kusarigama

Niina-gosoke started us on Kusarigama today. Total madness. You've got a wooden handle about as long as your forearm. Sticking out from that is a double-edged straight blade, with a metal handguard below the blade. On the other end of the handle is three and a half meters of rope with a weight on the end.
We started by trying to hit the pillar in the middle of the dojo. Niina-gosoke just stood there laughing as we wrapped ourselves up in our ropes, smacked the floor, the ceiling, the back of my head...everything but the pillar three meters in front of us. Every now and then by luck the weight would fly gracefully, with minimal arc, and thud satisfyingly into the pillar, but then the next time I'd start spinning the weight and clock myself in the knee.
After an hour of being mocked by an unmarred pillar, we did the formal bowing ceremonies and the first kata, ishiki: Enemy comes to cut you down, you step back and wrap the sword with the rope, then when the enemy thrusts forward, you yank the sword off the centerline, step in, go down on one knee, and drive the blade into his solar plexus.
I get the feeling it's going to take a long, long time to get the hang of this one.