European Kendo Championships in Helsinki

Last weekend the EKC was held in Helsinki, the second time in Finland. The 1st time was in 1993 in Turku. This time I went to see and to help a little bit the organisation.

The Championships ran very smoothly and everything was well under control. Congratulations for the Finnish organisation for the great job!


What comes to the championships, there were plenty of excellent shiais, a lot of energy, beautiful points,... and great atmosphere! I took some photos during the women's fights. There were 3 dedicated photographers in the tournament; thousands of photos will be made available very shortly.

The Party on Sunday night was also great fun. The Micragirls were playing some very energetic music. You might not like it (most of the foreigners were just looking completely astonished of the music...), but at least there was loads of energy in the night club during their performance.

Car-free Sunday in Brussels

The annual car-free Sunday took place this past weekend. It's really good to see how well the rule of no engine vehicles allowed to the city - actually inside the ring! - is respected. All the entrances from the ring highway were closed; no one without a special permit, was allowed in.

The pedestrians, roller-skaters and bikers took over the city. Even during the Xmas shopping time there are not so many people in the streets as there were on Sunday. I took these photos in the center of the city.


We had walk around the Basilique of Kokoelberg, where there is a big Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, and the center of the city. There was a lot going on; in streets corners soft drink companies were distributing cans to everyone who passed by, some chocolate shops were distributing little chocolates, glass bottles with coloured paper messages inside were also given to everyone who cared to carry one (that was done by Passa Porte), a ship with pirattes was lost in the middle of the crowds, TV crews and police men were wandering with the crowds,... it was quite surrealist.

There were many little places to eat and drink. We had some Spanish tapas in Place Ste Catherine and a coffee in one little café. I found this café so nice that I was thinking to come back this week; unfortunately it was 'open' only this weekend, as many other little 'un-official' cafés.

I was thinking of starting roller-skating in order to be ready for next year's car-free Sunday...

Naginata World Championships 2007

The 4th Naginata World Championships were held yesterday in Brussels. It was quite surprising to see all the different types of competition they have: rhythm naginata, engi and shiai. Naginata is still very young in terms of international competitions: only 12 countries participated in the Championships!

The most different form of naginata was the rhythm naginata. The teams had created their own choreography based on the naginata movements. The jury gave points for musicianship, construction, artistry, content and technique. I took a little video of Japan's performance; they were the 2nd.

Japan took the 1st and 2nd places in the engi competition, as well as in the women's individual competition. Belgium did very well: they won the rhythm naginata and got the 3rd and 4th places in the engi and the 3rd place in women's competition. Congratulations to all!

We couldn't follow the whole day and therefore don't know what happened in the men's individual and team competitions.

Helsinki Cup & Pequeninos do Jockey

Helsinki Cup is one the world's largest football tournaments for young people, for both girls & boys. For years I used to go to see the matches with good friends of mine. We were always cheering for the Pequeninos do Jockey, not the least because we had known the founder, Sr Guimaraes, for a number of years.

Two out their three teams made it until the semi-finals this year. Unfortunately they both lost. The picture above was taken during the penalties. The team that was not playing with the ball was playing the samba ensuring the good Brasilian atmosphere during the match.


We have a little godson, Gugu, who was also enjoying the games with the other Brasilian youngsters.

Noh sensei in Brussels

We had a great seminar with Noh sensei in the end of March. It was good to meet friends all over Europe and to practise kendo together.

The 13th World Kendo Championships

The championships were held in Taipei, December 8-10 2006. The biggest news of the event was that Japan's men's team lost in the semi-finals to USA. First of all Japan, had never lost in the team championships. Also, everyone thought that if Japan was to be beaten one day, that would have been done by Korea in the final. In the women's side Japan is still the unbeaten champion.

The next WKC will be held in Sao Paulo, Brasil in 2009. That'll be definetely an exciting event!