Following: Portland Ho!

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Portland Ho!

The first seminar with Nevelius Sensei concluded today. All weekend he's been talking about the interactions that make up Aikido, and how the "meeting place" is an axis around which the whole thing takes place. The magic comes when we understand that the point of contact, such as the grab, is not always the axis around which everything rotates. Once we understand where the axis is, we have a lot more freedom, because it's very hard to make something spin off its axis, but much easier to make it spin on the axis. Anyway, tons of food for thought and for practice.

Here is a short clip of Evie and some of her new extended family in Seattle warming up before class (which is just a way to make "playing" sound more respectable)

We helped move a few mats, and off we went to Portland. On the way there we enjoyed some goodies from the farmers' market across the street from the seminar. Here I am enjoying a very good chocolate tile cookie, with Evie holding a small tub of cultured butter in view. You can get a lot of stuff at farmers' markets here that we can't get at home, like raw milk, butter, and beer. Yup, you can buy beer at the farmers' market. Turns out there are a lot of beer farmers out here.

We are staying at a cute little independent motel in Portland. We decided we were all up for dinner out, so of course we had to go for pizza, so we ended up at The Life of Pie. We all enjoyed our pizza very much--well proportioned and well cooked.

A cool and casual place. We also got a great tip: if there is a grumpy or bored kid, just give him a dough ball to play with:

Problem solved!

Next door was a little ice cream shop. Apparently "the thing" here is ice cream samplers, so we got 4 small scoops of different flavors (3D chocolate, mint chunk, blueberry basil, and brown butter almond brittle) with a bunch of toppings, including the very visible toasted marshmallow. All the flavors were good, but it's not really a great way to taste ice creams. Everything kinda runs together.

Then we walked around the neighborhood for a while to soak in the Portland vibe. Saw lots of great bike lanes, very cute houses, and evidence of what life is like in a truly progressive town:

We've heard rumors of underground goat herds in Madison. . . These folks are letting it all hang out.

On the way back to the motel we had to stop at another famous local ice cream shop, where we tried olive oil, almond brittle with salted ganache, and a taste of one of their Halloween flavors: essence of ghost, which was vanilla sherbet with Laphroig scotch and smoked salt. Good thing they have a "split scoop" option, so the 3 of us could try more than one flavor in a single cone.

Tomorrow, gourmet doughnuts?

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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.