No step aerobics for these badass ladies! Nope, it’s Samurai Camp-the newest Japanese fitness regime that “fuses ritualised 16th century swordsmanship, an imaginary bloodbath and throbbing techno music.” (via)
According to founder Takafuji Ukon, the classes are tough, increasing in popularity rapidly, and, ahem, too hardcore for men. “When the class started, it was all men coming to symbolically cut the fat from around their middles…but they weren’t like real samurai, and quit. The women stick to it. They are Japan’s modern samurai.” Heck yeah!
The classes have been so popular, they are training additional instructors to expand beyond Tokyo. I can only hope that means they will make their way here one of these days… (Thanks iamawesome.)
It looks (from some Googling) like this is a speeded-up version of Kenbu: http://ejmas.com/jtc/2006jtc/jtcart_klens-bigman_0603.html
It’s definitely an amalgam of various forms, all of which looks like fun to me!