demo - Osayo Sempai
09:41 Mat Cutting Practice - Me Again!!!
11:59 Two Sword Demo - Yushin Sensei
12:48 Conveyor Belt Sushi
13:18 Goodbye Japan

Months later after returning to Minnesota, my learning has continued to move forward. Work has kept me very busy and it's hard to make these videos, study, train, exercise, sing, etc .. But I'm squeezing in the moments and my motivation has been high this whole time.

Whatever your reason for pursuing a topic, it's that purpose and passion that really keeps things going. Stay motivated everyone!!!!

Final Note: I did get permission from them to use my photos and video - which I'm using to share and promote the dojo and Shogo-san's channel. If for any reason in the future, they decide there is content that should NOT be posted, I may change a few segments at their request.

Only equipment used for this video:
Audio - Voice over and talking head - RAZR Mini Condenser Mic, Outdoors - Cheap USB lapel mic
Additional voiceover and vocals, I recorded in my car...the sound isolation is much better there! LOL
Video - Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (portrait, HD and 4k footage)

#kendo #japan #kyoto