The course began yesterday. In a sense it was a bit anti-climactic because the majority of the day was spent learning how to clean and listening to numerous speeches in Japanese while sitting in seiza, the kneeling posture. It was the first day at the dojo for the cops, so they had to be debriefed and learn everything we were taught the day before. There was an official ceremony welcoming all of us into the program, and we all had to formally introduce ourselves. At the end of the day we did have one class in which Noriki Shihan Dai (his rank) lead us through the basics of how to stand, how to fall down, and how to kneel.
Each day begins and ends with a formal meeting called "Shinkoku", in which we must ask for the privilege of being trained or express our gratitude for having been trained. This is a highly militarized, scripted exchange that involves everyone lining up in front of the door to an office where a teacher is waiting. The weekly captain of our group knocks on the door and then shouts, (in Japanese of course) "SORRY FOR BOTHERING YOU! THE MEN ARE READY FOR SHINKOKU! ONCE AGAIN, SORRY FOR BOTHERING YOU!" The captain lines back up with the men, and when the teacher comes out he screams, "BOW TO INSTRUCTOR NORIKI! MIKE SENSHUSEI ALONG WITH TWELVE OTHER MEN REQUEST OUR DAILY EXERCISES!" At which point the teacher responds and then everyone bows again until the teacher goes back into the office. This was a procedure which we had to practice many, many times.
Today was day 2 and we got a taste of some of the conditioning work that we are going to be doing. We did some rather intense crawling back and forth on the mat, ran suicides, etc., and if you were too slow you got yelled at. Then, of course, there were the koho ukemi, which involve falling backwards onto the ground and then getting up again in one smooth motion. We did about 150 of these; I was "encouraged" to go faster several times.
Apart from the intensely exhausting stuff, the day was rather enjoyable. We are extremely fortunate to have Masa-san, Shioda's grandson, as a fellow Senshusei. At 22, he is bright, kind, and patient, and has a wonderful sense of humor. He knows exactly what he is doing and is serving as our first captain. At his side is the impenetrable Akimoto-san, who already holds a first degree black belt in Yoshinkan Aikido. Then there's Bryn and myself, and rounding out the cast are the 9 cops, who all seem very gracious.
Everything is presented in a well thought-out, logical manor. Although everything is being said in Japanese and is rarely translated, you more or less pick up what is happening. It really is a wonderful privilege to have teachers of this caliber take the time to teach us their art in this kind of painstaking and step by step manor. Aikido was created by Osensei, (the great teacher) but truly the credit for devising this method of imparting the fundamentals to students in the modern world belongs to Shioda and the early members of the Yoshinkan. (Incidentally, "Yoshinkan" is the name Gozo Shioda's father gave to his own practice hall. It means, "place for cultivating the spirit". I suppose that is a good way of describing what I am trying to do here.)
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