The Eternal Beginner

Tonight was our second aikido class in Japan. This aikido journey in Japan is going to be interesting. I can't understand 90% of what is being said. Supposedly, that is how it should be. Students of yore were supposed to watch their sensei and "steal the technique." That's how you have people like Tomiki, Tohei, and Shioda, all students of Ueshiba, but they all have their own strain of aikido. They all stole/saw something different.

The loudest person in my aikido class isn't even there. It's Mike Pollack sensei and he's in my head. "Use your thumbs!" is his most common outburst. Mostly I hear him in my technique (by the way, i'm doing him a grave disservice by even comparing my technique to his). But I see him doing every technique right along with me. I'm doing my best to emulate him in class. I haven't seen anything yet that can replace all of those years of watching him teach.

I can't remember if I ran it down in the last entry. In Tulsa, I was a member of the Tulsa Aikido Club, which was in turn, affiliated with Aikido Schools of Ueshiba. Here, I'm a member of the Misakikai Dojo, which is in turn affiliated with Aikido Kenkyukai International.

Aoki-sensei also announced that I'm going to be testing in April. I can't believe it. 15 years after my first aikido class, I'm going to take a class for 5th kyu. After this long, it really doesn't have much meaning to me. He told Noriko I need to get a short bokken because I'll need it for the test. I've started aikido and I've quit aikido. Two months or two years later I've started and quit again. Three months later, I've finished a job and was able to start up lessons again. This has gone on for 15 years.

There are also some one day and two day training events coming up that I shouldn't miss. Some advice I received before coming to Japan was, "Train as much as you can." I'll do my best.