After months of waiting, it's finally here:

It came last Monday, but unfortunately I was away down south in Pemberton with a group of friends (I suppose I should write something about that sometime), so I could only get it this morning. It's certainly a lot longer than what I'm used to using (coming in at 2-5-5, instead of the 2-4-5 or 2-4-0 that I'm used to using) but it definately feels a lot better than the bokken or sensei's training spares. So I used it for this morning's grading:

This is the second grading that I've attempted (and passed) for Iaido and Jodo. That makes me gokyu in Iaido (5th Kyu), and sankyu in Jodo (3rd Kyu). We got presented with our certificates, which included the certificates from the last grading. Apparently there aren't any certificates for 4th Kyu Jodo.