Following: Corn, corn, canyon, corn

Monday, October 12, 2015

Corn, corn, canyon, corn

We are well on the way. Yesterday we put on 430 miles, and stayed at this lovely place:

It's Palisades State Park in South Dakota. Evie provided the title for this post, and that pretty much sums up how you get there. After a lot of miles of corn in Minnesota, we came to this little gem--gorgeous rocky bluffs cut by a stream. It was crazy windy--35 mph plus all night, but the stars (and meteors) were incredible.

Today, we logged another a butt-busting 606 miles, and are shacked up in Wyoming just shy of the Montana border. We saw pronghorn, a bald eagle, mule deer, and my favorite thing about South Dakota, fields of sunflowers so big you can't see the end. They're brown now, but I have seen them in full color and they're really spectacular.

Evie drove a bit today (and yesterday)--her first taste of interstate driving. We've listened to some great podcasts and lots of 80s and disco music.

Tomorrow, we put most of Montana behind us and finally get on to the Aikido portion of the trip with an evening class at Aikido of Missoula, about which we are very excited. There will be another update coming soon after that. Their list of instructors almost reads like a poster for a seminar, so who knows what cool stuff we will experience?

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Aikido Glossary

These are the most common terms you'll see here. We've also prepared a more detailed glossary (see below).

Dojo: “The place of the way”. The training hall where we practice our art. In the US, many dojo are decorated with a Japanese aesthetic, but some are in racquetball courts or gyms. In the end, the dojo is wherever the people are who show up to practice.

Gi: Training uniform consisting of jacket and pants (normally plain white for aikido) and an obi, or belt. In our federation, belts are either white or black, but in many federations, there are colored belts, most commonly blue and brown, but sometimes there are more gradations. Some aikido practitioners also wear a hakama.

Hakama: The pleated pants (that look like a skirt) worn by some aikido practitioners. In some organizations, it is (or can be) worn by students of any rank. In others, it is reserved for black belts, and in still others, there are different rules for men and women (which are derived from some interpretation of Japanese ideas of modesty). It has no real practical purpose, but serves as a sort of historical link to samurai tradition.

Hanmi: “Half body.” We use it to mean an aikido stance which is sort of triangular. Front foot faces the partner, back foot points out at about a 45 degree angle. It provides a great balance of agility and stability, while offering only half the body as a target for attack.

Musubi: “Connection” or “joining”, although the word is also used to mean “knot”. A key principle of aikido because it helps avoid confrontation and collision, which lead to destruction.

Nage: The person “doing” the technique, generally the person being attacked in some way.

Seiza: Formal sitting posture, kneeling with a straight back. Tough on the knees if you are not used to it.

Shomen: The focal point of the dojo, the proper direction to face. Most aikido dojo have some sort of shrine to the founder on the shomen. Shomen is also shorthand for Shomen uchi, which is an overhead strike to the forehead with an open hand, like a classic karate chop. It's a stylized attack when performed with an empty hand, but would be devastatingly effective with a weapon.

Uke: The person taking ukemi. A good uke is more precious than gold, because he or she will help you learn better aikido not by teaching, but by creating the conditions that allow you to discover how to make sense of Sensei's teaching.

Ukemi: “Receiving” is the closest translation from Japanese. When someone performs an aikido technique on you, your are taking ukemi. It encompasses a lot of stuff, including the punches, grabs, and kicks that we use to simulate attack, as well as the falling and rolling we use to keep ourselves safe.
On a deeper level, it refers to the act of connecting with and following your partner. Great ukemi keeps you safe, allows you to be alert for opportunities to reverse a technique, and helps your partner learn better.