There’s Something Flying in the Air and It’s Called Kendama

First it was Game Boys back in the 90s and then around 2005 the PSP came out. Slowly the new trend came to what we now know as iPods, iPod touches, iPads, and iPhones . However, for 2012, there is a new curio arising on the streets of Fountain Valley High School. It’s called a kendama.
A kendama is a Japanese toy composed of a ball on a string which is attached to a handle (ken) with three cups varying in size. In addition, the ball has a hole on the bottom so that it may be spiked with the point of the ken. It’s on official sport in Japan and has made its way to students at Fountain Valley High School.
Games that are usually played with kendamas are Horse, Pig, or Ladders. The rules of Horse and Pig are essentially the same to the ones in basketball. Instead of shooting a ball, you do a trick and the other person must do the exact same trick. If he fails, then he gets a letter. First one to spell ‘horse’ or ‘pig’ loses. Ladders is another game where players must complete a set of tricks that are decided on everyone. The person that completes the list first wins. For example, if the list was to ‘go-around-the-world’ (the ball must land in every cup), spike and earth (get the ball on the point and toss the ball up rotating the hole and landing it on the spike again), and then orbit (land a ball in the cup, toss it in the air, and circle the ken around the ball once before catching it again) and I was playing against someone, then the first person between me and the other player to do each trick successfully wins.

Furthermore, let me explain how kendamas even got to Fountain Valley. It first started with a senior named Loc Dang. He didn’t exactly find kendamas until after he had discovered ball in a cup. He happened to stumble across videos of kendamas and wasn’t really interested until a friend of his actually bought him one. From there, Loc’s friends, seniors Brian Khong and Kevin Tu, bought their own kendamas and began to join Loc in playing with kendamas during lunch.
If you hadn’t noticed, there have been students around school, walking to their class during passing period playing with these kendamas. And if you also haven’t noticed, it first started with less than a handful of people that actually owned one. Slowly other people began to be intrigued with this new fangled contraption and got hooked when they asked to try it out or looked up videos of kendamas online. I asked Khong if he had ever imagined for something he tried out for fun would turn into a trend and he replied “I had a feeling it would get big. It’s small, convenient, fun, helps with hand-eye coordination and keeps you away from staring at a computer screen for too long.”
Currently there around 50 people that have kendamas now even though this all started with about 3 guys playing with them during lunch. This developing community is large enough to actually start a good sized club even. In fact, Brian had commented that “We hope that there will be a club next year. We have our underclassmen friends that are willing to start it up for us. The kendama scene is much bigger than just the seniors now.”
So be on the lookout Barons, there’s something new in the air, and it’s called a kendama being thrown up for a spacewalk.