Iaito... Iaito... IAITO HOOOO!

We went to Yokohama yesterday and found a good deal on a used practice sword for iaido. It was considerably cheaper than a new cheap one and much much cheaper than the local dealers were selling them for. At the moment, I don't know its length or weight. Plus, I don't know what the menuki are (two different ones). I'd mess with the binding but with "mess" being the key word, I'd ruin it. As you can see below, the tsuba is also pretty plain. The camera malfuncioned in the first pic but it managed to capture the subject.

Iaito
Menuki

Tsuba
Menuki

The store was pretty small but it was full of swords, coins, and stamps. Occasionally I feel too large for Japan. I stretched my arms over my head and burned my hand on a lamp that was hanging from the ceiling. Actual swords were $5000.00+. Smaller ones were still over $2000.00.