Nemoto Sensei himself is great, very claim and very joyful. I am the lowest graded student apart from two ungraded ushideshi from the Shibu Dojo. About 50% of the deshi are Shodan or higher. and in total there are about 20 deshi - of which normally only 3-4 are Japanese. There is always the chance to get to train with somebody more experienced than myself, which is of course ideal. There are two guys from Myanmar, Thu-Ra San and Nay-Myo-Shin San, they have great energy and strong fluid technique, also the only deshi permitted to clean to Kamidama. I had seen the video on you-tube of the Myamar Ukemi practice drill many months ago and was keen to try it out but hessitant to try and teach myself from a video. So its fortuitous that I am here at the same time as them, infact the video was filmed at the Shibu Dojo by the last wave of Myanmar Uchideshi. They have kindly been taking some of the interested people through it - which is a fantastic opportunity. Not sure how far I will get in three months but that's OK. Solid basics are a must.
The rest of the training is going well, the house is busy - but everybody pitches in and gets along fairly well. The two Sempai (Chris-san and Robin-san) have been hon here for a long time and both speak good Japanese. Chris-san has an interest in Kotodama and has been practicing twice a day on his own, for a couple of months, teaching himself from John Stevens books and his video. I am happy that I have been able to not only have somebody to practice with but that we can learn from one another. He had not been practicing with a full voice - prior to practicing with me and had only ever practiced alone. It is a different kettle of fish when it is done with a full voice and two people for twice the vibration. We have been going down to the Aiki-Jinja before training in the evening at Shibu Dojo and practicing for 20 mins, with a short period of Zazen before and after. For me it is a fabulous place (serious understatement) to practice and you can feel the change in energy in oneself, and I am sure that the people at the Dojo you train with can sense it too. Isoyama Sensei asked Chris if he (we) were at the Jinja when we were getting changed - he must have heard us as he walked past (now its a full voice, well two) - I am not doing it to try and get noticed. but I would be very happy if more people came to join us.
Lastly the pain. My body has been adjusting to the training quite well, generally feeling pretty good. The first few days were hard as you might expect - but I came quite well prepared and knew what to expect. The seiza and lack of chairs seems to be what most people cant handle, so Shikko on the hard mats round and round the Dojo last night was hard for a lot of people. I think I must be a bit of a gluten for punishment or enjoy the pain or something - trying to keep the circle as wide as possible when everybody else was doing the opposite (thanks Peter-san for the preparation). And stories from my dad of Chiba Sensei making his students duck walk forward around the edge of a cricket oval and then duck walk backwards round it the other way - makes me think that actually I have it pretty easy - so no complaints from me. Well at least not yet. Trying to pace myself and took a bike on the morning run today - save my knees and used took the chance to take some lovely pictures of the area.
Hope everybody at home is well.
Ja - mata.
