After getting to sleep around 12 o'clock last night I woke up at the usual time of 4am and had a bowl of cereal and a hot drink and prepared for the morning keiko. Leaving the house around 4.45 I cycled down to the budokan and joined in with the pre keiko cleaning, a simple process of sweeping the mats. After warming up a stretching for 10 mins Chris and myself then sat down and chanted kototama infront of the kamisama. Chanting the usual chat that Chris prefers as taught to him by John Stevens (from books). This is shown in the video clip below, the meaning of which can be found in a number of his books. We then went outside and waited for Nemoto Sensei to arrive. We promtly bowed in and started the training with the ususal, Tai no Henko and Morote Dori Kokyu Ho (kokyuho?). (Kelly - san, a Nidan student of Micheal Field who is training as a soto deshi with us once a week). For the first half an hour we practiced Suwariwaza Yokomenuchi Sankyo Omote and Ura and then for the next half an hour we practiced Tachiwaza Yonkyo Omote and Ura, concluding the class with basic suwariwaza kokyu ho. The next 45mins we practiced 6-10 kumijo and the final 15 mins we practiced kumijo 1-10. Bowing out and seeing Nemoto sensei off I then spent 15 mins practicing ukemi and then went back to Aiki house and had breakfast. After tidying up and cleaning the house and grounds for a couple of hours I then took the opportunity to take a nap for an hour. Today was my turn to cook lunch so I went out to the local shop with the 1800 yen to feed 6 people lunch and breakfast for tomorrow. That's 8 AUD for lunch for 6 people. A difficult task, especially when you don't really know what anything is, except western food - which are all expensive. I made tuna-mayonaise and cucumber sandwiches on warm toast with side salad and jacket potato. Everybody seemed happy enough and only went over budget by a little bit.
The afternoon was spent learning some Japanese with a couple of the other uchideshi, with a break going through the 5 Kumitachi, 5th and 7th awase with Sana-san a Shodan from Sweden. We then prepared for evening keiko, and I went down to the Aiki-Jinja and practiced kototama on my own for 15mins before being joined by Chris for a further 10 mins. A man came over to me whilst I was there, who had driven up to Saito-uchideshi house to presumably take a look at what I was doing. The kotodama myself and Chris are doing has caused a little bit of attention and intrigue from some of the instructors and passers by. It would be great if more people joined us. Training in the evening was taken by Kobota Sensei who is ~73 years old and quite a character. We did Katate dori ikkyo, shihonage, iriminage and kotegaishi. We was quite humid and a little sticky, after cleaning the dojo we went home and had dinner and the tidied up and now I will go to bed (~11am).
I wont be writing this kind of daily post as its tedious to write although I thought perhaps it might be nice for those that are interested in knowing what the daily routine is like (at the moment).
Keith's phrase of the day:
Reizoko no naka ni nani ga arimasu ka.
Fridge inside what is(inanimate)
Biru?
Aikido Iwama Uchideshi
This Blog originally tracked a three month period during which time I undertook training in Iwama under the supervision of Nemoto Sensei. We also trained at the Shibu Dojo, O'Sensei's Dojo in Iwama located in the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan.
I have returned this time for a shorter three week stint in January 2011.
