Aikido Hombu Dojo Training Journal - February 24th

Hello Readers!
Since I came to Japan I have kind of given up writing this blog. Also I am less preocupied with beauty product related things. However this week I trained at Hombu dojo which has been my dream ever since I have started this blog. That is why I thought I would share with you my aikido journal. I am planning to write this kind of journal whenever I train at Hombu dojo or other dojos. I might not include my regular trainings in the Tsukuba aikido club as those trainings are more of a routine activity. So through this the format of this blog is changing somewhat.

So here is the first journal entry.

24.02.2016

Today I decided to start an aikido journal. The most motivating thing that made me start it is that thanks to Uchida Sensei a visiting teacher in Tsukuba I can now go to the Hombu dojo trainings for free any time I would like. So I took this opportunity and went training there yesterday for the second time. The first training I took part of in the Hombu dojo was that of Waka sensei offered for University students. I went there with the aikidoka from the Tsukuba club. Right now I feel there is a major difference between the training in the “home” dojo and the Hombu or other dojo. The difference I have identified is in various things. Firstly I have this kind of nervousness whenever in the Hombu, because it is such an important place in aikido, it has its own special atmosphere. I could feel more of that atmosphere yesterday. That nervousness is the self-doubting mind that questions who are those people there, what is the sensei like, what technique will be demonstrated. I always have that mind right before the training starts and it returns during the training also. The other difference is that in the trainings I have been so far it is not so laboratory like as in our “home” dojo trainings where we break down the techniques to pieces and then put them back together. It is more like the teacher’s technique and personality comes across and you are expected to do whatever you thought you saw. 

8 a.m. Mori sensei 

 

I was messaging with my friends Mone (Japanese girl) and Laurie (French girl) whom I met after the first Hombu dojo training at the drinking party. Monet said that “Mori sensei’s class is harsh, so be careful.”  Laurie joined her saying “I don’t recommend Mori sensei for first classes… it is rough.” I was all set to go to a beginner’s class with Fujimaki sensei, then I asked Kakegawa senpai from the Tsukuba club if we could go together. She said yes, but recommended to go to Mori sensei as I passed the 3^rd kyu exam. So I took her advice. I was not particularly afraid of Mori sensei’s toughness as the teacher with whom I started in Hungary, Pivony Attila sensei was not a mild or easy to deal with person either. So I just relaxed into it and was excited about going. When I entered the dojo many people were warming up and I saw Laurie there picking up her folded hakama. I waved at her and the thought crossed my mind: “You said you don’t go to beginner’s classes, but you just finished the beginner keiko…strange…”The class started with the usual warm up. First technique was some kokyuho in katatedoti then ryotedori. Mori sensei’s kokyuho seemed strong from afar. I did not have to wait for long when he came towards the part of tatami where I was training and threw me a few times. He corrected my uke work, bending my elbow. I was looking at his hand as Uchida sensei advised me, he noticed and pointed to his eyes. I looked him in the eyes and he had something fierce, something elementary in his look while executing the techniques. Half of the techniques he demonstrated I did not get. There was something like a morotedori starting as ikkyo but then ending like a kaiten nage which I was not able to do. I did something between a kokyunage and iriminage instead of the kaiten nage as I was not sure how to position myself and where to put my hands. As my training partner for the whole session was a young girl from Hokkaido University who kept coming back to train with me I could not rely on watching the technique of a senpai so just did a mix and match. It was good that I did not feel embarrassed of not understanding. I was just telling to myself “Keep on doing whatever it is. It is good enough.” I could not help the younger student who was my training partner too much in all that confusion. However I was able to show her how to do the beginning of a nikkyo in morotedori. All techniques were from morotedori. I can remember ikkyo, nikkyo and the kaiten nage like something which I might not have recognized properly. Probably there were some other techniques also but before I knew it the training was over. I was surprised as time flew by so quickly. At the end of the training I talked to a guy who seemed American. They kept on talking loud in the dojo with his friend and bringing on that Western casualness so much contrasting with the silent and withdrawn air of the Japanese dojos. Turned out he was Canadian and his name was Andrew. He had lots of colorful tattoos on his arms and chest. When I finished changing I went on the corridor to drink water. Two men walked backwards and a third white haired man was walking towards me. It was the Doshu. The two man bowed to him and went away and I was standing facing him. I looked at him and bowed also and he made a sound of surprise. Then Kakegawa senpai showed up. After the training we went to Shinjuku, walked around, had ramen for lunch and I decided there is nothing that I want to do more in Tokyo that day then aikido, so I returned to the Hombu dojo in the afternoon. Kakegawa senpai decided to go home, so it was the first time I was heading there alone.

3 p.m. Sakurai sensei

It was cold outside but only 1:30 pm when I got to Wakamatsu station. I went to the kombini to buy some Pocari Sweat. I still had a protein bar and a cornflakes bar in my backpack and armed with those I headed to the small park near the Hombu dojo. I felt really tired already as I woke up at 5 a.m. to get to the 8 a.m. training. I also walked around a lot in Lumine and in the Shinjuku area. Tried to refresh myself in the park but by 2 pm I already felt too cold and decided to go back to the Hombu. I entered, put down the card at the reception. The lady greeted me kindly. I think I could have gotten away with just that but I was told by Kakegawa senpai to say the greeting formula. I stepped back and said it loud: “Tsukuba desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” Then I went upstairs. The building seemed empty, I was way too early. On the 2^nd floor next to the women’s changing room, where I met the Doshu in the morning I saw there were some kind of offices. Women’s voices were filtered through the door and then I heard Waka sensei’s voice. I was amused by the fact that I recognized it, but it is kind of a trademark voice. I entered the changing room but there was nobody there. I texted around on my phone about the sitting volleyball I was to attend after the training in the evening then I changed into the keikogi and hakama. Another lady showed up and I was expecting a low number of attendants. I went to the third floor dojo which was full so I was confused for a few minutes not sure if it was still a training. But then I realized they were warming up. All this was half an hour before the training. Lots of students from Hokkaido University who seemed to be taking maybe all the trainings that day. As I later found out they were to return to Hokkaido the next day. Three foreigners lined up in the back of the dojo with cameras. I could not read anything about Sakurai sensei during this training. The only thing is that I could not properly hold his wrist when he asked me to be an uke. I was surprised telling myself: “I thought you had this one covered. I thought you can grab at least.” But apparently I could not. His writs seemed like a thick trunk that I could not grab. My fingers were too short, my hand was too unskilled. Later he asked me to attack from shomenuchi but he told me it looks like a yokomenuchi. Several times he asked me to attack again and again, stopping my hand until it hit the right spot. This time he asked us to change training partners. My first partner was a French man as I later found out, who came to Japan only for aikido and who said he was teaching in France “a little bit”. I forgot his name, but there was something unpleasant in his atmosphere. Something unkind. At the beginning I thought to myself: “Great, now you are stuck with this dude. Training in Hombu and with a foreigner…Am I not supposed to train with Japanese?!” I was laughing at myself when at the next technique we changed partners and I paired with a young Hokkaido student that had that soft and pleasant atmosphere I am used to from students in my “home dojo”. I felt really happy training with him, very balanced. Same height and weight and there was a softness that reminded me of people training for the purpose of learning and for repetition. We were practicing shomenuchi ikkyo. Next I paired with a very tall and well build male student. Not the stereotypical Japanese young man I would say so I was thinking it will be a bit of a challenge to move him. I was even thinking I will need more muscle power, but he turned out to be very flexible and great uke, so the experience was similar to the previous partner. We were training yokomenuchi iriminage. I was not able to copy the Sakurai sensei version, so I just kept doing the Uchida sensei one and then imitated a little my training partner’s version which also seemed different from what Sakurai sensei was showing us. Then I paired with a girl but I totally forgot what we practiced together. Next a young boy paired with me and I was supposed to do some kind of a kokyunage but I was totally confused about how to do it so I just kept moving around random and doing some sort of kaiten nage sometimes surprising even myself. Then we set down and the second half of the room kept doing the kokyunage and they were very good at it. Then I realized what I should have been doing. We did kokyuho at the end. Sakurai sensei explained and showed more than Mori sensei in the morning who was just demonstrating quickly and leaving it up to us. Sakurai sensei explained about how to use your center and not just your arms during kokyuho. Even if I have heard this and read about this, I still tend to be ignorant of what it really is. I tried to push from my center. The class again ended so fast. Looked like the Hokkaido students were not changing at all because I returned to the changing room to find only the lady from before. She brought me my earrings which she found in the dojo. I thanked her, told her “Otsukaresama desu” and left the dojo with the thought of returning on Friday.