SAI

I received a gift card from my father for Christmas and this is one of the purchases I made: a pair of sai. 

I'm looking forward to learning how to properly wield these traditional Okinawan martial arts weapons.

I cannot explain what joy these bring to me. 

I have learned the various parts of the sai—the handle (tsuka); the butt of the handle (tsukagashira); the two guards (yoku); the tips of the guards (tsume); the center of the sai, where handle, guards, and blade meet (moto); the rounded and unsharpened blade (monouchi); and the tip of the blade, which is also unsharpened (saki). I am learning how to flip the sai from its natural grip (honte mochi), with the handle grasped by the hand and the blade extended, to the reverse grip (gyakute mochi), with the blade resting along the forearm to protect from strikes, as well as back again.