Participating in a Japanese Archery Tournament!

This past Sunday was my first Japanese archery tournament!

My school club is kyudou, otherwise known as Japanese archery, and due to that I got to compete in a tournament! I'm not actually sure if it's legal for exchange students to participate, so shhh don't tell the Japanese government.

The day started out with me waking up at 5:20 so I could catch the 6:50 train, even though the tournament didn't start until 8. The reason I had to take a 6:50 train is because Miyazaki is very rural, so the trains only run about once every hour in certain directions.

While biking to the train station, I realized I forgot my lunch box at home. Whoops! I caught the train right on time, and knew I had to get off after about 3 stops. 3 stops later, I looked up and didn't recognize the name of the station. At that point I was nervous and fidgety. By the time the train stops at the next stop, I knew that I took the wrong train. I mean, where the hell is Tano!?

The station sign that made me lose all hope

I needed to get to Kibana station!! I also needed a taxi. I guess the one lucky thing was that an empty taxi with a nice driver was stopped at the train station. I asked him how much it would cost to get to the kyudou dojo, and he told me I would need around $50. At this point my heart sank because I didn't have enough cash on me. However, the taxi driver kindly stopped at a 7/11 for me to withdraw cash. The whole ride ended up "only" being about $40, but I still was not happy when I got to the tournament.

However, the tournament itself went well! Each time someone participates, they get 4 arrows. The first time I went up, I didn't hit any. The second time I went up I hit 2, which made me really happy!

During tournaments or formal practices, you have to wear special clothes called hakama. Everything from entering the target area to collecting the arrows is done in a very precise, specialized way. It's quite efficient, and we were able to go home at around 3.

Everyone lined up (I'm second furthest down!)

Overall, despite the mishaps, it was fun and I'm glad I participated!

(I do not recommend biking with a big ass bow in Japan's narrow streets)