SF Kendo Dojo

Joined 2 months ago. I practice kendo for several years, visited several seminars and championships (in European countries). This is a good dojo, teachers are friendly and helpful. Definitely not a casual place, you are going to put some effort to your classes.

Haters are gonna hate. Not gonna speak for the other reviewers on here because everyone experiences everything differently.
I just joined this dojo a month ago and I love it. The senseis are all really helpful to those who show great interest and are respectful. All of the senpais are super nice and friendly and so earnest in teaching a beginner like me. It’s really like a close knit community that really focuses on the educational aspect. The sensei each have their own style of teaching and fighting in kendo, but together, they offer so much to all of the students.
This is definitely not a dojo for someone who is looking for something casual to do. These people are dedicated to kendo and don’t like to waste their time on someone who isn’t paying attention and is only doing it for superficial reasons. What I really appreciate is that they’re fine with you taking it slow because it’s better to do it slow and do it correctly than to do it fast and wrong. So sure, the pace is slow, but I feel like I’m getting the full experience of learning kendo when we’re so conditioned to do things very quickly and sloppy.
Anyway, much love and respect for SF Kendo Dojo.

This is for the club that meets twice a week. Once in the buddhist temple basement and again at the Japanese culural center in J town.
So if you are from here and started learning here. Then this place has a decent program.
HOwever, if you are a transplant from Japan. USed to the Japanese teaching style then this may not be the club for you. The teaching style is much too different. I noticed that many of the club members who joined from Japan would often only stay a (at the most) a few months before quitting because well it was too different. I confirmed this with the leaving kendoka outside of class. I don’t want to point out names. But lets just say some older teachers are overly brooding. I once did a text book Do and was told «Stop showing off this is not the movies». I thought to myself I’m sorry but «isshokenmei deshita kedo, kono shikatta nihon no sensei kara naraimashita»