A note of thanks

Minako and Ian Jackson from Smiles for Japan have sent through a message of thanks to all those who took part in the display at CUC at the weekend. Joe will write up a little report when he gets chance but in the mean time here's what minako had to say:

We would like to express our big thanks to all the Liverpool Kendo Club members for presenting the demonstration at Smiles For Japan event last Saturday. We heard quite a lot of positive comments about the demonstration, people were thrilled and impressed. Some commented 'artistic' too.

Please pass our gratitude to Sensei and other members for us. Also please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused with regards to the facilities arrangement.

We hope that everyone had sometime to look around and enjoy other parts of the event as well.

This Smiles For Japan event has raised £3,408.00 and we have handed over the money to British Red Cross yesterday.

Thank you very much once again for taking part of Smiles For Japan.

Best wishes,
Minako & Ian Jackson
Liverpool For Japan/Artinliverpool.com

My own personal thanks to those who stepped in to help with the display.

Smiles for Japan Charity Event

Just a reminder we have been asked to put on another performance at Smiles for Japan

This is a day and Night of Music, Performance, Film, Art & Fun! Give your smiles and support from Liverpool to Japan, here are the details:

Venue: CUC Liverpool, 41 -51 Greenland Street, Liverpool, L1 0BS 
Date: Saturday 14 May 2011, from noon til late. Entry by donations.

Any volunteers please step forward to help with our display. We have been asked to be there for 3pm



BKA AGM

For those that are interested this years BKA Annual General Meeting is scheduled as follows: Date: Saturday 21st May
Location: Caroline Chisholm School, Wooldale Rd, Wootton, Northampton NN4 6TP
Map Link: Here
You can find more information about the AGM and all of the End of Year Reports here:
http://kendo.org.uk/agm/

As the AGM also includes over two and a half hours of kendo with the most senior kendoka in the country it may be worthwhile considering attending [sadly I'll be on holiday]. At the very least, take a look at the reports and see what is going on with the Association. The BKA is it's members, that's you, you pay to be a part of it so it's worth your while to understand what goes on, and if you can add more to the Association than just your weekly practice.

Flickr

I mentioned in the past that I had set up a Flickr account to display photographs of the club. I've just added photos from the BKA Seminar and Kyusha Taikai and also a few photos from the display for the Etsu Restaurant Japan Fun Day.

The plan is eventually to link these images to our gallery page, which I'm trying to figure out, but in the mean time you can access them directly via the links.

Etsu Restaurant Japan Fun Day Charity Event

If you recall last week Joe mentioned the Japan Fun Day organised by Etsu Restaurant Liverpool (where we had our Christmas Meal) which was yesterday.

Firstly I have to apologise for turning up late, by the time I got there the first display was already underway. Sensei Ware, Joe Willmott, Geunsu Lee and Kobudokan Kendo Club and GB Squad member Tom Widdows put on a demonstration of kata, kiri-kaeshi, cutting each of the targets and finished with jigeiko. After they finished, and I'd accepted the jokes about my poor time-keeping ;) I was informed that the other martial arts demonstrations had been cancelled due to various reasons. Which was sad but also a prime opportunity for us to show what kendo was about.

We put on two more demonstrations around displays from a Taiko Drumming Group. It was made difficult with the fact that we were practicing on granite paving slabs but we put on a spirited display with many people impressed by our efforts. Hopefully a lot of money was raised.

Further to our display we have been asked to put on another performance at Smiles for Japan

This is a day and Night of Music, Performance, Film, Art & Fun! Give your smiles and support from Liverpool to Japan, here are the details:

Venue: CUC Liverpool, 41 -51 Greenland Street, Liverpool, L1 0BS 
Date: Saturday 14 May 2011, from noon til late. Entry by donations.

We believe this will be an even bigger event than Monday so we would ask for any volunteers to step forward to help with our display.