Following: Finishing up in Berkeley

Friday, October 23, 2015

Finishing up in Berkeley

We're packing up today to hit the road again. It's been nice to have a place to spread out our stuff and feel at home in this cozy apartment nestled into the hills. But we have an early morning start to get to Santa Cruz tomorrow, and we'll be home on the late side tonight, so we're basically going to pack everything up this morning.

But first, a re-cap of yesterday.

After our breakfast pastry (noted in yesterday's post), we packed picnic supplies and headed into San Francisco. We went for a medium-length walk to catch some more pastry, the most notable of which was this:

This is what we would consider to be a proper kouign amann from the very exellent b.patisserie. As the pastry has gotten more popular, there have been more and more takes on it. The trend we see in all kinds of food (and maybe not just food) is that somebody homes in on what they think people love about something, the "best part" about it) and they maximize that, often to the detriment of the overall effect. In the case of the kouign amann, people seem to be focusing on the caramelized sugar, which provides a great mix of crunch and chewiness. The result is that many pastries of this type are bordering on sticky buns, which are of course awesome, but a different thing. Or as many a Sensei has said, "That's not wrong, but it's not what we're doing today." Anyway, pictured above is a proper kouign amann, with a light dusting of sugar on the outside bottom, and nice light and defined layers. They have a characteristic shape (which really should be as distinctive as the shape of a croissant) that comes from how you make them--basically a square of pastry dough put into a cup (like a muffin tin) and the corners are folded in. When we have made them, they usually end up with a small pool of melted butter and sugar in the middle, which this one also had. We've thought of how to get rid of it, but in the end, why would you want to?

In the afternoon, we went to Petaluma and spent some time walking the downtown and a bit of re-charge time at the public library. Then we went for a short dinner picnic to Bodega Bay, the closest bit of coast to where we were. Had a lovely little spot next to the water where many people have built cairns out of small rocks.

Then we zipped back toward Petaluma for the evening's training with Nevelius Sensei, hosted by Richard Strozzi Heckler, who like Robert Nadeau Sensei, was profiled in the book Aikido in America, co-edited by our own John Stone Sensei. Heckler Sensei was, I must say, not as scary as I expected!

The setting was beautiful--set on a hilltop in ranching country, with a bunch of little barn-board buildings, one of which was the dojo. The training area is small, but the appointments are wonderful--there are couches, nice thick rugs, and wood stove. Here's a view approaching the dojo:

Of note for our family, and Evie in particular, was that all the shurbbery in this area (including the big green bush seen on the right above) are huge rosemary plants, many of which are in bloom!

The evening's training was wonderful. They were all packed in like sardines, but everyone made it work, and much carrot salad was consumed, perhaps inspired by Heckler Sensei's request at the beginning to train with open hearts and open minds.

After class, Evie had a question for Nevelius Sensei. He has been talking a lot about the "meeting place"--the place where the interaction happens. You don't want to give ground, because then you are forced to retreat and run away, but you don't want to blast in and cause a destructive collision. Aikido is the third alternative, to find a way to share the space non-destructively. Evie felt that even when she did not give ground with her feet, she was still pulling a bit, forcing the interaction in a way that did not seem to be consistent with what he was exploring. So he gave her some personalized instruction:

He seemed to be happy with the progress she made, and she was thrilled to get a tailor-made answer to her question.

Tonight, Aikido of Tamalpais, training with some old friends and some friends we haven't met yet!

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.