Uchideshi Experience

I want to share about an incident that occurred awhile after I had injured my knee.  It was a fairly striking moment for me personally.  I'm not 100% sure when it happened, but I am fairly confident that it was the 23rd of March. I had been using my knee in gradually increasing increments after the initial injury.  It would get better enough that I would legitimately wonder if anything was still wrong with it, but then I'd use it a bit too much and it would let me know that it was definitely not ok.  After one of these times where I'd pushed it a bit too much, it was hurting quite a bit.  I think I'd just gotten back to doing certain types of ukemi (falls), but in a different style than usual to protect it, and now I was bummed that I may have to go back to not falling.  It wasn't possible to know until the next day when I woke up (to see how sore it was and how much it could move).  For some reason I was at Kodaira extra late; Anya had gone to prep...

My last week in Japan was extremely full; I wish there had been opportunity to post on here as things happened, but there truly wasn't.  My last week of classes was freeing and vaguely wistful as I realized these were the last times I would get to do some of the classes that I really enjoyed. It was also strange physically--I was in the rhythm of life there long enough that practice was no longer a physical workout even though I had made it back to full ukemi for all intents and purposes despite my knee injury.  I would sweat, sure, but I never really got exhausted--even when working with partners who were pushing the pace hard.  It's true that I never did get back to doing kneeling technique again while I was still in Japan (my knee hadn't healed enough for that kind of strain or for high breakfalls, though I didn't end up having any of those come up so I never had to take alternate ukemi the last week), but actually doing standing technique as a substitute was mor...

So, I have quite a bit to still type up and post here, and I'm looking forward to doing it.  The last few days I have busy making phone calls back home and handling some work there along with wrapping up translating some essays for Soshihan in Japan and still being involved here in Germany with my friend Max, his family, and the dojo community here.  (German Cherry-blossoms; I got some pictures of blossoms in the UK, too: cherry blossoms in 3 countries!) This morning I got up early and headed to morning class, which starts with massage and then goes into techniques and ends with weapons.  Afterwards, I had breakfast with many of the students, and I was entertained to find out the Kirsten (one of the godans with exceptional skill whom I'd greatly enjoyed training with last time) and her husband Olivar (also a godan whom I greatly enjoyed training with last time) were both uchideshi at Kobayashi Dojo in 1996 (at age 18 or so)!  Fascinatingly enough, though some na...

Hello--sorry I haven't been able to update on here.  It was quite busy heading out of Tokyo--not only did I have to say goodbyes, but I also still had all of my uchideshi duties and a new uchideshi came in the day before I left.  Once I left, I was out of communication for a day or two, and now that I'm done here in the UK, I'll be out of communication for a day or two.  That means that Monday or Tuesday, I hope to update you all on what's been going on.  I have some large reflections on Aikido, faith/spirituality, updates, and a little bit of info about practicing here with the Oxford Aikido Club (as well as my last classes in Japan).  I look forward to sharing with you soon, but here in 30 minutes I need to leave for a bus to London to catch a bus to Dusseldorf, so it will have to wait until I'm settled there and have Internet.  I look forward to sharing soon!

Monday morning after cleaning I had an excellent chat with my wife on the phone.  After that, it was time to head out--Hiroaki Sensei and his family took us all to the Kokukoen park to sit under the Sakura Trees and have a picnic (complete with badminton and ice cream after).  I greatly enjoy the day because I got to see a kinder, more relaxed side of Hiroaki Sensei that often only shows up when he's teaching kids or beginners.  He was pretty relaxed, had fun playing badminton with his daughter, and he even chatted some in English!  Overall it was quite an excellent morning outing, and I was grateful for the time with everyone. Afterwards, we had time for maybe 40 minutes of napping and then it was time for the uchideshi to pack and head out to meet Soshihan at Meiji University for his trip to teach the club there.  At the station near Meiji, we were greeted by the captain of the club and the vice captain, along with some other students....