Clearly Nissin is missing the opportunity for a new round of tanuki soba commercials…
There are actually more of these. With a final twist.
I spoke too soon. In the words of Londo Mollari, “there are more of you!”.
This is how I felt when we were going up inside Himeji Castle. Except there were no signs saying how many flights of stairs were left…

裏口 = rear entrance
ガンバレ!! = GO FOR IT!!
もう一息 = just a little more effort

Not only is it rather difficult to hold a katana in this position, what would you actually do with it from there? You can’t swing, you can’t block, you can’t thrust, and if you hold the position for very long, you’ll get a cramp. About the best outcome you can hope for is shaving your own cheekbones.