School and Aikido

Kansai Gaidai University is pretty much the same as any other University. The classrooms are normal classrooms--with the exception of the sumi-e studio. My teachers generally connect their computers to the projector and show us powerpoints or video clips or whatnot. Orientation week was full of silly powerpoints. It is comfortable to be on campus, because everything is so similar.

One other thing that is different about campus is the gym. We must take off our shoes as we go into the building, and either go barefoot or wear "inside shoes" which would be your tennis shoes that are strictly for indoor activities so they aren't dirty from walking around. The gym does have a weight room, but the majority of it is divided into large rooms for different classes, whereas my gym at UNCG is almost totally devoted to exercise equipment and only has one or two rooms for classes.

The reason I went to the gym today was for Aikido, which they offer as a "circle" here (like a club). I have never done Aikido, and honestly knew absolutely nothing about it, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. There were a number of us gaijin there for the first time so none of us had uniforms, but the nihonjin (Japanese people) were wearing their uniforms and everything. We were expected to just join in as best we could. One of the students lead us through warm-ups. I wasn't sure what they were supposed to be for really though. Then we had to split into partners. A nice girl came to be my partner, but I can't remember her name. We were going to do disarming drills where one partner has a mini bokken. Sensei would demonstrate a technique and then gave us time to practice. Without knowing what the Sensei or any one else was saying, I just tried to watch and copy as best I could.

My partner and I were both fairly timid and didn't do any of the rolling for the first five minutes. However, we were then joined by a much older man that I assume was either another teacher or a highly advanced student, and he would not let us get away with not rolling. He tried his best to teach us how to break roll, though it was difficult teaching me without being able to communicate verbally. One phrase I picked up was "Mou ikkai" which meant "One more time" because I heard that phrase a lot. Throughout the lesson I did much more attacking (and thus rolling) than I did defense. Maybe that is normal. Thankfully, the man was nice and patient. It was also nice that my partner was having just as much trouble as I was, so I didn't feel so bad about it, even when Sensei came by and laughed at us.

Ultimately it was cool to have basically a private lesson with the other man, but it was also much more intense. After an hour and a half, I was worn out and very sore. The friends I went with were not, however, because they didn't have to roll as much. One of my friends never rolled. They got to do more defending, which I think was the point of the lessons. So, I called it a day even though class was only half over. I had landed very poorly at one point and given myself a headache. Also, 4 hours is a long time. The class is scheduled to go from 1 to 5. I enjoyed it though, really, other than the pain.

At one point in life I had thought it would be cool to be a stunt double. Not anymore.