Sushi Deshi, 1 year in Japan

I`m lucky to be surrounded by Japanese and live with them every day. Moreover, the people I know really like to share the culture of their country so I can experiment many different things. 

The "Why" of cleaning....
I was having one more of these profound talks with Takashima Sensei, and it drifted to the tasks of the uchi deshi, one of the main being cleaning. He told me I had to question myself when I was doing it and why I had to do this, to find a purpose in this madness. It`s true that it can be sometimes a bit alienating.  So I let it sank for a while, trying to remember what he told me before, that in the old times the potential candidates for deshi would spend the first few months in the dojo, only cleaning, not receiving any teachings, only cleaning, and that O-Sensei would decide if they can join based on the examination of their work. He told me about how the Sensei would recognize who did the cleaning based on how it looked. Whether it's true or not, it gave me some matter to think.
And my answer is Intention. You have to learn to do things without intention. All these tasks are everyday opportunities to practice doing things without showing your intention. So at first maybe you have to hide them, but the ultimate goal is to not generate any. Not being in a rush, not avoiding it, just doing it.  Kind of doing a meditation on the scrubbing of the toilet bowl in a way.
Because if you show your intention and emotions to your opponent, he will see it coming and react accordingly. I think. You can say it's BS, fine with me. But I think it's cool to think you can settle your mind by swiping  the dust away...
Takashima Sensei also added that it was a good practice to sharpen your senses, and develop a habit of immediately getting if something is wrong in a situation. I'm not there yet.

My Shodo (Calligraphy) teacher, Aoyagi Sensei, took us to Ogawamachi where they are traditionally manufacturing the calligraphy paper, old style with some kind of dried grass, called Washi. The Washi is made of very strong fibers, so it is said to be able to last over a 1000 years... So we could witness the process from the plain Washi to the calligraphy paper, and we even tried to manufacture some paper for ourselves. That`s where I could then express my newly discovered creativity by designing these nice postcards, made in calligraphy paper. My grandmother would be so proud. Hope you get sarcasm. :)

More pictures here!
 

So, Aude arrived on the 10th of August at 23h, Haneda Airport. I`ll remember this date!

We had been almost 5 months away from each other, and this was enough. We didn`t really have time to think about how to react after such a long time, since we had to rush to get to Narita airport to catch our flight for Hokkaido. So I guide her through all these foreign signs and I have to confess I was proud to lead the way, I remember how lost I felt when I arrived at Narita, So I made it as smooth as possible for her.

After a few hours of break in the airport, we flew to Hokkaido for a road trip of 9 days! It was awesome. At first I was planning not to have any plan, and go with the flow. But many Japanese people told me "you should book". I was like "Yeah...". They were like "No, really you should book". And when I realized our trip was coinciding with the annual Japanese Holiday week, I pulled my fingers out and start booking all these nice Ryokan hotels. I don`t regret it now.

We went from the land of Hot springs (Noboribetsu) to the land of Bears (Shiretoko) going through the highest mountain of Hokkaido (Mount Asahi-like the beer- Dake, 2400 meters), visiting farms filled with colorful flowers and lavender fields. We ate eggs that were cooked by the steam of volcanos, saw some deers, bear poop and swim naked in a public hotspring. In one word, Amazing. If you don`t believe me, check the pictures below. (Spoil alert: There are no pictures of the hot spring)

After Hokkaido, we went back to Tokyo, where Aude was really expected by everyone! We were invited at many occasions, and everybody was very nice to her. I suspect they want us to stay :)

As an exemple, one of the student at the dojo, told me he`d like to invite us for dinner, as his wife is a very good cook. On the same day, there was a matsuri (festival) close to his house. So we went there, had a look at the matsuri, and went at his place. It was a family birthday dinner.... We felt so embarrassed at first, but everybody was so nice that we quickly forgot. One week of nice people, and nice encounters.

After that, we flew to Bali to celebrate Sensei Jon and Sharon`s wedding. I was very glad to see some friendly faces. As much as I like living in Japan, It made me feel that I still want to go back to my life in Melbourne. So it was great to catch up and we partied like it was 1999.

This month was a bit hectic, aikido speaking. I had many distractions from my everyday training. There was a unexpected visit to Osaka for 2 days with Kanazawa Sensei, where I had to work as English teacher on one of his "project"... Mr Bala, a student from Aikido Shudokan Malaysia came for 10 days to the dojo, and we did a trip to Ise which is a kind of Mecca for the Shintoism, a holy city that is worth visiting!

I also had a 3 days English summer camp with Nitta Sensei (from my initial homestay program). She was a bit worried that it would be tiring for me... How sweet, but after a good rehearsal with the Aikido Summer Camp,  this was just a joke. Only 9 kids, I had to teach some Aikido, in english, so it was a nice break :).

After a few trainings here and there, I had a one week summer break to Hokkaido with my beloved Fiancée and a trip to Bali for Sensei Jon's wedding. So I feel I've done every thing but Aikido.

But when I think about it, we kept going on about the Shoteng, and we continued the instructor test classes, and it's very interesting to be questioned on the purpose of each aikido basic movements. It makes you realize how little you know! For example, why do we practice shumatsu dosa? Or what are the important points of each movements of the Kihon dosa ( that are not obvious...)? What is Kamae....? Things like that. Tell me what you think about it!

So, during my first exchanges of email with Takashima Sensei, he told me he wanted me to help him with the kids class. So I was like, yep no problem, it will be a good experience for me. What I didn`t get is that he was contracted with 3 different kinder garden schools, thus teaching Aikido 2 hours a day to kids from 3 to 6 years old, 3 times a week. Surprise Surprise!!!   

The schedule is a followed:

- Monday, Kawagoe (1 hour from Tokyo) kinder garden, from 2:00 to 4:00

- Wednesday, Soka Kinder garden in Tokyo, from 2:00 to 4:00

- Thursday, Another kinder garden in Kawagoe, from 2:00 to 4:00

When I think about how terrified I felt the first time I was in front of these kids, and how I start to love them now, I'm thinking that you can experience tremendous changes within 3 months...

Because I was not the kind of "kid" person. And suddenly, I have 60 (yes 60) of them in front of me, ready to eat me alive. That might have been one of the most difficult thing I`ve done. I felt a bit like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4X8_c80kg

BUT, I find now that teaching is a good experience, it helps me to face my own mistakes, and allow  me to understand difficulties of learning and teaching. I can teach only what I understand, of course, so hopefully I know more Aikido than 3 years old beginners. Even though, sometimes, it`s just impossible for them to understand.  At first, I thought, "guys are you dumb or what?? just do what i'm showing you!!" and often, It's a lost cause. And then I think about my own training with Takashima Sensei . And how he is always repeating the same things,   " no not like that, like this.." . I'm wondering how he doesn't get frustrated at us, He must have told us a thousand of times, but unless you are ready to hear it and understand it, you are doing it wrong. So in the end, it`s just that people have different levels of understanding something. 

And also, now I love kids. :)

Look at these chubby faces.

We went on a road trip for 3 days with Takayama Sensei, Takashima Sensei, Igor Sensei, and Yohei San to Aizu, in the Fukushima prefecture.

Aizu was known to be the land of Samourai, and is quite famous for the story of Byakkotai ("White Tiger force"), a group of 19 teenage Samourais who committed Seppuku, while overlooking their Castle in flames, thinking that they failed protecting it. So it`s a place full of history, especially martial arts history.

We continued our trip going further north, passing by many nice villages, that you would think they only exist in movies.

And this was my first experience of Ryokan, or Japanese Traditional hotel. A tattami room, a nice Onsen (Public bath), people wearing Yukata (light kimonos) all over the place, even outside, some very nice food, Futon prepared for you, that would be some of the features of a Ryokan.  And the usual suspects:

We then went to the area destroyed by the tsunami. It was very impressive to see the damage, a huge boat across the road, some remains of the foundations of houses, buildings upside down... As an example here is a before-after picture, where you can see that the entire forest have been wiped out by the tsunami. There`s only one tree left, that is now being visited by many tourists as a Holy tree.

So it was a very nice trip, and a good opportunity to get to know people a bit more, outside of the dojo.

More pictures of the trip:

This month was pretty packed with many new things. We had the visit of Igor sensei from St petersbourg, who wanted to spend 2 weeks in the dojo, learning Riai (Principles) with Takashima Sensei. I think it 's brave at this point of his aikido career to put things into a different perspective and add new things to what he learned so far. I found out that It can also be very frustrating...

So Takashima Sensei introduces the notion of "Shoteng", or target where you focus your power. You create a target simply by gently placing your hand on a part ok uke's body, fix it, and move your body a bit forward and inside to stiffen your Uke, and take control of his body. Easier written than done. But the more we do it the more I realize where in many techniques we have to use this concept of Shoteng, for exemple in the katamochi and Hijimochi techniques. I realize it, but still can`t do it. 

We also started to train for the Instructor class, the structure of the Instructor test is as followed:

- Kamae
- Kihon dosa
- 3 simple random techniques
- 1 round of jyu waza
- goshin jiustu or self defense
- Teach a technique in 5 minutes, where you organize your timing between demonstrating, speaking about the baselines, important points and common mistakes of the technique.

Seemed like a breeze when I was told the program!... But no, it`s not. 

First of all, the check of your Kamae, thinking about all the details of it, your overall feeling, your ability to move freely into any of the basic movements from this position. I remember joking with the city dojo fellows about "The Prefect Kamae, Volume 1". Well, it`s not that far! :)

Same with the Kihon Dosa, the goal is to see if you really understand what`s going on, and if you can perform it correctly.

About the 3 random techniques, they are supposed to be basics, in order to check if you can use the basics movements inside a technique.

So, lots of fun!

Since Igor Sensei was here, a short road trip to Aizu was organized, and you can see more about it here. 

We also had many events during this month, including the Summer training, or 10 consecutive days of morning training from 6:30 to 8:00. It wasn`t a big change for me, although I have to say it was quite draining to have this on top of everything.

Once the summer training was finished, we continued with the summer camp for kids. 3 days of activities, games, Matsuri, aikido, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, showers, baby sitting, for 40 kids, aging from 5 to 12 years old. I was not prepared for that at all. But it was fun. Sort of. It was exhausting, but on the other hand, it was really good to get to know these kids deeper. Plus I had to improvise my first teaching experience, since it was a last minute request from Takashima Sensei. So on the whole, it was a great experience, learning to balance between discipline and fun, jokes and orders. And I have to say I`m starting to like these kids. Meet them below!

During my homestay, Nitta Sensei`s son, Takato, took me to Kamakura, a small city of the Kanagawa prefecture, south west from Tokyo, by the ocean. It used to be the Capital of Japan, and house of Shogun during the Kamakura Period. It`s quite famous for its several temples and particularly the big Buddha, who is overflowed by tourists, including me. Some of the temples were very inspiring, see pictures below. People were practicing Archery in one of those very quiet places. I`d kill for a dojo like that. (Not very buddhist thought, I know) 

So we had a nice day trip, good food and interesting discussions about religions. I`m often trying to make them talk about religion, but everytime, I hit a wall. "So, can you tell me about the different religions?", "Aaah, It`s complicated..." Just tell me please! I understood that there were many different branches of Bhuddism, sometimes called cults. The main religion being Shintoism, or worshipping the Nature itself. That`s it for now, investigation in progress...

For more pictures of this day trip:

As Uchi-Deshi, you learn the practice of sacrifice, you learn to cultivate feeling of care for others, even your enemies, so that it makes you aware of details, you have to train to see everything, every intentions in a glimpse, so Takashima Sensei said. I can find some similarity with the Buddhist spirit of compassion, but the purpose is different. For the Uchi Deshi, it's about being able to react to neutralize the enemies.

We have very interesting talks about the Uchi Deshi position, I think it helps a lot to destroy your ego, because everything that you do, clean, cook, serve, you have to do with a pure heart, "Su no Kokoro", for your Sensei. And as Uchi Deshi, you don't expect to get any considerations from others for all of this. You don't feel good or bad about it, that's normal. When you sometimes get some considerations, it's pure bonus!

So in a way, being uchi deshi, at the bottom of the hierarchy, takes away a lot of social pressure about relationships with others. No more "hmm, this guy should show me a little more respect, what can I do about it?", Freedom of the mind!!!

Talking with Takashima sensei, it can also be a double edge sword, he had witness some examples of deshi being very proud and show off their uchi deshi skills with their master in front of other people. "Look how good I am". Good boy, Pat on the back.