The day I broke my wrist I had signed up for Kendo classes. Breaking my wrist kind of put a damper on that adventure. I still have my Bogen and my Shinai (somewhere…) though!

I don’t have many skills outside of movies and writing, and martial arts can be a great way to get exercise and get one’s self in tune with their body. Earlier last summer I took Muy-Thai lessons in some dude’s garage but I put an end to that because he was kind of weird. I mean, he knew what he was talking about and he was great at what he did, I just didn’t want that kind of influence to be such a psycho.

So, right now I’m really interested in learning the Japanese sport of Kendo and it’s cousin, the art of Iaido. I love swords, and I’m fascinated by Samurai (moreso than Ninjas), so this seems like the perfect art for me when it comes to weapons training.

As far as hand-to-hand combat goes, I’d really like to get my hands dirty with Krav Maga. It’s the same fighting style used by Matt Damon when he played Jason Bourne in the Bourne films. I took a free class once and got the snot beat out of me by a 5’1” bald Hungarian. He round-housed me into a wall…not pretty.

The downside is that martial arts is EXPENSIVE to learn, especially on the West Coast. I may not be able to accomplish all of this until later in the year, but we’ll see how it goes, right?