So Far So Good

The first week of training was very challenging.  We did quite a bit of conditioning exercise such as I described earlier, where we would be paired with a partner and run relay races of various kinds.  One of the most amusing of these in retrospect was a piggy-back race which I ran in without a shadow of irony.  Thus far I have been universally paired with Bryn, which was a good thing for that particular "event" since he is a big guy, quite a bit taller than me.  I think that if any of the Japanese had been stuck with having to haul my 200+lbs around the mat, the termination of their Senshusei aspirations would have been immediately announced by the snapping sound of their slender spinal columns buckling under the load.  To help motivate us, Uchikawa Sensei, the second of our two sewanin, set up some incentive for winning these contests.  As I payed my losing penance of crouching into a catcher's stance and slowly describing circles on the mat with my two index fingers, I was reminded of the famous catch-phrase of the Navy SEALS' B.U.D.S. Course - "It pays to win!"  Needless to say, so far I have won nothing.  The good news is that what I lack in overall physical conditioning at this point, I make up for in my Aikido experience.  Even the couple of cops who have done Aikido before come from a different tradition of training and are not accustomed to performing the six basic movements that we drill at the Yoshinkan.  My body is somewhat used to assuming and maintaining these poses, so that gives me a bit of help.  You can spend a lifetime perfecting your execution of these maneuvers, so we all have plenty to work on, and it feels good to be getting better.


Another of the classes consisted of us solemnly kneeling in seiza for 60 minutes while Kancho gave us a lengthy pep talk.  I'm pretty good at seiza too because I used to practice sitting that way while playing Xbox Women's Tennis against my arch rival Jeremy back at our apartment in LA.  I sat absolutely motionless even as Bryn began to show signs of discomfort almost immediately, but when we reached about minute 40, my body sort of shuddered and I became very concerned that I might pass out.  Now, before the seiza began, I was told that we would each be asked to say a few words about where we were from, etc., and that didn't seem like much of a problem, except that when the cops took their turns to speak, they all barked out their comments in these loud samurai voices.  (Mind you, I understood absolutely nothing of what was being said.)  I didn't know what it would sound like in English, but I decided that I had better sound off like these other fellows were doing.  When my name was called I felt like I was on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness, and as the words escaped my mouth, they sounded very strange and I began to lose my train of thought.  I said, "HELLO.  MY NAME IS MICHAEL WOOD.  I AM FROM AMERICA.  I DO NOT SPEAK MUCH ENGLISH...I MEAN...I DO NOT SPEAK MUCH JAPANESE, BUT I AM WORKING ON THAT..."  I'm afraid it would be wishful thinking to suppose that no one understood what I was saying.  I think the Japanese can all understand English, but that they just pretend that they don't because they don't like having to speak it.  Plus I know for a fact that Kancho lived in England for some time.  Anyway, after the initial blunder I guess my speech went about as well as could be expected.


Because of our friend Mayang, Bryn and I are becoming intimately acquainted with the large Filipino population living in Tokyo.  On Saturday we went to the grounds of the Imperial Palace where they were doing a 5k "Fun Run". 

That's the ever-exuberant Mayang in the center there wearing the straw hat and the wildly colorful jumpsuit thing.  She's pumping her fist like that to symbolize that Japan is strong in its recovery from the tsunami.

Here's some more pictures taken on the grounds of the Imperial Palace (which I believe was re-built in the 60's after the original was destroyed during WWII.):

 

After the fun run I met a Filipino boxer named Warz Katsumata, who will be fighting on the 17th of this month.  I'm a boxing fan but have never seen a live bout, so Bryn and I are going to go check it out.  Here's a video I found on youtube of this kid fighting: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpNWIxeOJT8

Nice left jab!