Saturday, September 25, 2010
Annual Recess Week Chalet
By Kenneth
On September 21st 2010, the NUS Kendo Club had our annual recess week chalet at Costa Sands Downtown East, organized by none other than our
beloved welfare head, Kenneth!
The advance party of 7 checked into the chalet room K2003 at 1430 hours after having a very fulfilling lunch at Popeye's. :)
We immediately plugged in the PS3 once we got into the room and proceeded to play with it for most of the rest of the time before everyone else arrived at 6pm for dinner.
(Thanks to those who went to fetch the people who met up at Pasir Ris MRT in place of me. Arigatou!)
After an enjoyable and exciting evening of mingling around over our specially-catered dinner, half of the group decided to catch a movie (or should I say, movies because we couldn't decide between watching Going the Distance or Resident Evil) while the rest continued playing with the PS3. Some people even went to Macs to catch up on their studies and chit-chat.
The night continued with another DVD movie, District 9, and more PS3: Fat Princess. Everyone stayed awake almost past 3AM, with some falling to the lull of snooze earlier.
Following an entire night of little sleep and fun, some of us left following the start of public transport the next morning--how often do you catch the first train in the morning HOME?
The rest of the stayover party checked out at 10am the next morning and had breakfast at the nearby food court, before finally heading back home to have their well-deserved sleep. And that was the end of our chalet!
Here are some pictures taken at the chalet:
(pictures are limited because we are having too much fun to remember to take photos, wahahaha)
Juniors rushing for food
Basketball people coming back for dinner
Everyone deeply engrossed in their dinner ^^
Our Vice-Capt (hogging the PS3)
Very cool pose by our treasurer xD
Naruto!!!
Totally lost in the world of PS3
While the others are chilling outside
Movie party 1: Resident Evil
Movie Party 2: Going the Distance
Lastly, although this chalet will not have happened without the
meticulous and painstaking planning of the welfare head,
it will not be a success if not for the support of the members!So I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following groups of people:
- Oke, for volunteering to bring down his Playstation 3 for everyone to play! The chalet would have been very different if there was no PS3 to entertain us
- Wen Hao, for bringing his Playstaion Move! Everyone had so much fun playing around with the Move (Gladiator Fight, kendo-style!)
- Maureen and Chee Fung for joining us at midnight despite it being right after a physically taxing four-day-long Nexus camp with the Sports Club!
- And of course, all the seniors and juniors who came to the chalet!
We hope you all enjoyed yourselves and got to know more about each other.Look forward to the next chalet! (^o*)
Welcome Tea 2010
By Maureen
Our annual Welcome Tea was held on the 16th of August at MPSH6 this year. It was refreshing to see many new faces who were interested in finding out more about kendo and our club!
Visitors to the dojo are greeted by our Floor Managers of the day
We have very good business (:
Participants were spilt into groups! Introduction time ensues.
Some participants get to try out sitting in seiza position.
Our seniors don their bogu and prepare themselves for the various demonstrations
President Chee Fung addressing the large turnout of visitors.
We officially begin our Welcome Tea!
Demonstrating the kihon cuts that we practise in training
Demonstrating a shiai (tournament) scenario with a shimpan (referee)
Demonstrating kata practice
Our participants look on with great interest
Chee Fung helps to explain what each demonstration is for
Following our demonstrations, we proceed to allow our participants to try some hands-on activities, and at the same time help to explain the basis behind the previous demonstrations.
Booth 1: The Art of Cutting
Zehao & Weber
At this booth, Zehao explained the basics on how to cut and the target points which are mainly Men (head), Kote (forearm) and Do (chest plate).
Booth 2: The Art of Protection
Weilun & Gervinn & Benjamin Tan
Gervinn and Weilun gave an explanation on the parts of the Bogu (armor). The freshies were also given the option to try on some parts of the bogu!
Booth 3: The Art of Swinging
Wenhao & Hai Hsian
Wenhao demonstrated on how to hold the shinai (bamboo blade) and also the brief mechanism behind the swinging of the shinai. The freshies held the shinai and did some basic suburi exercises (cuts) to get the feel of swinging the shinai!
Kitt, Shannon & Jesse
Kitt, Shannon and Jesse gave an explanation on what is Kata and why we practice it. The bokkens (wooden blades) were handed out to allow the freshies to hold and feel it. They were also taught various kemai positions such as jodan.
At the end of the day we were highly satisfied with our work! The welcome tea was a great success (:
If you missed our Welcome Tea,
or signing up for our Beginner's course,
Don't forget that there's always next year (: