Tai Sai

Tai Sai Festival was a wonderful day. We got there a little bit early to help with the final preparations and saw the Doshu as we walked up the path to the Shibu Dojo. The event itself was a ceramony conducted by Shinto priests, where they took turns to chant different sutras and make offerings to the various shinto deities. And assist the others present on stage to make their offerings. The Doshu his wife and son and other various high ranking Aikido instructors.

Nemoto sensei (and a couple of friends) with his Uchideshi group:


Shinto priests approching the Jinja and making offerings:




The ceramony itself took about an hour (I think), I have the paper with the chants in Hirigana and Kanji which will sets me up with reading homework for the next decade. After the main ceremony the Doshu performed a ~5 minute demonstration, I was quite close to the front (about three people) so I got quite a good view.



We then had lunch, all 1400 people eating together and drinking plenty of sake. Nemoto Sensei sent one of the Uchideshi to secure O Sensei's favorite lunch spot - which was a nice touch. Lots of people came over to say hellp and one of Nemoto Sensei's old Aikido friends joined us and organised a bus to take us all to the karaoke.

The Doshu and his family:


Nemoto Sensei lunch party:


Nemoto sensei does his thing in the Karaoke Bar:


We all had a lovely time and we went home around 10 o'clock, the next days morning training was delayed until 9am rather than the normal 5.30am in consideration of our sake heads.

Inagaki Sensei

This is little clip of Inagaki Sensei, who teaches at the Shibu Dojo, twice a week.

Earthquake

Tomorrow is Tai Sai Festival the 40 year anniversary, so its a special one. Should be an interesting event, we have spent the past few days helping out the Shiba dojo uchideshi making the prepairations. Cleaning and sweeping leaves mostly, today we pitch forked the pile into the truck, it took 5 loads and many hours to complete. Now the place looks very nice and ready for all the people to turn up. I will try and post some photos and will video the Doshu demonstration if I can get close enough. The Omotokyo Shinto ceramony should also be interesting to watch.

Everything else is ticking along nicely, the two long term uchideshi have there shodan tests in June 14th (my birthday) so today we went through a mock test and got to watch them do a mock test. It was interesting to see what sort of standard they are at and what is expected from them, as was the earthquake that happened half way through the test.

The 4 germans and one sweed uchideshi will leave on Thursday, and next week 5 russians will arrive, so there is a bit of break before the place becomes completely full again.

Week three

Training continues, tomorrow I will enter my third week here, time is moving fast, its hard to keep track of my own personal progression although I am sure that something in that regard is happening.

This coming wednesday is the Tai Sai festival so today we spent the day cleaning around the Shibu Dojo grounds and the Aiki Jinga (shrine) itself. Plenty of people turned out to help, one person rode there bycycle from Tokyo, a 5 hour trip. I managed to get a metal rake which was a lot more effective than the wooden ones, which was lucky, and I now have some nice looking blisters on my hands to prove that I wasn't just standing around and that I was putting it to good use.

So wednesday will be a signifcant day with over one thousand people expected to arrive in Iwama for the ceramony, and the Doshu will perform a demostration which should be great to watch.

Cold hard mats

Training is going well. With Nemoto Sensei we have been through the 5 kumitachi and have moved onto the Ken tai Jo, and have covered some interesting variations for ikkyo if the uke is being diificult and offering resistence, some of which seemed more like Aikijutsu rather than Aikido. This morning we covered Nikkyo variations is uke is resisting in various ways.

Other than training we have been clearing the land next to Aiki house ready for Keiko when the next wave of people arrive in about a weeks time. The 4 Germans and one Danish people are leaving and 5 Russians and two Italians are arriving. So in total that will mean there are 13 people here. A couple of people will stay next door in Nemoto Sensei's brothers house. But it will still be pretty busy for meal times.

It has been cold here in the mornings, training on quite hard mats in the cold isn' so easy as I feel that my body isn't warmed up enough. Who would have thought that a nice hot 40C day would seem apealing. I had been feeling quite under the weather for a few days, guessing that my immune system was quite low due to a lack of sleep and extra stress, but I seem to have got through it and now feeling back to normal.

Standing under the waterfall

keiko keiko keiko

Training is going well. In bukiwaza so far we have covered all 5 of the Ken Kumitachi. In Taijutsu we have covered a lot of things as you would expect, too much to mention now. Training with lots of different instructers is great: Mon: Inagaki Sensei, Tues: Watahiki Sensei, Wed Isoyama Sensei and Nagashima Sensei, Thu: Inagaki Sensei, Fri: Kubota Sensei, Sat: Owada Sensei. This is great for getting different perspectives. I will discuss in more detail the training as time goes on. At this stage I am really still just taking it all in. I have now become used to the new bed and the new surroundings so at least the 4-6 hours of sleep a night are sound ones. Loving the food and Iwama itself, it is a very beautiful place which the photos only hint at.

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.

First training

The first couple of days training has gone really well - Nemoto Sensei is great. The Ibaraki Dojo training is a little different from what I am used to - and the mats are really quite, well, hard. Or you could say well hard. Accomodation is quite cramped but everybody pitches in and gets along well. My body is a bit sore - but sure that will pass after a week or two.

Arrive in Iwama

I arrived in Iwama yesterday and was met at the train station by a couple my fellow uchideshi. Went back to the Aiki-house and was slowly introduced to everybody. In total there are 11 of us. 2 girls and 8 boys, all of whom seem really nice and very friendly.

Last night we went to the Aikikai Dojo and trained, Inagaki Sensei took the class as Isoyama sensei has recently had a operation (not sure what for). I all there were around 20 people on the mat. We practiced various Kokyu-Nage the entire class. Some of which I had done before and some that I had not.

Tada Sensei Seminar

I took it easy yesterday, being my first day in Japan, I just went down to Aikikai Hombu Dojo and signed up, got my bearings and took a look around the local area. Tried to ask a few people on the street the time in Japanese (Ima nan-ji desu ka?) - asking was easy - understanding the answer was little bit more tricky, especially when the answer is something unexpected - like "I dont have a watch", or "Time to get a watch". Although I did manage to read my first sign (well the hiragana part at least) - not much of an achievement I admit - but it is something.

But today I went to a 3 hr Tada - Sensei (9th Dan) seminar at the Hombu Dojo, it over ran a little, from 3 hours to 4.5 hrs. After a quick count I'd guess that there were around 100 people on the mat (when bowing in this took 3/4 of the mat space). There was a translator for the non Japanese speakers which was good - although as he stated afterwards, it's difficult to translate spiritual and technical terminology.

We went through some breathing and Kototama exercises, which was really enjoyable. Then we practiced some basic footwork patterns. The next thing was internal visualisation practice of techniques. Where we got together in threes. Two people placed their hands on the third persons back and tried to guide them around the room by sending thoughts through their hands, with one person deciding which way to go. Seemed a case of sensitivity and feeling the gentle pressure to turn, or lack of pressure to stop. A little bizzare to see 100+ people being guided around the Dojo in such a strange manner. We then covered some techniques for multiple attackers, various Shihonage techniques against two attackers, I practiced with some local young Dan grades, it was enjoyable. All in all lots of fun with lots of seiza practice !

After the training I got chatting to the translator who told me that they are very rigorous in Iwama (actually he said rough (and smiled)) and when he was sent there after four years of training, he got hit in the head with shomenuchi, and that they apply strong Nikkyo. He also said they may take it easier with visitors (smiling and laughing). Ran my legs under hot and cold water when I got to the hotel to help get the blood pumping.

So I head off to Iwama tomorrow, where I guess the real journey will begin.

Leave tomorrow

Well today is thursday, and I leave tomorrow, I have my bags ready to be packed and I am set to go. Thanks again to everyone in Perth and hope the club continues to grow. Stay in touch, send me an email and let me know how things are going and I will do the same.

7 days to go

I have only seven days until I leave, making the final preparations and starting to get a little bit excited.