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.
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 3rd 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 2nd 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.
