Saturday at the Dojo 7/8

Attendees: Sensei Yoji, Ray, Tim, Carla, Mike, Martin, Raj, Stanley, Robert and two folks who drove in from Killeen.

Before the seminar started, I asked Sensei Yoji to sign the copies of his books that I'd brought with me. I hope to get to read them soon.

We spent the first part of the morning with a brief history of aikido from Sensei Yoji. I don't remember what we covered before lunch. I'll have to look at the video.

We broke for lunch. We ordered pizza to be delivered and watched some video of Kenji Tomiki working over and uke. It also included some video from his dojo with lartge numbers of students working continuously in close quarters. It looked like quite a workout.

After lunch we worked through the Junana Hon Kata, finding variations of various techniques. Sensei Yoji would demonstrate the variations on two techniques and we would break off and work on them. We may have started this in the morning session, I don't recall. I know we made it up to Waki Gatame, as that was the last one I felt comfortable working on.

Martin and I spent a good amount of time working with each other. I worked with Robert, Tim, Raj, Stanley, and Robert as well.

Around 4:00, it became apparent that we were worn out, as activity on the mat was quit lethargic. Mate was called and we broke to freshen up for dinner.

At dinner I presented Sensi Yoji with a copy of the book I edited and he invited me to sit down with him and chat. I did so until local friends that he hadn't seen in a while arrived. During our conversation I discovered that he was a neighbor of mine when I was growing up. It turns out he lived about 8 houses down the street from me from 1968 until 1978. I don't remember him, but I'm sure I saw him. One of my other neighbors at the time was heavily into judo. I need to ask him if he remembers Yoji.

He came up to me later during dinner and handed me his business card. He encouraged me to submit my writings to the "Writers' of the Future" contest. He's a judge for it at the moment and recommends it as being a lucrative contest. The business card got destroyed in the wash.

tag : Aikido