Back to Aikido

I had a fun time at Aikido this morning, though there were an awful lot of kids in the first hour so Flick and I didn’t have much space to move. The second half was very fun: they went through some of the basics for some reason, which we then practiced one-on-one (as normal) with a black-belted person. Thus you get some good tips. There was one move which starts off with you trying to punch your opponent in the stomach and he then whips you round and onto the floor. My guy was just like: “hit me in the stomach”, which he then let me do, saying “harder, harder”. I have some aversion to just punching people, but I managed to do hit with a force of his liking a few times before he finally grabbed me and floored me at full speed. It’s quite fun, actually, and it shows you what it’s all about. You actually can’t resist against what he's doing to you, so it really is effective as a self-defense art! He was also trying to resist my moves a lot, so that I had to do it properly. It’s good when they do that, as sometimes they just give in as a matter of course. It was fun, though. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it slightly.

I didn’t do much this afternoon: I finished off watching one of my animes so I can start on one of the many other ones I have. I later pool with Nozomi, Akiko, and Hitomi before helping them write a conversation in English about “Winter Vacation” (I think it was their homework). That took two hours to do as they are so slow and just don’t keep focused. They’re always getting side tracked by their mobile phones.

This evening we shall be watching "Team America: World Police" by popular demand. Very funny film, and the reason for the puppets: Matt Stone and Trey Parker hate actors (that's also why they kill a lot of their puppet counterparts in the movie!).