Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 01:20:41 -0400
From: Sean Fogarty
<fogarty@TBAYTEL.NET>
Subject: ALS2k Review. . .
Those who said I should post more may soon regret it. . .
At the airport I was asked for the first time to open my rifle case. . .
It was still dark Friday morning when I left Thunder Bay for Minneapolis,
and watched the sun rise above the clouds. Can someone explain to me why
the signs are written in English and Japanese in Minneapolis? Waiting
for my connecting flight, a lady walks up to me and says, "You look
trustworthy; here, watch my things for me, will you?" Pondering why
U.S. television personalities all look like Muppets. . . She arrives and
says something, I answer. "You're Canadian aren't you?" Didn't think
I'd said eh. . . Turns out her nephew does aikidô too. . .
Arrive at the Denver airport. The rifle case takes some time to come
through -- they ask for ID as usual. Scott Crawford, as promised,
sitting in front of the Avis counter. "I can't believe I'm driving two
Canadians," he says when he finds out where I'm from. Philip Akin S.
shows up, we drive to Boulder. There's been way too much development
since I last attended the Mile High Jazz Camp. In the city the frost so
delicate atop the pine needles, as if breathing would melt it.
Arrive at the dôjô, as it seems Jun has mentioned. Bought pants from
Bujin, as he also mentioned, to go with the top from Peter and the hakama
from my home dôjô. Wouldn't be surprised if my trying them on was
broadcast over the 'net too. ;-) A veritable luxury to be able to see
what you're buying for a change. . .
Trained both classes at Boulder Aikikai. The place is huge! Can't
remember the throw either, Monica. . . At TGIF's I came as close as I
would get to altitude sickness, suddenly not able to eat, and I was
hungry! Took it back to the dôjô, slept my AS off ( ;-), and
had leftovers for breakfast instead.
Saturday morning, Jun walks in. Soon the place is crawling. Peter
glances over, "Seán! What are you doing here?" Ikeda Sensei was
extremely impressive; not hesitating to associate with everyone, even
train with us (including myself on several occasions). A great teacher,
but also with a sort of short range power no one was able to imitate.
Akin S. complained afterward that Ikeda S. covered most of the stuff he
was going to do. . .
We broke out the jô. Peter Boylan S. taught honte uchi and hikiotoshi
uchi tandoku dôsa, then variations of the sôtai dôsa. He called me up to
help demonstrate the Zen Nihon Kendô Remmei Seitei Jôdô-Gata. These are
mostly taken from Shindô Musô-ryû with modifications. They aren't SMR
per se, as I realized talking to Ikeda S. some people misunderstood.
There, pulled a Drysdale. ;-) The are 70 or so kumi-gata in SMR for
tachi vs. jô, which would have taken much longer to demonstrate. . . As
it was, just trying to remember what comes next and keep ma proved too
complicated for me. . .
Philip Akin S. turned out to be one of Kimeda Takeshi S.'s bunch from
T'ranna! Soft, soft Yôshinkan, which means amazingly technical. The
best of both worlds, though I don't know about the straight leg, square
hips thing. Frost S. pulled a wonderful bunch of jûdô tricks. . . then
pulled a ninja disappearing act from right beside me at the Golden Buff
table.
There was synchronized Yôshinkan, then there was bad budô! From
Shintaidô weirdness to what seemed like hour after hours of people
tanking out of the picture for Nishino S. Early Seagal (he hasn't
changed a trick!) putting to rest all suspicions of any actual aikidô
happening. Early stuff of that guy from New York that my police trainer
neighbour was so crazy about -- what's his name, anyway? His sidekick
with the hiji otoshi is another who hasn't changed. . .
Drysdale S. gave us our only taste of suwari waza the whole time and
countered my kokyû dôsa, the Ki Society folks showed us their atemi waza,
had fun wrestling around with what passes for me as ne waza, Gordon S.
doing some aiki stuff that was too different for me to figure out, then
we got to play with sticks. I noticed that MLE's friend who had to sit
out for a while had a big grin on her face when she saw the exquisite
pain she'd be missing. . .
It seems I should have stayed Sunday night at the dôjô, 'cause they did
some jô stuff. As it was I left with Peter thanks to Joe Steger who not
only drove me to the airport, but then gave me a lift to my hotel when
the courtesy car didn't show up quickly. Caught a cab to the Nipponkan
Monday evening to watch a class and train in another. The place is much
smaller than I expected after seeing Ikeda S.'s dôjô. Everyone is super
polite singing onegai shimasu in chorus every possible chance, and
calling me Shân-san. Homma S. teaching some bokken stuff as I walked out
that looked actually quite good! A Mark Lane then insisted on giving me
a ride all the way back to my hotel when I tried to phone a cab! Too bad
I didn't come on a day Dômo and the cultural centre were open.
In the hotel the guys next door manage to break through the door between
the rooms which doesn't lock afterwards. I mention this at the front
desk and the Korean guy comes up to look at it. He sees the video from
Peter lying there, and say, "Oh, you do martial arts?" Turns out he is a
t'aekwondo black belt computer programmer, who was transferred to the
'States from Korea. "You should do t'aekwondo, it is the most popular.
Most people have heard of t'aekwondo. It is the best sports." Yadda,
yadda, yadda. I don't take the time to explain that I'm interesting in
martial arts, not sports, not wanting to be confrontational. Stayed up
late watching Immortal Combat in a mirror-image room.
Still flying above the clouds, or so I've been told. . .
Seán
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