Inside, Outside, Guide

I am writing this on Sunday morning so we have now been gone for one week.  In some ways it feels like much longer and in some ways it feels like we just left.

I don't practice Aikido.  I still get a lot from listening and watching at seminars.  Jan Nevelius Shihan is an excellent teacher.  He comes to a seminar with a plan to build understanding and he explains his ideas clearly and then helps students explore and refine those ideas.  Much of what he has been talking about has been about being in the present moment, really being there with the person (or situation) you are meeting and then looking for an opening and deciding to take action: move inside, move outside or guide your partner into something new.  He teaches with a white board at hand to draw diagrams, he uses visual aids to explain ideas, he asks students of all levels to take ukemi in front of the class because everyone's Aikido is important.

If you think I sound like a big fan, you should hear Evie.  She is soaking it all in and reveling in the opportunity to play with some of her favorite people.  Glenn Leichman Sensei from Aikido Seattle is one of her favorites, he is so generous to her and grabs her before class every time to practice and explore and laugh a lot.  She has been folding his hakama after class and last night she kidnapped it to bring it home for ironing and repair.  This will surprise none of you who know her.

I also went to Stumptown Coffee yesterday and Crumble and Flake Patisserie.  I got groceries, we went to a gnocchi bar for lunch (there was gelato too).  We spent a quiet evening at home doing laundry and packing because we are on our way to Portland this afternoon!

What is next? (Besides Voodoo Doughnuts, of course!)

Official Seminar--day 1

Pretty quiet day today. Got the car fixed this morning, had weird leek soup for lunch, helped move mats in preparation for class.

The seminar is being held at the community college because none of the hosting dojos (Aikido Seattle, One World Aikido, and Seattle School of Aikido) had enough room. That means this afternoon we were part of the crew loading tatami mats from the basement of Aikido Seattle into a U-Haul truck, and unloading them at the college's athletics center. We got some pretty weird looks from the table tennis players.

Then had a picnic at the park near the seminar for dinner, and Molly Moon's ice cream.

Class this evening was fantastic again. I think I'll have more to say about it once I've had time to absorb, but it was really interesting to basically do the same thing all night. There were some variations, and different training partners, but it was all the same ideas. Lots to think about.

I think Jan Sensei is getting more colloquial every time I see him. We did, however, finally find an English word he doesn't know. "In Sweden, we have this thing where you sit on one end of a log, and the person sitting on the other end goes up." "That's called a teeter-totter, Sensei." "A what?" "Teeter-totter." (Vaguely disgusted look on his face) "Yes. . . . that." You could tell he thought it was a horribly undignified name.

Hopefully pictures coming soon.

Maybe tomorrow will be the day we all unlock the secrets of Aikido. . . .

Thursday

First day of class with Jan Sensei was fantastic, as expected. Wait, we're not there yet. I have to go in order.

Mid-morning we went grocery shopping and found a surprise new bakery that wasn't on the list. Good bread and macaron, the croissant and kouign amann were mediocre.

We had lunch at our Airbnb house, and then went and explored Bellevue a little bit, ending at the farmers' market to get some things for dinner. They had local canned fish and beer for sale at market. It was pretty strange. Also, $50/pound butter. We didn't get any.

We ate dinner at a nice park, and then on to the dojo!

Class was wonderful, as expected. Lee Sensei from Aikido Northshore was, as always, a wonderful host, and it was great to see everyone again. There was one person from New Jersey, but I believe other than him we came the farthest so far. I heard some New Orleansers would be here for the weekend. Everyone seems to love the idea of the Aikido road trip, and following Jan Sensei. When I mentioned it to a few of the Seattle people, the conversation went something like this:

Me: We're going on an over 5,000 mile Aikido road trip, and following Jan Sensei down California.
Person 1 (keep in mind he has a British accent): Why didn't I think of that?
Person 2: You didn't homeschool.
Person 1: That's right. Bother.

I got some pre-class jiyu waza (free practice) time with Glenn Sensei from Aikido Seattle, which is always fun. We were both definitely warmed up by the time class actually started.

It was nice to see a continuation of what Jan Sensei was talking about last year with axes. (That's plural axis, not something you chop wood with.) He was talking about looking in the empty space, instead of where people are, because that's where you can actually move. At other seminars Sensei has mentioned looking where you want to go, or where you want uke to go, instead of at a person, because no one can move somewhere that's already full. Also, stepping back changes the axis and lets them push you over. So instead, you turn, keeping the same axis. It gives you more room without compromising your stability.

Jan Sensei used a vacuum analogy that I really liked: When we train, there's a lot of talk of extending, extend your hands, your ki, whatever. But really we want to be like a vacuum. It sucks air in one place, and blows it out another. It can't just blow (or extend) all the time, that's impossible. So we need to suck uke in first, and then extend.

I definitely couldn't take it all in from one class, and I'm looking forward to more this weekend!

Nevelius--day 1

Jan Nevelius Shihan is the main attraction for this trip, and tonight was the first taste, at a special class hosted by Lee Crawford Sensei.

So how do you know you're at a Nevelius seminar? One good clue is that Evie is out on the mat before class playing with Glenn Leichman Sensei.

The two of them expend more energy before class than most of us have to give in a whole day. When enough people start lining up, they call it quits, wipe the sweat off their brows, and join the rest of the gang. It's super fun to watch, and normally generates a lot of questions of Evie after class about how she can roll so quietly or how to do "that soft fall", which she mentioned before and is one of the things that drew her to Nevelius Sensei in the first place. Quiet is good, because that sound you hear when the rest of us roll is the sound of pointy bits of us banging on the ground. Evie will literally roll on concrete with absolutely no ill effects.

Evie will give a fuller report on Jan Sensei's class, but there are a few things I would put in there:

1. Evie got to take ukemi for him a couple of times.

2. I do not have a strong enough foundation in basic technique to get that much from his classes. I am able to process more of his ideas as an observer than I am as a participant. What works best for me is to watch class and do my best to absorb it as information, and then work through it with Evie afterwards as technique.

3. My first time grabbing (and naturally being thrown by) a Shihan. It was such a surreal experience that I actually laughed as I hit the mat.

4. He's really funny and just unbelievably nice. Oh, and his wrists are really thick. Grabbing him is like trying to wrap your hands around the trunk of a medium-sized tree!

Non-Aikido news: I locked myself out of the house today (well, not really my fault, because the key box malfunctioned). But the effect was the same--we had to call our Air BnB host to let us in:(. Also we determined that we needed to have the rear brakes in the car done before we hit the highway again. Thanks to Stone's German Garage for super-speedy turnaround. If you ever need work done on your German car when you're in Seattle, definitely look them up!

Seattle Day 1 (part 2)

We made it!

I think the mountain passes are officially the prettiest part of the trip so far (except for the pastry, but that comes later).

You already heard about dinner at Delancey last night, except, as a Brussels sprouts non-appreciator he neglected to mention the ridiculously delicious wood oven roasted Brussels sprouts with charred leek vinaigrette and goat gouda. We ate them all before taking a picture even occurred to anyone.

Class at Tenzan Aikido was fantastic. It was really interesting to see completely different weapons work, which I'm definitely hoping to bring home. Everyone at the dojo was very welcoming, and the way Sensei explained the techniques was very clear which I appreciated (especially given that it was TOTALLY different than anything I've done before). I think I've found my new favorite ryote dori kokyu nage. Nage hardly has to do any work, and uke gets some fun air time (or at least, I did). Lots of carrot salad to try!

Here is a video of the jo kata (it is a work in progress).

This morning we had out first pastry of the trip, from Honore bakery (named after the patron saint of bakers, if you were wondering). Huckleberry danish, Kouign Amann, and a croissant. They were all completely amazing, and I'm hoping it hasn't ruined us for the rest of the trip.

Tonight, first class with Jan Sensei, and probably a visit to the farmers' market near the hosting dojo. This is just a pre-class, the real seminar starts tomorrow.

Seattle: Day 1

Lots of great scenery between Missoula and Seattle. This is how you know you are getting close:

Mount Rainier is visible even from the east side of the Cascade mountains. We got into Seattle in time to catch a great early dinner (pizza, of course!) at Delancey, a place Evie and I had been to before and enjoyed.

Then we zipped over to Tenzan Aikido, which is run by chief instructor Bruce Bookman. Bookman Sensei came up through the ranks of the US Aikido Federation, first under Yamada Sensei and then under Chiba Sensei (for those of you who are interested in lineage) before going independent about 15 years ago. We both attended the open class, and Evie stayed for advanced class.

She'll post separately about her impressions, but we both found it really interesting to train in a completely different lineage from what we are used to, with different emphasis and some different forms. We'll certainly have some new techniques to share when we get home. Bookman Sensei was very generous in assisting us, and Evie was honored to take a good deal of ukemi for him during advanced class. Thanks to the Tenzan Aikido family for taking us in!

Thursday we connect with Jan Nevelius Shihan, who is sort of the main reason we took this trip in the first place. Oh, and we don't have to drive 6 hours to do it. It's gonna be a great day.

Now on to the "Aikido" part of the Aikido road trip!

We stopped in last night at Aikido of Missoula, led by the warm yet formidable Raso Hultgren Sensei. The class was about half empty hand techniques and half weapons. We worked on musubi, or connection, with our partners. We found a group of really nice folks with generous training spirit and lots of good ukemi. In the weapons portion, we started with a familiar weapons form (Saotome Sensei's kumi tachi #1 for those who know about such things) and then branched off into interesting variations. It was a wonderful class and we so appreciate the warm welcome we received, as well as their enthusiasm for the idea of a long Aikido road trip.

Evie here, just for this paragraph. First of all, it was a great class at Aikido of Missoula. Everyone was very welcoming, and if you're in the area, it's definitely someplace to visit. It was really interesting for me to visit another ASU dojo (ASU = Aikido Schools of Ueshiba = our organization, for those who aren't familiar). Generally when we've traveled in the past, it hasn't been to train at specific dojos, we just pick a place, and train if possible, which usually means lots of different organizations. This is great, to get a totally different view of things, and it can also be good to train somewhere you're not always totally lost (for example, somewhere in your organization). Seeing Hultgren Sensei's take on familiar techniques was interesting to compare to what we see at home. Everyone at Aikido of Missoula definitely had a "style" which was very similar to Hultgren Sensei's, probably due to the fact that--as far as I can tell--she teaches most of the classes. The variations on the way we do techniques normally will certainly be interesting to bring home.

We also poked around downtown Missoula a little bit, walking back and forth from dinner at a nice pan-Asian restaurant. It's a cool town--a groovy mashup of a college town and a cowboy hub. It's a long way from anywhere, but if you're in the neighborhood, it's a great stop.

Tonight--Seattle!