Oxford, Dusseldorf, and Home plus Final Reflections (and Cherry Blossoms!)
The flight from Japan to the UK had one transfer in Beijing. This little initial flight was small enough that I mostly rested (it also didn't have electricity available for me to get work done). I remember that after the uchideshi experience I'd had, the plane seats did feel luxurious (as one friend said they would), and I did greatly enjoy the in-flight food and the general experiences of the flight.
In Beijing, I had several hours of layover, so I spent the time walking around the airport, debating whether to buy a Chinese power converter so I could type/get work done, and getting work done on my phone (there were USB chargers). I also did the usual things--refilled my two water bottles, did some stretches, made sure I was at the right gate, etc. Since I didn't have data in China and the airport WiFi wasn't working, I had to wait until I landed in London to communicate with anyone. The airport was nice, and I did get a kick out of a sign by a fountain (I don't know if I preferred 'don't eat the stone' or 'no trampling', but I think it was more important to know to not eat the stone).
The flight to London was long, and I wasn't very productive. I got a small additional bit of work done but was too tired to write anything deep. I did get to watch a few movies during the 11-hour flight; Inception and Interstellar were both titles I'd been recommended to view but didn't have time to see before the trip. I enjoyed them both, though the romance portions made me miss Tella more. I also watched London Has Fallen and almost stopped watching it several times--it's weird when action sequences make you bored. When I touched down in the UK, it was almost 21 hours from when I'd woken up, but the time of day was only about 14 hours later than when I'd woken up due to the direction I was flying and the time zones I crossed. I made it through security, customs and immigration, and I was happy to get my luggage (I had been slightly worried it might not make it). From there, I had to navigate the airport to the buses and took a bus (called a coach over there) to Oxford.
Once at Oxford, I was quite happy to see my friend--I was also a bit out of it from the time-zone shifting (mostly the fact that I'd been up more than 24 hours at this point--this was a 31-hour day and I was awake 24 hours of it except for cat naps). We walked together back to her apartment, and then we had a very good chat until I was a bit too tired to stay up. After that, I greatly enjoyed getting my own room with a bed and a desk (a drastic upgrade from where I'd been staying)! It was magnificent to actually sleep in a comfortable bed again--I slept hard.
The bulk of the Oxford time was spent with my friend--having quality conversations on a variety of subjects, including spiritual ones. My friend was studying literature at Oxford, and one of her emphases was C.S. Lewis. As a fantasy fiction fan who greatly enjoys Lewis and Tolkien, I enjoyed getting to go to the pub they used to sit at in their writing group (the inklings), getting to see some of the places that inspired 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe', the dining hall in 'Harry Potter', Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the White Rabbit from 'Through the Looking Glass', and some beautiful old buildings with deep academic and spiritual history. It was also spiritually challenging to view some of the monuments to great Catholic and Protestant martyrs and to read about the switches of power that lead to their martyrdom. It was mostly fascinating to see how both sides had peaceful Christ-followers who were martyred and how both sides had people who used the name of the religion as a mask to commit atrocities (but who obviously didn't follow the way of Christ).
Besides a lot of excellent conversations and sharing Oxford experiences with my friend, we did go practice with the Oxford Aikido club on two different occasions (there were only two practices available during the time I was there, so we caught them all). After having been an uchideshi who got between 3 and 6 hours of class per day (and who had physically adapted my last week to where I still sweated a bunch but didn't get much of a workout from it anymore--as in no soreness, no notable tiredness etc.), each class felt like a bit of a teasing warm-up rather than a class. Relative to my classes in Japan, the classes here also had much more talking and were much slower and gentler, as well, which further made me hungry to do more Aikido. I did find it funny how after my training over there it took just a couple classes to tease me to a great hunger for physical training, but it did have the beneficial effect of making me VERY excited to workout in Germany, which I recalled as being some of the faster Aikido I'd ever done.
Leaving the UK was a bit sad--it had been quite excellent being with my friend and sharing in parts of her life there, but I was ready to see my German friends and also still had a deep-down continuing desire to be home with my wife and my friends and family in the U.S. The bus ride to London suffered some heavy traffic delays due to a wreck, so I was a bit concerned I'd be late, but I ended up still having plenty of time to get from the bus stop to Queen Victoria bus station for my international bus. It was a bit novel riding in the second story of a double-decker bus in the UK (also novel had been one of the British Oxford Aikido Club students who was a retired professor telling me 'cheerio!' when I left), and it turns out that my bus to Dusseldorf was also a double-decker (with me on the second story). I did have to put my name on my luggage--it was one of the logistical things I'd taken care of back in Oxford by using some tape and some paper, but I had only done it in the event that they didn't provide luggage tags at the bus station; I wasn't sure that the taped piece of paper would stay on. It turns out that they didn't provide luggage tags, so I used my good old Boy-Scout skills and some paper I had in my bag (along with a plastic bag from lunch) to jury-rig a ghetto bag-tag.
It wasn't pretty, but it worked. The overnight bus was it's own adventure. I slept most of the time, but we had to get out and reload for passport control (it literally involved a guy scanning our passport and nodding at us--I thought it might have security and customs papers etc. but it was fine as the UK is still in the EU so it was almost unnecessary). We also loaded our two-story bus into a train car with us still in the bus so that we could take a train through the Chunnel under the ocean.
At Dusseldorf, I unloaded my things and met a different Aikido student and good friend of mine. We grabbed a bit to eat and headed to his parents house (where I'd be staying--at first it was unclear if I'd stay with him or his folks, but we decided the logistics made it easier to stay with his folks). Much like the UK leg, the Dusseldorf leg was mostly epic due to good conversations and experiences shared with my friend. It was also nice that I got to have some good spiritual talks with his mother, who had been spiritually seeking when I was last in Germany four years and change ago but who was now deeply rooted in an international Baptist church.
Besides being able to have some quality faith chats with her, I also was able to hear the European Director of Jews for Jesus speak at her church. The message itself was quite good and quite challenging--it related to the need to trust God through the storms of life and the storms of our present times. He also tied in how Jesus' cry near the end of his crucifixion of 'Father, father, why have you forsaken me?' was not just to point Jews who knew the scripture to the Old Testament verse that starts off 'Father, father, why have you forsaken me?' so they'd know He was the Messiah, but that it was also the cry that you and I should have uttered if we died in sin and lived an eternal life afterwards (sin by its nature separates us from ourselves, God, and others--love/Christ by its nature connects us to others, God, and ourselves; if left unchecked for eternity, sin would separate us entirely and leave us desolate and alone--even if others were near us who loved us; hence the need for Christ to take care of sin for us so we could operate in eternity in love and connectedness). I knew that intellectually already, but the way he said 'that was MY cry' really hit me emotionally this time. It led to some further reflections (some of which appeared in my entry about 'Myriad Reflections', I believe). When he was done, I got his contact information for a friend of mine back in the US because it felt like it would be important to connect them.
Most of my time, though, was spent with my friend; besides a great walk on an extreme outskirt of 'The Camino de Santiago', which is very important to my friend (this picture shows him near a Camino sign), we had quite a bit of great conversations and experiences.
One of the more entertaining conversations that I had was with a mutual friend of ours who is an Aikido student at Aikido Schule Katsuaki Asai. While discussing the Kobayashi uchideshi program, I found out that she, herself, had been uchideshi for Kobayashi Shihan in the same program I was in back in 1998! Though the physical dojo were quite different, some of the things (like cooking lunch for the instructors on Fridays, many of the classes and trains etc.) were sill entirely the same 20 years later! We had quite a great time going down her memory lane and talking about my experiences and what was different and what was the same. It was also just fun sharing mutual experiences we'd had with some of the instructors and students there.
Of course, it was also very enjoyable doing Aikido in Asai Shihan's school. He, himself, is a junior student to Kobayashi Shihan, whom I'd been training under, and I greatly enjoyed looking at their stylistic similarities and differences now that I had something so solid to compare it with. The Aikido in Germany was less fast that I remember it--I think the first time was more impactful because I was used to group training instead of doing everything with partners, whereas everything in Kobayashi Dojo and Hombu Dojo is all partner training all the time (with extremely few exceptions). As such, the pace in Germany felt about like what I'd experienced in Japan. It was slightly faster than Kobayashi Dojo and very similar to the pace in Hombu if you get a young, high-energy partner for the whole class. As such, I was quite pleased that one of the four days I attended classes I actually got a reasonable workout, and the others still felt like my time in Japan. Weirdly enough, I think the workout day was one of the days I was only able to attend one class so I could catch my friend after his work--I don't recall what the technique was, but I remember doing it for a LONG time with an energetic partner and that it was a rolling technique).
I also enjoyed some time with some of the German students I'd previously met and befriended, and we did of course have amazing beer and food (side note: Fuchschen alt on tap at the restaurant Fuchschen alt is perhaps one of my favorite beers of all time, confirmed by this trip. Only some beers in the Hopleaf in Chicago can give it a run for its money).
Leaving Germany took surprisingly little time. I greatly enjoyed the airport security setup and functions at Dusseldorf. From there I had a multiple-hour layover in France at the airport. Once I got through customs I had to wait awhile before I could check in my larger piece of luggage with the airline, but after that I was free to get some food and admire some entertaining signs (and take moving sidewalks that went up and down hills--that was new).
The big flight back to Denver was delayed, which made me worry a bit about my connecting flight from Denver to Kansas City. In addition to the delay, we were given a bonus surprise search by security in the ramp leading to the plane. Once on the plane, though, I greatly enjoyed the accommodations and the surprising lack of passengers (I was the only one on my whole section of three seats in the middle!) I slept some and got some more work done; I also watched some movies and repacked everything to maximize speed going from the airplane through Denver immigration and security to my flight. (The empty plane is shown below--this is after everyone loaded).
Once we arrived in Denver, I hurried as much as possible through all portions of the airport (including the baggage transfer for my checked bag) and made it to my gate about ten to twenty minutes before loading. As I hadn't had any food for around 14 hours (I ate one meal at the French airport upon arrival), I purchased a protein shake and felt slightly better as we loaded the flight (the flight from France to Denver only had food if you purchased it as an additional option--I knew this so I'd eaten in France). The flight to Kansas City included pretzels and a drink, so I felt even fuller/more ritzy. Once I touched down, I found baggage claim and called Tella. She picked me up at the curb, but we still had a longer-than-average hug. It was extremely excellent beyond words to be with her again. We shared some great time talking, finding food (a little local restaurant was still open serving pizza at 11:45PM--we got a special pizza sandwich thing called a 'slammich', which was delicious). We also exchanged some small presents and thoroughly enjoyed the hour and a half drive to Warrensburg, where we checked into our hotel.
That night and the next day were spent sharing great conversations with Tella whenever there was time with just the two of us, and I also was privileged to teach at the Warrensburg Intensive (I taught 3 of the 6 hours). To share my experience, I initially taught more in the Kobayashi style of 'get thrown twice, throw twice, and let them figure it out'. I also showed most of the interesting or unique versions I'd experienced while in Japan. I quickly realized, though, that there were too many new students present for it to work the same way that it did in Japan. They were getting lost in some of the simple techniques, so there was no real hope for sharing the advanced ones without more verbal/traditional American style instruction, which I slowed down and switched over to. Over the course of the day I had fun sharing what I learned and also learning from the other instructor (Dan Hayes, who is a yondan in USAF and who has some very good/unique Aikido), and I greatly enjoyed just throwing and being thrown all day (especially with my wife). I was a little sad that I didn't end up with time to cover the 31-step kata or kumijo/shin kumijo, but I got that out of my system sharing them and other techniques back home the following entire week.
I had some great conversations with good friends during supper at Missouri, and at the end of a long day Tella and I retired to our hotel to sleep and head home. Sunday was a good return trip adventure as we talked all day and had good time together, and as a final bonus I was able to step into my house and feel like I was home (seeing Tella and my family and friends were the main thing--the house was just a final bonus feeling). That evening we had some things to take care of for the ministry, dojo, and Guild, and the following week I spent re-adjusting to everything here and working to integrate some of the mental and spiritual perspectives I'd gained from my trip. I especially found 'operating in the positive truths while not denying the negative'/making every thought captive and making sure it was in the right motive to be helpful. Integrating Tella into more of the little details of my life was also helpful. She and I had further fun the week I got back by going to Lawrence with to help my first-ever youth student do an Aikido demonstration and presentation to her class (as a favor to her and my German friend, who is her dad). Afterwards we had a 'date day' in Lawrence and then headed home.
The overall trip to Japan has had a lasting impact, and I'm very grateful to my wife, family, and friends who supported me in many ways (prayer, covering classes, ministry projects, or Guild tournaments, support in a variety of other ways, and even just keeping up with my adventures over there). I will continue to integrate some of the spiritual and mental perspectives I learned into my life here, and I have found it helpful to adjust my attitudes to things here that I would have never before realized were off (having been in the middle of them I couldn't see that they were off). Just thinking 'I'm tired' and dragging myself into ministry or Aikido or The Guild has an unnecessary negative impact. I can acknowledge being tired, but also focus on all the great and true realities that are present (and there are many more positives present than what I had to work with at certain times in Japan like my day in pain in the rain). It helps me live each moment more fully with others and with Christ. I also believe it helps me project better energy and focus onto the mat and improves my practice and my instruction.
I ultimately don't know how far the benefit will go (many benefits involve intangible things like better understanding the people and situations around the origin of Aikido, having developed a network of friends and friendly instructors in Japan, etc.), but I am truly grateful to everyone in Japan and everywhere else (the US, the UK, Germany, and other places) who participated in my trip--including to you who is taking the time to read this blog. Thank you all for your prayers and support, and I will leave you with some pictures I was able to take of cherry blossoms in Japan, the UK, Germany, and (maybe?--I'm not sure the tree variety here) in the US. Many things separate us, but many more unite us everywhere that we are present. Thanks again!
Love,
Brandon
In Beijing, I had several hours of layover, so I spent the time walking around the airport, debating whether to buy a Chinese power converter so I could type/get work done, and getting work done on my phone (there were USB chargers). I also did the usual things--refilled my two water bottles, did some stretches, made sure I was at the right gate, etc. Since I didn't have data in China and the airport WiFi wasn't working, I had to wait until I landed in London to communicate with anyone. The airport was nice, and I did get a kick out of a sign by a fountain (I don't know if I preferred 'don't eat the stone' or 'no trampling', but I think it was more important to know to not eat the stone).
The bulk of the Oxford time was spent with my friend--having quality conversations on a variety of subjects, including spiritual ones. My friend was studying literature at Oxford, and one of her emphases was C.S. Lewis. As a fantasy fiction fan who greatly enjoys Lewis and Tolkien, I enjoyed getting to go to the pub they used to sit at in their writing group (the inklings), getting to see some of the places that inspired 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe', the dining hall in 'Harry Potter', Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and the White Rabbit from 'Through the Looking Glass', and some beautiful old buildings with deep academic and spiritual history. It was also spiritually challenging to view some of the monuments to great Catholic and Protestant martyrs and to read about the switches of power that lead to their martyrdom. It was mostly fascinating to see how both sides had peaceful Christ-followers who were martyred and how both sides had people who used the name of the religion as a mask to commit atrocities (but who obviously didn't follow the way of Christ).
Leaving the UK was a bit sad--it had been quite excellent being with my friend and sharing in parts of her life there, but I was ready to see my German friends and also still had a deep-down continuing desire to be home with my wife and my friends and family in the U.S. The bus ride to London suffered some heavy traffic delays due to a wreck, so I was a bit concerned I'd be late, but I ended up still having plenty of time to get from the bus stop to Queen Victoria bus station for my international bus. It was a bit novel riding in the second story of a double-decker bus in the UK (also novel had been one of the British Oxford Aikido Club students who was a retired professor telling me 'cheerio!' when I left), and it turns out that my bus to Dusseldorf was also a double-decker (with me on the second story). I did have to put my name on my luggage--it was one of the logistical things I'd taken care of back in Oxford by using some tape and some paper, but I had only done it in the event that they didn't provide luggage tags at the bus station; I wasn't sure that the taped piece of paper would stay on. It turns out that they didn't provide luggage tags, so I used my good old Boy-Scout skills and some paper I had in my bag (along with a plastic bag from lunch) to jury-rig a ghetto bag-tag.
Besides being able to have some quality faith chats with her, I also was able to hear the European Director of Jews for Jesus speak at her church. The message itself was quite good and quite challenging--it related to the need to trust God through the storms of life and the storms of our present times. He also tied in how Jesus' cry near the end of his crucifixion of 'Father, father, why have you forsaken me?' was not just to point Jews who knew the scripture to the Old Testament verse that starts off 'Father, father, why have you forsaken me?' so they'd know He was the Messiah, but that it was also the cry that you and I should have uttered if we died in sin and lived an eternal life afterwards (sin by its nature separates us from ourselves, God, and others--love/Christ by its nature connects us to others, God, and ourselves; if left unchecked for eternity, sin would separate us entirely and leave us desolate and alone--even if others were near us who loved us; hence the need for Christ to take care of sin for us so we could operate in eternity in love and connectedness). I knew that intellectually already, but the way he said 'that was MY cry' really hit me emotionally this time. It led to some further reflections (some of which appeared in my entry about 'Myriad Reflections', I believe). When he was done, I got his contact information for a friend of mine back in the US because it felt like it would be important to connect them.
Most of my time, though, was spent with my friend; besides a great walk on an extreme outskirt of 'The Camino de Santiago', which is very important to my friend (this picture shows him near a Camino sign), we had quite a bit of great conversations and experiences.
Of course, it was also very enjoyable doing Aikido in Asai Shihan's school. He, himself, is a junior student to Kobayashi Shihan, whom I'd been training under, and I greatly enjoyed looking at their stylistic similarities and differences now that I had something so solid to compare it with. The Aikido in Germany was less fast that I remember it--I think the first time was more impactful because I was used to group training instead of doing everything with partners, whereas everything in Kobayashi Dojo and Hombu Dojo is all partner training all the time (with extremely few exceptions). As such, the pace in Germany felt about like what I'd experienced in Japan. It was slightly faster than Kobayashi Dojo and very similar to the pace in Hombu if you get a young, high-energy partner for the whole class. As such, I was quite pleased that one of the four days I attended classes I actually got a reasonable workout, and the others still felt like my time in Japan. Weirdly enough, I think the workout day was one of the days I was only able to attend one class so I could catch my friend after his work--I don't recall what the technique was, but I remember doing it for a LONG time with an energetic partner and that it was a rolling technique).
I also enjoyed some time with some of the German students I'd previously met and befriended, and we did of course have amazing beer and food (side note: Fuchschen alt on tap at the restaurant Fuchschen alt is perhaps one of my favorite beers of all time, confirmed by this trip. Only some beers in the Hopleaf in Chicago can give it a run for its money).
That night and the next day were spent sharing great conversations with Tella whenever there was time with just the two of us, and I also was privileged to teach at the Warrensburg Intensive (I taught 3 of the 6 hours). To share my experience, I initially taught more in the Kobayashi style of 'get thrown twice, throw twice, and let them figure it out'. I also showed most of the interesting or unique versions I'd experienced while in Japan. I quickly realized, though, that there were too many new students present for it to work the same way that it did in Japan. They were getting lost in some of the simple techniques, so there was no real hope for sharing the advanced ones without more verbal/traditional American style instruction, which I slowed down and switched over to. Over the course of the day I had fun sharing what I learned and also learning from the other instructor (Dan Hayes, who is a yondan in USAF and who has some very good/unique Aikido), and I greatly enjoyed just throwing and being thrown all day (especially with my wife). I was a little sad that I didn't end up with time to cover the 31-step kata or kumijo/shin kumijo, but I got that out of my system sharing them and other techniques back home the following entire week.
I had some great conversations with good friends during supper at Missouri, and at the end of a long day Tella and I retired to our hotel to sleep and head home. Sunday was a good return trip adventure as we talked all day and had good time together, and as a final bonus I was able to step into my house and feel like I was home (seeing Tella and my family and friends were the main thing--the house was just a final bonus feeling). That evening we had some things to take care of for the ministry, dojo, and Guild, and the following week I spent re-adjusting to everything here and working to integrate some of the mental and spiritual perspectives I'd gained from my trip. I especially found 'operating in the positive truths while not denying the negative'/making every thought captive and making sure it was in the right motive to be helpful. Integrating Tella into more of the little details of my life was also helpful. She and I had further fun the week I got back by going to Lawrence with to help my first-ever youth student do an Aikido demonstration and presentation to her class (as a favor to her and my German friend, who is her dad). Afterwards we had a 'date day' in Lawrence and then headed home.
I ultimately don't know how far the benefit will go (many benefits involve intangible things like better understanding the people and situations around the origin of Aikido, having developed a network of friends and friendly instructors in Japan, etc.), but I am truly grateful to everyone in Japan and everywhere else (the US, the UK, Germany, and other places) who participated in my trip--including to you who is taking the time to read this blog. Thank you all for your prayers and support, and I will leave you with some pictures I was able to take of cherry blossoms in Japan, the UK, Germany, and (maybe?--I'm not sure the tree variety here) in the US. Many things separate us, but many more unite us everywhere that we are present. Thanks again!
Love,
Brandon
Finally made it to the end! Good story. Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks a ton for reading it! :)
ReplyDelete