Spring Gashuku with Numata Sensei
The day before Troy left we had a 5 hour training session with a few of the dojos in my area. Numata Sensei was one of the two main instructors. I don't know the name of the other one. The Aikido Kenkyukai Internatinoal group press having regular group trainings that cover the span of two to three days. This session was supposed to be two days long, but since Troy was leaving on Sunday, we could only attend Saturday.
We almost didn't make it that day. I was tired and Troy's kneeds were skinned up from having to do knee techniques in Kamakura. The first thing that happens, when you arrive to train in Japan, is the "adjusting" period of your body to the different mats. As you slide around on your knees, the mat grabs your gi and it in turn grabs the skin on your knees. The skin loses. I could only train once a week when I first got here but now can handle two or three times. Also, Troy is used to having some additional protection from his hakama. Here, he only had his gi pants.
So, we arrived early and were sitting outside. We started talking ourselves out of going. Troy's knees did look bad and I was pretty tired from all of our walking (see other blog) and we were still recovering from the beating we gave ourselves three days earlier in Kamakura. Only Noriko's persistence that we stick to the plan kept us there until one of my sensei's showed up, Nishimura Sensei.
To Troy's embarassment, Noriko quickly relayed the condition of his knees to Nishimura Sensei. Nishimura Sensei simply smiled back and explained that it was no problem. Nobody would force him to do anything more to further cause him pain and injury. He called over a couple of other people and they all laughed and smiled and said things like, "Oh, he trained with Takeda Sensei? Don't worry. We understand." Of course, now Troy felt like a big, 6'6", giant gaijin wimp! (Right, Troy?)
When it was over, the group divided into "Who's going to the hot springs?" and "Who's not?" We were in the "Who's not?" group. Of course, if we had, they could've seen Troy's skinless knees.
In the end, we were glad that we trained. We both learned a lot and it was nice to be able to train with yudansha all day long. Everybody has something to offer. Everyone has a different way of presenting something as they do a technique. Troy was extremely happy that we stuck around for the day. I was too because I need to get out and meet my extended aikido family. I even feel more relaxed at having to meet more new people and train with them. My Misakikai schedule has us going to Numata Sensei's dojo at least three times a month.
We almost didn't make it that day. I was tired and Troy's kneeds were skinned up from having to do knee techniques in Kamakura. The first thing that happens, when you arrive to train in Japan, is the "adjusting" period of your body to the different mats. As you slide around on your knees, the mat grabs your gi and it in turn grabs the skin on your knees. The skin loses. I could only train once a week when I first got here but now can handle two or three times. Also, Troy is used to having some additional protection from his hakama. Here, he only had his gi pants.
So, we arrived early and were sitting outside. We started talking ourselves out of going. Troy's knees did look bad and I was pretty tired from all of our walking (see other blog) and we were still recovering from the beating we gave ourselves three days earlier in Kamakura. Only Noriko's persistence that we stick to the plan kept us there until one of my sensei's showed up, Nishimura Sensei.
To Troy's embarassment, Noriko quickly relayed the condition of his knees to Nishimura Sensei. Nishimura Sensei simply smiled back and explained that it was no problem. Nobody would force him to do anything more to further cause him pain and injury. He called over a couple of other people and they all laughed and smiled and said things like, "Oh, he trained with Takeda Sensei? Don't worry. We understand." Of course, now Troy felt like a big, 6'6", giant gaijin wimp! (Right, Troy?)
When it was over, the group divided into "Who's going to the hot springs?" and "Who's not?" We were in the "Who's not?" group. Of course, if we had, they could've seen Troy's skinless knees.
In the end, we were glad that we trained. We both learned a lot and it was nice to be able to train with yudansha all day long. Everybody has something to offer. Everyone has a different way of presenting something as they do a technique. Troy was extremely happy that we stuck around for the day. I was too because I need to get out and meet my extended aikido family. I even feel more relaxed at having to meet more new people and train with them. My Misakikai schedule has us going to Numata Sensei's dojo at least three times a month.
posted by Jory-san at 1:42 PM
1 Comments:
Yes I did feel like a wimp and embarrassed. But the good thing was I could not understand them as they were talking about me.
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