Aikido

Felicity and I cycled to the police station in Chikushino City this morning at 9am. When we got there we had a police officer show us up to the third floor where the Aikido practice was taking place. We sat against the wall and watched as children arrived in their white keikogi (simple trousers and a wraparound jacket) and different coloured belts. Two of the children turned out to be students of mine: Shohei and Eri. Should be interesting when I teach them again in a couple of weeks time.

The teacher came over and spoke to us in a mixture of Japanese and English. We said we'd like to watch and maybe join after Christmas, to which he invited us to join in. We had been expecting just to watch, or even to be told that we couldn't join as we were too old, or foreigners, or something. Thus, it was a really nice surprise to be asked to join in. They made us feel really welcome. So we spent 30 minutes doing various (often painful and embarassing) streches, whilst all the while Eri stared at me and babbled in Japanese.

Afterwards the class split into different groups and we joined the very beginners to learn the basic moves. We did some basic movements that gradually got harder. He kept coming over to correct us after each practice, though, which was slightly embarassing, not least as we were holding the class up. Afterwards we did some forward and backwards roles (well, I mostly failed to do them) and then did some walking along on our knees. Then we did a little sparring. I had a little man that I was still taller than when I was kneeling down, though he knew his stuff and kept repositioning my hands and showing me what to do. We did two moves, both of which started with the attacked doing a standard "karate chop" like action. The first move countered by following them through and down on to the ground, whereas the second span them around on to the ground. Both ended with the attacked on the ground whilst leaning on one of his arms. I felt like I could snap it so easily with only minimal effort - it was rather worrying. I didn't want to hurt the poor fellow.

After that we did some counters involving kendo sticks. Basically the teacher lunges at you and you side step and strike his wrist. Afterwards we did some jumping over the stick.

The teacher, whose name I quickly forgot, said that we could "watch" for about a month before joining after Christmas, which is cool. I'm definately going to go every week. We watched a little of the next, adult class before we left.