2019 Aikido seminars

Getting old makes people lazy and since I have already stated more than once that i am in love with photography, I brag about my last year of Aikido seminars in an easy photo-mosaic.. and makes it easier the fact I am traveling not as much as earlier, but I have been again to interesting new places meeting quite a few of super ince new people!

PS The post has been actually published, with a little sadness, in april, when because of corona virus I have already lost count of cancelled seminars and trips.. life’s going on (hopefully) and there will be more practice, eventually (hopefully! 🙂 )..

2018 Aikido seminars

The past year has not been a very good one with respect to Aikido practice, traveling and my health. Bad luck or major call from above, or just the end result of a not so health oriented life, it does not really matter how you call it, but the end result led to a period off work for sickness (never happened before in my life!) and a quite major health discovery that has already required major changes in my lifestyle. Then when I thought things were starting getting better, a problem with my left knee reappeared, most probably because of bursitis, and then again I was obliged to skip practice (also because a demanding new job) for too long.

I am not yet sure how 2019 Aikido year will be: Friday I had to discard my plans to travel to Germany for first year chance to practice with Jorma Lyly sensei because exhausted by the previous 4 days in the road (2 in Germany followed by 2 in Italy with 2 nights of 3 hours sleep). Friday I slept about 15 hours, and the thought to get on a train to and from Germany was too much.. a pity..

But now a look at last year, that started very promising but then, it just wasn’t..

6 – 7 January: Trondheim, practice with friends at TAK (1)
13 – 14 January: Trondheim, practice with friends at TAK
19 – 21 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
26 – 28 January: Sofia, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
2 – 4 February: Tikkurila, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
9 – 11 February: Stockholm, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
16 – 18 February: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
17 – 18 March: Ho Chi Minh City, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
6 – 8 April: Prague, weekend seminar with Nevelius sensei
13 – 15 April: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
11 – 13 May: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
24 – 27 May: Stavanger, 10 year anniversary of Jushinkand dojo, with Nevelius sensei and Martucci sensei
1 – 3 June: Sochi, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
8 – 10 June: Krasnoyarsk, weekend seminar with Irie sensei (2)
16 – 17 June: Amsterdam, weekend seminar with Tissier sensei
(3)
17 – 18 August: Duisburg, weekend bokken seminar with Lyly sensei (4)
7 – 9 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
19 – 21 October: Prague, weekend seminar with Noel sensei (5)

2017 Aikido seminars

Wrap up of an year of travelling/training for Aikido, that it was certainly not bad. Unfortunately a change in my work, a change I wanted and I appreciate, has influenced my training schedule, reducing the amount of seminars I could attend, but even more the weekly practice sessions..

Still I definitively do not complain!

20 – 22 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
27 – 29 January: Brussels, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
3 – 5 February: Strømmen, weekend seminar with Bachraty sensei
10 – 12 February: Stockholm, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
17 – 19 February: Rome, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
4 – 5 March: Shanghai & Hangzhou, weekend seminar with Sasaki sensei
11 – 12 March: Ho Chi Minh, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
17 – 19 March: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
25 – 26 March: Wasquehal, weekend seminar with Yasuno sensei
8 – 9 April: Prague, weekend seminar with Nevelius sensei
21 – 23 April: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
28 – 30 April: Oslo, weekend seminar with Okamoto sensei
5 – 7 May: Langenthal, weekend seminar with Irie sensei and several other teachers for the 40 years in Aikido of Heuscher sensei
12 – 14 May: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
6 – 9 July: Zilina, seminar with Endo sensei
24 – 27 August: Jakarta, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
15 – 17 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
22 – 24 September: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Martucci sensei
13 – 15 October: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Ariga sensei
3 – 5 November: Brussels, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
24 – 26 November: Moscow, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
1 – 3 December: Vienna, weekend seminar with Endo sensei
8 – 10 December: Cologne, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei

and 2 shorter participations:

6 – 8 October: Prague, 2 sessions of the weekend seminar with Noel sensei
22 October: Amsterdam, 1 session of the weekend seminar with Dijkman sensei

And as usual, the start of my Aikido year in Trondheim:

14 – 15 January: Trondheim, weekend practicing with my local friends at Trondheim Aikido.

I practiced less days than in 2016, both because of traveling (next year I’ll carry along my keikogi more often) but also because of a knee problem during the summer (half June and full July basically no practice).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Endo sensei, Rome: asked me to grab him for ushiro ryotedori exercise and after that and a couple of movements he turns to me and says: “Oh you are not so stiff”.. 🙂 made my day!
• Nevelius sensei, Prague: asked me for uke then said to be stiff and after a second thought, he added “Oh, it should be easy you are naturally stiff”… 😦 made not my day!

Kein Risiko, kein Spass

Kein Risiko, kein Spass

4 Uber + 2 Grab equals…

…a very interesting first night in Jakarta, to say it in the most positive possible way… Typical of course of my usual positivity!

That was Sunday night…

After a great seafood dinner in a bit of remote place in Jakarta north I had to get a bike to go back to my hotel, in Jakarta west. 

Amazing seafood

Like in Vietnam I like the motorbike taxis more than the cars, because of the crazy traffic and jams in this overpopulated city! In fact the only Indonesian word I know is “macet”, meaning traffic jam.

On the roads of Saigon

So I sent my request for Uber bike referring to the location given by the Internet signal…

Uber

The first 2 Uber after apparently riding around my position with the time for arrival changing from 2 minutes to 15 than 3 and randomly increasing again cancelled.

I take this as a partly personal mistake since then I realized my position was about 50 meters wrong. So I corrected it and try again..

One of the first 2 Uber driver accepted again but then after 20 minutes he canceled again.. And the same happened with the 4th attempt..

Then I gave up on Uber…

Grab

….and tried my favorite application for my Vietnamese time… but here more expensive than Uber, still… it was time to change!

I must admit that the drivers seemed to get to my location easier than Uber ones, maybe even too easily: the first driver was a little too eager to pick me up, and start drinking.. Maybe he had a hot girlfriend waiting for me at home, or a hot meal or both..

But after not even a minute when I ask him if he was sure of the direction (I know nothing but I can read maps and I know the cardinal points) he showed me his application with the destination and clearly it was not my hotel…
He had picked up the wrong person!!! Bad luck the first 3 digits of the license plate were the same as for my real ride…
…that luckily arrived a few seconds after the wrong one brought me back…
You might think the adventure was over, right? That was my thought.. and of course I was wrong..
I realized that even if all drivers have a special holder for the mobile phone to put on the front of the motorbike, they are not so good at following the GPS! He stopped 4 times to ask indications to other riders until we got to an area I thought to recognize, I took out my phone with my own Google maps and told him where to go…
After about 1.5 hour (instead of 20 minutes max that I took on the way to the restaurant) I was back to the hotel..
FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – Today I noticed my Uber rating is going fast downhill! That is not good: I’ve been rating almost all drivers with a 5, even when they got lost or I had to support with my own maps… And I wonder why hey have been rating me low.. Occasionally I hit my helmet on theirs with the sudden breaks and accelerations (I always think, hypothetically, a Kaya driver turning and punching me in the face) and most of the time I need help to latch/unlatch the helmet straps.. But these are not so negative points I think.. Once I even gave one driver the laugh of the day putting on the helmet from the wrong side (no, I had not the back of the helmet in front of my face, but the latch was not under my chin but over my forehead… I have no idea how I managed..). Today I tip the driver (almost the same amount of the ride,still cheap for us.. but… not common I think) and he gave me a 5 (my rate was higher than before)… I must carry some change for my rating!!!

My Uber rating Sunday

My Uber rating today before tipping the driver (after it was 4.42)

2016 Aikido seminars

Wrap up of an year of travelling/training for Aikido (a little late)

15 – 17 January: Strømmen, weekend seminar with Bachraty sensei
22 – 24 January: Dusseldorf, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
20 – 21 February: Jakarta, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
12 – 13 March: Ho Chi Minh, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
15 – 17 April: Dublin, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
22 – 24 April: Trondheim, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
14 May: Stockholm, “Female Touch” day seminar @ Vanadis
20 – 23 May: Stavanger, weekend seminar with Kingston sensei (Dayto Ryu Aikijutsu)
11 – 12 June: Prague, weekend seminar with Noel sensei
19 August: Duisburg, one session with Ruben sensei
20 – 21 August: Duisburg, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei (bokken seminar)
2 – 4 September: Oslo, weekend seminar with Kuribayashi sensei
18 September: Amsterdam, one session with Dijkman sensei (ukemi seminar)
21 September: Amsterdam, one session with Yamashima sensei
23 – 25 September: Hannover, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
14 – 16 October: Bratislava, weekend seminar with Ariga sensei
21 – 23 October: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, weekend seminar with Irie sensei
12 November: Trondheim, one session with Nevelius sensei
18 – 20 November: Heggedal, weekend seminar with Lyly sensei
25 – 27 November: Vienna, weekend seminar with Endo sensei

…and to add to all this serious and top level seminars, I had a short one myself:

9 – 10 January: Trondheim, weekend seminar with aikidude 🙂

Less weekend seminars than in 2015, but more practice altogether with 2 great periods in Asia (Japan+Vietnam and Indonesia).

A great time on the road anyway…

…and 2017 has already started in full speed and great time..

Thing do not always go as one would hope!

Thanks to Stefan for the funny link and the great time in Dusseldorf 🙂