Uchideshi Experience

Hello everyone!  I arrived safely and made my way to the hotel; I'm headed to the Dojo very shortly, so I'll post a more detailed update later.  For now, enjoy these pictures of the area near where I stayed!

This trip is strange in that, more than any other trip I've taken, the preparation has been going on for months but it feels almost surprising and wrong that I'm leaving tonight for the hotel near the airport and hopping on a plane early tomorrow morning.  I've made several international trips to places where I don't speak the language and for relatively long amounts of time (up to almost five weeks in a stint), but this one is a bit more surreal somehow.  I think it has to do more with where I'm at in life than it does with the trip.  The longest I've been away from my wife is only around two weeks since we've been married, and that's similarly the longest I've been away from my ministry, dojo, and The Gamers Guild community.  I get small breaks in the pace around here, but they are predictable and only last about a week at most (our yearly trip to live in the national headquarters dojo in Chicago for a week, certain recurring ministry trips or Aiki

This blog is to express my thoughts and experiences as I travel to Japan to be a live-in Aikido student (uchideshi) for Yasuo Kobayashi Shihan.  I'll be departing February 26th, 2018, and I plan to post semi-frequently from that time until I return around April 15th, 2018 (though I may post a little after that time, too).  The primary gearing of this blog is to share the experience with those I know and with those I love, though if you have found your way here and don't feel you are in one of those groups, you are also welcome to read on regardless. It is likely important that readers understand the attitude I'm leaving to train in.  It is my intent to take this time of travel and training to be present in the moment and to learn about both Aikido and life; it is also my intent to be physically and somewhat mentally separate from my normal life and ministry so I can pray and reflect on them.  I fully recognize that most of my time in Japan will be taken up by the duties