Kokyu huh?

I made it to Saturday's and Sunday's classes. I woke up both days feeling kind of blah. There's a good chance it's from the sakura blossoms. I didn't feel like going on either day but I pushed myself and made it. I won't get better at it if I'm sitting at home. Now that today's class is over I know that since I went today, feeling so rotten, that I have no excuse on other days when I feel fine. That's a good lesson in itself.

It's a good thing that we went today. The only other two people there were Nishimura Sensei and his son. I'm not sure what dan either of them are but one rarely gets to have what feels like a private class with yudansha. Noriko and I would just change partners for each technique. Nishimura Jr. is in his twenties (my best guess) and he won't just let you have the technique. He makes you earn his ukemi. That reminds me. At yesterday's class, Jr. was gone but Nishimura's daughter came. I guess it's just one happy aikido family.

Nishimura Jr. has two things he always tells me: Rirakkusu shite (Relax!) and "Kokyu!" Kokyu is one of those things that I've found hard to learn. Either that, or it's hard to teach me. It sort of means "breath power." So, for the most part, when someone blurts out "Kokyu!" it's mostly just a chance to hear the word from a native Japanese speaker. The first time he told me to relax I thought he was trying to mix Japanese and English. I was proud of him for trying. Later, I found out that is one of the words from English that Japanese has borrowed.

Noriko finally made it back to class today. I'm envious that she is being shown concepts like kokyu and has a clean slate. Maybe later she can teach me. But, the more I get to do things like tenchi nage, the better I'll get.

I pace my attacks during atogeiko now, so I'm never quite as winded. Don't get me wrong, I'm still panting but at least I'm able to walk back to my place on the floor. And, I'm taking 30 ukemi instead of 20.

Until next time, Relax and Kokyu!