Thanks all for your answers.
Well I'm not experienced in Japanese martial art so I acknowledge i must be wrong about the philosophy part of it. What I meant is that I find that some Japanese arts are too rigid. Take Karate as an example. It emphasizes on strength, hard blocking, breaking boards, toughen you body by slamming boards at it etc...what's the point of it when you can evade an attack, make an angulation so you're at the point zero of the attack, be like the bamboo instead of the big large tree. Of course Aikido isn't like that, it teaches to use the opponents strength against him...so I guess there must be hard and soft styles in Japanese martial arts.
I watched some Aikido and Iaido as you call it footage and i noticed that everything is based on respect (which is real good), tradition,and for the swords cutting on the first motion with no fancy movements. I guess i must have been wrong and i idealized the ninjutsu/tai-jutsu arts.
As i am from a boxing/JKD background i may have some problems with the Japanese "philosphy" or way of approaching martial arts.
Now I realise that in order to learn a weapon or just a Japanese art you must also learn its philosophy,meditation and tradition in order to fully understand the art. That is something you don't find in boxing,savate or JKD (except the concepts).
Don't worry i will be careful with the bokken. When i say "playing around" that means, my friend do the kata he learned in his backyard. We don't fight against each other of course, we're not insane, we just do katas and some fancy movements but with extra care. I don't know in what Iaido style he trained but he has this small blunt katana.
Thanks
