Endo sensei in Shanghai

Subtitle: I am not full of sh*t!!!

After a nice weekend in Shanghai for Endo sensei Aikido seminar, the time in Hefei had been used at work and at the acupuncture and bath places. With the work part that will take up most of today and a good part of tomorrow as well..

Yeah, back to the good old Chinese traditions of overtime!

Little time to post here on the blog, and internet still a challenge, both for blog and email. So, the motivations for writing went also a little disappearing, but I don’t want to succumb to the Great Firewall of China!! 😉

So, the Aikido weekend actually went quite positively for me. I should rate the seminar, from an egoistic point of view, as the best I have been with Endo sensei. The reason is that for the first time ever I have been used as uke more than all the previous seminars.. Not joking!

It is also true though, that, in average, I experienced the technique from him maybe one time every 10 seminars, and I had been used as uke for showing techniques only in Shanghai once before!

But it was quite funny since I had a long chat with 3 visitors from Malaysia and I had told them that sensei practices often with the people he does not know and usually I never experience his technique in first person.. and the first seminar session on Saturday I have been thrown around quite a lot, even as uke for shomenuchi jiyuwaza..

I am not full of sh*t!!! I am sure the Malaysian friends thought the opposite of me!! But I was the most surprised on the mats that session! And I was going to die during the jiyuwaza part!! But, first time after may years of practice with sensei, I can finally say I had a full feeling and enjoyment of his Aikido.

In truth, from a more general point of view, leaving away my ego full of satisfaction, the seminar had been quite more boring than earlier: lots lots lots of talking by sensei, in Japanese and only Chinese translations! Therefore, lots of sitting, seiza and cross legged, becoming cold in the body, not trying to understand the word but reading at least his body movements to get a clue of what he was saying. Things I have done already several times, and I admit the topics seem have not changed.

The different part, said by some Chinese speaking friends, was that he also talk about a more philosophical approach of Aikido. I decided anyway to not ask anything about this: 2 times translated from Japanese to English with probably 2 adaption and some personal insight on what he meant would add close to nothing to the weekend experience.

Maybe one day I’ll get this in English or I’ll learn Japanese.. maybe not, but I’m sure that if I will be his uke again, I will love it again!

As a result of the sitting and listening, my body suffered a quite extensive toll. Some pain in my lower back, probably from the body getting cold; both knees were a little painful at touch and moving; both feet had swollen. Also something new, annoying and a little worrying happened to my left foot: I feel a diffused numbness of a part of the foot, like when the part “fall asleep” after sitting long time in seiza. Unfortunately the feeling manifested on the night train to Hefei and it is still present, more or less with the same intensity.

This should be related to poor blood circulation, and I have been to sauna, acupuncture and massage during this week for helping my poor old body. The results are still to be fully appreciated..

And Sunday I will be in Hangzhou for practice.. since several people from Hangzhou had come to sensei seminar i Shanghai and they told me they really liked his Aikido (also they think that what I have been teaching there was not too different!!!)

It is going to be fun to practice, now that most of Hangzhou friends saw “the real thing”.. and more challenging for me!!